Host of the 138th issue | Compiled by Yin Qinglu | Intern reporter Li Yutong In this issue, we will talk about a hotly discussed topic recently: the music variety show "Singer 2024". As many music critics said, it was the "all-on-mic, no-tuning" live broadcast format that gave th

38 issue | Compiled by Yin Qinglu

| Intern reporter Li Yutong

In this issue, we will talk about a recently hotly discussed topic: the music variety show "Singer 2024". As many music critics said, it was the "all-on-mic, no-tuning" live broadcast format that gave this program a new lease of life. Live broadcast means surprise, and "Singer" has been a topic of constant discussion since its launch. After the first issue of rankings was released, the hot meme "Na Ying's 50-year-old boy fighting the Eight-Nation Allied Forces" came out of the circle, to the prophecy that Adam Lambert airborne on the show came true, the show seemed to break the "fourth wall" both inside and outside the venue. , the audience nervously sweated for the contestants while watching the live broadcast, and checked various music reviews in real time. The reaction videos of bloggers also became one of the audience's fun.

"Singer" is first of all a competitive music variety show. This is why the two foreign singers Chanté Moore and Faouzia invited are both singers with excellent singing skills. In the eyes of netizens, only Na Ying, who is also a singer, can Fight with it. This kind of competition is very consistent with the traditional Chinese definition of "singing well", and even rose to the level of "bringing glory to the country" in the online public opinion field. However, in the program arrangement, we can see a lot of dislocations after the changes of the times, such as inviting second-hand roses with completely different tracks and audiences, and Hailai Amu, a singer with a "car-mounted cigarette voice" style that middle-aged men like, which is surprising. I wonder about the standards of the program and what exactly the music competition is competing for today when music aesthetics can no longer be unified.

"Singer 2024" live. Image source: Douban

The program wants to cater to audiences in all circles, and also intentionally introduces foreign big-name singers to compete, which also gives the program a magical effect, and even a scene of "Grammy vs. Strawberry Music Festival" appeared. European and American pop singer Adam Lambert and Internet singer Hailai Amu, who belongs to the "sinking market", are on the same stage. Next, another chart-topping singer Charlie Puth and Sun Nan may also compete on the same stage. As the music critic Ren Erdi said , compared to Hailai Amu's performance itself, "Because of the emergence and subversive influence of short videos, Hailai Amu sang "Wandering Brothers" with Sting and Adam. ·The songs of Lambert and Whitney Houston appear on the same stage. This is a more worthy issue for communication and sociology in this era. "

01 Tight singers and neglected emotional connections

Dong Ziqi. : I feel like "Singer" is like a high-end art feast superimposed on a survival reality show. The early announcements have also been emphasizing points such as "the singers who dare to participate are very powerful", "even Na Ying finds it very challenging" and "who dares to fight", it is like watching a survival game. My favorite performance was Second Hand Rose because the songs they chose were so interesting. The lyrics of "Monkey Playing" are "Three hundred and sixty lines, each line has its own specialty, there are athletes in the Olympics, and there is a monkey king in playing monkeys." I felt a bit ironic from it, as if a great artist could be compared to the monkey king.

Na Ying is still singing "Mo", an old song from ten years ago. It feels like the widespread popularity of popular songs has weakened, and it’s hard to know which singers have released which new songs. But popular rhythms and lyrics are actually more suitable for communication in multiple scenes. I think the most popular song is "Good Morning Long Hui" from about two years ago. This song is often played in supermarkets in small cities. During the World Cup two years ago, this song was edited together with a clip of Messi winning the championship, and it had a high amount of Internet circulation. There are also some very appealing lyrics in the song, such as "You are the most beautiful star in the night sky, lighting me up all the way forward." Although the lyrics and rhythm were once controversial for plagiarism, this familiar rhythm is indeed very effective. Capturing the listener's ears and making people feel the passionate feeling of being united.

"Singer 2024" live. Image source: Douban

One thing I don’t quite understand is that when the previous singers came out, they would say that they were particularly afraid of making mistakes and not being able to sing high notes, because it was easy for the audience to see their poor singing skills during live performances. But the focus of live should be the emotional connection and the response to the scene, rather than the technical issue of making mistakes.Everyone who has listened to the chorus version of "my back pages" will be very moved, which cannot be replaced by the recorded version. I remember that Wang Feng also sang a car accident version of "Gift" with Lao Lang and some other old guys on "Singer", but it was particularly touching. What live focuses on is the feeling of speaking out loud and cooperating with each other, which cannot be replaced by perfect recording. I think singers seem to have a tendency to pursue perfection, especially high notes, dolphin sounds, and grand scenes.

