星街すいせい · 2024

ビビデバ

February 1, 2025

67

A short review covering Suisei’s biggest hit, and its bassline.

Background

Bibbidiba holds the record of most views on Hoshimachi Suisei’s YouTube channel, surpassing Stellar Stellar, which had held the record since 2021, in just 63 days. As of writing this, the MV has over 115 million views, with nearly half that on Spotify. And it deserves all the fame! What a bop this song is. On top of that, I noticed some really cool details in this track that I had to talk about it, even though I don’t usually write about single tracks.

The title Bibbidiba is a reference to Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo from Disney’s 1950 Cinderella, aligning perfectly with its reveal during Suisei’s 6th anniversary concert, aptly titled SheenderellaDay.

Composed and written by Tsumiki (ツミキ), his impressive musical talent and outstanding attention to detail shines through in every second of the song. One element that particularly stood out to me is the dynamic evolution of the bassline as the song progresses.

Bassline

In the intro, a blend of synth bass and slap bass sets the stage, but something sounds a little off about the slap bass. I’m fairly certain it’s a VST, and while it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how it’s made, it gives the impression of having placed each and every note one by one, rather than recorded live—if that makes sense.

At the 28-second mark, the mood shifts as the song enters its first verse. The bass transitions to a more traditional sound, though I suspect this, too, is a VST. The bassline here feels just as meticulously crafted, as if each note was individually positioned. It takes a massive amount of effort to create such a feeling while maintaining a natural flow, but Tsumiki seems determined to avoid shortcuts, resulting in what feels like true craftsmanship.

When the chorus kicks in at 45 seconds in, the bass changes yet again, into something that’s often seen in trap or drill. It seems like Tsumiki started with a sine wave synth and overlaid sub-bass peaks on top—a common technique used in trap to produce that smooth, deep bass texture. This hint of trap allows a surprising yet natural transition as the rap section comes at a 1:22 and the song fully embraces the trap style. The seamless shift from a trap-inspired bassline into full-on trap is surely intentional, and is executed brilliantly.

But that’s not the end! Vibes shift from 1:47 as yet another genre swap occurs—this time to electronica. Despite lasting only around 8 seconds, the drums (especially hi-hat usage) makes it unmistakeable. Furthermore, the bass waveform morphs yet again, into a powerful and gritty saw bass.

Take a moment to listen to the second chorus (1:55) again. There is something different from the first chorus, right? It’s because the bass now anchors itself to a single chord. In the first chorus, the bass follows the chord progression. In the second chorus, only D# is used. Without a dedicated STT (Super Tsumiki Time) to act as a bridge, altering the bassline allows Tsumiki to use the second chorus as a bridge of sorts, a build-up to the next section without the need for a traditional transition. I found this really refreshing, adding layers of depth and enriching the structure of the track.

Interestingly, the original chorus’ acoustic theme makes its return at 2:10, but in half-time. Prior to this, one beat was completed with one measure: kick-snare-kick-snare on beats 1, 2, 3, and 4. From 2:10 on however, snares are added on beats 3 and 7 from beats 1 to 8, completing one beat with two bars.

Ok I’ll stop

And that’s about it! While I could talk about the melody, lyrics, or the beautiful MV, I think the bassline alone illustrates degree of perfection to which this track was arranged. Hopefully you can hear the depth and intricacy that this song possesses, appreciating Tsumiki’s attention to detail, delicate decisions, and craftmanship makes Bibbidiba one of, if not the most carefully constructed songs I’ve listened to from Hololive. The level of completion and polish is so high, with incredible talent making these countless transitions sounds good and homogenous. Stellar work, Tsumiki and Suisei.