Note: The purpose of this article is to introduce the whole process of the birth, development and decline of the Cantonese songs that we are familiar with, on the island of Hong Kong.
Reference is Wong's doctoral dissertation, known as the "Father of Cantonese Pop", "The Development and Rise and Fall of Cantonese Pop: A Study of Hong Kong Pop Music".
As early as 1981, Huang Submitted a thesis entitled "Discussion on cantonese opera issues" to his alma mater, the University of Hong Kong, and received a master's degree.
In his later years, Uncle Xia was still immersed in learning and insisted on going to HKU to audit the doctoral program. After five years, he finally completed his doctoral thesis.
The full title of the paper is "The Development and Rise and Fall of Cantonese Pop: A Study of Hong Kong Pop Music"
Known as the "father of Cantonese pop", Huang Xia not only created more than 2,000 popular songs in his lifetime, but also his life's fate coincided with the fate of Hong Kong pop songs.
For the research of this topic, Huang Xia is undoubtedly the best candidate.
However, in 2003, when Huang Xia submitted the paper to the University of Hong Kong, it was sealed by the University of Hong Kong, and it was not published, and no one dared to read it.
It is accepted that no one is qualified to be Huang Xia's mentor on this subject. As a result, Huang Did Not Receive a Doctorate before his death.
It was not until Huang's death that HKU made its dissertation public and awarded her doctorate to Huang. Therefore, at Huang Xia's memorial service, he wrote impressively: Dr. Huang Xia's memorial service.
The decline of Cantonese pop has always been shrouded in mystery.
The main thing is that its decline does not have a process. In just one year, it fell directly from the peak to the trough. It caught people off guard and there was no chance of salvation.
As for the causes of the recession, the various theories are not unique and the debate is fierce. Scholars who are full of economy and economy have been accused of being on paper and have personal experience, but they are not valued because of their low status.
Therefore, Huang Xia's paper coincided with the birth of the time, which is particularly eye-catching.
As soon as the paper was published, it became a must-read classic for the study of popular culture in Hong Kong. It not only details the causes of the recession, but also explains the process of its development and rise.
What exactly did Huang's doctoral dissertation write?
In the paper, Huang Xia's choice of time to study Cantonese pop songs is very memorable. The range was from 1949 to 1997. namely:
It begins with the "March of the Volunteers" in Beijing's "Tiananmen Square" and ends with the "March of the Volunteers" in hong Kong's "Golden Bauhinia Square".
In these 48 years, Huang Xia divided it into four epochs:
The "Night Fragrance" era (1949-1959), the "No Love" and "Green Island Serenade" era (1960-1973), the "I Am Me" era (1974-1983) and the "Gushing Tide" era (1984-1997).
Each era is named after the popular songs of the time, and each name has a special meaning behind it. In addition to academics, it does not lose its literary and artistic nature.
Uncle Xia's strength can be seen from this. He is not only a scholar, but also a "ghost talent" who combines multiple identities such as writers, musicians, media creators and even hosts.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="132" > the "Nocturnal" era (1949-1959).</h1>
"Incense" refers to Hong Kong, "night", and here refers to "night Shanghai". "Night" comes to "incense", that is, during this period, a large number of musicians in Shanghai immigrated to Hong Kong.
Before 1949, most of the Hong Kong residents were Cantonese. The Cantonese dialect is their only language. These people do not understand Chinese, and most of them are farmers.
At that time, there were also so-called pop songs, commonly known as "big drama", that is, traditional Cantonese opera and Cantonese opera. Jackie Chan and Hong Jinbao's childhood drama class, as well as Lin Zhengying's "fan class", all belong to the category of "big drama".
In addition, there are two kinds of pop songs, one is a Chinese era song produced by Shanghai. Hong Kong must first buy records, and then broadcast them by "Radio Television Hong Kong". The other is an Occidental pop song played by the entertainment radio station "Li's Voice".
