In recent years, because of the influence of the Korean Wave, a large number of young people have mistakenly believed that the source of the Chinese girl group comes from South Korea, but it is not.
As early as the 80s of the last century, original women's groups began to appear in China, but in that era, they were not called "women's groups", but "groups".
Today, Ah Liang will take a look at the history of the development of Chinese women's groups.
Prehistoric era
On September 23, 1964, the beijing dance school's experimental ballet (the predecessor of the Central Ballet) newly rehearsed the ballet "Red Detachment of Women" for the first time at the Tianqiao Theater, and the first audience was Premier Zhou.
After reading it, the Prime Minister greatly appreciated it and presented the play to the chairman Amway. After reading this, the chairman said a few words: "The revolution is successful, the direction is right, and the art is also good." ”
In 1967, the "Red" drama was copied and performed nationwide as one of the first "model plays". The Chengdu version of "Red" was performed for a year and attracted 300,000 viewers.
In 1971, this drama was put on the screen, the revolutionary girl Wu Qinghua (Wu Qionghua) fought the bully landlord Nan Batian, the ballet version of the movie "Red Detachment of Women" was released, and more than 20 actresses of the Central Ballet who played the Red Detachment of Women became the most popular "girl group" in China, and the whole country set off a wave of learning ballet.
In one year, China Baba received hundreds of professional dance troupes to learn to dance the "Red Detachment of Women", and each study class accepted ten groups, each group had more than 20 people, and at least more than 2,000 professional dancers received the true transmission.
After these people returned to various places, they taught the drama of "Red Detachment of Women" to amateur dancers in local urban and rural areas, schools, and factories, and for a time fissioned countless "girl groups".
At that time, Pu Cunxin, who was far away in the 15th Regiment of the Second Division of the Heilongjiang Production and Construction Corps, watched the female Zhiqing rehearse "Red Girl Scouts" in his spare time, which was the most beautiful moment in the boring life of the insertion team, just like the Foxconn workers who returned to the dormitory after the night shift lay on the bed and turned on the vibrato.
In those years, there were 17 million people like Pu Cunxin who went to the countryside to learn about youth, and the era of extreme lack of entertainment life was suffocating, but there were always uninhibited souls who wanted to move.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, tapes and tape recorders flowed in from the coast, and Taiwanese songs represented by Teresa Teng, Liu Wenzheng and Luo Dayou gradually became popular, which also led to the first wave of mainland pop music creation.
The "popular singing method" that is different from the bel canto and ethnic singing methods can finally come to the stage. Zhu Fengbo, Su Xiaoming, Li Guyi, Cheng Lin and others became the first generation of singers after the reform. In 1978, the first singing group "Wang Jieshi, Cherise Male and Female Duet" also appeared.
In 1980, Tian Ming and Zhang Xizhen of the Central Song and Dance Troupe formed a female vocal duet, which was the first pop music girl group in Chinese mainland.
"Early Morning We Step on the Trail" is popular all over the country, and they also cover many Taiwanese campus folk songs, which is indispensable in the history of the development of popular music in the mainland.
At that time, there was no concept of a girl group, no idol, and two young girls full of joy just sang about the arrival of the new era in a different way of interpretation.
That kind of simplicity and affection can no longer be found in the future women's group.
Cottage era
In the mid-1980s, the recording industry has been very prosperous, Guangzhou Pacific Audio-visual and China Singing Guangzhou Branch published millions of cassettes every year, at that time there was no copyright concept, a large number of albums are direct cover songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and even Cui Jian's earliest albums are cover songs.
Guangdong as a bridgehead of popular music, basically Hong Kong and Taiwan popular what can be copied immediately. The cottage ability is not worse than the later Shenzhen Huaqiang North. Taiwan began to popular combinations, Guangdong can immediately drum up.
In 1984, under the influence of Japan, the girl idol group "Happy Girls" appeared in Taiwan, and a year later it was renamed "City Girls".
In 1986, Liu Wenzheng established his own Flying Eagle Records Company, and signed Fang Wenlin, Qiu Haizheng and Yi Nengjing to form the jade girl group "Flying Eagle Three Sisters", when the youngest Yi Nengjing was not yet 17 years old.
In 1987, there was a red-lipped group of 4 people in Taiwan, which later developed to 6 people, which is already a very decent "girl group".
In 1988, the "Melancholy Party" that debuted at the same time as the Tigers was a hit.
In the same period, there were also women's groups such as "Stars, Sun and Moon", "Apple Pie", and "Pink Party".
