Nowadays, few people can tell when the music industry began to "degenerate". They only know that a long time ago, there was indeed a chain of contempt in the domestic music circle:
Those who sang bel canto looked down on those who sang ethnically, and those who sang ethnically looked down on those who sang ethnically. People who sing popular songs look down on those who play rock music, and those who play rock music look down on those who play rap. Finally, when it comes to rap, people say, "It's so cool, everyone here is rubbish..."
This situation is no longer the case. It can be seen that perhaps few people will publicly stand up to express their persistence in their beliefs. On the contrary, everyone begins to communicate with each other about whether they can collaborate together, so many people will see a mixture of many elements in some popular songs. The drum set is a symbol of Peking Opera. Accompanied by the accompaniment, "Pavarotti" makes secret glances at "Little Chang'e".
This is not to say that everyone has become mature and open-minded, but that since a cold winter, most people have gradually understood over the years that only by holding together for warmth can we tide over the difficulties together. Those who still adhere to the sectarian view have basically disappeared. In the past, the mutual sizing up between you and me in the Chu, He and Han circles has long turned into a favor of mutual support:
No matter what you and I sing, people now unanimously despise those in the system.
In 2023, the song "Rakshasa Sea" ignited people's memories of the past, and everyone had a new understanding of the great god who was "not from a major." Coupled with the unfair treatment exposed after the death of singer Coco Lee, the fierce public opinion pulled down a figure who seemed to have reached the top of the palace. However, whether it is "Mahu" or "Youniao", in the eyes of industry insiders, It's just a smart person who has to do it in the cold winter. Anyone who has been in the music industry knows one thing -
The music industry also has unspoken rules that are common in the film and television industry. Not only do they exist, they are also very nice. As long as you stay down and work for someone, you can A "sect" is very likely to become a new celebrity in a few years. The exchange ratio of doing so twenty years ago is worth it at least.
is simple, direct, and cost-effective.
That’s why people can see many young and immature children standing on the stage after showing off their singing voices, waiting for the "guests" to choose, with mixed emotions in their hearts, including tension, uneasiness, anger and despair. But as long as you pass this level of your own, under the protection of your "mentor", you will be able to achieve great success in the future.
Nowadays...it's hard to say.
一
In a certain year, people's photographer Edison Chen once got mad at the host when he was a guest on a mainland program:
Do you know what rap is? Do you know rap?
When Mr. Chen was speaking these words, domestic rap programs were in full swing, and hip-hop, which was not familiar to most people, became a fashion that young people rushed to support almost overnight. Among the people who served as judges at that time, some people, such as MC Hot Dog, only had heart-to-heart conversations in foreign bars with old fans who had actually listened to his songs for more than ten years:
"Now I will sing a song that cannot be sung in China. Come on." ! Let’s work together, the Korean wave is coming...cnmgb!”
Under the general environment, the “old artist” who once used the C language to express violent ridicule of the music industry and reality is now convinced by his own status and survival constraints. At least in mainland China, many people have to talk about rhyme and not the content. Even so, you still have to admire the tenacious vitality under some cracks.
For example, Mr. Wu is still using a sewing machine.
There is a saying. Although "Big Bowl of Wide Noodles" started out of embarrassment in a show, the artistry of this piece is still remarkable. Many cover versions also have self-created dramatic singing techniques. With the growth of the self-media and short video platforms have become the main social channels in modern times, and the life that used to have to rely on the "mountain gate" to get ahead seems to be quietly changing.
netizen "Hanging Orange" became popular on the Internet overnight with his song "Da Tang Gang". Later, his personal creations such as "Gao Laozhuang" and "Ma Dongmei" also frequently surprised people. But "Wild" creators like him also had to modify some "inappropriate" lyrics in "Green Environment".