Compared with the "big drama", these two popular songs were extremely niche at the time. But in any case, before 1949, what Hong Kong residents heard was the music of Chinese and Foreign miscellaneous places, Andi Guangdong and English intermittently.
At that time, no one would have imagined that this small island would become an important center of Chinese pop music in a few decades, influencing Chinese people around the world.
However, change happened in 1949.
This year, the situation on the mainland underwent extremely rapid changes. Hong Kong, which has been obscure, has suddenly become a fragrant feast.
For a time, Hong Kong became an ideal paradise for a large number of Chinese who loved freedom and did not want to attach themselves to any faction. A large number of people and materials began to flow to this place.
According to Yuan Bangjian's "Hong Kong History": "In August, on the eve of the liberation of Guangzhou, a batch of funds flowed into Hong Kong. On the 11th, the inflow of gold into Hong Kong and Macao reached 20,000 taels. In a week, there have been fifty or sixty thousand taels. ”
The influx of funds is still secondary, and the arrival of talents is the key. At that time, there were many people who immigrated to Hong Kong from Shanghai at night.
Among these people, there are not only well-funded film owners, experienced choreographers, and danghong Huadan, but also musical production talents of Shanghai Chinese Times.
1949 was undoubtedly a very important year for Hong Kong. Hong Kong effortlessly, not even in the plan, has taken a big step in attracting investment and talents.
Previously, when listening to Chinese times music in Hong Kong, I had to buy records from Shanghai, and now the creative base of Chinese times music has been built at my doorstep. Hong Kong seems to have replaced Shanghai overnight, becoming the new base of the Chinese times.
Shanghainese people have flexible minds, and after Chinese era song took root in Hong Kong, in order to cater to the tastes of Hong Kong people, they began to adjust to local conditions. Hong Kong's local "big drama" appeared to be uncompetitive in the face of quite fashionable era songs, and soon fell into the inferior position.
In addition, by the mid-1950s, the children of immigrants who had entered the English academy had several years of language training, began to understand English roughly, and gradually formed a longing for English culture.
The improvement of the quality of residents has indirectly promoted the development of European and Western pop songs, that is, American pop songs, so that the local "big drama" has no living space. By the end of the 1950s, the living space of traditional Cantonese opera was only advertising songs.
During this period, pop music had two major tributaries, namely Shanghai Chinese Period And American Pop.
With the decline of traditional Cantonese opera and Cantonese opera, Hong Kong pop music has also entered the next era.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="135" > the era of "No Love" and "Green Island Serenade" (1960-1973).</h1>
"No Love" is a work composed by Wang Fuling and lyrics by Tao Qin, and many people are not strangers. Not many people know "Green Island Serenade", and this song is a famous work by Taiwanese musician Zhou Lanping.
In the Hong Kong film "Prison Storm" starring Fa Ge, this song was changed to Cantonese, and the Cantonese version was a hit, called "Light of Friendship".
This era is an era of transformation for Hong Kong.
In the era of "Night Fragrance", Chinese from the mainland to Hong Kong have a "passer-by" mentality. However, it is regarded as a place to provide two meals and shelter from the rain and wind, and there is no sense of belonging. Deep in my heart, I always hope that one day I can return to my homeland.
After entering the era of "No Love", this mentality of immigrants has gradually weakened. With the change of lifestyle and the improvement of Hong Kong's economy, these people began to feel that Hong Kong was a place to live in peace, and began to identify with Hong Kong.
Another key feature of Hong Kong residents is that the popularization of primary education in Hong Kong in the 1950s and the rise of secondary education began to bear fruit.
After this group of children who have received middle and primary education step into the society, their vision is relatively broad and they also understand literature and ink. Therefore, it is inevitable that there will be more admiration for Western culture. As a result, the Culture of Hong Kong in the 1960s has some lofty characteristics.
In order to capture the hearts of these people, Denmao Film Company first launched a color singing film that combined Chinese and Western, which became a popular song at the top of the trend for a time and was widely loved.
