text | Linghu Boguang
has written a lot before that Chinese music and Taiwanese music represented by Jay Chou are actually out of date, but every time there is a lot of controversy. Moreover, this does not mean that Jay Chou is not good and the Taiwanese music scene is not good. Rather, it refers to the current popular culture in the mainland, such as Chinese film and television music that uses popular songs.
For example, science fiction, suspense, era, ancient costumes represented by "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", games represented by "Black Myth", etc.
These belong to China’s growing demand for popular culture, but Jay Chou and the Taiwanese music scene can no longer supply them, so they are outdated. But some people just don't listen. As soon as Jay Chou is mentioned, they immediately become anxious. Who can replace Jay Chou in mainland China? Why replace Jay Chou?
Is the "Chinese music scene" getting worse and worse? Is it all Jay Chou's fault? I laughed
Whenever we talk about how the Chinese music scene is doing, someone jumps out to say how bad Jay Chou is, as if Jay Chou is the fault of the music scene. Chinese pop music has been criticized for more than a year or two. Good songs have an evaluation system - rhythm - designed and in line with the mood; melody - not routine or rigid; arrangement - layered and progressive.
The quality of the current Chinese pop music scene has not dropped significantly compared to before. The saliva songs (music that deviates from the average song but is on the charts) set the ceiling of pop music, lead the aesthetics and innovation of the times, and actually influence the creation of more and more latecomers. , but there are more and more popular songs.
is originally a change in media, and the popularity life cycle is shortened. The explosive popularity of short videos after 19 years has made music an accessory; the democratization of creative tools has lowered the threshold for music production. Outrageous songs with simple melodies and repeated rhythms can no longer lead the times. There are no great generals or talents in the pop music world, and only tribute flags are left swaying in the wind.
Rather than saying that the Chinese music scene is finished, it is better to say that music companies have now chosen a music production model that is more suitable for short video platforms. This situation not only occurs in China, but also abroad. Songs are produced to adapt to short video platforms. , quickly spread the fire through a short piece of magical and ear-catching rhythm.
But the overall song is mediocre. Compared with hyping up an artist, this way of making a song that is going to be popular and will die quickly to make a lot of money in a short time is more suitable for capital operation, and the singer is easy to control and replace, so there is no need Regarding fan stickiness, I also listen to European and American fans.
This situation has also been very serious in Europe and the United States in recent years. They rely solely on short videos to create hype and hit the charts. However, the quality of the songs is very poor, but they are popular and make money, and they are also popular and extinguished quickly, but there are many There are several works that can adapt to the short video platform and have excellent overall quality. Of course, there are certainly some in China.
The decline of the Chinese music scene is inevitable, but this time is actually huge. It can survive for decades. It is no problem. It is the short video platform and capital operation that have presented the corpse of the Chinese music scene to the public in advance. However, in fact, they are not dead yet. If Within ten years, the short video platform has become a thing of the past with the times, and we can find that this person in the Chinese music industry is actually still alive, although everyone thought he was dead.
Apart from Jay Chou, there are indeed more and more good songs? The question is what is a "good song"
For those who say that Chinese music is not good, can you do a questionnaire survey and try to listen to as many songs as possible to see if there has been any change in the level of what you call "average songs" over the years. (If you want to say that the rhythm is almost the same as the level, then I lose. Whether it sounds good or not is subjective and emotional)
You will know it if you have read online articles and light novels for many years. After a classic appears, hundreds of people read it every day. Works with similar themes and even similar writing styles are released, but in many cases the original work is not even completed. It’s not getting richer, it’s just imitating more and more garbage, but this garbage will continue to weaken the influence of the original work and even the senses of re-reading.
Therefore, many themes are worthy of being called masterpieces as a mountain monster, and a mountain monster can support countless disciples and disciples, and also gives those disciples and disciples the courage to "I can do whatever I want."However, only those works that some people are still willing to read ten years after they were completed, or even those that are willing to keep reading, can be considered masterpieces in my heart. The same is true for
music. Tags such as "popular", "popular", "masterpiece" or "niche", "outrageous" and "trash" are just tags. Their function is only to make it easier for you to find music that can be added to your favorites. We are not using these labels to show off or judge.
Is there more and more good Chinese music? Or is it becoming less and less?
