After "Music 1999", "Listen to a Song and Then Say Love" once again recounted the Chinese music scene twenty years ago through a series of articles. This article is the last article in the series, let us use the two albums of Huang Shujun and Li Quan to draw a successful end to this musical journey.
01 Huang Shujun with Change 1995
Yesterday, yu Chengqing was mentioned to be poor and thought about change, but there are also musicians who are not willing to change, but always adhere to their own personal style.
At least in 2001, Huang Shujun was one of those musicians.
On September 4 of this year, Huang Shujun, who has not had a new album for three years, launched a self-anthology "Change 1995".
This double CD self-anthology contains a total of 22 songs, not only selected Huang Shujun's most satisfactory old works since his debut, but also rearranged classic songs such as "Between Men and Women".
However, the real eye-catching work is Huang Shujun's new title song of the same name, "Change 1995".
This ambitious work of 7 minutes and 26 seconds vividly shows Huang Shujun's talent. In the song, he reminisces like water years, sees all the transient world, like an old friend telling you his life feelings.
The song's many gods complained and lingering sentimental emotions, along with the sentence "Genius is afraid of not being genius enough / Bad and not bad enough / Every day I want to leave / But I don't know where to get out of the bones", making "Change 1995" a classic.
Unfortunately, this is also Huang Shujun's last memorable work. Now he had long since jumped out of the Three Realms and was not in the Five Elements. In addition to participating in some variety shows, it is not obvious that he is still a musician.
02 Li Quan and persistence
Huang Shujun began to fade out of the music scene in 2001, and Li Quan gradually entered the good situation in this year.
After transferring from Magic Rock Records to BMG, the representative album of Li Quan's singer career, "Tightrope Walker", came out.
After the tempering of the first two albums, he gradually figured out a set of music models that are more acceptable to mainstream culture, perfectly combining classical academics and popular music, and the whole album is filled with a fresh and elegant literary charm.
On November 17, 2001, Li Quan continued his efforts and released his fourth solo album "Island Center".
Just like Lin Zhixuan, who is not willing to stop for "Single Love Song", this time Li Quan also resolutely stepped out of the comfort zone created by the "Tightrope Walker" album, boldly added a lot of electronic music to the creation, and put the synthesizer in the same important position as the piano and strings. These two albums with very different styles are also regarded as the first peak of Li Quan's singer's career.
Last year, Li Quan, who was more than half a hundred years old, released his ninth solo album "Ten Day Bomb". He pinned his thoughts on this album of confusion, anxiety, helplessness, reflection, and self-exploration that are particularly part of the midlife crisis.
Looking back at Li Quan, who launched "Island Center" in 2001, I found that from "Shanghai Dream" in 1995 to "Ten Day Bomb" in 2020, Li Quan's insistence on music has not changed in the past twenty-five years.
You know, Huang Shujun is only three years older than Li Quan.
For creators, some musicians are always young, just like Tam Wing Lin, who is always 25 years old.
And some musicians, when music is no longer the focus of their lives, they have slowly aged. We can only find their old style from the old time and nostalgic old songs!
03 Postscript: We love ourselves more
Before you know it, twenty years have passed since 2001.
Some of the singers who became famous in those years retired to the rivers and lakes; some were attached to music and did not argue; some were powerless in the later stages, and they were invisible; some collapsed houses overturned, and self-cut meridians...
Only a few singers, who have been popular from 2001 to 2020, are still in the music scene.
However, no matter what kind of opportunities these singers have today, these excellent works they left behind in 2001 will always be an important page in the Chinese music scene and an indelible memory in our hearts.
I guess many of my friends are like me, and there are still many songs from 2001 in the song list.
The reason why we listen to these songs again and again is not that the music today is not as good as the works of twenty years ago, but the traces of time on these old songs.
Even if it is a humble old song in 2001, it carries the memories of the youth of many friends, and many, many of our stories are closely related to these songs.
So, maybe what we love deeply is not the old song of 2001, but the self hidden in the old time, staying at the beginning of the century!