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In the first half of this year, "Sound and Endless" was not watched when it was popular. In fact, there are also sporadic clips, the program carefully introduces the history of Hong Kong music, and please sing the best of Hong Kong music. The quality is very good, not only taking into account the feelings of old music fans, but also harvesting some new music fans. There is a ventilation shaft in our building, and one evening the little girl upstairs took a bath, played Yang Qianwei's "Wild Child" on a loop, and sang along with it.
Loved Hong Kong Music. It is only when a culture needs to pay tribute to the glory of the past, although the sunset is infinitely good, the skinny camel is still very large, it is still difficult to avoid sadness. The same is true of the newly released Hong Kong film Band of Seven. Seven filmmakers with heavy weight in the history of Hong Kong film, one person shoots a Hong Kong story, the quality is uneven, but the overall sincerity. There are a lot of shadows of the past in the mirror, too many, a little unbearable to look at. Then I thought, it would be good to have a new one.
Lin Jiaqian is a newly debuted Male Singer in Hong Kong. Saying that new is not new, before his debut, he was a behind-the-scenes creator, who has written songs for Eason Chan, Miriam Yeung, Joey Yung, Peng Jiahui, Xue Kaiqi and many others, and will arrange and produce music, which is well received by people in the industry. Interview with Eason Chan in 2020 coincided with the promotion period of the new song "Yes but Seek Love". He mentioned the composer Lin Jiaqian, who sent him demos in the Qingshi era, but he didn't listen to it and stuffed it into the drawer. Eason Chan often mentions Lin Jiaqian in public, praising him from all angles, even Lin's voice conditions and singing skills that are not favored, and also taking him to his own online concerts. If the tradition of promoting future generations still exists in the Hong Kong music scene, at least it means that there is still hope.
Lin Jiaqian became famous quickly. His official debut is in 2019, and by 2021 Spotify in Hong Kong, China will announce the top ten most popular hit songs, of which five are Lin Jiaqian's. Although today is different from the past, he is not officially red over Luohu, but it is red after all. His songs, the number and quality of single messages on major domestic streaming media platforms are also beautiful. Then write about this Hong Kong music newcomer Lin Jiaqian.
January 2021, Hong Kong, China, Lin Jiaqian Visual China Infographic
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Lin's music is quite similar to Billie Eillish's. Their singing is not very large, and they must be quiet before they can be heard. When I first learned about Lin Jiaqian a few years ago, I heard his songs, but I didn't listen to them. At that time, I felt that he was like a product of above the standard, although exquisite in every way, but lacking obvious personality. Lin Jiaqian is not a professional singer. He can write songs and produce songs, and he is proficient in all important aspects, but he is deficient in singing. His voice is ordinary, and he does not have the characteristics of a professional singer who listens to the voice of a person. Lam Ka-chien's appearance and voice is a system of Hong Kong boys who belong to the fashionable Sven hanging. Such a look is the most hidden, because underneath the same look, there are many different personalities.
Listening to a few of his singles this year after they were released, it felt different. Probably because the mood has changed, it is recognized that under the "ordinary" voice, there is actually a unique tone and emotion. He has a unique taste for melodies and broken sentences. This is originally the characteristic of Cantonese songs, the nine voices and six tones of Cantonese are naturally rich, and the language and melody guide each other and rely on each other. Even if the last word at the end of the sentence fades to the point of disappearing, it can evolve into a note without a trace. The note is both subtle and unexpected, like a sigh. Inserting wings for it and turning it into a rich tail note that circles the beam three times is Lin Jiaqian's best play. He is particularly good at catching invisible fluctuations in the air and giving shape to melodies that evoke the admiration of "you were here".
Lin Jiaqian is a singer who pays attention to his inner feelings. His song is analogous, like an Indian decorated with tassels cut from animal skins, and when he jumps and runs, his clothes are light and flowing, but the people who wear clothes are not weak, they are strong creatures between heaven and earth.
