Wen | Ling Fox Bo Guang
2021 is about to end soon, and at the end of the year, it is natural to make an annual summary of this year. We media people are involved in all kinds of pop culture, novels, music, games, movies, TV series, of course, including various variety shows and entertainment programs, inventory of the annual top ten waves and so on.
Bo Guangjun is not a variety show audience at all, in addition to the need to watch popular variety shows due to work, there are more interested in music variety shows, and he has not seen several variety shows all year round, but at the end of the year, looking back at the Chinese variety shows in 2021, he finally found some interesting things.
That is the Chinese variety show in 2021, which can be described as magnificent, and even a little epic.
First of all, the final carnival of the idol draft of "Creation Camp 2021" and "Youth with You 4", accompanied by the collapse of the "traffic economy" after the Qinglang Movement. Then there was no longer a controversy over large-scale plagiarism of Korean variety shows in China. As a result, we will find that the Chinese variety shows in 2021 are extremely lacking in super hits except for a few.
In fact, 2020 has already come to a crossroads of a decade, and the era of China's variety show reform has arrived.
Explosive variety shows comprehensively "plagiarize" Korean variety shows? Why are Chinese variety shows so bad
This is a very macro problem, after all, there are many types of variety shows, and there are many aspects involved. If we look at the problem from the perspective of development, we will eventually find the change of variety shows, which is a macro phenomenon presented by the cultural industry due to changes in economic development and social environment.
I have personally written about the development stage of Chinese variety shows, starting directly from the third stage of Chinese variety shows after 2012.
Why is the third stage of Chinese variety shows in 2012? The reason is the relationship between the economic and social environment behind it, and like domestic movies, this explosive variety show with a watershed in the era did appear in those two years. The music talent show is "The Voice of China" in 2012, "Good Songs in China" in 2013, "Where Did Daddy Go" in 2013, "Running Man" in 2015 and so on.
From the variety shows listed above, it can be seen that the explosive variety shows in China in the past decade were all purchased Korean variety show copyrights, which can be divided into two stages. One is to buy genuine copyright before political events, and the other is to restrict the imitation of Korean entertainment that does not buy copyrights, or even plagiarism, this time around 2016.
As for China's purchase of copyright, imitation and plagiarism of South Korea's variety shows are not listed, a large number of online searches, every time netizens react is nothing more than mocking Chinese variety shows, ironic South Korea is also plagiarized, and finally the two sides scold each other. At this time, the question is, why will Chinese variety shows fully imitate or even copy Korean variety shows after 2012?
Once fully imitated, or even "copied" South Korea, why is the domestic variety show so faceless?
This phenomenon of only looking at it is indeed disgraceful, but if you look at the problem from the perspective of "development", you will feel that it is a stage problem. The same is true of other industries in China, heavy industry, light industry, and even Internet companies have stages of imitation and plagiarism from foreign countries. In the final analysis, this is still the problem that backward countries are better off building than buying, buying is better than renting, and renting is not as good as copying.
Compared with real industries such as industry, the development of cultural industries has a serious lag. The problem of comprehensive plagiarism of Chinese variety shows is actually the same as that of all cultural industries such as music, movies, and TV series after 2012. At this time, China's pop culture industry is in a serious stage of economic rise, serious shortage of originality, purchase of copyright, imitation and plagiarism of foreign developed countries.
Let's not forget that the rise of capital such as the Internet after 2010 has also brought China's pop culture industry to the "traffic economy", a ditch where the demons dance. Speaking of the problem of popular culture plagiarism, in the final analysis, the core is nothing more than two points.
1. The creativity of Chinese variety shows, including the cultural industry, is seriously insufficient, and there is even no "original" motivation.
"Creativity" is of course the core of variety shows, but it is also where the risks lie. Therefore, "selling ideas" is a very common phenomenon, which is also a successful case of intellectual property protection - "creativity" is protected, and only then will someone dig out their minds to ponder and try. The originator of the talent show "American Idol" was run by the British, and "The Voice" was conceived by the Dutch and sold all over the world. Is the U.S. entertainment industry developed? Is capital lazy?
This "first-mover advantage" is very important, not only variety shows, cultural industries, and various physical industries are the same. The so-called "creativity" is done by foreign developed countries first, and when it is mature, the virtuous circle of the entire industry can make money, and foreign creators will think about the "original" thing.
Remember, the level of "originality" in the entire industry is not something that a genius has a head on the head and then changes the industry. Of course, genius is important, but the most important thing is a group of geniuses, and the mature cultural industry chain behind the genius, without its support, the world is useless.
2. The importance of China's intellectual property rights and audience awareness is also a reason why Chinese variety shows have been comprehensively "plagiarized".
This is related to the state regulations, after all, there is no provision for "plagiarism" to violate the law, so people will copy it casually. It is also related to the audience's perception of intellectual property rights. Some viewers just think it looks good, what does it matter if this plagiarism is not plagiarized?
There are relatively few historical events in China's intellectual property regulations and audience perceptions, and there are relatively few cross-border cultural events. The most well-known natures in China are Guo Jingming and Yu Zheng. Before the issuance of the above new intellectual property regulations, they had one vote of capital and audience support, that is, the official judgment of two people is not to apologize.
Everyone knows that capital is profit-maximizing, before the environmental changes brought about by new intellectual property regulations and audience perceptions.
This plagiarism has been successful in Korean variety shows, which is easier with their own hard work and originality? I believe that most readers will choose the former when they reach that position, which is also the norm for the early development of all walks of life. To put it simply, why Chinese variety shows have copied Korean variety shows in an all-round way, and buying the copyright of popular variety shows can effectively avoid the "risk of trial and error", which is the basic operation of the entertainment industry around the world.
