Text | In Wu Qingqian's variety show "The Endless Sound: Family Years", when Zhou Shen listened to Sun Nan's "Legendary Three Days", he was a little stunned. He is a singer with a good reputation at the moment, so why was he so surprised? The reason may be that the music scene mo

text｜Wu Qingqian

In the variety show "Endless Sound·Family Years", when Zhou Shen listened to Sun Nan's "Legendary Three Days", he was a little stunned. He is a singer with a very good reputation at the moment, so he was surprised. so? The reason may be that the music scene more than 20 years ago is very different from the current music scene. There were many singers in the music scene at that time, but now we are in a mixed situation, and there are many "bastard" singers. In the end, the reason behind it is not the market environment. I can only be surprised at the effect.

At the end of the last century, in 1999, the domestic entertainment music scene was very lively, and a number of masterpieces with strong singing skills were produced, such as Li Qiong's "Eighteen Bends on the Mountain Road", Liu Huan's "Heaven and Earth Are in My Heart", Tu Honggang's "Serve the Country with Loyalty"... He also "killed" the classic "Sun Nan's three consecutive games".

The so-called "Sun Nan's three series", the first series is "The Wind Blows to the North", the second series is "See You or Not Separate", and the third series is "Come Back Soon", each one is a popular classic. Among them, "Come Back Soon" was the ending song of the popular Haiyan drama "Never Rest in Peace" at that time. It is very familiar to those who have watched "Never Rest in Peace". Even today, more than 20 years later, in It is also often covered in various variety shows or on stages. For example, on the first stage of last year's "Beyond the Troubles Season 3", Lu Yi, who played Xiao Tong in "Never Rest", sang this song. In the first episode of "Endless Sound: Family Years", Sun Nan also sang this song. .

Behind this "three consecutive days" is Sun Nan's "Legendary Three Days", that is, recording twelve songs in three days. The speed of the music industry was driven by the market environment. At that time, most singers had limited studio time, and the room was more expensive than the person. If the singer took too long to record a song, he would not need you next time because you It's a waste of money, the cost is too high.

This made Zhou Shen believe the legend he had heard before - if he really couldn't sing well at that time, he wouldn't have any chance, because the cost would be increased like crazy. Behind this surprise is actually related to his experience in the dramatic changes in the music industry. I think back to when he was a seven-year-old child during "Sun Nan's Three Successes". When he became a professional singer or a big shot, he was already in his teens and twenties. After the New Year, the entire recording and singing environment was completely different.

At the turn of the century, no one had recorded demos yet. Once the singer came, the producer would give you a sheet music. Come on, this is a new song. Okay, let’s practice quickly. The same goes for new songs. I’ll give you the sheet music right away and you’ll have to learn it and record it. Or maybe it was the phone call at that time - the pager suddenly told you that there was a song for you to come over and record. You could learn to record it on the spot.

However, learning to record now requires very high professional skills from singers. If you don’t have two brushes, how can you learn and record in just one or two hours? And often you can only record it once. If you record it several times, I'm sorry, the cost will be high and I can't afford to use you. There will be no next time. As a result, great singers with excellent professional qualities and who can stand the test of time have been born. For example, Mao Amin records songs very quickly. Sun Nan said that he has seen Mao Amin record songs. After he comes in, he sings, click, read the lyrics again, okay, go in with the music score, sing the lyrics while looking at the music score, and sing directly.

With the development of technology today, even so-called singers who are not in tune can become "professional singers" or even great singers through millions of tuners. But this is actually not the fault of technology, but of the market environment. The market is too tolerant of "professional singers". When a "professional singer" sings at a party or an event, there is no need to worry about cheating, because the internal entertainment will do everything for the so-called "perfection", or to prevent the singer from making a fool of himself, offending the singer's fans, or hurting his own pocket. Select default lip sync. So as long as the financial backers behind the singers are willing to spend money, there will be no singers who cannot be popular, and "bastard" singers were born.

"Bastard" singers usually seem to sing very well, and can stand shoulder to shoulder with the "Four Heavenly Kings" Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok, and Lai Ming. Some fans even boast that their idols are even better than the "Four Heavenly Kings". But suddenly when I actually sang at an event or party that featured all-mics, my true colors were revealed.If a powerful singer insists on opening up the mic and shows the professional skills and professionalism that a singer should have, he will become the object of attention and appreciation, just because it is rare.

