text | Linghu Boguang
Let’s write about the Chinese music scene today. I believe many netizens have discovered one thing. That’s what music is like now, not only in Chinese music, but also in the world music scene. That is, songs seem to be getting more and more complicated, especially in terms of arrangement and production. They are made to be fancy, but they seem to be getting less and less pleasant to listen to. .
In terms of professionalism, it focuses less on melody and more on rhythm, arrangement, harmony and production.
This is actually a problem that the development of the pop music industry will face sooner or later, just like the current movies. You find that the expressions of current Hollywood blockbusters are all tired of cutting wood. The themes are basically sequels, the duration is getting longer and longer, and the editing and rhythm are very complicated, but they just don’t say anything.
The so-called "good songs" in the current so-called "good song evaluation system" are divided into three modules: "rhythm", "melody" and "arrangement". In music production, "rhythm" and "melody" are both part of "arrangement". The content of arrangement is definitely not just the selection and use of orchestration and harmony. Your understanding of the concept of "arrangement" is outrageously one-sided.
Of course, ordinary people don’t understand this, because this system only considers the arrangement and completely ignores the artistic expression of a work by the mixer, mastering engineer, and recording engineer, which is equivalent to judging the music. It completely negates the contribution, efforts and hard work of these people, and it is a one-sided and narrow understanding of music production.
Good songs are indeed becoming more and more complex, but there are actually more and more good songs.
There are no more good songs like Jay Chou? Is it only Jay Chou who has good songs?
Chinese listeners still have a relatively single aesthetic level and have never taken any music theory courses. Their explanation and understanding of chords completely rely on the so-called "chord routines" and they have never really understood the logic and principles of chord progressions behind them. Naturally, They don’t know the two sets of descending tones in the canon chord, and they don’t understand the logic behind Jay Chou’s changes to the canon chord.
Many musicians in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad, have spent hundreds of years building the harmonic system, but netizens only see it as "chord routines". This is really a great sadness.
Many netizens may think that songs are becoming more and more complicated nowadays, that is, the arrangement, production and harmony are complicated, and the melodies are getting worse and worse. Probably this originally clichéd chord, after being designed and changed, not only is it no longer audible, but it also matches the emotion of the song very well and has become part of an excellent work. This is careful and good melody design. Although from the perspective of voice guidance, chords are composed of multiple horizontal melodies, this behavior of confusing chords and melody is quite strange.
What if I told you that rhythm patterns are much more than 44 beats of strength and weakness? What if I told you that bpm is not directly related to the perceived "tempo speed"? What if I tell you that the traditional rhythm system has been abandoned in many genres such as ambient music, glitch music, noise music, and some modern classical music research, bpm=0? Do you want to deny these niche genres?
What if I told you that there are certain genres in electronic music where melody does not exist? Are you going to take these genres out of "good songs"?
Don't think about defining "good-sounding". Just like Jay Chou, no matter how good he is, can't write rock band songs well, the reason is that simple.
Jay Chou is no longer good, but is the Chinese music scene better? Don’t be too single when listening to music.
Music has no future. I can only say that it may be difficult for the pop music of the past to regain its glory. The reason is that the chords, melodies, and themes that everyone thinks are good have been used all over, and then pop music needs to be popular. It shouldn’t be too complicated, but simplicity means not exciting enough. There are many ways to create new ideas in
music, such as using rare chords, arrangements, etc. However, if it is more complicated, you need to have certain musical literacy to appreciate this kind of music, so this kind of work will not be popular.Then there won’t be a big market for this type of work, and the output will definitely be far less than that of pop songs.
So if you really want popular music to reach new heights, you have to wait until the public’s musical literacy improves. The audience's receptive ability has increased, and the boundaries of popular music have been broadened.
