When asked what scene a song they recently heard originated from, many people's first reaction may be a soundtrack on a short video APP on their mobile phones. Today's music can be listened to and seen, and the change of communication media has extended the use of music scenes and means of communication, and also changed the listening habits of consumers, which has greatly affected the musicians of this era.
Musicians Tang Hanxiao (left) and Yu Jiayun (right) have spread their music more widely through short video platforms.
Born in 1989, Tang Hanxiao went through the TV draft and spent more than a decade behind the scenes. Now he is back on the stage, embracing the short video platform and spreading his music more widely. Yu Jiayun, another musician born in 1994, reflects a different growth path. Studying abroad in high school and receiving a professional music education at Berkeley, he now stretches his branches on the internet platform with a voice of his age and experience.
Short video platforms have changed our listening habits, and they have also changed the growth path of creators.
Tang Hanxiao: From the TV draft to the resonance with the short video era
Recently, I saw That Tang Hanxiao was on a program "Praise for Songs" jointly produced by Zhejiang Satellite TV and Douyin, and there were "new stars" like him on the stage, as well as veteran singers such as Zhang Xinzhe and Sun Nan. Instead of traditional mentors or music critics, there are hundreds of Douyin video masters, and the winners will get communication help. Time goes back to 2008, when Tang Hanxiao stood at the scene of the "My Type I Show", when he won the national championship.
After the "My Type I Show" competition, Tang Hanxiao always felt that he was still a layman in music, and his achievement of winning the championship at the age of 18 made him very anxious. In the years behind the scenes, the theme song "Let Me Stay with You" composed for the movie "Ferryman" was shortlisted for the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Taiwan Golden Horse Award; he also created "Skyscraper" for Xue Zhiqian and "Heavy Rain Is Coming" for Xu Jiaying... Years of behind-the-scenes work have made him almost a "decathlete" player, and he has worked with more and more singers on his resume. One day, the agent approached him and told him he could walk to the front of the stage.
Tang Hanxiao's solo debut album "Apollo".
In 2020, he released his debut album "Apollo", showing everyone the real "Tang Hanxiao" with philosophical speculation. In 2021's "Praise for Songs", he won the first and second championships of the show with his new song "Mud" and the adapted Douyin hot song "Green". If "Mud" reflects his deep cultivation over the years, then the adaptation of "Green" is his attempt to constantly transform his creative thinking based on his understanding of music in the short video era.
In order to adapt to the change of media, Tang Hanxiao changed his creative method. In the production process, such as arrangement, mixing and other processes, he also considered communication. "In the past, everyone listened to songs on CDs, or speakers and headphones. But now we check the post-mix of a song, and the vast majority of the tools used are mobile phone speakers, and we'll audition for various phones, and this is the transformation. ”
The short video platform makes the threshold of music creation and dissemination slowly become lower, this transformation allows many talented people to emerge, and the works of inspiration can be disseminated, Tang Hanxiao said: "Before it was from the ear, now it is starting from the eyes, someone uses our music to do BGM or someone is listening, which is definitely something that every musician wants." ”
Tang Hanxiao was at the scene of the performance.
On the Douyin platform, he found that the same musical works, different listeners can read different "secret codes" from them, and based on personal understanding, participate in the secondary creation of songs by making short videos. "Some people will make a small video after understanding the lyrics, some funny, some inspirational, I think this is really the era of a hundred flowers, it is such a song, it will have everyone's code words, a sense of participation." 」
User engagement is a new feature given to music by short video platforms, which brings listeners closer to the musician. The attitude expressed by the listener can be directly perceived by the musician, and the musician is no longer a symbol hidden in the album cover or media text promotion, they can be seen and felt. Massive short videos + pushes according to personal preferences, so that good music can reach the most impressed people.
Yu Jiayun: The post-90s who embraced the Internet and learned from the classics
Compared with Tang Hanxiao's introverted and thick-skinned hair, Yu Jiayun, who was born in 1994 in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, is more active and confident, and this personality is related to the shaping of his family.
