Text | Linghu Boguang 2023 has passed, if you look at it purely from the perspective of Chinese music. One thing you may not have noticed is that last year, in addition to the disappointment of Jay Chou's "Christmas Star" and the suspected lip-syncing scandal in Mayday, there wer

文|Linghu Boguang

2023 has passed, if you look purely from the perspective of Chinese music. One thing you may not have noticed is that last year, in addition to the disappointment of Jay Chou's "Christmas Star" and the suspected lip-syncing scandal in Mayday, there were also phenomena such as Tao Zhe and Wang Leehom's rejuvenation.

But the popularity brought by their songs is still not as good as Daolang's new album "Folk Songs". This is just like the Hong Kong and Taiwan musicians who have released albums. Their songs are no longer mainstream. The Hong Kong music scene has long withdrawn from the mainstream of the Chinese music scene, and now it is the turn of the Taiwanese music scene.

Some people may say that the mainland music scene is just like that, but in fact it is mainly because of the mainstream platforms that the mainland pop music scene is indeed not good. However, the mainland music scene, represented by film and television dramas and independent music, is rising rapidly. Many people may not listen to independent music, but the soundtracks and songs represented by many film and television dramas, games, and animations do shine through.

It is almost foreseeable that 2024 will be better, not worse. The era when the Taiwanese music scene represented Chinese music has really passed.

Why is the Chinese music scene declining? It's said that it's bad.

Don't worry about the mainstream pop music scene. It's not only bad in China, it's not good in the whole world. If you want to discuss it in detail, it is quite complicated. Let’s just talk about it from the industry level. One is a music dissemination platform. The Internet has greatly reduced the cost and threshold of music creation and music dissemination. The arrival of the multimedia era has made music slowly become an accessory to videos. In addition, the purpose of many music creators has gradually become profit-making, resulting in pop music huge changes.

This has led to the world entering the era of multimedia modernization, the fragmentation of public leisure time, and the rise of short videos. Combined with the previous elements, pop music has become brainwashing and non-nutritious music. With the market becoming like this, it is difficult for creators to continue to create at a loss. , the more brainwashing fun you have, creating a vicious circle.

Finally, the original main communication carrier of music, the record era, collapsed, and other important communication carriers such as film and television dramas, variety shows, stages, etc. A few years ago, it was completely dominated by singing and dancing idols. At that time, popular celebrities invaded the field of film and television dramas, not to mention the field of music.

In the past few years, the soundtracks and OSTs of film and television dramas were all the same because there was no money to hire good producers. It was common for OSTs to have fixed combinations and popular stars and leading actors to sing. This means that directors are not even good at film and television songs.

What is better now is independent music. My view has always been that mainland independent music will be better after 2010. It has already surpassed the Hong Kong music scene, and there is still a gap compared with the accumulated Taiwan music scene. But as Taiwan’s music scene has been declining, it has already surpassed the Taiwan music scene since 2020.

Will Chinese music rise in 2023? Don't believe it, it's true.

I believe that whenever it is said that independent music is okay, and is even more prosperous than Hong Kong and Taiwan music before, some people will say this at this time: Independent music has no popularity, no authoritative awards, and no industry. People are willing to mention that niche independent music that no music lovers are willing to comment on is really not as good as you say, and it is not a rare thing.

That kind of niche music is really not good to listen to, and it is not rare. It is outrageous to show off the niche. Only Jay Chou's first seven albums are still the rarest albums. Anyway, if you ask the king of Zhou, Tao Lin is a god, and the four heavenly kings are gods. In the past, Chinese music was the most powerful. Nowadays, the music is weird, colorful and hard to listen to.

How to put it? As age and environment change, it is normal for human beings to have stagnant aesthetics and not accept new things.

For example, the generation of 5060’s parents still listened to opera, red songs, Teresa Teng, the Four Heavenly Kings and so on. It is actually very normal for those born in the 8090s to only listen to Zhou Wang Tao Lin and have access to Douyin at any time. Don't really blame the market for stagnation. The so-called stagnation refers to people who are willing to accept new things.

In 2023, to be precise, there is a very distinct phenomenon in the mainland music scene in the past few years. The biggest problem in the Chinese music scene is that there is no singing platform (there are no professional awards yet). The mainstream channels are idols and Douyin songs. However, the richness of independent music styles has long surpassed the Taiwanese music scene of Zhou Wang Taolin.Because after the above-mentioned measures to rectify the "traffic economy", the quality of domestic film and television dramas, animations and games has improved to the naked eye in recent years.

This has led to domestic film and television dramas, animations and games becoming one of the main channels for music and songs.

I don’t know if you have noticed that film and television soundtracks in mainland China have started to be scored. The time is 2019 as the dividing line. A Kun of "The Wandering Earth", Ding Ke, the composer of "The Hidden Corner", the soundtrack of "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" Very good too. Then there are "Love Myth", Yang Bingyin of the animation "Spirit Cage", Chen Zhiyi of "Genshin Impact" and so on.

2023's "The Long Season", "The Wandering Earth 2", "Space Exploration Editorial Department", and even the soundtrack of the TV series "Three Body", the commercial film and television drama "Where the Wind Is" are not bad. The actor Hong in "The Mistake by the River" is called Mo Xizishi, a poet and a Yi musician, and he sang the ending theme of "In the Octagonal Cage".