Later, the girl team was formed, and Xu Ruoxuan was one of the members, and at that time she was still called Xu Shujuan.
Throughout the mid-to-late 80s is a very prosperous era in Taiwan's music scene, driven by a new generation of singers such as Zhang Yusheng, Tai Zhengxiao, Yu Chengqing, etc., the concept of "idol" has really emerged, in addition to the oriental express, little tiger team these idol boy groups, idol girl team is also your side singing I debuted.
It was also during this period that Guangdong appeared the Yanjun Yanhong combination with a strong cottage flavor, the Huang Lian Huang sweet combination, and the later flower season girl trio.
Yan Jun Yanhong is a pair of sisters from Jiangxi, the published album "Jiao and Yan" all the songs are called "xx girl", in fact, all are cover songs of Teresa Teng, change the name of the song.
The album "Oh Lala" is a cover of the songs of Malaysian singer Huang Xiaojun and Taiwanese singers Yinxia and Shen Yan, and even this album sold hundreds of thousands of boxes at that time.
The sisters changed their name to "Oriental Duet" in 1995 and later renamed "Angel Wings", which can be said to be unpredictable with the times.
At that time, they often walked in song halls across the country, so they met Wu Xiubo, who also sang in the song hall.
Wu Xiubo also wrote two songs for their album "Make Your Curtains with My Long Hair". Later, her sister Yan Hong (renamed Zhang Bening) married gymnastics champion Li Xiaoshuang, and her sister Yan Jun (renamed Zhang Zhiyu) married actor Huang Junpeng, who was Chen Hai, the anti-corruption bureau chief who was comatose for dozens of episodes in "The Name of the People", and their matchmaker was Wu Xiubo.
Huang Lian Huang Tian sisters are good at guitar playing and singing, at that time can be said to be very foreign, they were very popular in Guangdong, of course, at that time the Guangdong song scene was equivalent to the Chinese music scene.
In August 1986, China Singing Guangzhou Company recorded the "Sister Guitar Playing album" box tape for the sisters, and released 100,000 boxes at a time.
When they were red, Lin Yilun had just arrived in Guangdong to mix, danced in the China Singing Art Troupe, and was considered a colleague with the sisters.
Lin Yilun and Huang Lian fell in love, the woman's family did not look at him very much, and then it should be really in love, the two people were still married, the wedding was very low-key, and there were not many guests.
But not long after, Lin Yi turned red and went north to develop, and the love bird flew away, and the two divorced again. The Huang Lian Huang Sweet Sisters group soon disappeared.
Throughout the 1980s, when mainland pop music was in an era of imitation, Na Ying used the stage names of "Su Bing" and "Su Ran" to confuse the public on the cover of the tape in order to copy Su Rui.
At that time, television was not developed, singers had little chance to appear, eating by the face was basically no play, tapes could not be sold, and the women's group said that it was gone.
In the 80s, there was also an "outlier" of the girl group that had to be mentioned, that is, the all-girl rock band "Cobra", which was established in early 1989 and was the first batch of chinese rock and roll players.
At the "90 Modern Concert", which has been recorded in the history of rock and roll, the Chinese rock band made its collective debut, and "Cobra" was one of the 6 bands that shared the stage with Cui Jian and Zang Tianshuo. This band has not yet been disbanded, and it is the longest-formed "girl group" in China.
The Age of the Patriarchs
The market is small, the life expectancy is short, the management is difficult to manage and other reasons make it difficult for the girl group to survive, after a lively period in the late 80s, Taiwan in the 90s almost no influential new girl group appeared.
The pop music scene on the mainland side is copycating Hong Kong and Taiwan, while catching up. In the 1990s, a large number of new local idols appeared, including Yang Yuying, Mao Ning, Zhou Yanhong, Gao Linsheng, Lin Yilun, Chen Hong, Chen Lin, Pan Jindong, Sun Yue and others. Fans often just bought the tape A side 5 songs have not yet been learned, and the new tape is out again.
Although most of these singers' packaging methods have not been able to get rid of the Hong Kong and Taiwan model, they have had a great impact on fans, breaking the situation that the monopoly of the record market by Hong Kong and Taiwan idols for many years has been broken. In the 1990s, when Hong Kong's four kings were in power, there were also half of the local idols in the mainland.
In 1992, the famous musician Gu Jianfen led the troupe "92 Chinese Style" to Hong Kong to perform, which was the first time that a mainland pop singer went to Hong Kong to perform, which was equivalent to a student reporting to the teacher for a performance, and the result was quite successful.
