Wen | Ling Fox Bo Guang
Recently, the entertainment festival of a certain platform was promulgated, which is probably the scene of star-studded stars, countless awards, and network spit in the sky, of which the most controversial is this Chinese annual top ten hot songs. The top ten hot songs are almost all vibrato divine comedies, which quickly fermented on domestic social platforms, and the result is that it has caused a wave of discussion of "Chinese music" pills.
Most importantly, the top ten popular songs netizens of Chinese music have never seen the name of a song, but they have vaguely heard the song when they go to listen to the song. If you think back, you will find that it seems to come from short videos, and these ten hot songs all represent short video divine comedies.
In fact, this playlist does not represent anything. If you really want to represent something, it is the channel platform with the highest popularity at present, that is, the way to listen to songs is short videos. This is a bit like the collapse of the record era fifteen years ago, the era of online digital music has just arrived, when the most popular music was "Mouse Loves Rice", "Two Butterflies", and of course, Jay Chou represented the level of Hong Kong and Taiwan popular pop.
It is a fact that the mainstream pop musicians of Brilliance Chenyu's generation are obviously inferior to Jay Chou's generation of musicians, but just looking at the list of the top ten popular songs of the year, it is still the same as "Two Butterflies", and this most popular is indeed the most popular.
Are the top ten hit songs of the year all short video divine comedies? I really don't blame it for the decline of Chinese music
The decline of Chinese music has long been mentioned, which is a problem of changes in the music industry caused by economic development and changes in the social environment. For example, the decline of music is inextricably linked to the collapse of the record industry, from records to digital music to now short video music.
Although there are also vulgar songs in the record era, even if you pirate in the record era, you have to spend a few dollars, right, not to mention the genuine version. In the era when digital music and now short videos are not charged, musicians, music companies and middlemen in the record era still survive better, not to mention that the record era has experienced more than half a century since World War II, the industrial chain is much more mature, and how many digital music and short video music are different?
The former is full of twenty years, the latter is less than ten years, and the industrial chain is very immature.
In fact, the network text is falling into this market atmosphere, and industrial production is all routine. Some people say that people are impetuous, and industrialization has ruined art. In fact, the result is likely to be counterintuitive, that is, the proportion of educated people in our country is increasing year by year, but the average literacy of Internet users has declined rapidly in recent years.
The reason is also very simple, that is, the rapid urbanization and the popularity of the mobile Internet have made those who would not have been able to go online and have become netizens. So since the market has deteriorated from a macro point of view, is the production level progressing or regressing? Of course it's regressive, or, in their words, sinking.
Because in the era of mobile Internet, in the standardized product model like short video platforms, whether you are a doctoral academician or a fish in 9 years of compulsory education, all you can contribute is a red heart, a forward and a comment, is completely equal.
Therefore, whether it is to serve those who are difficult to serve the people with a small horizontal base, or to use a lower cost to serve those large-scale people who can be routined, the answer is obvious in the face of interests, and everyone will do it.
15 years ago, "Two Butterflies", now the Top Ten Divine Comedy? Why do people like to listen to bad songs
In fact, in addition to the collapse of the record era, the way musicians survive, the way music companies and middlemen survive has changed. This consumer also has a certain responsibility, and the consumer fee aesthetic is also an important part of the supply and demand relationship of commercial products. Because of the rapid economic development and too large population, the aesthetics of Chinese audiences have always been a controversial issue.
Music for many people is just a pastime, as long as the ear, the melody can be catchy, some people (many people) directly skip the prelude, the main song directly listens to the climax chorus part, the chorus is good to go back to listen to the main song, the chorus is not good to listen to the direct cut song, because this phenomenon has created the pursuit of many musicians, this is a supply and demand relationship.
Many musicians rely on a few chords (or copy) inspired by the moment, and write songs according to this market, and the songs written are ok for passers-by as long as they sound good. But listening to independent music, even if Jay Chou's generation of pop kings have a certain technical music all the way down to the fans, for them this kind of music is definitely garbage.
Aesthetics need to be cultivated, and a large part of the domestic audience is passively accepting the popular situation, rather than actively excavating excellent songs. Now the spread of short videos, why do you feel that the songs that are on fire in short videos now are not as good as the pop songs of the early ten years and twenty years, the production is a big problem, and there is passive communication.
The public just likes to follow the trend, and this popularity is not necessarily the best, but it is certainly the hottest.
For example, the so-called ancient style and national style music in the short video sounds similar. How many grades is Jay Chou's "Blue and White Porcelain" not higher than these? This year you may still listen to "Blue and White Porcelain", but last year's short video was the hottest ancient style, you can't even forget what its name is.
The public aesthetic and song production of this situation are indeed the same as the Internet songs of fifteen years ago, "That Night", "Two Butterflies", "Mice Love Rice" and so on are the same shoddy popular goods, but you can recall how popular these songs were.
Fifteen years ago, most people's pastime was the Internet, and in 2021, most people's pastime is short videos, and the music in short videos is the collateral thing. Few people in this group will listen to music intently, that is, when listening to music, they always have to do something else, either look at the mobile phone or do something else.