Lin Ziren: I am a loyal viewer of the show "Singer" and have watched it basically every season. My impression of this show is that since its contestants are all mature and big-name singers, it should be different from other music variety shows and should present the singers’ real singing stages. As a result, this time it Suddenly emphasizing that this season is the real live, I feel a bit cheated.

When the starting singer lineup came out, I was actually quite disappointed. Except for the two foreign singers, all other domestic singers have appeared on many music variety shows. Although the focus of this promotion is "As expected, Na Ying appears on "Singer" for the first time", but she has also participated in two seasons of "Sisters Who Rid the Wind and Waves", and we are already very familiar with her performance on the music stage. Second-hand The Roses have been on "Summer of the Band" before, so their weird song selections and off-the-beaten-path performances are not unexpected.

Picture source: Second-hand Rose official Weibo

So what attracted me this time was the foreign singers. I really want to know what kind of sparks these fresh blood can create after they come in, and what kind of performances they can perform on the Chinese stage. program. I think the reality show part of "Singer" this season is very boring. The Chinese singers in the show give people a very tight feeling. Although competition has always been the main theme of this show, in my impression, the singers in previous years were more relaxed, and the atmosphere presented was more like singers competing with each other on their skills and communicating with each other.

I think there are two reasons for the tightness this season. First, the program is a live broadcast and does not allow for pitch correction. Any mistakes made by the singer will be directly exposed to the audience, which puts a lot of psychological pressure on singers who are used to pitch fixing or even lip-syncing. We can see that even Naying repeatedly said that she was very nervous and was afraid that she would not be able to sing high notes. On the other hand, the program invited very capable foreign singers. Although Chanté Moore and Faouzia are not internationally popular first-line singers, they are still very capable. Their performance has brought a layer of nationalistic psychological pressure to Chinese singers to some extent: "I cannot embarrass Chinese singers."

's editing rhythm this season is slightly more chaotic than in previous years. For example, it will take a lot of pictures of the host running from the stage to the backstage, which makes me feel that the rhythm of the program is very slow and the waiting time for the singer to sing is very long. If it is a recorded broadcast, there is no need to edit this part of the content.

Yin Qinglu: When I watched it, I felt that the program was a bit contradictory. On the one hand, it wanted to retain the singing competition, but on the other hand, it wanted to broaden the audience boundaries and add new program elements. This may be due to the changing times. For example, because "Summer of the Band" is quite popular, we had to invite band representatives to come over, but it added a strangely fragmented look.

Another very obvious one is Huang Xuan. I noticed that he would repeatedly jump between safe and unsafe zones. When singing the first song, he chose "Upstairs C" with a strong personal style, but many viewers did not buy this song, so in the second issue Huang Xuan chose a song with a melody that is more accessible to the public. lyrical songs. I also found that Chanté Moore chose black R&B hits in the previous issues that were more in line with the impression of domestic audiences. Maybe she was afraid that people would get tired of listening to them too much, so she later chose "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus. In terms of singing style There are also surprises. It seems that on the one hand, the concept of competition through singing is still deeply ingrained, on the other hand, the audience is not particularly convinced of this method of competition.

"Singer 2024" live.Image source: Douban

Xu Luqing: What I think is great about Chanté Moore is that she controls the relationship with the live band very well, a bit like a band leader. She treats vocals as an instrument in the band, cooperating and coordinating with other live instruments and vocal accompaniments, making the music a whole, and showing musicality in highly competitive programs. Most of the contestants and audiences in the

program pay more attention to pitch and timbre, whether they can sing high notes, and whether they can have a big burst or dolphin sound. But I feel like true musicality has many ways of expression. Only when the singer recognizes his own timbre and characteristics, recognizes who he is, and handles the relationship between vocal, band, accompaniment, arranger and live fans, can he express a song well in his own way.

Dong Ziqi: Jazz performances originally emphasize interaction and improvisation. Improvisation is not just about showing off skills, but about doing something based on the current atmosphere and continuing the music. I once heard a musician sarcastically say that the standard equipment for many singers to sing is a huge and magnificent background. There is a band of hundreds of people, including violinists and trumpeters, but all they play is program. These singers want everything to follow a program, not to improvise, not to connect with the live audience, just to be perfect and well-behaved. This is really like taking an exam, and you will lose a lot of good things. This is a denial of human emotion.