There are many situations like him. Character creations of various schools will try their best to separate themselves from things that seem not so correct. Even MC Hot Dog apologized to Coco Lee after his death and announced that he would no longer sing " "Korean Wave Is Coming" because Coco was indeed mentioned in this song full of national insults that denounced Korean culture and pop music.
But what no one, including Hot Dog himself, may have expected is that the era that once filled him and them with dissatisfaction was already a golden age that is hard to track down. He, his companions, and his descendants will face a "demure" life that cannot be criticized. And more people can barely appreciate the explosive feeling of the hot-blooded young man who once "suck my dxxk" everywhere through the song "Song of the Five Rings" by him and Yue Yunpeng.
In the following many, many, many years, not only rap, but other genres that were once regarded as beliefs also gradually disappeared in the loyal or "sentimental" lives of the singers.
二
At about 9 pm on November 23, 2023, outside a recording studio in a cultural industrial park outside the East Fifth Ring Road in Beijing, some staff were smoking and blowing outside the studio as usual, when suddenly an ethereal female voice accompanied them. The guitar accompaniment "floated" out, and people didn't care at first. As the singing continued, everyone stopped talking, put out their cigarette butts and walked into the recording studio.
Uncle Quan (pseudonym), the "studio manager" of the recording studio, cried on the spot:
"I haven't heard such a pure folk song in years! It was sung by a little girl! It's worth it! It's worth it in this life!"
全The uncle cried and said, like a resentful woman who has been denied sex by her husband for many years. After being dry physically and mentally for a long time, she suddenly faced a spring rain and hysterically welcomed the long-awaited climax.
Uncle Quan, a musician praised as an "intangible cultural heritage" in the industry, can play the saxophone to the pleasure of "two springs reflecting the moon". I also look very strange, thin, too thin. He doesn't speak and closes his eyes. In Egypt, he is called a mummy, and in China, he is called a physical Buddha.
In that mythical era, Uncle Quan earned a house and a car in Beijing with his own skills, and also opened a restaurant and a hot pot restaurant. At the age of his destiny, he originally planned to wash his hands of this golden basin and retire from the world. However, due to an epidemic, he lost almost all his property and was in debt in just three years. At that time, Uncle Quan almost grew old overnight, got divorced, went bankrupt, and then became the actual leader of the recording studio with the help of his old friends.
Later, we teased Uncle Quan, saying that all the businesses he opened were stuck due to bugs caused by the epidemic. Uncle Quan could only laugh about this, but we all know that Uncle Quan is a good man. He used his own family wealth to support all the clerks for more than three years. It was not until the last clerk left with a considerable severance package that he put himself I packed up and went to the lawyer's office to sign the divorce agreement.
Then, reorganize the next period of life in this recording studio.
It was certainly not an ordinary event for this veteran to be so excited. In fact, it was not just him that night. Many people in the recording studio looked at this little girl sideways, because more than half of the people here were born in folk music. In the era they knew, folk songs were the soul of life, and everything they did in the days when they lost their souls was just for basic survival.
So in the days that followed, people resolutely refused the "tea" that the little girl brought to everyone every time she came to the recording studio. Instead, they told her, "Don't eat out at night, come here and eat together." It’s great if everyone can eat together.” If the recording took a long time, some people would buy her milk tea and late-night snacks out of their own pockets. As for the recording demos, they have also been carefully edited and filed separately, and the cost is naturally waived. It seems that everyone is carefully caring for this cherished "fire" and hopes that it will become brighter...
Although we all know that, Whether a self-employed person like her will ever succeed is not something we can decide.
It’s not just her. Many singers who come to the music studio to record songs or beg Uncle Quan to find someone to write songs are signed by music companies. In today’s strange era, they are like a boat on the turbulent sea. Maybe their eyes are a little bit off for a while. When I looked, it was gone.
三
I still remember the excitement when I saw Houxian for the first time. As a young boy more than ten years ago, I saw Houxian from a distance in the backstage of a "gathering" somewhere, and I instantly remembered That summer night, I went with my friends to select watermelons in the melon field outside the industrial park. Then in the quiet night, I suddenly heard singing coming from a house.
