Who is the real Nanquan mother?

Author | Ding Qianwen Editor| Fan Zhihui

"Tears of the times", there is also a dispute over orthodoxy?

Recently, with the comeback tour of a group of Hong Kong and Taiwan musicians such as Wu Bai and Zhou Chuanxiong, the domestic performance market has also ushered in batches of retro memories. Among them, the Taiwanese group "Nanquan Mother", which was sought after by the 80s and 90s generation in the millennium with popular songs such as "Rainy Day" and "Mudanjiang", also started a tour schedule in the mainland.

But what is unbelievable is that in different provinces and cities, the two Livehouse-themed tours called Nanquan Mother's "I'm Back" and "Plan to Repeat" fought in the ring at the same time, and there was a controversy between "Li Kui and Li Ghost", not only the ticket prices are very different, but the composition of the personnel is also very different.

The current situation of the concurrent activities of Nanquan Mother, composed of two different groups of people, has also puzzled many music fans, and the controversy over who is orthodox is also very loud.

In the 20 years since its establishment, Nanquan Mom has reached version 5.0

Looking back at the development process of Nanquan Mother, since its establishment 20 years ago, it has frequently changed members, making this group constantly bumpy. To some extent, the activity mode of its members' solo debut or transition to the group's behind-the-scenes team is similar to the graduation system of the Japanese girl group AKB48G, which allows members to have a flexible operation mechanism that allows them to choose to "change careers" during the contract period.

As early as 2004, music producer Ju Cannon (Zhong Zuohong, Jay Chou's royal music director and producer), GARY (Yang Ruidai, Jay Chou's royal recording engineer), Warhead (Song Jianzhang, Jay Chou's friend, lyricist), Zhan Yuhao (Jay Chou's Tamjiang Middle School student) led by Jay Chou to form the first generation of Nanquan mothers, and officially debuted with the album "Summer of Nanquan Mother". Among them, the popularity of songs such as "Vanilla Bar" and "When I Was a Child" also made Nanquan's mother occupy a name in the music world.

As the first group of artists launched by Jay Chou, Nanquan's mother has had a traffic halo since her debut, and she has also captured the audience with fresh and high-quality works such as Jay Chou and Fang Wenshan's participation, national style fusion pop, male and female duet and other works full of freshness and high quality under the basis of no shortage of resources and audiences.

However, in 2005, with Yang Ruidai and Ju Cannon turning into the behind-the-scenes producers of the group, the first Nanquan mother also came to an end in the second year.

In the same year, the addition of Liang Xinyi and Zhang Jie brought Nanquan's mother to version 2.0, with the album "No. 2 Meal" in the "Mudanjiang", "Orange Soda" and other popular songs, Nanquan's mother also reached its peak in the second generation period, and in 2008, the release of "Goodbye Childhood", "Rainy Day" and other popular songs made it a popular group in the Chinese-speaking region, and has been shortlisted for the Taiwan Golden Melody Award many times.

But the good times didn't last long, Liang Xinyi and Zhang Jie chose to quit in 2010, and the duo Nanquan mother maintained by Warhead and Zhan Yuhao also fell into a five-year solo flight period after the release of the album "Duel Baha";

Until 2015, the addition of Cao Jinghao, Hong Yanxiang and Yan Zhenglan also ushered in the 4.0 period of re-activity of Nanquan's mother. However, after only releasing the single "Comeback" and the album "New Attack", in 2017, Yan Zhenglan, who is the fourth-generation female lead singer, also chose to quit because she could not take into account the actor's activities, and then was filled by newcomer Chen Yuwei. At this point, Nanquan Mom has also changed to the fifth generation, and has steadily launched group activities since then.

However, what is interesting is that when the fifth-generation Nanquan mothers re-emerged in the Chinese music scene under the name of "Nanquan Mother", the second-generation Nanquan mothers Liang Xinyi, Zhan Yuhao, and Zhang Jie performed as "Nanquan Mother X" in 2022, and even announced the return of the well-known "Nanquan Mother" version with a single "I'm back" with the bullet.

The emergence of "Multiple Southern Boxing" also made many music fans confused.

But according to the warhead, the reorganization of the second generation originated from Jay Chou's "birth". He said that it was Jay Chou's sentence "Since they have all written good songs, how old are they if you don't send them quickly", which made him decide to reunite with the second-generation members and return, and even the artist accounts on the music platform are shared.

As a noble member of Nanquan's mothers, Jay Chou has never been absent in the development of the group. He is not only the producer of the original Nanquan Mother, but also supports the music production of the follow-up Nanquan Mother, and gives members the exposure resources to participate in movies and TV series.

For example, in 2016, in the album "New Attack of Boxing" released by the fifth generation of Nanquan mothers, Jay Chou and Fang Wenshan participated in the production;

It can be said that Nanquan's mother has reached an inseparable binding relationship with Jay Chou from the beginning of her birth, after all, even the group name evolved from Jay Chou's screen name when he was a student. As member Zhan Yuhao said in an interview, "Without Jay Chou, there would be no Nanquan mother." ”

This solid foundation of support has also affected the generationalization, reorganization and flexible cooperation of Nanquan mothers to a certain extent. For example, the album "Meal No. 2", which made Nanquan's mother shortlisted for the 17th Taiwan Golden Melody Awards, was produced by Jay Chou and Yang Ruidai, the original member. However, due to the excessive participation of Jay Chou and Jay Chou's royal team, Nanquan's mother's music style has always been criticized and cannot get rid of the shadow of "Zhou's style".

