text | Linghu Boguang
"I Am a Singer 2024" is officially launched. Because the domestic music scene is relatively weak, Na Ying plays the leading role, and Second Hand Rose is a bit out of place in it, causing Na Ying to fight against two foreign singers alone, and because of the early stage Due to the gap between her own strength, Na Ying finished third. After the
program was broadcast, netizens became anxious, not to mention the various jokes about "Na Ying fighting against foreign coalition forces". At the same time, netizens began to call for Chinese musicians to go on the show to support foreign singers (after all, it was rumored that the singer who kicked the club was Duanmei). This time the Chinese music scene was indeed a bit embarrassed and couldn't handle it. In addition, netizens have various suggestions on which musicians should be nominated to compete on stage. Here is a comprehensive summary today.
I have written a lot before about the development of the Chinese music scene and why it is not working, but no one cared about it. I hope someone will read it this time. I will briefly review it here, and you will understand the problems of Chinese music.
First of all, we need to make it clear that "I Am a Singer" is a music competition variety show, similar to "The Masked Singer" (the contestants are basically famous musicians, and there is an elimination mechanism), while "Super Girl" and "Fast Man" "The Voice" is a music talent show variety show that mainly focuses on discovering new talents.
This means that for the main contestants in this music program, whether they are singer-songwriters or singers, their singing skills are very important. Singing skills do not just refer to high notes, but the performance skills of technology, singer-songwriters and aesthetic representatives. , the style of the music, and the mastery of the adaptation representatives can allow them to go further.
ps: I won’t mention the musicians who have appeared on “Singer” in previous seasons, but I will roughly divide them.
Who can appear on "Singer 2024" and take up the Chinese music scene? These people in the mainland music scene have always been underestimated.
Chinese audiences simply don’t understand, don’t care, and don’t know why the Chinese music industry is working and not working. The answer is that an industry in modern times is the cultivation of the entire industry chain. I won’t go into details here. You will understand if you consider the “new energy” automobile industry that has become popular in recent years.
In the mainland music industry, what we have been strengthening is the institutional music system established in the past thirty years. That is to say, our official background music and art workers usually receive professional training in official music institutions such as music academies, song and dance troupes, and military art troupes in my country. The music career is related to official music institutions. Not only singers, we are familiar with a lot of composers. , lyricists, and musicians are very accomplished.
music styles are mostly based on folk songs, operas, ethnics, red songs, musicals and operas, etc.
After the WTO in 2001, further marketization took place, and music from Hong Kong and Taiwan moved northward in a big way, and the mainland audience loved it. Then a funny thing happened. The essence of "pop music" is music that is popular among the public. But for some reason, mainland songs that were popular all over the country suddenly became popular, and it was no longer pop music.
After 2005, the generation after Han Hong will be Yao Beina, Jiuyue Miracle, Abao and the like after "Avenue of Stars".
After 2010, this system completely declined and became as dependent on the state as the mainland opera circle, and the circle was also quite closed. There may be newcomers, but they are not well-known in the market anymore. They might as well be in the dance circle that has become popular in recent years with their short videos and Hanfu traditional culture.
This system has only featured Tan Jing, Han Hong, Tengger, Han Lei and Liu Huan before. In the eyes of Chinese audiences, they are singing machines who show off their skills more than their content, but they are the most suitable for this kind of music competition program. Just pick a few of them. He's very good at fighting, but I don't know if he can come.
Candidates: Sa Dingding, Aduo, Zu Hai, Wang Erni, Chen Sisi, Yunfei, Ma Xiaomeng, Liu Sai, etc. There are so many Chinese national singers and folk singers.
2. Mainland folk songs and national pop singers from folk to public, from grassroots to temples.
After the mainland's market economy, a wave of folk songs broke out in the market and became nationally popular, such as "Xiao Fang", "Wine on September 9th", "Big Sedan Chair", "Nine Sisters", "Are You OK in a Foreign Country", etc. Belongs to this wave. I won’t comment on the music of this group of people, but their ability can be seen as the difference between record singers and online singers.
Daolang rose from this track, but he is very powerful. Phoenix Legend also entered the palace from the private sector. The grassroots rise represented by Pang Long in "Two Butterflies" around 2004 can be seen as the successor of ten years of generation change. After 2020, there will be "The Shepherd of Coco Tuohai".