Houxian, the Guangxi singer who moved to Beijing alone at that time impressed many Chinese "petty bourgeoisie" with his original "Chinese style". It can be said that I loved his poem "Tang Ye's thoughts are useless" in "Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing" Chic and unrestrained, I also love the vision in "The West Chamber" that "Eighteen years later the talent will be great".
However, after both of them entered middle age, they realized that the most precious thing in the world is the dream of youth. It echoes Master Xing's words, "What's the difference between a person without ideals and a salted fish?"
The last part is one of the disillusionment of dreams.
In the post-creation era when domestic original music was struggling to maintain, Houxian signed with a management company and transformed in the mid-term. Later, he successively produced several more "popular" songs in the team operation, and then disappeared.
I initially blamed the team for being lazy, but later I discovered that this is the trend of the times for singers. Because people have become smarter, or the management has woken up, the so-called "ranking" and "sales" have become useless in the new era, and later they are not even qualified to be "useless". They are a burden.
Many music companies have turned to bundled cooperation with new media platforms, and their marketing methods are also implanted violent circulation. As more and more music companies join in cooperation, some platforms have also begun a "store bully" cooperation model:
I have traffic, you have to be humble.
In fact, even a fool knows that the representatives of the business cooperation department themselves cannot explain how to guide traffic. Their or their negotiation knowledge is not as direct as the simple analysis of amateur users. Because the total traffic of a platform does not represent the specific benefits it can bring to you, just like some people who always boast about the "glory of a great country" do not understand that "the dignity of small people" is more important to individuals -
general It’s not like saying that a certain singer is stationed on a certain platform. If the traffic of this platform is high, it means that the singer is very good, right? This logic is actually very touching when argued carefully. It represents a kind of self-deception, and it also has little significance for the circulation of works. These days, everyone is buying fans and traffic, so no one should laugh at anyone.
Of course, it seems more fashionable compared to "listing" and "sales".
Talented singer-songwriters like Hou Xian were led into a pit by the contradiction between extremely irrational operations and being unable to adapt to the new environment while eager to behave well in the new environment, and have gradually faded away.
But has national style music like his disappeared? Of course not. On the contrary, in recent years, with the awakening of national consciousness in the mainland, national style music has also emerged, either lyrics, music, or a blend of lyrics and music. Among many music colleagues, many of them are Some professionals in the theater industry have joined, for no other reason than
serious opera singers are not easy to get along with nowadays!
四
"Subject Three" is very popular. I guess it may be on this year's Spring Festival Gala.
Few people know that its original song is the Chinese style music "A Smile in the Rivers and Lakes". The rhythm of the original version is actually very soothing, and there is a kind of open-mindedness in the desolation:
"A smile in the rivers and lakes makes the waves roll, and the mortal world is forgotten. There is no need to say that everything has gone." "
This poem is also very suitable for the autobiography of original mainland musicians. In the past two decades (2001 to the present), people have witnessed the end of the mythical era. Some people say that it was an era when gods fought. Later, Guo Degang also said vaguely, "A group of people gather together to quarrel. If several of them are dead and you are still alive, you are an old artist."
But some people think that A person's talent can finally be displayed through new media. Arranging music, writing lyrics, and singing can actually attract attention and popularity.
However, I feel that in the past twenty years, there have been almost no songs that have been circulated for more than five years. In other words, the songs that are still popular today are almost all old songs.Then I thought of the question "So, what are the regrets of history?"
Until now, I have never forgotten that at the end of 2008, the recession caused by the financial crisis swept through before the hustle and bustle of the "prosperous age" had settled. At that time, there were really not many people in the small restaurants on the street who came out to eat. Most of them People choose to cook and eat by themselves, and try to save money on food and clothing to prepare for the winter.
