文|Linghu Boguang
Zhou Shen recently released the prelude to his new album "Phantom" and it became a hit. You must know that Zhou Shen's last album was in 2017, and he has been waiting for the second album for 7 years. At the same time, Zhang Yixing also released the new album singles "run back to you" and "psychic". This song itself is not easy to evaluate because it is a very ordinary kpoop song.
As for the entire album, it’s hard to comment yet because the entire album has not been released yet.
Today I will write from another angle, that is, Zhang Yixing’s positioning in the field of Chinese music has always been strange. Last year, the movie "All or Nothing" he starred in was a box office hit. But Zhang Yixing's momentum in music is obviously relatively weak. You know, back in 2017, Zhang Yixing’s album "sheep", like "Dreams Never Fall in the Rainforest", was still very popular.
The 2020 album "Lotus" can be said to have gone a step further. The song became so popular that even Southeast Asian singers directly copied it.
But Zhang Yixing’s music has much weaker momentum in the market. It has neither revolutionized the Chinese music scene nor become popular on a large scale. You will have the feeling that he is still making music.” Zhang Yixing has said more than once that he wants to revitalize the Chinese language. In the music scene, there are grandiose words such as bringing Chinese music to the world.
So, why did Zhang Yixing fail to lead Chinese music to the world?
After 22 years since his debut, Zhang Yixing failed to save Chinese music.
I have written about this reason at the beginning. Not to mention that Zhang Yixing certainly saved the Chinese music scene, and ten or so musicians like him cannot save it. Because Zhang Yixing is from the Korean music genre, and he sings and dances in the visual genre, but in our eyes, the Chinese music scene is mainstream. Either they are official platform singers like Zhou Shen, or they are from the recording industry, like Jay Chou.
In the past ten years, whether it was the folk songs of Fatty Song, Chen Li, Zhao Lei, or the rock and roll Universal Youth Hotel, etc., all were independent music.
In fact, in the past few years, every new-generation musician who became popular in China was compared to Jay Chou. I find it strange to lead Chinese music, because the two sides are not indifferent at all. If Zhang Yixing insists on playing the role, the more suitable ones would be Wilber Pan or Luo Zhixiang.
Li Yuchun and Hua Chenyu, who appeared in the same talent show in mainland China, although they also have idol attributes, they are more packaged in the record industry, that is, creation and musician status. Zhang Yixing is just a Korean idol singer with creative talents. Don’t get ahead of yourself. It’s not that he doesn’t have the ability, but that China doesn’t have the mature idol industry like Korea.
Of course Zhang Yixing cannot support an industry by himself. Look at the four returned children, Han Geng, Song Qian, Liu Xianhua, etc., there are almost a dozen, but they are all cultivated by the Korean idol industry, and China’s own idol industry has done it It's a mess, but it's trying to save the Chinese music scene, which is accelerating its collapse.
And it’s a bit cruel, if you pay attention to the global music market. You will find that since 2023, K-pop, the home base of Zhang Yixing, has collapsed, let alone the Chinese music industry. The reason is also very simple. Korean koop is the collapse of the record era and the arrival of short videos.
This South Korea is based on the Japanese idol industry + American pop music framework + selling soft porn for men and women = visual music.
The "visual" stimulation of Korean idol musicians is just more intuitive, thus weakening our perception of "music". But this does not mean that "sound" is no longer important. Its influence is subtle. I have seen some videos that appreciate the characteristics of "sound" in "Interstellar". They analyzed that the entire movie uses similar and connected chords, and matches the melody of different parts of the same paragraph to express rich emotions and complex emotions. Deeply reflects the theme.
At the same time, the pipe organ in the movie as well as the "air flow", "sand dust", "storm" and "sound in the universe" create the main atmosphere and promote the emotional transformation, creating the perfect audio-visual experience of "Interstellar". Although music is "simple" in composition, it carries particularly rich emotions, and its meaning and content are self-evident.
Its form is simple, and because of this it has been widely spread and can be felt anytime and anywhere.
Can’t Zhang Yixing save the Chinese music scene? Because the Korean wave that cultivated him is about to collapse
The rapid development of the Internet in recent years and the popularity of short videos have made people's audio-visual experience simple and crude, which has indeed caused a big impact on the industry. But I think short video will not always be the main theme of the times. It has only emerged in the past few years since the rise of the Internet.
But the music style has been popular for thousands of years, and I think its relationship is similar to obtaining information from fragments and in-depth reading. Truly good, carefully designed music is still appreciated by people and plays an irreplaceable role. Including domestic diversified mass media such as movies, TV series, and games, their popularity does not mean the weakening of the role of music. On the contrary, when you mention a famous movie and game, don’t you think of the one that best represents it? A famous scene or its iconic music?
