New Music Industry Watch original article, unauthorized refusal to reprint
Written by | Chelsea
For many artists, "red" is a metaphysics, but "paste" is like a shadow. For example, in South Korea, a country with an unusually developed entertainment industry, the number of trainees has already exceeded one million out of a population of 50 million. The huge talent reserve, mature training system, and endless music talent shows are sending a large number of artists to the market every day.
There are more debut paths, the stage is within reach, and the singing specialty is no longer far away. Behind the opportunities, it also means more fierce competition. Here, the replacement of artists is like the flu, and if you are not careful, you will pass the season.
There are too many singers, but there are not enough audiences. Even the music variety shows that have always been popular and ultra-popular have also fallen into the inner volume, and only self-breakthrough is the answer - in addition to the early "I Am a Singer", "The Masked Singer" and other well-known music programs, various competitive music variety shows have recently been subdivided into hip hop, musicals, Trot (Korean Peninsula traditional pop music) and other diverse genres, attracting different audiences.
Recently, a new music program "Sing Again" for "not red artists" has reacted hotly, and also demonstrated Han Zong's super iterative innovation ability. In the cookie-cutter story, the show captures the subtleties that touch people's hearts, and also demonstrates how to do something new, emotional, topical and interesting in the matter of past artists turning popular.
《Sing Again》
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > when 71 unpopular singers gathered</h1> together
For anonymous singers, can they remember their names after performing? The odds are not. The Korean music variety show "Sing Again: Season of Unknown Singers" does the opposite, simply hiding the names of 71 contestants and directly referring to them by numerical numbers. Only when the contestants are eliminated, they can disclose who their surnames are, and successfully stimulate the curiosity of the audience.
On December 10, GOODDATA unveiled the TOP10 of the Korean non-TV drama TV topic list last week, and the ninth season of the evergreen show "Show Me the Money" ranked first for six consecutive weeks, followed by "Sing Again", which only started four episodes, becoming a super hit in the midweek variety show of the paid channel JTBC.
Back on November 16, "Sing Again" premiered, easily picking up a good score of 3.165% of the ratings; 3 weeks later, the ratings doubled, beating the same period of MBC, SBS, KBS three major stations, with a high rating of 7.57% to detonate the topic.
So far, "Sing Again" has been broadcast for six times, and this week it was discontinued due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, but the popularity has not decreased. On December 21, the sixth episode won a high rating of 7.25% in the country and 8.1% in the Seoul area, ranking first in the online topic for five consecutive weeks.
As a show for "unsung artists", the format of "Sing Again" is not fancy. It aims to bring unknown or forgotten singers back to the stage, and the participants are selected only for albums or songs.
The 71 participants shortlisted for recording were required to hide their names and call themselves only by a randomly assigned number. In the first group survival battle, 71 people decided their own group in 6 divisions: "Wild Singer", "True Nameless", "Individual", "Strongest Draft", "OST" and "Sugar Man". The fate of whether they can advance is decided by the judges, and only those who get more than 6 votes can advance.
In order to enrich the musical form, perspective and age group, the program team invited a number of big coffee judges, and divided them into senior and junior groups according to age and seniority, which were respectively served by Yoo Hee-yeol, Lee Sin-hee, Jeon In-gwan (later changed to Kim Jong-chen), Kim In-na, and Super Junior members Gui Hyun, Seon Mei, Lee Hae-lee, and Song Min-ho. In addition to being professional musicians, Guixian and Song Minhao are also resident artists in the super first-line Korean comprehensive such as "New Journey to the West", which has a high popularity in itself, bringing non-negligible traffic benefits to the program.
Producer & Judge of Sing Again
In "Sing Again", there are singers who are not popular, team celebrities who are not red, and even singers who have never been popular at all. In such a stage with only numbers, the identities and qualifications of the players are hidden, and only the heroes are discussed by performance.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > stage for an unnamed singer, why is it good?). </h1>
In addition to the competition to kill each other's red eyes, what kind of plots do the audience like to watch? Compared with the Hunger Games staged in other competitive variety shows, "Sing Again" pays more attention to the story of "people". The program is branded with deep feelings and provides warmth and comfort to the audience. And this is also the consistent style of the production team. As the original team of the Korean hit music variety show "Sugar Man", the team behind "Sing Again" is both professional and emotional.
Through the extensive audition process, the program team screened out more potential factions, and all the singers who had debuted made the overall level of the program higher. For the audience, the sense of surprise brought by the strong fresh faces is also stronger. Moreover, the production team is also keen to create a topic explosion that can be spread, such as naturally presenting the so-called "blind date" between the players, or the interactive atmosphere between people, creating a tacit understanding of the master's tricks and "high mountain flowing water meets the sound".
In the fourth episode, the video of the match between the No. 63 and No. 30 vs. 29 and No. 10 contestants occupied the top spot on The Naver TV in South Korea. The wonderful PK between the four curly hair contestants also made the judge Li Xianji burst out the golden sentence of "Sure enough, The Vocal is curly hair". When the team performed, the No. 30 and No. 63, which burst out of superhuman tacit understanding, also gained super popularity.
