1.Prologue
The other day I got to interview songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez for SNS Eigojutsu on NHK E-Tele. The music the pair wrote for the 2013 film Frozen captivated audiences around the world, with the earworm “Let It Go" becoming a cultural phenomenon that won both an Oscar and a Grammy for best song. This time, they were back in Japan to promote Frozen 2 and the seven new original songs that are included in the film.
Frozen 2
The sequel to 2013’s Frozen continues the story of Elsa, a young queen who was born with the power to create and manipulate snow and ice, and her eternally optimistic younger sister Anna, who is her greatest ally and protector. Drawn by a mysterious voice, Elsa, Anna, and their friends embark on an epic journey to unravel the mystery of Elsa’s powers.
Musicals are somewhat of an acquired taste—some of us can’t get past the fact that characters appear to randomly break into song. Not being particularly familiar with the genre, I went into this interview just hoping to learn more about how the Lopezes write music; instead I came away with a new appreciation for musicals and the craft that goes into making the very specific kind of music involved. Unlike the singles and albums we listen to from our favorite musicians and singers, the music in a musical is inextricable from the musical itself, and serves not only to convey feelings and emotion but also to drive the story forward.
In this article I’ll be reflecting on my interview and taking a closer look at a few of the musical highlights from the Frozen series.
2.The Worldwide Hit “Let It Go"
Of the original songs Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote for 2013’s Frozen, “Let It Go" has taken on a life of its own. At this point, you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody on the planet who hasn’t heard the song multiple times, musical fan or not. The song quickly achieved mega-hit status after its release, and could be heard on street corners around the world and sung on endless repeat in any household with young children. In Japan, it gave birth to the “Ana-Yuki" phenomenon. (The Japanese title of the film is Ana to Yuki no Joou, or Anna and the Snow Queen.)
In the film, Elsa sings “Let It Go" after she has been branded a monster and has run away from her kingdom. In the mountains to the north, she finally acknowledges her powers and builds an ice palace where she can live as a hermit. In the context of the song, “let it go" means to throw away the life she’s known up until that point, to turn away from her past, and to finally be free from the social conventions and expectations that have restricted her to within the castle walls for most of her life. It is her choosing to live life the way she sees fit. It is a protest song, an anthem of adolescence sung by someone who has decided that she isn’t going to let society tell her how a woman should act or be. But while it is defiant and empowering, there is also an underlying sadness in how Elsa forsakes everything she’s ever known, how she is well intentioned but selfish.
The Japanese version of this song is titled 『Let It Go~ありのままで~』 (ari no mama de roughly translates to “just the way you are"). The chorus goes as follows:
Ari no mama no sugata miseru no yo
(Show them your true self)
Ari no mama no jibun ni naru no
(Allow yourself to show who you really are)
Here it’s important to note that “let it go" and ありのままで mean different things. “Let it go" means to let go of something you’ve been holding onto—figuratively speaking, something that’s been bothering you or that you can’t get off your mind. Depending on context, it can mean to forget, forgive, or not care.
Many Japanese people adopt the similar expression “let it be" as a motto that encourages us to be “just the way we are" or “au naturel". However, the expression is actually about leaving something outside of us alone and allowing it to follow its natural course—usually because it is beyond our control and worrying is doing us more harm than good. It captures the smallness of human existence and reminds us “whatever will be will be". It is about finding solace in relinquishing control.
Students of language should also remember that “let it be" is also found in the Bible: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word." In this context it is about accepting God’s will. Naturally, many people have interpreted Paul McCartney’s lyrics “Mother Mary comes to me / speaking words of wisdom / let it be" in the Beatles’ classic as being about Mary, mother of Jesus. McCartney himself, however, has said in interviews that the lyrics refer to his own mother, Mary McCartney.
The “it" in “let it go" and “let it be" can refer to a wide range of things. For McCartney “it" refers to abstract conditions and circumstances that he calls “times of trouble", while in the case of the Bible “it" refers to God’s will. For Elsa, “it" refers to the social norms that forced her to hide her magic and her true self for so long.
The Japanese version of “Let It Go" is a song about being yourself, and as such the lyrics fail to evoke a sense of pity regarding Elsa’s decision to forsake human society. And unlike the English version, where Elsa sings joyously about living as she pleases, it presents a simpler message about learning to love yourself.
The English version is about how life becomes a drag when you care too much about what people think about you. This message makes perfect sense given the cultural context it comes from; American society values individualism and asks that each of its members have a strong opinion about anything and everything. If everybody became obsessed with what other people thought, nothing would ever get done.
Japanese society, on the other hand, is based on collectivism. The first and foremost thing on people’s minds is what others think of them. That the Japanese version of “Let It Go" tries to embolden the listener by suggesting that everything will work out if you strive to be yourself deserves to be scrutinized.
3.The Dizzying Heights of “Into the Unknown"
In the most general sense, “Into the Unknown” is the “Let It Go” of Frozen 2. But this time, instead of a defiant young adult running away from reality, it is a hesitant young woman gradually accepting her destiny. At the end of Frozen, Elsa returns to her kingdom after being saved by Anna and is accepted by her people. In Frozen 2, a mysterious voice that only she can hear beckons to her to venture into the unknown. Elsa sings about how she is torn between the home she has finally gained and the feeling she has that her true place lies somewhere else.