This was something from 20 to 30 years ago, and they are not even as good as Pang Long.
In addition, Xiao Shenyang is pretty good, but the problem is that his music and the creator behind it, Gao Jin, are still popular in mainland folk songs before 2010, or the kind of music developed in the mainland. I don’t think there’s anything bad about this music, but compared with the ethnic and folk singers in the system.
Don’t you feel very backward when you sing "My Good Brother" and "Laughing in the World" from more than ten years ago on a music variety show in 2024?
candidates: Daolang, Yunduo Huancheng, Li Yugang is the best, Xiao Shenyang is okay.
Has the mainland music scene surpassed that of Hong Kong and Taiwan? Yes, but singers are not good.
Mainland rock and roll, Mainland independent music with the explosion of Mainland folk songs has the appearance of a mature music industry. In fact, from many aspects, it is not inferior to previous Hong Kong and Taiwan pop music. And these are pop music, but we also want to put it in independent music, saying it is a niche.
Mainland new folk songs were foreshadowed by campus folk songs and wild child independent folk songs. Around 10 years ago, Song Fatty, Li B, Zhou Yunpeng, Wan Xiaoli, Ma Di, Zhang Weiwei, Chen Li, Zhao Lei, Chen Hongyu, Zhao Zhao and Zhao Muyang , Yao Shisan, Liu Shuang, Zhong Lifeng, Ma Tiao, Xiaohe, Good Sister, etc.
This is a very mature commercial music industry chain, but it is ridiculous for Chinese listeners to treat it as a niche music.
I won’t give an example of rock music, but rock and folk songs are the same as mainland hip-hop. There are many good music writers, but most of them have poor singing skills. People like Second-hand Rose Diplodocus can sing well and can warm up the crowd. They are all considered top-notch. There were not many candidates in this section, and most of the people had absolutely no singing skills. Chen Li was considered the top performer on the set.
is a folk music artist, and even the band's singing skills are much better.
Candidates: Chen Li, Hang Gai, Jiubao, Wild Child, Haya Band, Dai Qing Tana's singing skills are absolutely top-notch.
Why did the mainland music scene lose to the Hong Kong and Taiwan music scene? Mainly in the record industry
In the past, Hong Kong and Taiwan music was supported by the record industry. Mainland China seized the tail of the record industry due to the times, and Hong Kong and Taiwan influenced the mainland music circle. In the end, the three leaders in the system were the most well-known among the public. Rock Xu Wei, Zheng Jun, Wang Feng and folk folk Pu Shu, Li Jian, and probably Yu Quan can be added.
During the same period, Faye Wong and Na Ying relied on the Hong Kong and Taiwan music circles to become queens and rose to prominence in the mainland. What was more bizarre was that the mainland queens Tian Zhen, Wei Wei, Mao Amin, etc. who were competing at the time did not withdraw from the circle but collectively kept a low profile. After Faye Wong became a legend, , Na Ying became the first sister of Chinese music singers.
During the same period, the most popular singers in the mainland market were Sun Nan, Yang Kun, Sha Baoliang, etc.
After 2001, due to the further liberalization of the market, the entertainment industry of TV stations in various places has risen strongly. The mainland pop music scene has risen through music talent shows, from "Super Girl" and "Fast Man" to "The Voice" series. The reason why the mainland music industry is deformed is that our pop music industry has always relied on music talent shows, which integrates promoting people, recruiting songs, publicity, channels, performances and making money, etc.
(The desire for quick success and quick profit behind this is extremely capitalized, and I won’t even talk about cultivating people at all).
In short, "Super Girl", "Fast Boy" and "The Voice" still selected a bunch of mainland singers with strong singing skills. The problem is that in the previous seasons of "Supergirl" and "Fast Boy", all the ones that should have been on the show were on the list, and the remaining one was a marginal singer who was not very good at playing. The same goes for the "The Voice" series. Yuan Yawei, Jike Junyi and Zhou Shen have already appeared, and the rest are either not good or very marginalized.
Around 2017, idol talent shows in mainland China rose rapidly, and even traditional music talent shows declined.
After 2017, the idol talent show produced a new generation of singers with good singing skills. It seems that only Shan Yichun, Huang Xiaoyun, Xilinna Yigao, etc. are left. There are also good male singers You Changjing and Zhou Feige; but these singers are too young. , singing business, aesthetics and accumulation are not enough, there are quite a lot of various car accident scenes.