At that time, the singer Li Rong in the performance troupe and Xu Xiuxia and Lu Lili, who sang harmony, temporarily combined, but they did not expect that the singing effect on the scene was very good, and after returning, the three of them formed a black duck group. At first, it was just for other singers to sing harmonies, they were the royal harmony of zhou huajian, Su Rui, Mao Ning, Yang Yuying and other singers' concerts and albums. Later, I sang more and also released my own album, but it was mainly cover songs.
The three girls looked mediocre, no one remembered their looks, but the voice was very recognizable, and the audiophiles who liked to play with the stereo at that time, except for Cai Qin, must buy a black duck to try the sound.
Black Duck is not an idol group, far from the current concept of a girl group, this kind of cold, professional music group can only be said to be unique, filling a certain gap in the pop music scene.
Founded a few years later, the Women's Twelve Orchestra can also be included in this category.
The members of the Women's Twelve Orchestra are all from professional colleges and universities, specializing in musical instruments, and they combine traditional instruments with modern popular music performance forms to form a very stylish folk music performance group.
The emergence of the Women's Twelve Orchestra does give people a bright feeling, but after all, it is instrumental performance, which belongs to the non-mainstream in the pop music world and is tepid at the beginning in China.
Unexpectedly, breaking into the Japanese market is red half the sky, the first album released in Japan, the first day sold 10,000 copies, two months sold 1 million copies. Later albums of "Miracle", "Brilliant" and "Dunhuang" are also various slaughter charts.
To say that the export of Japanese culture, this is the most successful one in modern times, and then can only be traced back to the ancient Tang Dynasty or the four masterpieces.
The members of the Women's Twelve Orchestra have changed for generations, and the band is still performing, and through live broadcasting, it has become an Internet celebrity, it is said that it earns millions of dollars a month, and it is quite good to live, which is much longer than those women's groups that have not yet discharged a song and disbanded.
Equally long-lived is the Black Duck, which, although in 2002 split internally, a group of Black Ducks became two groups and tore x from each other, but tenaciously survived to this day, just do not know who is correct.
In the 1990s, there were still idol girl groups in the mainland, that is, young and beautiful girls and dreamy ideas.
In 1995, Chen Liqing, a singer who came from the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe and developed in Japan for many years, returned to China to establish a song and dance training institution, and she selected 5 girls who could sing and dance from among the students and had a good appearance to form a "young and beautiful girl" team. The members of the first generation were Jiang Zhongyi, Xin Xin, Hu Jing, Liu Ying, and Li Yan.
At the 1997 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, team members Jiang Zhongyi and Liu Huan sang "Hand in Hand" and became the hottest member of the group.
It is also this Spring Festival Gala, the youth and beautiful girl group also performed the song "Youth Bird" together, a group on two programs, which is extremely rare in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.
However, in that era, looking around, there were almost no groups that could represent the vitality of youth, and in order to be close to young people, the Spring Festival Gala also tried its best to forcibly insert some youth elements, so in those years, young and beautiful girls almost went to the Spring Festival Gala every year.
In December 1998, the Young Girls' Team endorsed "Back And Back" and filmed a TV commercial based on "Happy Baby".
Several flower girls, while carrying their backs, sang "bright eyes and bright smiles, the taste of candy", full of youth and simplicity. After the advertisement was broadcast, the young and beautiful girls became more popular, and the back was also a popular product that fooled a generation.
The dream of debuting in the same period, in addition to a small number of people, as a singing and dancing group, is very similar to the style of beautiful girls, their behind-the-scenes bosses have Japanese backgrounds, so the way of operation is also very close, and even they also received the "back and back" advertisement, and also on the Spring Festival Gala.
There was also a group active in Shanghai during this period called Rose Show.
Although the name is earthy, the song is still quite avant-garde, but it is short-lived, and it will not be mentioned much.
In the late 1990s, Hong Kong and Taiwan music was not very prosperous, there were no tigers in the mountains, monkeys were kings, in the absence of a strong girl group in Hong Kong and Taiwan, young and beautiful girls and dreamy two girl groups became popular at the turn of the century for a while, and many people born in the 80s should have been circled.
But soon the "Korean Wave" struck, and the development of the mainland women's group entered a long period of freezing.
The Hallyu era
The late 90s began to brew, after the millennium, the Korean Wave swept through Asia, especially the South Korean boy band girl group, cool modeling, good dancing, song with feeling, artist training, high team cooperation, all of a sudden the Chinese fans look stupid, look back at our own artists, simply exploded.