Lin Jiaqian continues the tradition of Hong Kong music, mainly singing love. His songs belong to the love of Zhang Ailing and Wong Kar-wai, paying attention to a moment's thoughts. The emotions accumulated in the characters' hearts for a long time are washed into ore crystals by the slow flow of time, refracting the colored light. The flickering of light is expressed in dense jumping notes, and the unique sentences often have a sense of ups and downs, so the calmer and more stable the tone, the more intense the feelings and epiphanies contained in it. It was like Liang Chaowei's eyes.
This year's new song "Some Kind of Old Friend" is the third in the trilogy. Love to make a trilogy is also a good tradition of Hong Kong music. Using three songs instead of one to write a change in the path of the heart, leaving traces of the previous work everywhere, can create a scene of time flowing in ten minutes. It's like walking on the road and seeing the same signpost after a while, but the scenery has changed, and you are no longer the same person you were when you passed by a road sign.
The first song of the trilogy, "The Next Precursor", the protagonist is a love maniac, drama queen. Dramatic life often happens to people who pursue drama. "I" am willing to fall in love again and again, "burn the spark to the extreme" and "make the trivial things of the day", which stem from the deep fear of aging, numbness, and infidelity. The object of love is not important, the golden sentence is: "If you think that the first person is the most pleasant, why does the previous one not let go." Love seems to be a good medicine to maintain hormone levels and the feeling of being alive, and the protagonist also understands, "Love is a competition with myself." Having said that, it is not only he who understands this. Proust, the most famous person who held this view, wrote five books that tell us that the prosperous world, the marquee lover, is only a reflection of the inner world. The only thing that governs how much emotion you experience and how many notes you hear is your heart.
In this song, Lin Jiaqian's voice is slightly hoarse, the arrangement is very traditional, and he is worried and afraid that there will be no next love. Although it is only about love, from love you can look at life. It seems that apart from the romance, there are few other expectations in the protagonist's life. The chorus is bitter and thin, the violin adds a few bright colors to no avail, and the melody that is quickly remembered quickly fades away.
In the second song, "I" begins to open his sleepy eyes. The dense piano is like the clear water flowing from the stone crevices, the slightly wider distance of the broken sentence is like the slightly larger eye spacing of the beauty, and the beads in the darkness, prompting the beginning of a magic trick. First of all, there are doubts: if you are open-minded enough, why don't you concentrate on writing books? "Desperately love the next one, but why doesn't the wound go back?" It turned out that I was still not open-minded enough, because "I" still cared whether "I" was kind, hardworking and dignified in your eyes. The chorus goes back and forth in the climb and fall of the scale, and the singer's tone is obviously clearer than the previous one.
Knowing that I was not open-minded, I let go of some burdens and began to think about what I really couldn't put down. What can't be put down is the feeling of "like a fist wound in the heart". The last paragraph of the DJ remix version is very aptly done, swallowing a few words with intermittent sound effects, and summarizing the twists and turns of the heart with only four words "time is running out". The full sentence of the original version is: "I have to count down the remaining memories for a long time." The protagonist is polished from "I care about my impression in your eyes" to a more concise state of mind. With few memories left, why care so much? In the end, people have to face their own hearts. To maintain pain is at least to "confirm that we have been in love."
That's the end of the second song. The love song to express the inability to retreat, generally speaking here. But there's a third track, "Some Kind of Old Friend."
It has many interpretations, and a good song is often like this, which can give people a wide space for imagination and empathy. It was published in February this year, but the season in the song is already autumn. The piano in the prelude is a pool of autumn water full of fallen leaves in the forest, and the relationship between people has come to an end, and it is not worth retaining.
The sudden appearance of the shadow of a whale is a metaphor for the past when there seems to be an independent will, and when it is triggered, it will overwhelm the earth without the will of the people, and it is also very Proust. At this time, the time has passed, the bruises have long been healed, and the old friends have long parted ways. The piano stream trails here, dives into the underground river, making a faint sound of water flowing. Ze Risheng's complex and dense tune set off a butterfly effect, and his heart changed rapidly. Lin Jiaqian's tone became simple after the "long sentence of breath outage", "At this time, when it is cold, it will pass the autumn."