It is precisely because for a long time in the past, lip-syncing and commercial packaging have been so serious that they can no longer be fake, so that nowadays audiences are quite disgusted with lip-synching and hope to hear the real thing at events or parties. Sing. When the industry environment begins to purify, it also forces singers to improve their professional skills, because "bastard" singers can no longer survive.

Zhou Shen is able to get better and better in such an environment, not only due to his excellent singing skills, but also due to the good support from his peers. The superposition of these two-layered advantages also led to Zhou Shen, who was praised highly by industry insiders Sun Nan and Jin Zhaojun, who affirmed both his strength and his attitude.

Zhou Shen has very high standards for himself. When he and Sun Nan sang "Mo Shen" for the first time, the two of them sang together once and felt that it was just the end of the song and it was not fun. In order to allow the younger generation to develop, Sun Nan let Zhou Shen take the lead in the adaptation, and he only provided opinions. Sun Nan affirmed Zhou Shen's strictness in music and praised him for his unique insights into every aspect of music processing. Yes, in rehearsal after rehearsal, Zhou Shen practiced repeatedly and polished it, and then he came up with the very interesting Sun Nan and Zhou Shen version of "It's better to miss each other than to meet each other".

And this pursuit to the extreme is actually as Sun Nan said. In the limited time at home, Zhou Shen must have polished it carefully, otherwise it would be impossible to have so many ideas on site. And this kind of seriousness goes beyond talent, because he loves music so much and wants to make every detail perfect.

In fact, during the fifth rehearsal, the program team already felt that it was very good, but Zhou Shen still felt that it could be better, and kept polishing it, and the rehearsal was perfect n times. For this strict quality control, Jin Zhaojun, executive vice chairman and secretary-general of the Popular Music Society of the Chinese Musicians Association and artistic consultant of "Endless Sound·Family Years", said that singers like this are called "self-monitoring", that is, self-supervised singers. There is no need for the composer or sound engineer to make too many demands. After singing it once, he will know which verses he didn’t sing well, and he will ask for it to be repeated. Liu Huan and others are like this, that is, the composer, sound engineer, and director are all satisfied and say you can't do it any better. He says I'm sorry and will definitely let me do it again. Sure enough, it will be better that time. Such good judgment also requires a high level of quality for a singer, which means that in addition to his singing quality and research, he must also have an understanding of the work.

"We have an old saying in China that it is a difficult aesthetic requirement, which is called appreciating both refined and popular tastes." In Jin Zhaojun's eyes, singers such as Liu Huan, Han Lei, Sun Nan, Mao Amin, and Han Hong can meet this requirement, and he also said that the more outstanding singers nowadays It's Zhou Shen. But it's even more difficult for Zhou Shen, because his voice has such a strong personality.

also admires Sun Nan's unique voice. He said that Zhou Shen has such a good voice and it is very rare to have such a good sense of music. "Because I'm not qualified to say I'm pleased, I can only say that I appreciate it very much. Zhou Shen is the best singer no matter what era he was in."

Zhou Shen was flattered to receive such high praise from two professionals, but he His efforts and talents are worthy of such an evaluation. Because he had practiced hard, Zhou Shen was very touched when Sun Nan talked about how singers of his era recorded songs, because he knew how much hardship it took to achieve the "Legendary Three Days" - although Brother Nan said it very simply , but in fact it requires a lot of ability to do that. Because when you get a new song, you have to put your own processing, your own understanding, and everything you own into the work immediately. Yes, the author will help you, but most of it is actually your own second creation.

Regarding secondary creation, Sun Nan is also doing it. He also said that authors use language, but singers use voice. After getting a song, they have to do secondary creation. As for this second creation, everyone’s feelings are different, and different singers will sing the same work differently.

The experiences of both Sun Nan and Zhou Shen are in line with the ancient poem, "How can plum blossoms smell fragrant without being chilled to the bone?" I don't know the ups and downs of fame for "bastard" singers who rely on commercial packaging to become famous compared to powerful singers. Will the road be ashamed?

This article was originally written by Qing Qianzhishuo and may not be reproduced without the authorization of the author! Welcome everyone to pay attention and explore the meaningful entertainment life together!