March 22, 2023 | Total Issue 3183
With a string of beautiful and quiet environmental mirrors, close professional conversations in the director's room, and a passionate "Naluwan Love Song" sung by the power train, the music variety show "Endless Sound and Treasure Island Season" was prepared for about a year, and on March 16, he officially met with the audience.
Continuing the tradition of "Endless Sound - Hong Kong Music Season", the program team took Taiwanese music as the theme in this season and invited singers from both sides of the Taiwan Strait to perform on the same stage. In the first program, the program group invited a total of 16 singers, including mainland singers (bands) including Na Ying, Zhang Jie, Hua Chenyu, Ma Jiaqi, Chen Ren, Chen Zhuoxuan, and Summer Invasion Project; Taiwanese singers (bands) include Zhang Xinzhe, Yang Zongwei, Zhang Shaohan, Wei Ruxuan, Bad Special, Ai Yiliang, Chen Linong, Power Train, and Hu Defu.
Taking the era as a clue, the program reproduces the development of Taiwanese pop music from the Taiwanese folk song movement in the seventies to today. Taiwan's music has accompanied the growth of generations of people, and the pulsating notes have narrowed the distance between the two sides of the strait.
As the program's chorus says: "The moment the song sounds, the strait narrows, and the land and islands widen." ”
To say that the most emotional thing in "Endless Sound Treasure Island Season" is the accurate selection of songs by the program group. When the familiar melody sounds, I believe that every fan who bows to the prosperity of Taiwanese music will unconsciously hum along with the shallow hum.
Na Ying's collaboration with Hu Defu, a pioneer of the Taiwanese folk song movement, "The Olive Tree", composed in the late seventies of the last century, is an early temple-level work of Taiwanese pop music, conveying the wanderer's longing for no return. The stage design of the program group here is also quite ingenious, and Na Ying and Hudev singing in the air from the "painting", which is shocking and poetic.
Around the 80s of the last century, the program group selected three classic songs by Luo Dayou, the godfather of Chinese pop music: "Your Look", "Lukang Town" and "Love Song 1980".
In order to restore the taste of Luo Dayou's songs, the program team specially invited Luo Dayou's royal guitarist Ni Fang to help. Singer Ma Jiaqi interpreted the youthfulness and innocence of "The Way You Look", which is beautiful but slightly immature; Yang Zongwei, because he is closer to Luo Dayou's timbre, expresses the rock taste of "Lugang Town" very well.
As representative figures of Chinese music in the 90s of the last century, Na Ying and Zhang Xinzhe sang their masterpieces "The Black of the Day Don't Understand the Night" and "I Really Love You" respectively, and later collaborated on the cover song "Cliff" (originally sung by Qi Qin). It is worth mentioning that from the perspective of the chorus of the two, Na Ying's singing strength is better, whether it is pitch, sound pressure, or rhythm.
In the new century, "Endless Sound Treasure Island Season" brought two small-scale skewer performances to the audience: one is three songs based on records, namely "Code Word", "Must Be Happy" and "He Summer Summer"; The second is the performance of four songs based on Taiwanese idol drama songs, namely "Encounter", "Ambiguous", "Wish Post-it Notes" and "Lost Beauty".
From the author's personal perception, although "Secret Number" is good, it is not Jay Chou's popular repertoire, and it will be better to replace it with more popular songs such as "Qilixiang", "Sunny Day" and "Nocturne". Similarly, if you replace "He Summer Summer" with a soda green hit song such as "Little Love Song" or "Incomparable Beauty", it will surely trigger a chorus. Hua Chenyu's singing skills when his mood is stable are still remarkable, and the team's color-changing processing of the picture effect in the later stage has played a lot of blessings for the atmosphere of the song "Must Be Happy".
In terms of choosing the theme song of the idol drama, "Endless Sound Treasure Island Season" was selected on the tip of the listener's heart. As the theme song of "Prank Kiss", the melody of "Encounter" is enough to make the post-90s collective tears, who didn't really sip the CP of Jiang Naoki and Yuan Xiangqin?
As the theme song of the TV series "The Devil is Around", "Ambiguous" allows the audience to remember the on-screen couple of He Junxiang and Rainie Yang, and also makes Rainie Yang's label of "sweet godmaster" continue to this day. As the theme song of the phenomenal idol drama "Destiny I Love You", the "pink bubble" in the lyrics of "Wish Post-it-it" is difficult not to dream back to the love story of Ji Cunxi and Chen Xinyi.
Later, the melody of "Lost Beauty" sounded, and the audience watched the singer Zhang Shaohan and Yi Tianbian's figure in "Dolphin Bay Lover" on the curtain, how could it not be moved and resonate?
In the past ten years, the program group invited three Taiwanese original female singers, Wei Ruxuan, Bad Te and Ai Yiliang. Wei Ruxuan sang the original song "You, You, You", which was nominated for the Best Composer of the 28th Golden Melody Awards, and built a unique corner of music for the audience with a soothing and natural voice. The Hokkien song "Love You Are Greater Than I Think of the Pavilion" sung by Bad Te shows the avant-garde style of Taiwanese music that is maverick and sword-walking. And "Forever Young" brought by Ai Yiliang uses soft and gentle tunes to convey a slightly sharp and free attitude to life, which is unforgettable.
The program's choice of lyric subtitles may be something that needs to be improved. When listening to Hokkien songs, many viewers felt uncomfortable because they could not see the lyrics clearly and could not understand the meaning of the lyrics, which undermined the original excellent viewing experience.
The program group chose to let singer Zhang Jie sing the theme song of the TV series "Want to See You" "Want to See You Want to See You" as the finale song of the first program. It not only expresses the singers' longing for the audience, but also expresses the concern of the two sides of the strait for each other.
At the end of the chorus song, the program chose Zhang Yusheng's original song "My Future Is Not a Dream", which resonated with the audience with thoughts of the deceased singer Zhang Yusheng.
The first program of "Endless Sound Treasure Island Season" did not appear in the competition setting, the audience only need to listen to the song with confidence, do not need to worry about other matters, relaxed, comfortable and immersed.
This reminds me of "The Same Song" and "Happy China Trip" that I used to watch every week when I was a child, and it is a wonderful thing to return to the basics and regain purity. The meaning of musical performance is to allow the audience to enjoy and relax, rather than hanging from beginning to end. Even if the follow-up content has a competition link, don't overemphasize it.
There are still too many classic works in Taiwanese music that are worth recalling, such as Li Zongsheng, Zhang Zhenyue, Zhou Huajian, Ren Xianqi, Meng Tingwei, Xu Ruyun, Zhou Chuanxiong (Xiaogang), Liu Ruoying, Wu Bai, Tong Ange in the 80s and 90s... For example, Sun Yanzi, Lin Junjie, Penny Dai, Wang Leehom, Pan Weibai, Cai Jianya, Mayday after the new century... For example, the new generation of musicians Wei Li'an, Ba San Yao, Ji Wu Ren, Eggplant Egg, etc. who have risen in recent years, I believe that as long as the program team chooses songs well and designs the dance beauty with heart, for music fans, each episode of the program will be an unparalleled musical feast.
People who love music are their own people, and I hope that "Endless Sound Treasure Island Season" will continue to bring surprises.
【Text/Yichen】