Casually say a few early Korean girl groups, that temperament can also crush most of the mainland girl groups now, S.E.S. debuted in 1997, should be the earliest Korean girl group known by Chinese fans.
Fin.K.L, now the first Korean girl group in the minds of many people, has left countless glories, and is the first female group in the history of the Korean music scene to win the highest honor in the music world - the annual song award.
The members of the group, Cheng Youli and Li Xiaoli, are still very popular.
Baby V.O.X, also formed in 1997, enjoys a high reputation and popularity in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia:
There are also Chakra, T.T.MA., Jewelry, Sugar, M.I.L.K., Five Girls, TO-YA, Tomoki Tenjo, Wonder Girls, SeeYa, etc., to girls' generation, Kara, Rainbow Group, etc., has entered the heyday of Korean girl groups.
Under the strong blowing of the Korean wind, the Chinese mainland girl group basically has no way to live, and the Hong Kong and Taiwan sides have also risen S.H.E and Twins.
Both groups debuted in 2001, but they still followed the singing-oriented route, relying on intensive works to kill a bloody path in the Korean Wave, which is known for singing and dancing.
During this period, there were also many combinations in Taiwan that imitated Korean groups, but they were not very successful, such as Chinese dolls.
Debuted in Thailand in 1999, developed in Taiwan in 2000, released the Chinese album "Single Eyelid Girl", and the title song of the same name is still a bit famous.
4 in Love, founded in 2000, a year later due to the dissolution of the Taiwan earthquake team, the most famous member is Rainie Yang,
Sweety, who debuted in 2003, and Michelle Vicki, who debuted in 2004, are both duos, and after a while, they will soon not work.
By2 was originally angry with the gimmicks of the twin sisters, and now the combination is still there, relying on plastic surgery and gossip to occasionally make the news.
There is also black Girl, originally called Black Astringent Meimei, selected from the "I Love Black Astringent Society" program, debuted in 2006, at the beginning of 9 people, then 8, 6, 3, various withdrawals and reorganizations, paste very quickly.
The only song that makes an impression is "123 Wooden Man".
The mainland and Hong Kong actually formed several girl groups during this period, but they were all paste quickly, or there was no red at all.
For example, the "Fairy Tale Concert", many people have not heard of it;
The "girls' dormitory" combination, listening to this name, exploded, was established in 2004, and dispersed in less than a year.
Mingjun girl, still a little famous, the average height of the 4 members is 170, the appearance is not bad, but the affinity is too poor.
BabyQ, known as the Emperor, actually has five members from the mainland.
The production team said in the publicity was scary: Faye Wong's MV director, Chen Huilin's stylist, Aaron Kwok's producer, and even Joey Yung's "Girl with Wings" D version were given to them to sing in vain, which looked not red and difficult, but in the end it did not get up.
Barbaric times
After 2010, Chinese girl groups entered a period of rapid development, and the expansion of the entertainment market, capital inflows, Internet popularity, and in recent years, the korean restriction order are all triggers for the outbreak of mainland women's groups.
However, their works are slightly weak, and the overall level of the group is lacking, such as SNH48, SING, sunshine and so on.
The lack of standards and disorderly competition of the women's group, at the end of 2017 experienced the impact of the wave of wage arrears and dissolution, and re-ushered in its own high point in "Creation 101", its slogan is "redefining the Chinese girl group".
The women's group born in the variety show is not uncommon, but it is the first time that a limited women's group like "Creation 101" is formed. After more than 2 months of fierce competition, in the end, Meng Meiqi, Wu Xuanyi, Yang Chaoyue and other 11 people successfully debuted, forming the latest definition of the Chinese girl group - "Rocket Girl 101".
At the beginning of the formation of the group, the goal of "Rocket Girl 101" was the first girl group in China, but in the two-year deadline, it did not achieve the desired effect. Affected by the environment, the company, and the deadline, "Rocket Girl 101" finally ended with word of mouth such as "no masterpiece", "farce from the group", "no group soul" and so on.
This women's group, which aims to be "China's first girl group", still leaves only the works of traffic songs such as "Calories" after all.
After the farewell of "Rocket Girl 101", "The9", which was formed into a group with "Youth with You 2", was born.
The future of the same limited girl group, "The9", is not yet known.
Today's mainland girl groups are strange, from the second dimension to the ancient style to the local style, all kinds of strange flowers bloom warmly, looking lively and lively, but in the context of unstable industry atmosphere, imperfect operation methods and business models, it is difficult to say who can live longer.