The chorus of the song consists of Idina Menzel belting out the phrase “into the unknown" three times, hitting a higher note each time. In the film, Elsa is awoken in the middle of the night by the siren’s call and starts to sing the song as she gazes out the window into the darkness. When I asked the Lopezes about the song, Anderson-Lopez explained that the first time the title phrase is sung, “‘Into the unknown...’it’s a safe octave." The second time, Elsa goes one note higher, which reflects how “she steps a toe outside of her boundaries, but comes back home." When Elsa feels that it is safe to go all the way, she gives over to the call. The third time, “‘Into the unkno-o-o-own...’ That’s an 11th, that is like Elsa has left the building."
The title of the Japanese version of the song is 『イントゥ・ジ・アンノウン 心のままに』(Intuu Ji Announ Kokoro no Mama ni; 心のままに means to live according to your heart). The chorus goes like this:
Michi no tabi e
(To a journey into the unknown)
Fumidase to
(You must take the first step)
Michi no tabi e
(To a journey into the unknown)
The chorus of the Japanese version does not repeat the title phrase three times; instead, it injects the directive “take the first step".
The English lyrics place the emphasis on the noun “the unknown”. To someone in the West, the notion of mystery, of something unfamiliar or not known, is enough to spur them to action. Perhaps it speaks to the American pioneer spirit.
The Japanese lyrics, on the other hand, place the emphasis on the verb fumidasu (踏み出す, to take a step forward). For the Japanese, the pull of the unknown is not enough—they are held back by the tendency to be indecisive and overly cautious, and often need to be given that initial push before they can take that first bold step.
The fact that the English emphasizes the noun while the Japanese emphasizes the verb also reflects a fundamental difference between the two languages. As a translator, this is something that I constantly have to deal with. If you want to say “He is an early riser” in Japanese, it’s more natural to say kare wa hayaoki da (「彼は早起きだ」, he gets up early) than kare wa hayaoki suru hito da (「彼は早起きする人だ」, he is a person who gets up early). When translating Japanese into English, it is important to nominalize the verb.
4.The 80’s Power Ballad “Lost in the Woods"
The song in Frozen 2 that really struck a chord with me was the ballad sung by Anna’s boyfriend Kristoff. Kristoff is a rugged woodsman with the physique of a rugby player, but when it comes to words he fumbles like nobody’s business. Over the course of the film, he repeatedly attempts to propose to Anna, only to trip over his own words or be derailed by new developments. His frustration builds and builds until, in his dejection, he breaks out into song.
The piano intro, the wailing guitar, the cheesy lyrics, and the vocal harmony of the chorus—the song is a power ballad straight out of the 80s. The number is even accompanied by a series of visual gags that evoke the music videos of the era. When I first heard the song, I immediately thought of the song “You’re the Inspiration" by the American rock band Chicago.
When I asked the Lopezes about the song, they laughed and looked at one another. Anderson-Lopez nodded and said, “Yeah, Bryan Adams, REO Speedwagon, any of the big ballads from the 80s which we grew up with. Like when my boyfriend broke up with me when I was 13, I was crying into my pillow to Bryan Adams."
All four of these songs involve a man singing about his romantic feelings with abandon. By the standards of the time, none of these songs were considered very manly or masculine. When I said that as men we often dismiss songs about feelings with the pejorative “cheesy", Lopez said, “I think so. I think that you rarely see a male character pining romantically after a woman, or you know, any romantic interest. And it’s good, we have those feelings, it’s very important, and we ignore them, we press them down. But if you press them down, you do so at your peril."
As I alluded to at the beginning of this article, I’ve always felt averse to musicals because the characters seem to just start singing for no reason in particular. But during my interview with the Lopezes, something clicked. That aversion, that discomfort, was actually me feeling self-conscious and being unable (or unwilling) to confront my own feelings and emotions.
When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s in California, the times were such that the idea of a man or boy singing unabashedly about their feelings was considered incredibly uncool. In Japan that sentiment was surely even stronger. The central characters of Frozen 2 are sisters Anna and Elsa, but through the character of Kristoff, the filmmakers explore what it means to be a man in our modern age.
In today’s America, toxic masculinity has become an important topic. Men must be able to acknowledge and control their feelings, and it is considered cool for a man to be able to express his feelings in a healthy way. (Certainly, we don’t deserve any praise for this most meager of accomplishments.) Frozen 2 reflects the changing times not only through its depiction of sisterhood but through its portrayal of manhood. In that regard, it will be interesting to see how that message is “translated" for Japanese audiences, and how they respond.
5.The Magic of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez
●Robert Lopez
Robert Lopez is a songwriter of musicals from Manhattan, New York. He won a Tony Award for his 2004 puppet musical Avenue Q, Emmy Awards for his work for the TV show The Wonder Pets in 2008 and 2010, a Tony Award and Grammy Award for the 2012 musical comedy The Book of Mormon, and an Academy Award and Grammy Award for the song “Let It Go" for 2014’s Frozen. He is the 12th person to achieve the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony), and is the only person to have received each award more than once.
●Kristen Anderson-Lopez
Kristen Anderson-Lopez is a songwriter and lyricist of musicals from New York. After graduating from Williams College in western Massachusetts with degrees in drama and psychology, she spent several years pursuing her dream of becoming a Broadway theatre performer. In 1999, she entered the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, where she found her calling as a lyricist and met her future husband. She won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Let It Go" from 2013’s Frozen, and “Remember Me" from 2017’s Coco.
6.My Wardrobe for This Interview
Polka dot necktie by Ralph Lauren
Gray double breasted suit by Universal Language
Gray socks by Brooks Brothers
