text | Linghu Boguang
previously wrote an article criticizing Jay Chou for "Christmas Star" and "Daoxiang Rock Edition", and the comments received an enthusiastic response. How should I put it? Bo Guangjun is born in the 1980s and has loved listening to Jay Chou's songs since he was a student. If I still insist on "The Greatest Work", after listening to "Christmas Star", I will insist on criticizing the current music. Jay Chou.
I feel that his current attitude is extremely perfunctory and has even lowered the lower limit of the Chinese music scene. This song is not worth leaving a label in my brain, and I will most likely skip it when I hear it. In addition, the only thing that disappoints me the most about this song is
- the attitude is too perfunctory
You said that he is in poor health, his voice can't sing well, his life is very happy, and he can't write excellent songs that fit reality.
But Jay Chou’s financial resources and reputation need not be mentioned, but compared with Cui Jian, Luo Dayou, Wang Feng, Dao Lang, JJ Lin, Tao Zhe, Xu Song, etc. Anyway, for singers and songwriters in the Chinese music scene, with such huge reputation and financial resources, they actually arrange the music , those productions are made like that. Isn’t this worthy of criticism?
You are old and in poor health, but you still live a happy life? There are probably three reasons recognized by netizens for Jay Chou's bad performance.
There are probably three reasons why Jay Chou is so bad. One is that he is old and physically weak, and his voice cannot support the writing of songs with ups and downs, and his inspiration and talent have also declined. Jay Chou's voice has obviously deteriorated in the past few years. He cannot sing high notes and has a serious lack of breath. It may also be due to severe spondylitis that causes pain when he sings hard.
As a music composer and singer, if the songs you write can’t be sung by yourself, there’s no point.
So he could only adopt the safest method and write songs that were bland and without ups and downs, so that he could sing them.
After all, songs are written to be sung. It’s not that he can’t write good songs. In fact, Jay Chou could have stopped releasing new songs after the release of Bedtime Story in 2016, or he could have stopped holding concerts. After all, he was in poor health and his functions were declining, and the honors he had received were enough. If there is more money, the Jewel Company can be sold and enjoy life with peace of mind.
But Jay Chou has said before that he will sing as long as he is old and will never lip-sync. He values brotherhood. Jewels are all his brothers and he will not sell them.
The second is that the focus of life has shifted to life, spending money for fun, traveling with friends and brothers, and spending time with my wife and children. The former means that objectively he is not capable enough, as the so-called clever woman cannot make a meal without straw; the latter means that subjectively he no longer wants to do it. When you are not passionate about something, you will definitely not do it well.
Life is so happy now. It is unrealistic for him to focus exclusively on people's livelihood and social issues and show great love. He is not the kind of saint who cares about the world. His life experience is different. Life in Taiwan was not bad when he was a child. He did not come from the environment of the 1980s and 1990s in the countryside. When I became a boss in 2007, I didn’t have to be squeezed by others, and I didn’t have to rely on my performance every year.
The works after "Bedside" either catered to the fans or the market. Without the energy to rush into oneself, he became more tactful as he got older. This is considered a normal law of nature. It is normal to reach this point and lie down flat. Throughout the year, apart from the concert announcements and playing with friends, I also have to maintain family relations, visit relatives and friends, and pick up my children. You can imagine that when you play the piano in private, you will get thorns in your hands.
For now, unless something big happens, such as the return of Taiwan or the death of a relative, marriage issues, or company changes, it may be triggered.
The third thing is that in addition to caring about the world and other people, he probably has fewer entertainment methods. The things that little boys like are gone. The things he writes are comics, animations, movies, novels and games that boys after 80 will be exposed to. , observing the experiences of relatives, I used to view my elders from the perspective of grandchildren. When I grow up, have a family and have children, I will probably become like my father.
’s view on love is like that of many men who think that wealth and status are what women don’t have. In addition, he suffers from electronic impotence and cannot play games, animated novels and movies.I still remember that some time ago he countered those who said he had exhausted his talents on insta. I thought he would use this as inspiration to analyze his own panic and determination, but he did not produce such works.
Why criticize Jay Chou severely? It doesn’t have to be down-to-earth, but it can’t be done perfunctorily.
Songs give the listener a subconscious feeling that the performer has rich experience and deep understanding of the matter, and expresses it in the form of songs. This Christmas is not our family’s. Is it necessary to act like it’s been a lifetime of reflections? I also like to listen to some foreign Christmas-themed songs, the melody is very good.
Jay Chou's Chinese "Christmas Song" is so perfunctory that even an ordinary netizen like me can't praise it and can't find almost any advantages, really. Fans mentioned that "the melody is nice" and they can't sing it, so you don't have to be so perfunctory. The most important thing about
is the carelessness in arrangement and production. This must be seriously criticized. Take out Tao Zhe's Christmas work in 2022 and let everyone listen to these two songs at the same loudness (can be understood as volume). Jay's timbre selection, dynamics, and frequency range can be said to be a mess in this song.
The gas stove that the audience is "talking about" is actually a cliché, but the biggest problem is that a musician with such rich resources actually chooses to officially release a full midi music work in this era. And the midi is made into such a midi, which is actually a very "difficult" thing in the context of current music technology.