Many people on platforms such as streaming media and Douban said that such a song should be sung by Eason Chan, and the effect would be better. Eason is good at singing Ze Risheng's long sentences for all to see, can not be chaotic, take into account the tone, still full of feelings, the last word can be dragged for a few seconds. The voice line is thin, and Lin Jiaqian, who sounds short of breath, also sang down. His advantage is probably in the innocence of those last few words. "The leaves have withered glory in turn, and life is like mourning longevity", it is necessary to have experience and a rich heart to appreciate the deep meaning of the lyrics, it is difficult to sing. By the time the protagonist arrives at the final chapter of the trilogy, he already understands that feelings are like "thin water loves a long stream" trickling down continuously, not subject to human will. Even if two people no longer "share a boat", it will always exist.
Only by understanding this can we really be free. Old friendships will not be absent, and the days of life will not be erased. So be it, there are so many absurd things in the world, why can't love each other be one of them. In the torrent, there are always people who can't share a boat with themselves.
"Some Kind of Old Friend"
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After the trilogy is finished, I will talk about Lin Jiaqian's other songs.
This summer's new songs "Summer Wind And Poetry", "Doodoodoo", the earlier "Terrance Wonderland", "Magical Confused Potions", "The Realm of One Man", "Listen to the Wind" and other songs that are mainly written by Lin Jiaqian are a different flavor. They are less sad, cheerful and free, all things are spiritual, and can be compared to any beautiful summer thing.
These songs all have a kind of optimism that no matter what the world is like, there is always a place for me and my happiness. Regret, confusion, and lack are left behind, and people always have to jump forward, "expecting that every step is also a festival" ("Summer Wind And Poetry"). Ordinary alleys and downtown streets can be playgrounds. The changes in the world that Hong Kong Music likes to sing about are swept by in Lin Jiaqian's songs. "Understand that the world is changing, and hope to do everything in my power to leave a memorial." He is like a young man pedaling a scooter through the ruins and relics, not without heart and lungs, but choosing to face it in another way.
"Doodoodoo" is also a guitar song, stuffed with strange, funny imagery. There is a very interesting lyric, "Call a few cute to avoid being buried alive", which means that although there are many knots in the world, there are more changes and monsters (can break through the knots). As long as the heart has the wisdom and the miracle is seen everywhere, the child's heart will not be buried.
Those who are familiar with Japanese animation will immediately see the image of the monster parade. There are always two worlds at the same time, one is the mundane human world, and the other is a strange world ruled by monsters. When they occasionally intersect, the scene is both terrifying and joyful. The words "cute" and "buried alive", one kind and one terrifying, when they appear hand in hand, they descend summoning spells, making the picture of the monster parade come to the fore. "Don't bury your feeling fantasies alive", Lin Jiaqian's song comforted many people. An investor in a Cantonese-speaking area often mentioned Lin Jiaqian in the circle of friends, indicating that it is not a child who needs to fantasize. The busier the person, the more they need the comfort of drinking soda and taking a breath.
Terrence Wonderland uses electric voices to celebrate the animism and provide a psychedelic experience without the need for drugs. Here Lin Jiaqian changed a way of singing, the whole false voice hanging in the fairyland, you can dance with the music, there will be a few words falling into the ear: "I love to stir up dust everywhere, I believe in the grotesque world is always cute." Only the last two words of the last line of the song, "so free to say no more and then" and then "switched to the real sound, it sounds like riding the slide of a water park, smoothly sliding to the end, flying into the water for a second."
