The music industry's connection to the world is often outside of music. Digital Entertainment launched the "Count Hello" column, so that the value of more musicians can be seen, so that the "sound outside the string" in each song can be heard.
Author: Jiang Yanzhu
EDIT: Steel bungee
On January 29, 2021, Shao Yibei's new album "I want to live to the explosion of the universe" was launched.
It's been three years since the last album. From 11 years of "Grey Race" to the present, one sheet every three years, four different performances, but also like a knotted rope chronicle. "Grey Race" continues the lightness, lightness, funny and funny of "Passing home"; "New Youth" shows the hard side of "atypical Wenqing"; "Now Understand" frankly shows self-reflection; "I want to live to the cosmic explosion" and fully throws himself into the world, Shao Yibei's growth and changes are actually traceable in the song.
During the epidemic in 2020, Shao Yibei also participated in online performances, sending some videos of singing at home, including some VLOG and small short film programs before, which never left the public's attention. However, in the next six months, it suddenly "suspended business". However, after the successful listing of the new book at the end of September last year, she frequently appeared in other cultural scenes after the signing and speech.
Until recently, new albums were released.
After the official release of the new album, Shao Yibei also has no new performance plans for the time being, in addition to making music, there are also text creations at the same time. Is she still that musician Shao Xiaomao? Is she going to choose the path of writing that she never forgets?
From the text, into the music
Not really.
In 2012, Shao Yibei published a collection of essays "I Stand on the Side of Ants", which is consistent with "Grey Race" and is very suitable for taking it. Last December she published a new book, The Handbook of Good Moods, a professional and functional psychology book. Such a book must have involved a lot of her energy, and even in order of priority, writing seemed to be given priority. In how to weigh the state of text and music Shao Yibei gave his own answer: "It does spend a lot of time on books, but my job is still a musician. ”
Writing and music composition are distinguished by Shao Yibei.
"Book creation and music creation are two lines of thinking: books need to be particularly rational and particularly calm. Music creation is more emotional. It's a good thing for me. The focus of the album writing is on the lyrics, and the musicality will be offset by the lyrics. Books can carry more of my specific expressions of the world. ”
In Shao Yibei's answer, Xiao Yu could feel that her impulse to write word by word was released in the complete book writing. And she has always been making conscious changes, this time in the state of creation, controlling to divide and distribute her own rationality and emotions. For example, bob Dylan, an idol who learns about it, will also use the mind map method in his creative manuscripts to find an entry point through logic.
From the new song "Every Day Without Dancing is a Failure to Live", she not only directly quotes Nietzsche's famous sentence in the title, but also repeatedly chants "dance" repeatedly in the chorus part, so that the melody continues to progress and highlight the vocals. Light text, heavy melody, such a song form is actually the first time in Shao Yibei's works.
The frequent use of a large number of long sentences in the lyrics is a feature of Shao Yibei, many of which are golden sentences. For example, "I am willing to fight to the death and not give him to the guy I despise", "Because you have long found that no one in this world can suffer for you", there are too many things in the text, and it is inevitable that people will feel tired. This time, the previous realistic, life-oriented texts were completely dropped, but more on the melody of the music, "I hope that the listener can shake up, just follow the rhythm of the song to shake and relax." ”
In Shao Yibei's eyes, words and music are expressions. Lyrics, speeches, articles, and books are more precise for her, complementing the music and giving her own unique voice.
There is a problem that has existed since its debut
Textuality is a trait of Shao Yibei, just like her hairstyle for ten years, which has not changed before this new album. Therefore, this abandonment is inevitably puzzling.
Shao Yibei, who is well known for her debut as "a female Wenqing with four choruses of xylophone", also likes rock stars and has formed a rock band. His own aesthetic is consistent with creators such as Zhou Yunpeng and Zhang Hang, who are very poetic and social. It may be heavy, but I often want to put discussions and thoughts on social topics in the songs, and more words are meaningful, not limited to lyricism. Especially as a journalistic major, she always had an instinct: to do useful things. Hence the emphasis on the functionality of an album, a song, or even a sentence. However, people's brushwork can be practiced, but the innate timbre is difficult to change.
"I was the first to say that my voice was a little fresh, so I sang all kinds of topics that would seem very light."