I still say the same thing. The current mainstream Chinese singing channels are short videos, music variety shows and music stages are overwhelming. There are no well-known music awards in the mainland. Now the only mainstream channel left is film and television soundtracks and songs. If you insist on talking about "The Hidden Corner" and "The Long Season" selected by Xin Shuang, then to "The Myth of Love" and "Universe Exploration Editorial Department", as well as "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", "Spiritual Cage", "Black Myth" and "River" "Mistakes on the Side", "The Wandering Earth 2", etc.
Their soundtrack is not good, their songs are not good, so I can only talk about the pictures. I think good songs are more unpopular. I listen to them by myself and never get tired of playing a random playlist. I slowly search for them on private FM. When I find a song I like, I feel really happy and enthusiastic. The songs have been popular for a while, and I have been looking for them for a long time, but I was reluctant to move them out. There are good Chinese songs, and they are becoming more and more popular.
In the past, the songs that everyone heard were carefully packaged by music companies for listeners to listen to. It can be said that there were very few channels and their popularity was within controllable range. In recent years, veteran singers have begun to have their own ideas and will no longer sing the positioning songs given to them by the company, and have begun self-exploration. The songs shortlisted for the Golden Melody Awards in recent years have become very different from those 20 years ago. It is said that there are many songs every day, but these mainstream singers are slower and slower in releasing albums...
In addition, there are many niche musicians who have bypassed traditional record companies and begun to develop independently. They release their own demos to show their ideas, such as NetEase Cloud allows these musicians to have their own development platform, or play underground music, bar music, etc. Once they become famous or even developed, professional companies will directly sign these talents.
Another very important point is that now listeners have various channels to listen to and feel their "favorite" music. Coupled with the influence of the information cocoon, it is difficult for everyone to step out of their own listening range. During this period When I meet like-minded people who all discuss the same thing and start to form a group, it is probably difficult to accept other music styles.
Jay Chou is "dead", Chinese music will not die, the answer is simpler than you think
This is the definition of popular. Popular is not a music style, but a more abstract concept related to the times. The rules for sampling the data set are not very clear, which will greatly affect the final conclusion. Also, pop music is not equal to Chinese music. Many people conclude that pop music is Chinese music.
music is more about various sounds, and changes in instrumental music, timbre, and even rhythm, which are also very emotional parts, cannot be reflected. One is the problem of new music styles. Currently, the permutations and combinations of modes based on equal temperament are limited. If you want to break out of the equal temperament and make a new split of frequencies, the human ear will not be able to adapt to a large extent. This is determined by our genes.
So style can only be guided by culture, and the development and influence of culture are slow and lagging.
The last thing I want to say is that music, as an art form, is more of an expression of self. It comes out, not squeezed out. I can feel the real emotions when listening to the music. Expression and catharsis, it’s like an extracted part of me, and finally modified with music theory and experience, but still based on perceptual knowledge to perfect the arrangement and mixing.
At present, artificial intelligence can compose and even arrange music. It can also be trained to express happiness or sadness based on the human ear's perception of pitch and rhythm, or music in the style of a certain musician, but it is also based on human data sets.For the market, AI will gradually drive out some of the so-called routine songs, but it cannot extract some of my immediate ideas.
For example, the sound of cleaning the table, the feeling of the pipa blending into the jazz, and when an empty shot makes the heart stop.
It all depends on whether the audience feels physically comfortable listening to it, or whether it is the fresh feeling brought by the new style, or whether they use their brains to listen and feel the emotions. It is a kind of communication with the creator. There is no shortage of good music in China, but it has been buried due to market reasons.
music is still the music of the past, but the audience is no longer the audience of the past. This is a dimensionality reduction blow. Similarly, the audience can also point out what is not done well in the current Chinese pop culture, although they have passively accepted this badness a long time ago.
Indeed, there are audiences who still don’t know that Kanon is not just a track, but let me say this, People who see it will know it, and the number of people who understand it will increase. Quantitative changes will lead to qualitative changes, and everyone will start to find the "fault" in the popularity of Chinese. Therefore, in fact, the speed of music progress is too far away from the speed of the audience's aesthetic level (for example, although DJ is not a music genre, knowing that there is a music style called "DJ" is also progress). Isn't this a good thing? Woolen cloth?
For example, if there are more top-notch directors like Xin Shuang who understand soundtracks in China (there are about 5 now), people who don’t listen to songs are just because they don’t want to listen to them, but because they don’t have them, just like Jay Chou degenerated into when he wrote "Christmas Star" , you still choose to forgive.