Not to be outdone, Denmao's main competitor, Shao, began to make traditional Chinese local opera pop music and began to shoot large-scale costume singing films. Under the impetus of Li Hanxiang's "Sable Cicada" and "Beauty of Jiangshan", it has set off a wave of yellow plum tune for nearly twenty years.
At the same time as Huangmei music, Chinese era songs, at this time, also emerged in new places, began to get rid of the influence of old Shanghai, and established their own style personality and appearance.
Therefore, the Chinese era song of this period, also known as the "Hong Kong-style era song", the most prominent representative figures are Wang Fuling and Gu Jiahui. Although the name is "Hong Kong style", the language is still Chinese.
English songs have always had the same status under the impetus of "Li's TV".
Therefore, in Hong Kong during this period, the mainstream of popular music was American pop, Hong Kong-style era music and HuangMei tune.
Cantonese songs still exist only in advertising songs. However, as Hong Kong's economy took off, the advertising industry also flourished. Due to the abundant production budget and relatively high remuneration of advertising songs, it has also attracted many advertising singers and music producers.
Advertising singers born in this period such as Xu Xiaofeng, Guan Zhengjie, Ye Liyi, Xiandula, Hua Wa, etc., composers such as Gu Jiahui, and lyrics such as Huang Xia.
The space between traditional Cantonese opera and Cantonese opera is too elegant, and Cantonese era music is too vulgar, which can be filled with Cantonese advertising songs.
At this time, the Cantonese advertising songs, whether from the singer's singing skills or the ability to compose and fill in the words, have been greatly improved and improved compared with before, so the public is not disgusted after hearing it, and even some classic songs are quite popular.
However, this love only exists in advertising songs. In popular music, the public talks about Cantonese, which is still dismissive.
Therefore, the Cantonese era song of this period did not recover because of the boom in advertising songs. However, the prosperity of advertising songs and the injection of a large number of talents have indeed laid solid conditions for the revival of Cantonese era songs.
This was fully demonstrated in the next era.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="136" > the era of "I Am Me" (1974-1983).</h1>
"I Tie Me" is the lyrics of the song "Ask Me" written by Huang Xia in 1976. This song is not only a masterpiece of this era, but the "I am in charge" in the lyrics hints at the formation of Hong Kong people's local consciousness at this time.
Fast forward to the 1970s, a period of expansion for Hong Kong's youth population.
For these young people, Hong Kong is their birthplace. Unlike the previous generation, they are not immigrants and do not miss their homeland. Therefore, it is easier to feel a sense of belonging to Hong Kong.
It can even be said that Hong Kong's local consciousness is mainly caused by them. And these young people are the main consumers of popular music.
Cantonese pop songs have arisen in the sky, place, people and circumstances. Its beginning, almost all scholars believe that the theme song of the "wireless" TV series "Laughing Marriage". Huang's paper also agrees with this view.
"Laughing at the Marriage" is a Cantonese song composed by Gu Jiahui, lyrics by Yip Shao Tak, and sung by Sidula.
The film and television theme song is in Cantonese, which is a huge breakthrough in Hong Kong pop music. The first person to raise his arms and shout, naturally need to have a certain boldness, this person is the father of the famous Hong Kong director Wang Jing: Wang Tianlin.
In his later years, Wang Tianlin worked as a TV drama director at "Wireless", and had long been dissatisfied with the phenomenon of adopting Chinese theme songs for Cantonese dramas, and finally broke out in "The Cause of Laughter", and insisted that music director Gu Jiahui compose Cantonese theme songs.
Years later, Gu Jiahui still trembles when he recalls this incident. Bluntly said that although the song is Cantonese, in terms of singers, xiandula who mainly sings English songs and Chinese songs is found, so that at least it will not give people a vulgar feeling. It can be seen that the confidence at that time was really not great.
However, as soon as "The Cause of Laughter" appeared, it was universally accepted by the public. People seem to have eliminated discrimination against Cantonese overnight, and no one mentioned the words "difficult to climb the elegance" and "old earth".
This seemingly sudden phenomenon has been brewing for several years.