Previous generation candidate: Xu Wei? Hackberry? They have deep connections with mainland independent music. Those people will not come.
Candidates: Super Girl, Fast Boy, scattered singers. Alan can come back from Japan, and the new generation Huang Xiaoyun, Shan Yichun, Xilin, You Changjing, and Zhou Feige can all come together. try.
Other candidates: Idols that became popular around 2015 have not appeared on "Singer". You can try Zhang Yixing, Wang Jiaer, Liu Xianhua, etc. They are very popular and have full traffic and entertainment effects.
ps: Mainland folk pop music from "Nine Sisters", "Dahuaqiao" to "Two Butterflies", and now the short video divine songs are in the same line, but the strength is getting lower and lower, and there is no lower limit (everyone still likes it, but doesn't listen to it if it's not popular) , this is a popular song)
ps2: Xu Song, Xu Liang and Wang Sulong were influenced by Jay Chou. The previous generation of mainland Internet pop music is probably a bunch of Internet musicians who are always musicians, but most of them are jokes. Even if Xu Song's generation takes the music competition stage, his singing ability is not good.
ps3: Chinese netizens look down on Hua Chenyu very much. Hua Chenyu was the champion of "Happy Boys" in 2013. It has been 11 years since 2024. In the past 20 years, "Super Girl 2005" became popular at this point (a level in popular culture every ten years) , there was also "The Voice" in 2012 and "Singer Season 1" in 2013. At that time, they contributed a lot of singers, songwriters and singers who have combined singing skills and creative skills.
You are not criticizing Hua Chenyu, who is top-notch in composition and singing, for being a creative artist. The result is that after idol auditions, idol auditions were suppressed during the epidemic, traditional auditions did not rise, and singers within the system declined. A music competition and variety show will be held in 2024. Today’s new generation of singer-songwriters and singers can’t even come up with ideas.
"Singer" has embarrassed the mainland music scene? The music scene in Hong Kong and Taiwan is not much better.
The serious economic decline in Hong Kong and Taiwan has led to an even more serious decline in the music scene. Now there is a position issue there that is difficult to deal with. Those that have no problem have either been released in previous seasons, or those that are not available will never be released.
The Hong Kong music scene has been in serious decline since 2000. The new generation only has Zeng Bit, Yan Mingxi and other newcomers who can take the lead. However, the problem is the same as that of the new generation in the mainland. They can only find old people. I believe they have not been in the previous generation. There will definitely be many nominations for those seasons that are outstanding and well-known.
candidates: Jacky Cheung, Eason Chan? Fang Datong (not necessarily), Joey Yung, Wei Lan, Wang Wanzhi, Wu Yufei, etc. (may not be able to stand up)
Taiwan’s music scene has more choices. Around 2000, the generation of Zhou Wang Taolin was in its prime, popular, well-known, with good works and singing skills, and no problem with its stance. There are many people in their prime. It is a coincidence that mainland music variety shows became popular. In 2007, Taiwan held a "Super Avenue of Stars", which can be regarded as the last wave of popular music in Taiwan. Yang Zongwei, Xiao Jingteng, Lin Youjia, Xu Jiaying, Sun Shengxi, etc. .
After 2015, the resurgence of Taiwanese music has become the Taiwanese new romance represented by Caodong. It is almost the Jiangzi of independent music, and it is not suitable for music competition programs.
Candidates: Zhou Huajian, Zhang Huimei and other old singers have never been on the list, but they are still worthy of it.
The most popular singers from the Mesozoic era: Tao Zhe, Wang Leehom, and JJ Lin.At the same time, Soda Green and Lin Youjia are okay, and female singers Stefanie Sun and Jolin Tsai are okay. I feel like the other two divas are not good enough, creative talents Chen Shanni, Tanya Chua, Fan Xiaoxuan, and Chen Qizhen? Angela Chang is in the third primary school, Rainie Yang is like that, do you think Cyndi Wang is suitable?
Taiwanese Mesozoic singers similar to Li Jiawei: Yang Naiwen, Ding Dang, Liu Rene? Weiqi Fan? Yuan Yonglin? Sun Shengxi?
Finally, if we can let Mayday go up, it will definitely be effective in all aspects. It is the first group in the Chinese music world, with explosive high notes, and at the same time, it is also the youth ace of those born in the 80s and 90s.