Xu Luqing: I like Huang Xuan very much. His stage language is very rich, and it is all improvised, not strained. Enjoying the stage happily and creating a live experience with the audience is a particularly rare place.

Lin Ziren: Chanté Moore actually sounded like a dolphin when she first appeared, but I think she sounded very natural and her emotions were just right. The first song she sang was "If I Ain't Got You", which is an old song that everyone is very familiar with, but I got goosebumps the whole time I listened to it. Her emotional transmission is very delicate and her skills are also very skillful. She can really show the demeanor of a singer with many years of deep experience in the pop music world. Her first appearance completely conquered me, and it is by far my favorite stage. Combined with the career story she told in vcr, it is even more touching - although she was nominated for a Grammy, that was already in the 1990s. She is very much like the kind of female singer who becomes famous at a young age but is quickly overshadowed by other people. Compared with the superstars of her generation, her light is dim.

chanté moore also said that over the years, she has slowly accepted the reality, but she still likes to sing and feels that it is very meaningful that her performance can affect the audience. There seems to be an intertextual relationship between her own life story and the song "if i ain't got you" that debuted on the stage for the first time. So when it comes to whether we only watch music in a music competition program, that doesn’t seem to be entirely the case.

"Singer 2024" live vcr video. Image source: Douban

02 Diverse evaluation dimensions and differences in cultural systems make it difficult to compare music

Yin Qinglu: Although Chanté Moore has performed well enough in "Singer", being relaxed and infectious, in the pop music world, you must have Only a unique trait or outstanding charm can be truly liked by the audience and then become a superstar. This is difficult to produce through an assembly line. Although the judging criteria of the show are mainly singing skills and intonation, what everyone really feels is an interactive atmosphere. Chanté Moore's win in the first episode is closely related to the atmosphere she brought to the audience. So, can music be played or competed with at all? What exactly are we talking about when we talk about music competition shows?

Lin Ziren: In the field of music competition, is it true that only high-pitched performances can win? But in previous seasons of "Singer", Li Jian was a big exception. In my impression, although Li Jian has always had a presence in the music scene, for a long time, he was not a first-line singer recognized by the public, at least not a household name.But after participating in the "Singer" program, his career reached a great level.

's "Singer" program in previous seasons paid great attention to presenting the singer's personal story and filmed sufficient background stories, such as the singer's thoughts when choosing the song and what preparations he made for the song. These can completely show what kind of person the singer is apart from the stage. In that season of the show, Li Jian showed himself to be a very charismatic singer. When the audience appreciates his folk-like and lyrical songs on stage with this impression, they will feel that the performance is very consistent with his personal experience, personality and thoughts.

Overall, I find the music difficult to compare. As an audience, I think a good performance should be able to interpret a familiar song with a fresh feeling, but this does not necessarily require dazzling skills.

Picture source: I am a singer official Weibo

Yin Qinglu: Wang Sulong in this season is a singer-songwriter, but maybe because of the live broadcast format and the tense atmosphere, he seems to have completely failed to show the touching part of his music. When comparing with Chanté Moore, everyone will think that his singing skills are far inferior to Chanté Moore. But this is actually a question of aesthetic system or cultural system, which may be a bit like the white female aesthetic and East Asian aesthetic we mentioned before. The aesthetics of white women may be biased towards chanté moore, which is black music that is very flamboyant, relaxed and has a strong sense of rhythm. Our system may be QQ music and the subtle mood of "non-mainstream", which is what Wang Sulong is good at. In a live broadcast competition system that emphasizes singing skills, his characteristics were smoothed out and not highlighted. What is gratifying is that in the latest issue, Wang Sulong still sang a love song and returned to a familiar track.

Xu Luqing: There was an issue of where Faouzia sang "Desert Rose". Taotao Feng commented on station B that the original singer of that song was Sting. When he sang this song, he used a lot of Middle Eastern percussion, such as camel bells and Dabka. But in "Singer", Faouzia rearranged the song and removed all these elements, which is equivalent to making the accompaniment instruments thinner. From an arrangement point of view, I think the original song is more interesting and has richer layers. But faouzia's adaptation will highlight the vocal sound and is more suitable for competitive competitions.