This arrangement is an important factor in music, but it is not an important factor in whether it is successful in popularity. The Chinese pop music scene we are talking about is finished. If you separate the three words "pop music", even without the author's analysis, many people understand that the problem is not with "music", but with the word "pop" . For example, in 2022, many songs were popular for a few weeks to a few months, but there was no song as dominant as "The Girl Opposite Look Over".
Whether a song is a successful pop song or not, arrangement only accounts for 20% of it at best. Whether it's a slobbery song or Jay Chou, the routine is still outrageous. The reason why a song can turn from paper to a household name is not just due to the arrangement.
The opposite can also be said. Even if the digital expression of the music is simple and the routines are repeated, the arrangement does not determine whether the song will become popular. Therefore, even if the routines and digital expressions are simple, as long as the song is followed the right way, it can become popular. Some songs have become popular recently, and even copying the exact same melody can make them popular for a while.
Therefore, to analyze whether a song is successful in pop music is not due to the arrangement, which is a wrong way to go.
Later people are tragic, and this phenomenon is not only reflected in music. You can look at all the changes in modern society. Compared with the last century, all explorable spaces in society, humanities, science, and art are constantly being discovered and improved. The space left for latecomers to explore is getting smaller and smaller. If we take a small step forward now, the price we pay is far beyond what we can bear.
Civilization continues to develop and expand, and the total amount of matter in the universe remains unchanged - the Three Body Dark Forest
In this matter, which can get closer and closer to the boundary, the more latecomers are, the more difficult it is to explore. It's easier to just do it directly. After all, it's easier to apply it mechanically. The number of
is increasing. Who are all musicians? Why can’t I hear good songs
In the short video era, there are really too many pieces of music. There are more than one million Chinese songs a year. Finding what you like is like looking for a needle in a haystack, even with the help of recommendation algorithms. It is also very difficult (not to mention that many of the recommended songs by the algorithm are old songs)
Secondly, everyone thinks that the melodies and chords that are good in traditional music are indeed almost exhausted. The information complexity of music itself is not high. In addition, The reason for the first one is that if you want to innovate, the result will most likely be unsound. Good-sounding songs can always find shadows of previous songs.
At the same time, the importance of music to people now has seriously declined compared to 20 years ago. Short videos, movies, TV series, games, and novels were not easily available 20 years ago. Nowadays, as long as you have a mobile phone and an Internet connection, you can enjoy them at will. Music has become an accessory, the BGM of a 15-second short video.
Just as new painting styles rarely appear in the history of art, the types of music may also be gradually squeezed to all. But similarly, with the development of the times, the threshold for creating music is getting lower and lower. Virtual singers can sing for you with professional voices, and high-quality sound sources can allow the top orchestra musicians to play for you, making continuous progress. The plugin lets professional equipment handle it for you.
This intelligent host, intelligent sound library, and intelligent plug-ins make music production closer and closer to us, just like everyone can draw on paper with a pen, each of us can An opportunity to express yourself through music. Just like painting a picture of your favorite character, you don't have to have superb skills, you don't have to have a detailed understanding of color, composition, human body, etc. What's more important is that the mood when painting can be reflected, or Love for the character, or proof that your skills have improved.
The same is true for music. It is no longer necessarily a handicraft made by chords, melodies, colors, etc., but it can also be a tool for each of us to freely express ourselves.
In my opinion, the arrangement in popular music only needs to reach the qualifying line, which does not affect the listening experience, and it is enough to score more than 60 points. But the lyrics and melody are what really attract more attention. What the people who make the music have experienced, what they express, and what they convey is what I believe is the true power of pop music to move people.
The end of the "golden age" has left us like a thick dictionary, and we can understand every style. We no longer need to shout with inefficient gestures, but just like using words in a dictionary, we can combine different styles, colors, melodies, etc. to form a complete sentence to express joy, sadness, or anger. , express ourselves. The approaching threshold of music gives us an additional ability to touch the hearts of others.
Jay Chou's songs are good songs, but is it only Jay Chou who has good songs? People who hold this view are sad.