In the last era, Cantonese advertising songs spread throughout the streets and alleys of Hong Kong. Hong Kong citizens, unconsciously, have built up confidence in their native language.
In 1972, Chu Yuan's film "Seventy-Two Tenants", which used Cantonese dialogue for the first time and won the annual box office championship, also indirectly proved this confidence.
After the fire of "Laughter Karma", a series of Cantonese songs emerged, which were also sought after by the public. There was a very classic news at the time:
The violin performance after the university president's banquet even entertained the guests with "When People Shed Tears on the Journey" composed by Li Xiaotian.
It is not difficult to see that Cantonese songs have crossed the restrictions of class at this time, and have been widely accepted from the upper class intellectuals to the people of the city.
"Cantonese pop" began to really catch on.
During this period, the early producers of Cantonese songs began to boldly try and reform, laying the basic gameplay and rules for the future development of Cantonese pop songs.
In terms of composition, Gu Jiahui handles harmonic techniques and follows the usual way of European and American pop songs. In terms of music, it is exactly what Berklee learned when he studied in the United States.
In terms of lyrics, in "Ask Me", Huang Xia, for the first time, abandoned the old titles of Cantonese era songs such as "Qing", "Brother", "Sister", "Lang", "Jun", etc., and adopted the more direct "you" and "I".
In the overall creation of the song, the production method of "first song and then word" is stipulated, which is different from the "first word after song" of the Chinese era song. Therefore, the lyric creators of this period are also called "fillers".
A line-of-the-art habit derived from this production method is "Japanese song in words".
Cantonese pop is on the rise, and demand far outweighs supply. The record company then thought of this fast and effective way to buy the top hits on the Japanese pop charts, fill in the Cantonese lyrics and release them directly.
Japanese pop songs mostly use six-tone scales, with a strong oriental flavor, which is more suitable for the ears of Hong Kong people than American songs. In addition, these songs have been competed and screened in the Japanese market, and the quality is greatly guaranteed.
Once it is released in Hong Kong, it can cause a sensation and is the best choice for record label owners. The works of "Japanese Songs in Chinese Words" were an extremely important part of the boom of Cantonese pop songs.
Of course, this also sowed the seeds of recession for the future.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="138" > the era of "The Rising Tide" (1984-1997).</h1>
"A laugh in the sea, a tide on both sides of the strait" This is a sentence in Huang Xia's "A Laugh in the Sea". In this context, the "two sides of the strait" refers to the three places on both sides of the strait.
In 1984, Zhang Mingmin was invited to participate in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and quickly became popular with a song composed by Wang Fuling and filled in by Huang Xia. At the same time, the domestic cultural department began to slightly improve the Hong Kong songs.
Subsequently, Shanghai Television began to broadcast the "wireless" series "Shanghai Beach", and the theme song of the same name spread throughout the north and south of the river for a time, and everyone recited it.
If "My Chinese Heart" opened the door to the mainland, then after "Shanghai Beach", the wave of hong Kong's popular culture can really go deep into the mainland and land in the motherland.
Soon, Rowan took the lead and held seven concerts in Guangzhou in the mainland. Subsequently, Ye Zhentang, Wang Mingquan, Mei Yanfang, Ye Liyi and others went north one after another and took turns to return.
At the same time, mainland singers also began to perform in Hong Kong, such as Cui Jian, Wang Hong, Mao Amin, Wei Wei, Na Ying and so on. Exchanges between the two places became increasingly frequent.
In addition to going north, Hong Kong artists often fly to Taipei to sing. Artists from Taipei such as Li Zongsheng, Luo Dayou, Qi Qin and Cai Qin also came to Hong Kong to perform.
During this period, there were three places on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and the tide of songs came and went. As the middle point between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Hong Kong holds the bull's ear of popular music.
Of course, the influence of Hong Kong Cantonese pop is far more than that. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Europe, Canada, the United States, Australia, so to speak, but wherever there are Chinese, there are Cantonese songs.