I have checked behind the scenes of these works. Not to mention that the directing team is mainly born in the 1980s. All the composers mentioned above are basically born in the 1980s and are all mainlanders. There are a lot of such musicians in the Mainland, but they are only a small part of the mainstream domestic music promotion platform through movies and TV dramas.

is not niche, nor is it unpleasant to listen to. The era of Jay Chou has really passed.

How can I put it? There is no clear answer for this kind of literary and aesthetic issue. No matter what you say, no one will listen. They think Jay Chou is the most embarrassing. . But if we look at it from the perspective of the development of the Chinese music industry and China’s popular culture industry. Probably due to the growing diversified pop culture needs of the Chinese people, mainland independent music has begun to fill the gap and has long since replaced the Hong Kong and Taiwan music scene. It exists objectively.

Because the current mainstream platform channels are not available, animation, games and film and television dramas have become an important part of mainstream literature and art. Therefore, when animation, games and film and television dramas began to rise, it also became the rise of mainland pop music. It is a mutually reinforcing relationship, and Hong Kong and Taiwan have long been unable to meet this cultural demand.

Such as science fiction, suspense, crime, literature and art, period and other themes.

Then go to the science fiction + wasteland + biological + religious anime like "Spirit Cage", and games like "Genshin Impact" and "Black Myth Wukong".

You may not like their songs, you may think their soundtrack is not good, or you may hold that Tao Lin, the former King of Zhou, was the most annoying. But you just can't deny that these works are the current mainstream of Chinese pop culture. Along with the soundtracks of these works, the songs have become mainstream.

Hong Kong and Taiwan music has completely fallen behind because it no longer adapts to Chinese pop culture in the new era. For example, in addition to the soundtrack of the TV series "Three-Body", the ending song has a song "three-body" reshaped by a mainland independent band. It is professional and of good quality. The style and content of the song are very suitable for the temperament of the TV series "Three-Body". The music style reshaped by

was post-punk in the early days, and now it is more electronic music.

You may think that reinvention is not possible, the music is niche, not good, not good, and cannot compare to Jay Chou. There is no problem, but you ask Hong Kong and Taiwan musicians to write the songs for "The Three-Body Problem". Can they write it? Can't write it.

If I leave it to Jay Chou: Ye Wenjie, come here and lean on my chest muscles.

I said I was mocking Jay Chou. The problem is that if you give Jay Chou at his peak, he would not be able to write the song "Three-Body" because Hong Kong and Taiwan have no science fiction genes at all. None of his most praised "Dark Tetralogy" is science fiction, and it is not suitable for "The Long Season". The answer is that simple.

is too niche, I don’t like it, Jay Chou yyds? But Chinese music has "turned a page"

In the past few years, the rise of animation, games, film and television dramas with music in the mainland will only become more and more popular. For example, the sound effects of "Black Myth Wukong" have not yet caught up, but the soundtracks in several trailers are quite good, and Hong Kong and Taiwan are destined to be unable to keep up.

The composer of "Black Myth Wukong" is named Zhai Jinyan. You may not believe that he was born in 1992.

Even if you want to say that he is a world-class composer, the logic behind it is: first, you must have someone (someone), second, you must be young (have time), and third, you must have a job (have opportunities).

If "Black Myth Wukong" succeeds in making a name for itself and gets training opportunities and more resources, what will happen next for this young composer?

An important reason why the Chinese music scene lags behind is that Hong Kong and Taiwan’s style breakthroughs are just like that, and pop guava love songs are very profound. Nowadays, pop music as a whole is de-melodic, and arrangement is becoming more and more important. Jay Chou's approach is already behind the times. The Chinese music scene has been developing for so many years, and it has long passed the early era of balad. It would be very funny to apply the aesthetics of more than ten years ago to today's songs.

This year's Hong Kong and Taiwan musician, Jay Chou is the "Christmas Star", Mayday lip-syncing. Even if we don’t talk about this, do Hong Kong and Taiwan have the above-mentioned film and television works? Are there such a large number of musicians, composers, and independent musicians behind it? The soundtrack for "When the Wind Rises Again" by Hong Kong director Yung Tse-kwong is composed by Ding Ke from the Mainland.

Finally, I still say that aesthetics is free, and persistence is no problem. However, from the perspective of the development of China's cultural industry, when the mainstream channels and platforms for singing songs in the mainland are not available. When high-quality animation, games and film and television dramas began to improve and explode in the past few years, the rise of mainland music accompanying it is an objective fact.

For example, some people say that the soundtracks of current Chinese film and television dramas are not good. If you insist on saying that Xin Shuang's "The Hidden Corner" and "The Long Season" are Ding Ke's soundtracks, it is not okay to choose band songs at the end of the film. They are not good-sounding and not as good as previous film and television dramas. Such as "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", "Spiritual Cage", "Love Myth", "The Wandering Earth 2", "Space Exploration Editorial Department" and so on.

I suggest you don’t watch it, don’t listen to it, and always listen to your favorite old songs.

If you really don’t accept it, then don’t blame the market for stagnation. The so-called stagnation refers to people who are willing to accept new things. For some people, there is no stagnation.