I don’t think that he can’t write good songs at all, but that his cognition has not improved and he regards commercial achievements as the only thing. Take the most popular song "Confession Balloon" in the past few years as an example. The melody is indeed good, but the whole song is very pale, and the arrangement and production are very backward. It is the kind of song list that you just listen to without paying attention. The first thing.
I can understand your lack of creative motivation, so you don’t have to post it. In the Fantasy era, songs like "Christmas Star" would have been thrown into the trash can even if they were written. The root of not cherishing one's own feathers lies in his The creative attitude can be seen to have declined in all aspects from the MV, melody, and arrangement. You are the ultimate quality controller. Only if your taste deteriorates will they be released.
His surreal things are not the reason why he is unique, but he is one of the few people who can perfectly combine surreal things with melody. Until now, I still think Shanghai 1943 is the music that best suits old Shanghai. To write something like that, you first have to have a certain sincerity, a deep belief in some fantasy.
However, I cannot see this kind of sincerity in his works in recent years, and his attitude is so perfunctory that it is indescribable.
I feel that Fang Wenshan has a greater relationship with this aspect. Many people must have said the words according to Jaylen's meaning, but there are not without exceptions. For example, in the original demo of "Shanghai 1943", Jay Chou said "I hate myself for being worthless and falling in love with you." At that time, the company also asked Wenshan to write a song based on this. It was at Wenshan's own request that it became "Shanghai 1943". four three".
Including "Grandpa's Tea", it's not like Jay really wanted to talk about Grandpa's Tea. Even the song was originally called "We Are Growing". Let’s talk about whether Jaylen’s creations are based on his own emotions. Jay himself has said many times that the inspiration for many songs does not come from him.
For example, "Dad, I'm Back" is a story about a friend. He said that there are very few songs that come from his own experience.
Many love song lyrics are not so much about Jay’s experience, but rather about Wenshan’s own emotions after being broken up. So the reason why the lyrics of love songs are empty now is not only because Jay has nothing to talk about, but also because Wenshan can’t write the lyrics. In recent years, Wenshan's poetry has been relatively difficult to describe in one sentence.
Besides, Jay Clen's creative output has declined in recent years. It feels like he has lost focus on releasing songs. In terms of arrangement, Jay knows how to arrange music, but now he doesn't care about the quality of the arrangement. He just leaves it all to Master Huang. Before "The Greatest Works", Master Huang edited up to 50% of the works, but from the beginning, the great works were almost all edited by Master Huang.
Master Huang also said that the time for arranging "The Greatest Work" was given to him in a tight schedule, and it was probably impossible to chat with the arranger all night like before. In the past, Jay's demos looked like finished products, but now Jay's finished products look like demos. Jay used to be very good at writing harmony. But the harmonies in the songs released now feel like they're all just for the taking.
Moreover, Jay Chou has never cared about whether the instruments in his songs are real recordings or whether the mixing is good. All of this has resulted in the current songs sounding unheard, plastic, perfunctory, and funny.
It has been 24 years since his debut. Does the "last king" of the Chinese music scene still need to improve?
Finally, many Jay Chou fans made a mistake with this song, that is, they will say that "Christmas Star" is not good, and "The Last King" is not good. "Great Work" is not good, and now the perfunctory concerts are equivalent to Jay Chou's bad. To be honest, I went to see Jay's concert this year, and his live performance was so perfunctory that he let a bunch of younger guys show up.
He has given us many excellent works. Jay Chou is a phenomenon. But why shouldn’t the “phenomenon” be allowed to make mistakes? Why don’t you dare to admit it bravely? When he writes this kind of song now, he has the feeling of "a martyr in his old age, full of ambition."
I have always believed that the root cause of difficulty for these musicians in the end is mostly due to irrational fans, and there is no need to blindly support them. But I don’t object to the fact that some friends really think this song “Christmas Star” sounds good. This is because everyone’s preferences are different. The most important thing about
is how should we treat it? If you are a negative fan, or someone who wants to use trolling Jay Chou as proof that you can "think independently, have insight and taste", then just enjoy the tailwind and just troll him. If you are a passerby, you can smile and be indifferent, or you can just step on me, depending on your mood.
If you are a fan who has extremely high requirements for Jay Chou, then you will be angry with him and only admit that you are a fan of Jay Chou before a certain album; if you are a fan of Jay Chou, you will naturally be careless in defending. Crazy confrontation with people online, Jay Chou is always good, how bad is the Chinese music scene now.
But I think most people may be like me, they don’t feel much about it. The song doesn’t sound good, but it’s not unpleasant either. If you think about it carefully, this is a singer who has written one or two hundred excellent songs. He has been in the industry for 24 years, and he can't get angry if they don't sound good. I listen to new songs as soon as I hear them, and I won’t listen to them if I don’t. I may randomly hum a line or two to old songs later.
Then laugh at yourself that Jay Chou has fallen to this level. On the surface, that's all, right?
But when you think of Luo Dayou, Cui Jian, Li Zongsheng of the same age, Wang Feng, Dao Lang, Tao Zhe, Wang Leehom, Lin JJ and other singer-songwriters of the same generation, you will become emotional and become
You can definitely be bad, but you can't So perfunctory.
To put it bluntly, even if you stop singing and go out to concerts to show off your feelings, everyone will still be happy. After all, you are the last king and a legend in the Chinese music scene. If we do this now, oh, the moral integrity of artists and kings is about to disappear.