This is why "Chasing in the Rye Field" is an old song from ten years ago, and I still shed tears when I listen to it. I think of the plane chasing in the wheat field, and the bond between Cooper and his daughter that transcends time and space. So much so that now that I hear this song, I have a renewed feeling. This is the embodiment of the vitality of music.
Every era and every style of music represents the thoughts and emotions of people in that era. How do we know that the mainstream music of the current era is not a continuation of history or the beginning of new trends in the future? That is all defined by future generations.
In the final analysis, this is currently more of a dilemma faced by the Chinese music scene. Overseas, especially in Japan, mainstream music in Europe and the United States is booming, but the Chinese music scene is gradually being filled with low-tech, low-quality music. I don’t think music has come to an end, it’s just that we are bound by the times.
If you watch Korean movies, Korean dramas are obviously in decline, and the popular Korean wave is also obviously in decline.
What you hear is also called a song? Nowadays, people are listening less and less to K-pop, because pop culture will be quickly replaced.
Our generation will eventually be swept away by the times. When heavy metal music becomes popular, the older generation simply cannot understand why some people like to listen to such violent music. Pop music is also incomprehensible to some of the older generation. You are not nobler than anyone else, and be prepared that the "popular" elements ten years from now will be something you simply cannot understand.
Zhang Yixing cannot save the Chinese music scene. Even if the Chinese music scene is really going to die, then it will be over. It is really a very vague thing to evaluate whether a song is a good song from so many perspectives.
Zhang Yixing can’t be saved? Because of the Chinese music scene, there is no need to save
Because I do writing work, I basically listen to music every day. I listen to it a lot. In addition, some music fans have some exchanges with people in the industry. My understanding of the field of pop music is relatively shallow, but compared to Ordinary people are a bit stronger, so let’s just talk about it briefly.
Generally speaking, changes in popular music are inseparable from changes in media communication methods.
When Jay Chou's generation was clearly over, some people were discussing whether music was in decline. People in the industry said that music was in decline (here we are not talking about pop music, but the history of music based on the development route of Western music creation). They believe that the peak period of music is the classicism period and early romanticism, and in the middle and late period, as well as impressionism and expressionism, it has begun to deviate.
is manifested in the fact that the tonality of the music becomes more and more obvious, and the dissonance increases to more than 80%. The expressionist twelve-tone system is already very anti-human, just like a cup of very bitter espresso. You have to be familiar with it and taste it carefully to feel the mystery. You will know how to use the subway old man's mobile phone the first time you listen to it.
Take Chinese music as an example. What everyone accepts and sounds good are routine chords, and the music style is harmonious.
Western and Japanese music styles are much richer. Which music types should musicians learn?Music styles, singing techniques, arrangements and productions are indeed richer and more diverse, but when ordinary people hear it they think: What the hell is this?
It’s like a jazz singer who switches the notes back and forth. The Chinese audience feels that he is showing off his skills. He is not distracted and down-to-earth. Can he sing well? (You don’t know about Chinese jazz singers? Yuan Ya is quite popular among the public. Wei Huo's songs are all traditional, and the jazz she is good at is relatively niche).
I think music cannot simply be said to be uphill or downhill, but rather to consider the audience. Although I also like the music of the Romantic period the most, especially the music of Debussy. But the music of the Baroque period was for the gods, the music of the Classical period was for the nobility, and the music after the Romantic period was for the masses.
(There is no reference to Chinese court and folk music here, because this is not the same as pop music)
Music used to be a very niche thing, and the route it took was small and refined. As the number of listeners increased, As the number of creators increases, the quality of music will inevitably decrease. Today's creative music is dependent on various media communication methods, and it has been so wrapped up that there is no soil for self-growth.
Therefore, niche and diversification are inevitable trends, that is, people who like a certain type of music gather together to listen and create in parallel. Each music lover can create the music he likes, but it is difficult for everyone to be Agree. I can't tell whether this is a good phenomenon, because the functionality of music is very complex, but changes in the push method will indeed make it more difficult for us to find high-quality music that we like.
Zhang Yixing cannot save the Chinese music scene, because the Chinese music scene does not need to be saved.
If you want to ask me how the Chinese music scene is, I will only tell you based on my understanding. Culture is inseparable from the overall background of the times. China's current sustainable development is still good, and the cultural fields have developed better instead of worse. Only mainstream pop music has changed due to changes in communication methods (from records to the Internet to short videos). ), it is indeed more festering.
But if you look at it from the perspective of independent music relying on music festivals, to movies, TV series, games and animations, you will find that Chinese music is much richer than before, really.
The premise is to listen more, accept more, and know how to look outside your own circle.
Of course, this step is difficult for many people. My conclusion is that even if one day I am out of place and outdated, I think Jay Chou will be like that. But I still respect people who like to listen to this song. Hobby is everyone's freedom, and there is no difference between noble or not.