After fifteen years, there have been many twists and turns in the past, and the second-generation and fifth-generation versions of Nanquan mothers who are active at the same time have also caused the public to fall into the confusion of "Rashomon". Since the two sides announced the start of the mainland tour, complaints such as "fraud" and "misplaced memories" have appeared on social platforms from time to time, and the second-generation Nanquan mother led by the warhead has been angrily reprimanded for "just rotten money" because of the big blood change.

Nanquan's mother's multi-line parallelism has also triggered a dispute over who is orthodox, but for the audience, the expectation of emotional consumption has been disappointed, and they are naturally dissatisfied.

Who is the real Nanquan mother?

In fact, while fans are arguing about who is orthodox, although the two groups of Nanquan mothers are amiable on the surface, they also express their attitudes in the face of doubts.

In July this year, Zhang Jie, a member of the second-generation Nanquan mother, posted a Weibo pointing out that the mainland short video put the fifth-generation Nanquan mother's "plan reunion" tour information Zhang Guanli to the second-generation member's video of the video, which is "very undesirable to confuse and confuse the public"; Planning a reunion is not our concert".

Under this clarification, many music fans also rushed to appeal to each other to "don't buy the wrong ticket", and some music fans made a distinction strategy for Ai Power Generation, striving to find the right memories of youth. To a certain extent, this also added a heat to the box office of the second-generation Nanquan mother's tour, and almost all of its tour performances were sold out, and the Beijing station even added an additional performance for this purpose.

It is worth noting that the price of the second-generation Nanquan mother's mainland tour generally ranges from 299 yuan to 599 yuan, but it soars to 459 yuan to 699 yuan in Beijing, and the relatively high livehouse ticket price has also caused some music fans to notice that the ticket price of the fifth-generation Nanquan mother, who also sang on the "planned reunion" tour, ranged from 238 yuan to 520 yuan.

However, even if the price is relatively low, compared with the popularity of the second generation, the fifth generation of Nanquan mothers has fallen into a relatively embarrassing situation.

Up to now, the performance of the five generations has not only been accused of consuming Jay Chou throughout the performance, but also caused a very poor viewing experience due to out-of-tune, perfunctory choreography, and no live band accompaniment"Those who understand naturally understand". Again, this is very dissatisfying for music fans.

As the condemnation intensified, fans who recognized the difference between the second and fifth generations also began to flock to the second generation members to tour. Taking Shanghai as an example, the livehouse performance of the second-generation Nanquan mother, which is about to start in mid-December, was sold out instantly, while the performance of the fifth generation on December 2 was still not fully sold out until November 13.

Obviously, the contradiction between the real and fake Nanquan mothers lies in the misleading ticket purchase and box office diversion caused by the reorganized tours, performances and other activities. For many audiences who are "not connected to the Internet", they only choose to buy tickets to watch the performance after recognizing the group name of "Nanquan Mother", but the difference in the voice of the female lead singer also makes the voice of the public looking for a nostalgic anchor gradually rise.

As a group where "singers are not popular", this phenomenon of iconic members being greater than other members is both an advantage and a disadvantage, which can easily lead to an unbalanced development of the group. Just like the Fei'er Orchestra without Fei'er and the Xin'er Orchestra without faith, once the follow-up of the work is weak, it is easy to be drowned in the music scene.

What's more, the current ownership of the two groups of "Nanquan Mother" trademarks is very ambiguous, and even has long been out of the dispute between authenticity and falsehood.

According to Tianyancha, in the "41 categories - education and entertainment" classification, which is closely related to the music entertainment industry, there are only 5 registered "Nanquan Mother" trademarks, in addition to the "tour guide service" registered by iQilu, 2 of which are newly registered in July this year "Nanquan Mother" and "Nanquan Mother X" belong to Song Jianzhang (warhead) and the company to which the second-generation Nanquan Mother belongs to Secret Music (Hong Kong). Among them, Secret Music (Hong Kong) is closely related to Zhan Yuhao and Jay Chou, which is a subsidiary of Superstar Legend, and is also the organizer of the second-generation Nanquan mother's "I'm back" tour.

In other words, at the end of July this year, the second-generation Nanquan mother only carried out commercial performance activities as the second-generation reorganized by Liang Xinyi (Lara), Zhan Yuhao, and Zhang Jie after solving the trademark problem, and Jay Chou's mediation was indispensable behind it.

In the case that both parties hold trademarks, the two groups of Nanquan mothers are orthodox and there is no difference between true and false.

epilogue

After a long time, the big river will go east, the waves will eventually stop, and the waves will be turbulent.

Just as Da Zhang Wei became an outsider after the reorganization of the Flower Band, Shi Lu's fate with the Hedgehog Band came to an end, and the divergence of the guidance of the true and false Nanquan mothers is still a choice problem faced by every band and group. When there are different ideas and views on the creation and operation of the team, and it is difficult to reconcile, there will inevitably be a fork in the road. Just like the past generations of members of Nanquan Mother, there are many who have left to try the transformation of independent musicians, behind-the-scenes, and actors.

However, correspondingly, the public will always over-embellish and beautify the nostalgic culture, and the nostalgic consumption of the collective memory of the relevant generation emphasizes the construction of public colors. When awakening collective memories to stimulate consumption, the choice in front of many musicians who want to play the emotional card may not only be an option to indulge in the past, but also have the courage to reshape the future in the era of streaming media.

As Jay Chou said frankly in an interview before, he is most worried about being eliminated by the times, "my music has to cross the era".

Typography | A