Nos. 30 and No. 63 vs. No. 29 and No. 10
In addition to the contestants, the performance of the judges also added a lot to the show. Singer Lee Seung-ki serves as the host of the program, he is a young multi-habitat artist with both strength and national popularity, and the guarantee of ratings.
And Lee Seon-hee, who sits on the jury's bench, is a Korean national treasure-level female singer, she rarely appears on variety shows, but every time she appears, she has aroused the public's pursuit. Li Xianji not only has the Great Demon King singing skills, but also has a gentle and elegant temperament, which is very charming. Such heavyweight guests are not estranged from young people, or high above, but because Li Xianji was once Li Shengji's singing teacher, she was particularly kind. This kind of teacher-student interaction is undoubtedly one of the highlights.
Liu Xilie, a musician who has been working with the production team since the "Sugar Man" period, is an old cannon of the show. On the one hand, he has his own hosting ability and first-class program control ability; on the other hand, as a well-known music producer and president of a brokerage company, Liu Xilie also has excellent professional perspective and business acumen, and can give accurate evaluations from the perspective of players and the market.
In addition, innovations in the format are also highlights. The singer information hidden behind the digital name successfully detonated the enthusiasm of the audience on the social platform, and many viewers searched for singer information on the Internet in the spirit of digging up gossip, which increased the topicality of the program.
"We thought about how to do it differently and how to become more sincere," Yoon Hyun-joon CP, who runs Sing Again, said in an interview with South Korean news outlet OhmyNews. As for the participation in the competition with numbers instead of the singer's real identity, the producer also explained his position.
"It was an adventure. If the heat of the show passes, the contestants will be buried, it will be a pity. But if you choose anonymity, the audience will search for itself with curiosity, will this leave them with a more profound effect? So we chose this way. It turned out to be a successful adventure, with viewers letting go of their preconceptions while also immersing themselves more curiously in the talent show. ”
The contestants have their own highlights, the production team has rich experience and profound skills, the program format design points to all ages, covering a wide range; the team mode stimulates the interaction between the contestants, produces a new spark, and also forms a new point of interest for the audience... The collection of various advantages has become the flashpoint of "Sing Again" to gain popularity.
There are audience comments that "the judges are in place, and the program editing and post-production have cute points." The sensationalism is not excessive, it is really moving. Awesome show", which confirms the moving feature of this show.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > return to the emotional core, the breakthrough of Korean music</h1>
In fact, the innovation of the program is not only about the form and format, but also about the emotional core and deep values. The overall atmosphere of the show is also quite relaxed, not emphasizing the devil's editing, but taking the route of healing the system, echoing the current epidemic situation.
This year, the epidemic in South Korea has been repeated, and the large-scale performance stage has been cancelled, which has also led to many singers losing their job opportunities. The production team also said that because of the epidemic, many people applied for the competition this year. The enthusiasm for the participation of ordinary people is unprecedentedly high, and the production team with the power of life and death has placed its foothold on "encouragement" rather than arbitrarily "judging".
The format is not cruel, but takes a softer route. The lineup of judges such as Li Xianji and Liu Xilie also laid the atmosphere of the show and warmly healed. "They usually give enthusiastic advice instead of swearing," Yoon Hyun-joon explains when cp evaluating the judges.
"There's no point in the judges directing the contestants to sing. Because the contestants are not people who want to be singers, but people who have become singers. If they have anything they need help with, the jury offers advice. It was warm. "What's more, it's about making the viewer feel comfortable during the viewing process, rather than the thrill of an adrenaline rush."
In the previous show "Sugar Man", the "singer in memory" who was summoned back to the stage stage staged a touching time journey, and thus gained super popularity and successfully entered the second peak of his career. And this sentiment also continues to "Sing Again", so that the audience can feel the sincerity. In the process of creating a new show, the production team not only focuses on "popularity", but focuses on stage performances and provides a second chance for artists who have been snubbed.
《Sugar Man》
In recent years, the popular music variety shows produced by JTBC such as "Sugar Man", "Super Band" and "Begin Again" have achieved remarkable results, which proves the excellent performance of Korean variety shows in balancing entertainment, professionalism and popularity. With a sound music promotion system, the program has also realized the undertaking of many singers from short-term variety shows to long-term popularity.
It is true that such Korean variety shows still face challenges, especially TV stations are affected by streaming media platforms such as Netflix and Youtube, and the overall decline is inevitable. The aesthetic fatigue of the audience brought about by the serious homogenization is also a sword hanging over the heads of the production team, but we can still see from these high-quality programs that Korean practitioners are striving to innovate and make self-breakthroughs.
Returning to the show "Sing Again", how to touch people's hearts in the matter of artists turning popular? Perhaps it is more important than the fancy format to truly respect the artist, give necessary advice, and provide opportunities for stage performance, rather than playing with the other party as a tool for the sake of ratings.
Douban netizen Tian commented, "A competitive program, but does not take the cruelty and pressure of competition as a beak... Players see more of the light in their eyes than the slipperiness of social rules. ”
The popularity of "Sing Again" also proves the dignity of the singer: no matter what the popularity status, everyone deserves to be respected.
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*Note: The pictures in this article are all from the network