Since listening to music is not important, it is even less important whether the music is good or not.
Top 10 hit songs represent the finish of the Chinese music scene? Yes and no
The top ten hit songs of the year are short video music, which is in line with the characteristics of the short video divine comedy. The ten songs and eight capitals are copied, even if they are not copied, either the lyrics are vulgar, or the melody is too short and fast to listen to, and basically cannot live long. The reason why bad songs can catch fire is because the popular music of the modern era has become a tool for making money, and it has formed a fixed pattern.
First, you don't make money and you can't live, second, your songs consume fast, the fire is not hot, you have to keep your heat going, so you have to write a lot of folk songs in a short period of time. So the question is why write folk songs? Except for some good musicians who are just for the right meal.
Most other short video musicians, they really can't write high-quality songs -
Not everyone is a talented original singer, and not everyone is inspired. We can even look at the singers behind these top ten hit songs, how to say it? You can't even remember the names of the top ten hit songs, let alone the names of the singers behind the songs.
It is important that interested people search for the singers behind these ten hit songs: you really don't know anyone. Although everyone scolded Hua Chenyu for not being able to do it, Huo Zun withdrew from the circle, the level of this generation of musicians is far inferior to that of Jay Chou's generation, but the people are good and evil, they are singing and writing songs, but the level is not good.
These short video musicians, these people and the music company behind the heart only have money, what is music bullshit? Can you write a good song with this mentality? Now some rely on the face, some rely on the voice. As a result, there is no singing skill, the song will not be written, there is nothing to have a backstage to give you a package, you just sing, regardless of your vulgarity, the song that can burst into flames can be thick-skinned and hang out the original even if it is plagiarized, it does not hurt to be sprayed, and the money can even be copied a few more times.
A bunch of short video platforms with explosive songs will not be cared for plagiarism, copyright awareness is basically not, fans brainwashing, they feel good to hear the end of the matter, some people can scold out anything against. And the platform and method of the original singer's prosecution are extremely lacking, and the short video is a hot marketing model, but no one cares about plagiarism, and it is even more impossible to control the vulgarity, right?
What does the top ten hits of the year not represent? The Chinese music scene will instead usher in a big explosion
So is it possible for the Chinese music scene to get better? As long as there is no fundamental change in the current social environment and music platform, that is, the mainstream of music dissemination or short videos, then according to the special attributes of short videos, this short video divine comedy will definitely still dominate the music charts.
After all, it is originally a video BGM and a short video that values just a dozen seconds, and it can't carry a symphony, right?
However, for the entire Chinese music scene, because of the diversified development of media platforms, music will only become more and more differentiated rather than declining. Good songs have always existed, and there are more good songs in the top 100 of various reliable lists every year. Previously, the music industry was controlled by record companies. First, the quality has been controlled once, can be guaranteed, only the best of them can be continuously disseminated on the record, television, radio. Second, the mass acceptance channel is single, almost all passive acceptance, good music can ignore the dislike of some people to transport, so the childhood memories of the 80s and 90s can resonate.
From 2005 to 2014 or even two years earlier, although the network singer and the record singer are parallel, but in fact, the number of network singers is very small, and everyone listens to the network song often around people around the song to say that the song is good, and then it is circulated. From this point of view, the number of active singers on the Internet is a minority, and most of them are still passively accepted. And the record company's communication sales heritage is still there, and the singers who have risen on the Internet still have a battle.
After 2014, 4G network popularization, the vast majority of people can be willfully brush video on the mobile phone without worrying about traffic, compared with the previous network era, after 2014 is the network era that really makes the majority of "masses" feel the voice. Later, after several years of exchanges, people took the initiative to like and dislike, and the algorithm of the Internet further divided the crowd, constructed a solid information cocoon, and further intensified various competitions.
In the past, music companies could slowly cultivate a singer and so on, and when the Internet rose, there were some people who did not wait to mature at all, and directly sold it when they were half-cooked. In fact, the vast majority of people can't tell whether this melon is ripe or not, resulting in vicious competition between bad money and good money.
I think that after the 10s and 20s, I am afraid that it is difficult to have the kind of music and film and television dramas that resonate with the whole people.
Finally, according to my personal understanding of independent music and music circles, Chinese music is actually richer and better listened to. The audience's aesthetic will change after all, perhaps because "I am tired of listening to 1453", "I listen to things that are more niche and more demanding", and the aesthetics of music have really improved... And so on.
These aesthetics of pursuing change are opportunities for the development of independent music, and the previous band-themed variety shows also have a lot of popularity. In recent years, various originally underground bands have also gained more and more attention, which is a manifestation of this transformation, and this aesthetic change has accelerated the development of diversified music.
It's not easy to say how far it will develop in the future, but for the vast majority of listeners who don't watch short videos and really like to listen to songs. That is, those who are not passively accepting music (conforming to the crowd) and choosing to actively seek music (music fans), the current Chinese music is much more interesting than before.