Eason Chan has an old song "Then How", and the "then" here seems to be the future echo of that song. "Then How" sings a state of inactivity, "My happy times have been sung badly", there have been risks and efforts, but I don't know why the motivation has disappeared and I am caught in a dilemma. Ask yourself, "Don't dare to be satisfied, don't dare to stop, then what?" ”
Every time I feel that I enter this warm and watery state of mind, the melody of this song will bubble up, as if to comfort myself, and it seems that there is none, but the singer sings the heart. To this, "Terence's Wonderland" gives a transcendent answer. It encourages people to fly directly out of the knots of intercourse and indulge in the musical current of crispy crispness, which is also an answer.
Lin Jiaqian sang about the general mentality of today's young people. The economy is facing a recession, and the previous generation has shared the cake with great fire. They follow the order, work hard, and are "busy planning for tomorrow." The youth of this generation had no choice but to think that they did not want three pictures of being casually ended ("The Magic Of Confusion Potions"). The metaphor of the watch is the same as Eason Chan's "Tourbillon", both of which tell the story of people being dominated by work, and there are subtle differences. The protagonist in "Tourbillon" can still work hard to "buy one more watch". Here, it seems, we can only "look at the watch so much that we don't know how to stop turning."
But if you think about it, it's still on the spectrum of the Hong Kong spirit. The spirit of "Under the Lion Rock" has two sides, one is to work hard, and the other is to seek common ground while reserving differences and to help each other in the same boat. What supports these two spirits is the strong grassroots vitality and the optimistic and upward spirit of small citizens. "Confused Potions" sings "Foolishly Breaking Into Heaven and Earth" and "Being a Happy Fool Is More You", which is very grassroots. Although there are not so high expectations for the future, it is also necessary to break through without asking about the results, simple, tolerant and friendly.
Lin Jiaqian "MAJOR IN MINOR"
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"Do You Like Virgo" and "A Word Back in Time" are love songs that are closer to Lin Jiaqian and his generation of young people (although the lyricist is Huang Weiwen). The flavor of this hanging song and the trilogy is very different, no epiphany, no Zen machine, better than sobriety.
"Virgo" accurately paints a portrait of a person. To sum up three words, it is to think too much. Think too much, so you can't share happiness. You must have such a friend around you, whether you are single, in love or married, always uncomfortable. Talk to you, talk about a truck, copper pipes have breathed several rounds of air, or a fog. Love is degraded into a process of being picky and being picked up, and why not work and life?
The reverie in "A Word Backwards in Time" must have surfaced in everyone's mind. What if you go back a hundred years, if you go back to before the pandemic swept through, and did all this? The whole story is delusional, in fact, to avoid touching on the moment when the real thing happened: "I just want to forget that the expression you hear is ridiculous." ”
The lyrics of "The Realm of One Man" are all from Lin Jiaqian, which tells that a person "breaks the net of intercourse and occupies the heavens and clears the sky." The name is reminiscent of Eason Chan's (again) "No Man's Land". Both songs sing loneliness, "No Man's Land" is the loneliness of forbidden love, love must be hidden and secret, there is no way to go to the end of the road, the two still want to mess with each other, fantasizing about "putting their arms on the scenery" on the bridge. "The Realm of One Man" is a more "modern" solitude that has nothing to do with anyone else. Living alone, eating alone, climbing the mountain alone, taking photos may not reach social media at all, nor will it be sent to any friends to share. Speaking of which, this is a symptom of loneliness after the decline of modern youth hormones, which is in line with the characteristics of the times. They are willing to "watch the changing things in the world alone", can not be accompanied by friends, "resonance is a psychological response", very absolute.
It would be nice if I could be alone and elated. It would be better if it could be less lonely. Leaving traces of being criticized/painfully in love in the middle of the way, "burning the skin like a love mark and itching" ("Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter" - Zhang Guorong), is also a memorial.
Cantonese songs are beautiful, and it tirelessly depicts the voices of the heart and helps us see ourselves clearly. The beautiful melody is like a falling leaf "falling behind", but "no one in the world can stop the long stream of thin water love" ("Some Kind of Old Friend").
I hope that newcomers like Lin Jiaqian will continue to flow.
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai
Proofreader: Liu Wei