This may be due to a different understanding of music. Adam Lambert had a similar arrangement when he sang "Whataya Want from Me": the climax of the original song was not that strong, but he adjusted it a lot, increasing the sound and explosiveness of the climax. But is this approach good or bad for the song as a whole?

Yin Qinglu: Most viewers think Faouzia sang "Desert Rose" very well, but some music critics will say that she has sung this song many times, and will also criticize her for showing off her skills. In this episode, she sang "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga. This song has its own weird mood and fun, but Faouzia used a Grammy singing method, which was a bit inconsistent.

Everyone’s nickname for faouzia is Yaya. In fact, the other Yaya is more popular nowadays, that is Olivia Rodrigo. She is more popular not because of how good her singing skills are, but because everyone thinks she is good at "going crazy" ", the emotions in her songs resonate strongly with the young people of Generation Z. It can also be seen that music competition does not necessarily have to be higher than high notes or something else. This may be a question of resonance or emotional value.

olivia rodrigo's album "guts" cover. Image source: Douban

Lin Ziren: In competitive programs, we put too much emphasis on the functional aspects of a singer, and relatively neglect other aspects that make a singer successful. If the singer already has a high national reputation when participating in the show, it doesn't matter. But if you are a singer that everyone is not so familiar with, how do you show your personal charm on this stage and let everyone fully understand who you are? This actually requires the program team to put more thought into it, whether it is using vcr or letting people know who you are. Singers have some special designs on stage. I feel that Faouzia is a young singer who has just debuted, and she is even more of a nobody to the Chinese audience.I think if she wants to go far, she needs to think about this issue carefully.

Yin Qinglu: Faouzia is actually a very interesting person outside the court, but there is actually no opportunity for her to show this part inside the court.

Lin Ziren: This season of shows very little about who the two foreign singers are and their true thoughts about participating in this competition show in China. Maybe because they speak English, they don’t interact that much with other singers.

Xu Luqing: If we talk about divas, there is only one diva in China, and that is Faye Wong. Na Ying may be a star, but she will not be a superstar. Faye Wong is more like a superstar. We rarely discuss whether Faye Wong sings out of tune. Even if she sings out of tune before, we will not pay attention to it.

Lin Ziren: Faye Wong now neither participates in parties or variety shows, nor has she held a concert for a long time, so you don't actually know her current singing level. Most of your impressions of her are based on CDs and legends. What is widely circulated now is her attitude towards life, and her image seems to consist entirely of personal charm.

03 Decentralized and de-authoritative music critic

Yin Qinglu: I am very touched by Er Di’s music review. He said that Hailai Amu will stand on the same stage as Adam Lambert. This is only possible today. The scene that appears. Why do these seemingly incomparable singers appear on the same stage?

Lin Ziren: This reflects the decentralization of popular music. I don’t use TikTok at all, so I don’t know anything about the current TikTok music. Hailai Amu, who became the first singer in this season's program, was introduced in the program as a national-level singer with a wide audience, but I really didn't know him before that.

When we were children, we probably learned about the latest pop music through cultural products accessible to everyone, such as MTV radio stations, music magazines, or theme songs of TV series. But now this fixed channel distribution method is no longer effective, so it will lead to the decentralization of popular music. I would like to ask how you are exposed to new music now? I mostly rely on recommendations on music platforms like QQ Music.

Yin Qinglu: I look at the playlists of Apple Music and NetEase Cloud. The former is selected by editors, and the latter is self-made by netizens.

Dong Ziqi: There is also Erdi. He has a list of the best songs from 1-100 every year, and the list includes both bands and pop songs, and the range is very wide.

Many pieces of music from different genres created by different people in different places have the same themes and even similar lyrics. I think the theme song of "Liu Laogen", "Play the Game of Life Well" and Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler" are basically the same. Both are narrated by an old man and a young man, talking about the difference between life and playing chess and cards. In the same way, we need to take one step at a time and save the consequences. This may be because human beings have some fixed narrative traditions and metaphor patterns. I also paid attention to a young actor who sang Peking Opera, Long Mengsi Kuang, who used canon to sing an excerpt from Peking Opera Wang Kui's defeat of Gui Li. This is also a very interesting collage, or this is how human beings work.

"the gambler" album cover. Image source: Douban

Xu Luqing: Nowadays, the power of music critics has been very diminished, and there are very few full-time music critics.