Shao Yibei felt that it was difficult to make that kind of hard music with his own characteristics. Therefore, it is very unavoidable to choose to separate what you like from the creation gene. She confessed: "From the beginning of my music, I began to adjust in various ways, from arranging music, trying many methods, how to coordinate this." That is to say, I may have an uncle living inside me, but my voice is a weakness. The first song to write a particularly heavy topic was very incompatible, and there was a feeling that children sang songs of adults. ”
Finding his own way of expression seems to be Shao Yibei's problem all along. However, on the way to find it, it is not "once without achieving that effect". Her songs have a strong sense of dialogue, and are often used in the lyrics< you >. This < you > you may refer to the self, to the audience, and sometimes to create a specific personality group, like "Stone Girl" and "Mr. Negation". This time, without exception, "So, Have I Made It Clear", the flow of the narrative is very similar to the previous folk style.
But that's all. Others, such as "Shining You", are joined by the international principal orchestra Philharmonic Orchestra to join the strings, which sounds very calm and timeless. Zhang Liange, who served as the producer of the entire album, is the harmony and sound director of "I Am a Singer" and "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves". In "Say to Them", the female theme is expressed through harmony, so that the song echoes like a heart and exudes hidden power.
Shao Yibei's musical style has been changing, and it is closely related to her own different stages of life.
Not screwing up is respect for the work
In 2015, the album "New Youth" was released, and the words "big factory", "big child", "evolution" and "modern disease" appeared in the title of the song at the same time, full of discomfort at the end of adolescence, and seemed to be questioning this era severely. Although she jokingly said that our generation of buildings lived too high, away from the dirt for a long time, and could not write songs like Old Zhou and Wild Children. Yes, growth genes are like that. However, I have always felt Shao Yibei's caring heart. Or to use the word she herself said—sense of purpose.
Shao Yibei, who began studying psychology, found such a perspective to recognize and establish himself and then expand outward. 2018's "Now to Understand" is the product of such a process. At that time, she did not want to be limited to love, but embraced the mentality of "to be useful" and "to help others", using songs such as "Shixiang" and "Faith", as if calling, looking forward to who could be awakened. Of course, looking back, she also feels "quite stupid" in the current environment, so she may seem a little stupid, self-inflicted, and not pleasing enough.
But that's her. Slowly observing, accepting, experiencing, truthfully sorting, recording and sharing, she regarded it as a duty. However, the unity of knowledge and action is in itself a kind of bravery. Like the stretched dancer on the cover of the new album, dancing towards the only beam of light in the midst of scarlet. In years with grand propositions, use life experience and creative ability to write down your own answers as much as possible.
If the new album is more popular, it is that she puts down herself and really sees the audience wearing headphones on the other end of the phone. In Second-Hand Time, with a shared mentality, I convey the comfort I have experienced from the book of the same name.
Paired with "Good Mood" for 2020
When she became more popular, she came to an expression that combined her own idiosyncrasies and popularity, that is, the cyber theme.
The breakthrough that Can most intuitively feel Shao Yibei is the expression of the theme of Cybertron in the new album.
"I want to live to the cosmic explosion" and "Cyber King" make good use of electronic elements, trying to create a sense of floating and expand the sense of space. Especially in Cybertron, the tidal reciprocation and imitation of the roaring sound of the machine bring a sense of picture, and the melodic direction and singing voice create a sense of emptiness with some metallic luster. With the classic lines of "Interstellar" and "Blade Runner 2049", people are suddenly pulled to the universe she created: a string of digital codes representing computing power that shines cover the space around them, and people cannot control where they drift under weightlessness.
Similarly, the trumpet is also used in "Time Dance 2020" to help frame the enveloping and fatalistic sense of the "great waves of the times". Shao Yibei tried to extract some important nodes in 2020 and then present them separately. Feminism, idol culture, artificial intelligence... All kinds of creative motivations stem from social issues, and in the end, in addition to the relatively easy symbolism of cyber and female consciousness, the overall music is a soothing soothing, focusing on more emotions than meaning. Pleasant was put first this time, so you don't have to feel any pressure to open this album. Like her book "Handbook of Good Mood", alleviating everyone's anxiety is the common starting point of these two works in the same period.
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