When he was a child, he did not know whether he sang well or badly, but everyone in his family praised him for singing well, and subtly he established the confidence that he could sing. Yu Jiayun studied abroad in high school, and after graduation, he got an acceptance letter from the Berkeley Conservatory of Music and became an alumnus of Wang Lihong, Uncle Bird and others.
Yu Jiayun
In school, he solved the confusion of self-taught music, and he systematically learned music theory, arrangement, mixing, recording, etc., where he experienced the collision of Chinese music and Western music. When Yu Jiayun was in junior high school, he liked to listen to Fang Datong, and when he went abroad, he gradually broadened the field of musical aesthetics by listening to the works of Fang Datong's idols.
Yu Jiayun feels that the current music tends to be more integrated, and the difference in style of more and more music is not so obvious, "Various elements are stacked together, in fact, there will be more different possibilities." ”
Yu Jiayun has made Yu Jiayun more understanding and tolerant of the existence of different musical styles, and he will think about the reasons why works with high listening volumes have become popular, "Maybe these songs make the audience very relaxed and happy, because the ability of music to convey happiness is very strong." Why are songs like "Little Apple" and "Learn to Cat Call" so popular because it brings happiness to others. ”
On Douyin, he adapted the hit song "Shepherd of the Cocoto Sea" and shaped it into a song in the style of "Yu Jiayun", and the R&B-style lazy voice line made the audience exclaim "forget how the original song was sung". The same attempt was made with his cover album YUN, in which he reinterpreted classic old songs such as "Woman Flower" and "True Love Your Cloud" in the style of R&B, and these works that often appeared in the song list became the object of his study. Yu Jiayun feels that if a song wants to become a classic, it must first give the melody sincerity, and this sincerity is also used in communication with the audience.
Cover of Yu Jiayun's album "Yu Jiayun SINCE 1994".
Born in the era of rapid development of the Internet, Yu Jiayun is born with a sense of networking, and he is accustomed to interacting with fans on social media to present his creative process. On Douyin, he uploaded a video of playing the piano and singing the masterpiece "With You", inviting everyone to sing together. Whenever a new creation appears, he uncontrollably wants to share it with listeners and fans, "sharing" is a joy for him, and this personality of "sharing" coincides with the spread of the short video era.
With the help of the power of vibrato, Yu Jiayun's songs spread more vigorously. You can find a lot of information about him on it, the clips of the shows you attend, the users cover his work, it's a new experience for him, "Now is the era when everyone has the opportunity to express themselves, so it will give birth to more personalized music, no matter what style you do, you will have a certain percentage of fans and listeners, which I think is a good thing." 」 ”
Visualize publicity and empower musicians
The short video platform has changed the appearance of music dissemination, the combination of music + short video gives creators a broader creative vision, and the user's spontaneous "secondary creation" allows works to penetrate into public life. This step-by-step downward fission changes the previous restrictions on reaching the audience in the form of a single-plane communication method. Under the influence of platform recommendations, music is more subdivided, as long as you have good music, you have a chance to be seen. "See the music, see you" is the slogan of TikTok Music. Through short videos, long videos, live broadcasts and other forms of publicity, music can be experienced in an all-round way.
Musicians such as Tang Hanxiao and Yu Jiayun, who are active in Douyin, have mastered professional and systematic music knowledge, and can adapt to the changes of the times to adjust the way music is presented, and have found a place to take root in the increasingly diversified Douyin music and continue to work hard. In the era of short videos, more such musicians will emerge.
The new "Douyin See Music Project" hosted by Douyin Music is accelerating the empowerment of musicians, this original musician support project was launched in 2018, and last year's "Birds and Cicadas" and "Idle Garden" that were popular all over the Internet last year were the entries of the third edition. Through the power of the platform, Douyin has helped many high-quality musicians and musical works enter the public eye, using visual publicity to break the restrictions of the circle and realize the positive interaction between musicians and listeners.
The fourth "Douyin See Music Project" has been launched on April 18, 2021, the core schedule lasts for two months, and the in-station audition lasts until 00:00 on June 1.
Beijing News reporter Wu Longzhen
Edited by Wu Longzhen Proofreader Zhai Yongjun
Source: Beijing News