Yin Qinglu: Because we no longer need to conduct in-depth analysis of music, we only need to continue to consume new music.

Xu Luqing: I feel that music has not been treated as an independent object of analysis and appreciation. You may spend some time alone reading books and watching movies, but basically no one will sit down and spend two hours listening to and analyzing a song. So sound is also a medium that is slowly declining, which is a shame because there are a lot of good things in sound art.

Yin Qinglu: Everyone may think that listening to music is just a kind of entertainment, and now we often hear a saying that "music is a very personal thing."

Lin Ziren: I have read a book called "Pop Music and Capitalism" before. The author of that book is a Japanese cultural researcher, and the starting point of his analysis is also Japanese pop music. In 2007, he made some predictions about the future trend of Japanese pop music. He made about eight predictions. Now it seems that they have come true not only in Japan, but also in our Chinese music scene. One of them is the relative decline in the status of music criticism. That is to say, music-related information is now basically disseminated online. Forms such as blogs, Wikipedia and social networking sites that any user can write at will will become the most important way to comment. medium.

[Japan] Written by Yoshitaka Mori Translated by Ertian

Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press · Baideya 2022-8

Our current situation is that the self-media Erdi not only introduces the latest domestic and foreign music on his account on a daily basis, but also Providing us with music information, and he began to become the interpretation authority of basically all music variety shows. From "Singer" to "Sister Lang", he will post a review for every program, and netizens will read it carefully. Apart from Erdi, I can't think of anyone else who can make a more professional and specific analysis of the performance of a song in the form of words. The only domestic music critic I can name is Ding Taisheng, but he seems to have some controversy. I think some of his remarks are a bit pretentious and not professionally oriented.

Yin Qinglu: Recently, I often see a B site up owner named A Zhang rayzhang. He is supposed to be a musician and music critic, but his style is very abstract. He listens to a wide range of music, but when he reviews, he is not a bit pretentious like Erdi. Instead, he admits that what he says are purely subjective. The introduction to station B also states that he is "not a music critic." After lowering my identity, I can directly tell which songs I like and which songs I hate. This type of non-authoritative commentary may be a new mainstream.

There are also differences between foreign countries and domestic ones. There are also music media abroad such as Rolling Stone and Pitchfork, which will rate and rank each album. Among them, pitchfork's ratings are always questioned. People think that its taste is "toilet" and the ratings are simply wrong. This is also a dissolution of authority.

04 The cultural hegemony behind "Grammy vs. Strawberry Music Festival"

Lin Ziren: In fact, "Singer 2024" has actually alleviated my anxiety about toxic national emotions. Nationalist sentiments are easily incited, but ordinary people know what is good in the process of comparison. We can see this in the predictions and final rankings for each contest. Those high praise comments in the music software are not about "bringing glory to the country", but sincere praise of the outstanding performance of foreign singers, and a wonderful satire of the Chinese music scene's lack of progress, such as "Grammy vs. Strawberry Music Festival" ", "Grammy vs. Rookie Station". Cultural exchange is of great significance and is probably the most powerful driving force for change and progress.

Yin Qinglu: This may also have cultural hegemony factors. The pop music system was established under the leadership of the United States, the most mainstream of which is music like r&b that originated from black people. R&b has experienced a "sinking" process from Japan, South Korea, or Hong Kong and Taiwan to the mainland.

What's interesting is that we can also see this process in "Singer 2024": Jay Chou is a relatively good singer in China who sings r&b pop music in the millennium. This style was first influenced by the United States, and later people like Wang Sulong or Xu Song may Also influenced by Jay Chou, we have always been wrapped in this whole system. To a certain extent, it is difficult to be fair when competing with other people's original music. The addition of Second Hand Rose and Hanggai Band made this judging system a bit dysfunctional, because they were not included in the system. This may be why Secondhand Rose can be very relaxed, and can even sing "Monkey Play" to make fun of the entire system.

Xu Luqing: But in fact, from another perspective, Chinese music has indeed not contributed anything to the world music system.Black people have r&b and jazz, and other regions also have scales integrated into modern music arrangements, but China has never had it. The Khumai performed by the Hanggai Band is a form of Mongolian singing. Normal people may only listen to Khumai when listening to ethnic music. How to combine very local things with modern arrangements is a problem that the music industry needs to face.