Lee Young-ho's new song "Across the Seas", released on his 36th birthday, is the first official single of his seven specialties, a full twelve months after his full release of the "Sparrow" album at the end of July last year.
In these years of Chinese music expectation cycle, twelve months does not feel long at all, Li Ronghao participated in the recording of many variety shows including but not limited to "The Voice of China", "Good Time" and "Youth with You 3" in these twelve months.
In terms of pro-progress, because the variety shows are one after another, I don't think Li Ronghao and I will have a distance.
But the real musical works, except for a movie trailer song "No Regrets" at the end of April this year, Li Ronghao actually has no other regular studio works.
The gap period for songs so close and so far has inadvertently passed almost a year.
The prosperity of Hong Kong music and Hong Kong films is even more, such as Li Ronghao and my post-85 crowd, such as going to KTV to sing, Cantonese songs must still be a must-order repertoire; just last week, I also sang Zheng Xiuwen's "Lifelong Beauty" on KTV with a post-80s and a late 70s predecessor, and the melody flowing between the lyrics made me feel that the beautiful youth related to Hong Kong music was close at hand...
But when you think about it, it seems that the last orthodox Cantonese song that can be sung by the whole people is Xie Anqi's "Xi Ti Street" in 2008.
After that, 2014's "High Mountains and Low Valleys" had a small range of popularity in the Pearl River Delta region, and once "crossed the river" to Taiwan, becoming a regular visitor to Rainie Yang's daily playlist; but outside the wider Chinese mainland pearl river delta, not many people have listened to "High Mountains and Low Valleys".
Listeners outside the Pearl River Delta should not know that in the past two years, a Hong Kong newcomer with considerable creative talent called Lin Jiaqian has been selected by Eason Chan to cooperate with The God of Song for a whole album, of course, a Cantonese album.
By the way, the above discussion of Cantonese songs does not include the cottage Cantonese songs "The Wind Blows" & "Wild Wolf DISCO" that have become popular in the ears of the whole people in the past two years. The songs are not high or low, I just think that the Hong Kong music pedigree of these two hit songs is not pure.
Back to Li Ronghao, even if Cantonese songs are no longer the aesthetic mainstream of the current post-00s, they have really influenced many post-80s men and women. Lee Wing-ho's love of pop culture in Hong Kong, China, can be seen in his works over the years.
In Han Han's Lunar New Year movie "Riding the Wind and Waves", Li Ronghao played a role with the temperament of a Hong Kong gangster, and later "Um" I once thought it was a song tailored for this role.
Of the six albums released, in addition to Lee Wing-ho's own composing and arranging and producing one-stop service, Hong Kong lyricists Chow Yiu-fai and Wong Wai-man are common in Lee Wing-ho's song Credits (last year's "Sparrow" album Zhou Yaohui's "I Love You" has great momentum and is very durable); the original name of the song "The King of Comedy" in the second album is almost named "Yin Tianqiu" (the character name of Chow Sing-chi in the Hong Kong film "The King of Comedy"),the MV of the first two years of the hit single "Young and Promising" has Hong Kong's golden supporting role Lin Xue starring Although the cover of "Fancy Years" sung by Li Ronghao in the previous album is the song of Taiwanese musician Chen Shanni, the music itself is inextricably linked to Hong Kong IP director Wong Kar-wai; the cowboy jacket shape of Lee Wing-ho on the cover of the "Sparrow" album will also be reminiscent of Andy Lau's character appearance in the movie "Heavenly Love"...
It can be said that the most profound popular culture that influences Li Ronghao must be the popular culture of Hong Kong, China!
Of course, he is also influenced by Nordic artists and musicians in some visual design, arrangement and processing, which can be elaborated on another day.
The new song "Across the Sea" has the same name as the IP-level movie starring Chow Yun Fat, Zhang Guorong and Zhong Chuhong, and the Hong Kong music DNA is explicitly presented in Li Ronghao's music.
Even though Lee Wing-ho, the singing language of "Across the Seas," chose Mandarin, which is closer to most listeners, the imagery of human emotions, fireworks, and modern architecture depicted between the lyrics and text, coupled with the retro-flavored virtual synthesizer tone and guitar and drums, instantly pull people back to the 90s when Hong Kong culture was popular in the mainland.
In this musical scene, you can match the romance of Wong Kar-wai movies, you can match the black humor of Du Qifeng and the galactic image behind him, you can match the city flavor of Liu Weiqiang and the wild wild chiefs of the "Ancient Puzzle Boy" series, and you can even match the various action movie pictures in the pixel-level Hong Kong VCD disc (I mean serious gunfight action movies, nothing else), and the retro Hong Kong flavor revealed by "Across the Sea" is really very positive.
In addition to the retro taste of music extended from "Ace Enemy" to the present, the values exported by Li Ronghao in "Across the Sea" are also the expression of his mentality of small people in the vast society.
If I want to refine the key sentences of the lyrics, I will not hesitate to give "the world is north and south / modern architecture / is nothing more than a morning and a night home", returning to the most essential survival appeal of a small person; although, the lyrics that may go out of the circle are "Emotion Book Theory / Familiar with a few books / Not yet trapped by love".
Miserable, sadistic, is always the central idea of the most grasping mortal listeners in slow pop music; coupled with the song with a strong sense of picture of "Across the Sea", the post-80s listeners who may be familiar with Hong Kong pop culture have already taken the sad male protagonists from Chen Haonan, Pheasant, Ah Fei, Xiao Ma Ge to Hua Di These characters to take what they need, and the right number to enter the seat.
I'll always believe that a good song core of a few minutes can provoke the listener to think, no less than a two-hour movie.
Li Ronghao's first single "Across the Sea" is a creation that can trigger the listener's feelings, for people with experience and stories, and for children who are accustomed to listening to the now too trendy music can experience a handful of retro; or hang up the fashion keywords that everyone will discuss in the past two years, City Pop, City Boy, and the musical aura of "Across the World".
However, if he can achieve a very high degree of restoration of the tone and arrangement techniques of Hong Kong music such as "Across the Sea", in the final analysis, Li Ronghao must not have interrupted his refinement and cultivation of musical skills outside of variety shows.