For many music companies that were regarded as great leaders in the industry at that time, they also stopped paying wages, increased revenue and reduced expenditure, or abandoned burdens. Many editors of music channels I knew back then also changed careers...
Two years later, in film and television Drama Channel We meet again.
Sometimes fate is really strange. The recording studio that Uncle Quan is currently in charge of is a "burden" cut out by a once-prominent music company. After several twists and turns, it fell into the hands of his old friends and became some individual musicians in the industry. A workshop that hangs around with some music companies, this once-disliked recording studio has also become Uncle Quan's source of confidence. You can often see different types of music works of different styles here, as well as all kinds of singers and "fans" who come to record.
What they don’t know is that we usually go outside to smoke and blow our dicks while they record songs, and then make comments about them. Most of them look clumsy and ridiculous in our seemingly always condescending eyes. Then according to the process, we will each talk about the wonderful scene of "thinking back to those days when the streets were empty".
Yes, there was no lip-synching. Who would dare at that time? It’s not like going to the Spring Festival Gala.
At that time, there was no interest in playing with emotions, and academicism and Yehu Zen were equally distinct. You can often see someone on Weibo getting into a fight with someone again, for the sake of art or the tribe.
Unlike now, everyone seems to be in harmony. Even if someone disses, it is mostly gossip, art? music? Who has enough time to offend others? The main thing is to bring peace and wealth.
It’s not just the music industry. It seems that no one wants to cause trouble anymore. They just follow what others shout. Or just shut up. Because even if you discuss it academically, it’s easy to be criticized. It seems that people nowadays are very emotional and can easily be led into a kind of collective madness. Right or wrong, just vent.
The scene of naming and scolding people not for personal grudges but for art is no longer seen anymore.
Therefore, in the end, all we can do is "it's all the same, what's the point".
Postscript -
One day, three young people, two men and one woman, came to the recording studio. They recorded a rap song, and when they had fun in their spare time, they also sang a Korean hip-hop song.
A girl with dyed yellow hair came over and chatted with me for a few words. As we chatted, we talked about "Ip Man". She said that she also felt that Ip Man was defeating the Japanese when he was walking on the street and was honked by a military vehicle behind him. The hurried look touched her a lot. She felt that that scene really showed the helplessness of little people in the big era...
These children came to record songs at their own expense. According to the unwritten rules set by Uncle Quan, the fee was basically only Cost price charged. Nowadays, I no longer despise certain styles as easily as I did then. I actually feel that as long as someone is still singing, it will be fine. I just hope that they will not stand on stage and become other people's atmosphere group in the future, nor will they start to treat people who like them after becoming famous.
They reminded me of one day in the new millennium, when I accidentally got a CD of MC hot dogs given away for free by the store. The lyrics in it made me blush when I was young. Years later, I seriously recalled that feeling, and then I realized that there was a This emotion is called "vitality".
Many years have passed, and I envy the girls who are still dyeing their hair yellow today. They can seriously express their thoughts on cultural works, no matter how clumsy the wording is, without encountering ridicule or ridicule. It also stems from a kind of "vitality".
These children may not know the "bloody storm" caused by sectarian disputes in the original music world, nor do they know why "Mahu" and "Youniao" have become people's scorn. What they could see instead was that the music styles that were once as powerful as water and fire began to gradually merge, half being sea water and half being flames.Or to put it bluntly:
is partly about mutual understanding and partly due to the pressure of life.
This is not the best of times, nor is it the worst of times. In this era, there will be people who can play and sing folk songs, and there will also be people who know not only double-edged but also hip-hop.
The life-and-death struggle between Qi Zong and Jian Zong in "Swordsman" is a thing of the past. For people who have come from an era, they have already put down their bodies and danced "Subject Three" in front of the times:
Jianghu Yixiaolang Torrentially, the mortal world is completely forgotten. What's the point of saying that everything has gone?
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