However, such an indispensable Cantonese pop song has fallen to the bottom in less than two years. In the paper, Huang Xia showed a set of years and total records and total sales data.
1995, 17,003,800, 1.853 billion
1996, 18,001,300, 1.691 billion
1997, 15,000,000, 1.353 billion
1998, 10,000,000, 916 million
It can be seen that in 1996, the total number of records is still increasing, but the total sales have decreased.
However, the real mutation was in '97, a year in which records fell by more than 3 million copies and total sales plummeted by more than three hundred million. By 1998, the total was not even half of what it had been in 1995. Cantonese songs have since been powerless to return to heaven.
This seemingly abrupt decline has actually been lurking behind the prosperity for a long time.
How does Huang See the Decline of Cantonese Pop Songs? Let's start with the consciousness of the Hong Kong people.
A large number of immigrants have gone from their previous disapproval of Hong Kong to their identification with it and to building self-confidence. After entering the era of "gushing cross-strait tides", it has become conceited.
This conceit is reflected in consumers, music producers, and even relevant leaders.
For consumers, these people have developed into a "narcissistic" perceptual consumption.
They worship idols and spend high prices to attend concerts. On the one hand, it chooses entertainment that is completely contrary to idolatry: karaoke. Be a singer yourself. This ambivalence has never been seen before.
In addition, the birth of karaoke has made the music industry a not very good phenomenon. In order to accommodate consumers and make customers sing more comfortable, the composer narrows the scope of creation in the range of sounds, and also limits his own creation.
Another big contradiction is that the mass production of music production is not connected with the talent.
In the case of a good prospect for the record industry, it has attracted the arrival of many aspiring young people. Too many people have already become popular before they have learned.
This kind of drawback will naturally not attract attention in the era when Cantonese songs are in short supply. But when all the conditional environmental factors disappeared, the imperfections of Hong Kong pop songs themselves were fully revealed.
For example, in the 1970s, when the "Hong Kong Composers and Lyricists Association" was established, there were only a few composers and only a dozen lyricists. But these people have their own achievements, enough to support the world of pop music.
By the early 1990s, there were more than a thousand new members. But after 97, when the record industry is declining, there are still a few people who can survive, even less than in the seventies.
It can be seen that the decline of Cantonese songs has already planted seeds at its peak.
In addition, the conceit of the leaders of the relevant departments has also become the last straw that overwhelms Cantonese pop songs.
In 1988, the boss of the commercial station changed, and after the new official took office, the first policy proposed was that in the future, the commercial station would only broadcast Chinese songs, and every Monday, it would launch a "100%100 original day".
This move caused great repercussions at the time. It stands to reason that this policy is extremely beneficial to the development of Cantonese songs.
Cantonese songs have been thriving, and since then they have been booming, and even have no competitors. The market is very good, and at the same time, it has intensified the shoddy production of products.
Therefore, many scholars believe that this policy is just to welcome the arrival of 97 and make a show.
In 1995, Shangtai issued a new policy. Launched the "Original Song Movement" and no longer played adapted songs, especially works of "Japanese songs".
The original intention of this policy was to enhance the independent originality of Hong Kong people. However, it unilaterally overestimated the level of Hong Kong music producers.
Adapting songs is an important part of Cantonese pop songs, and this sudden one-size-fits-all approach makes Cantonese songs, which are already at the end of the crossbow, even worse.
Huang Xia once explained in his paper that although there are many reasons for the decline of Hong Kong pop music, the "original song movement" of commercial radio stations, which was suddenly launched without properly matching the actual conditions of Hong Kong, was a turning point in the prosperity and decline of Hong Kong pop music.
Since then, Hong Kong's music scene and record industry have been in a slump, and there seems to be no sign of recovery.
Seeing the tall buildings, I saw the buildings collapsing. For this recession, Huang Xia is also helpless. At the end of the paper, he quoted a few lyrics from his "Strongman" to conclude:
Don't remember the gains and losses in this, don't remember the hatred and love entanglement, only remember that you were once acquainted!