Due to the characteristics of variety shows, as well as the market capacity of the country, the national exchange of cultural proximity will be more comprehensive, such as the East Asian cultural circle is easier to transplant each other, China's entertainment industry is not only a latecomer, but also the market capacity is super large, large-scale introduction, plagiarism of foreign copyright (creativity) is an inevitable phenomenon.
In fact, Korean entertainment also came from this road, film and television dramas in the early days of copying Hong Kong and Taiwan, copying Japan, now Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan are declining, Korean film and television dramas are traditional culture transplanted from China, the theme and production mode are copied from Europe and the United States, especially the United States (the United States has investment is cooperation, China is directly taken).
The same is true of Korean variety shows, and there is evidence on the Internet that Korean variety shows have comprehensively copied the United States, especially Japanese variety shows. What South Korea does is also the process of buying copyrights, borrowing imitations and even plagiarism and finally making its own entertainment products. The difference is that the United States, Japan, and even Chinese public opinion do not like to be loud, and South Korea seems to be the country with the largest voice for popular culture in the world.
Many people may think that this is a korean plagiarism to whitewash Chinese popular culture plagiarism? As mentioned above, this phenomenon is disgraceful, but it is indeed a macro phenomenon at this stage of development of Chinese variety shows and even pop culture industries.
The only popular variety show of the year is "Brother Who Cut Through Thorns"? Domestic variety shows have come to a crossroads
Because of China's economic development, changes in intellectual property rights, coupled with the "original" awareness of Chinese audiences. Chinese variety shows have already passed the third stage of rapid growth in the purchase of copyrights and imitation of plagiarism. But why do we feel that there will be no blockbuster variety shows in 2021, that is, the fourth stage of comprehensive originality has not yet arrived.
There are no blockbusters in Chinese variety shows in 2021, and the reasons why these variety shows are not good are obvious.
First, the rigidity of the old program model, "The Voice 2021" has been doing for 10 years, and the old programs such as "Running Man" and "Extreme Challenge" are nothing more than surviving. There is no breakthrough in the stereotype of the format, and the audience is aesthetically tired. The variety show can't select talents, and the audience is embarrassed to see the whole process.
Second, compared with the rigidity of the model, the old operating mode that remains in the "post-traffic era" is the fundamental problem. This refers to the operations we are familiar with in the "traffic age".
In terms of the music variety shows I have personally watched, "The Voice of Heaven" and "Praise for Songs" at the beginning of the year, "Who is the Treasure Singer" in the middle of the year, "The Man from Strawberry Planet", "Rap Listen to Me", and later "Children of Tomorrow 4", "Do You Listen to My Music", "Our Song 3" and so on.
These variety show formats are inherently lackluster, mainly because the program effect is filled with the embarrassing chat between the mentors and judges of the Chinese variety shows in the previous decade (the traffic is not matched), the on-site guests and the contestants scold each other (guiding the flow), and the level of the contestants and the content presented by the core of the program are seriously not good.
When it comes to the level of the contestants, I deeply feel that the music variety shows in the previous decade were too frequent, and because of the immaturity of the Chinese music industry chain. The current level of young musicians is not good, and they still think that Lao Tzu is the first in the world.
Everyone thinks back, the first few seasons of "The Voice of China" will sing, the first three seasons of "China Good Songs" original songs, the music variety show players in recent years can not be compared, the previous lower limit is the current upper limit, outrageous.
In addition, there are a bunch of variety show regulars chatting awkwardly there, holding each other and engaging in feelings, which can refer to Mango's "Time Concert", classic cover songs occasionally have highlights but the overall flat. National ash is such a blind cover of nostalgia for old songs, why don't the audience directly listen to old songs?
"The Brother Who Cut through the Thorns" can become popular, and I think that thanks to the star effect and the results of the previous domestic variety show model to the peak, the overall quality has been presented. The market response is also very enthusiastic, and the powerful stars have also solved the problem of the level of other variety show players.
As for talk shows, there are some variety of variety shows that individuals have not seen, and everyone is welcome to discuss.
Can't "plagiarize" anymore, so it's getting more and more ugly? Can domestic variety shows still be saved?
How to develop domestic variety shows in the future, according to the current stage of China's cultural industry development, as well as the music variety shows that I have personally seen a lot.
Chinese variety shows are clearly at the end of the third stage, but the fourth stage has not yet arrived. If you really want to open the fourth stage, you may have to pay attention to originality in all aspects such as theme positioning, format mode and content, and also achieve unique content competitiveness.
But this is too macro and vague, if you put it in the current domestic variety show.
According to my personal understanding of watching music variety shows, there are three levels: theme positioning, format mode and content. The theme and format do not seem to be the most important, because the world's variety shows seem to have done a more comprehensive job of the theme. Now the audience likes to be in the content of the heart, less of the "traffic era" of the previous years of the routine of the variety show.
For example, take the money to make instead of asking for stars, the original does not plagiarize, the details are careful, the players are sincere, and so on.
In terms of music variety, the "Rap New Generation" in 2020 is a representative (a small explosion). It just made rappers "people" and contributed some good songs, which eventually resonated with a large number of young audiences. Press the old rap show next door.
Other high-scoring variety shows "Drama New Life", "Dance Millennium", and "Goodbye Lover" seem to be like this.
Therefore, the current domestic variety shows should also be more careful and less routine.