Text/Cloud Mountain
"Singers who hold on to themselves in the Age of Sinking."
△ Lu Qiaoyin
In this world, some people are born to dream.
They came into this world only for the dreams in their hearts, and nothing else. So they are in the world, but they are out of the world. They are lonely and at the same time dashing.
Many people have come to this world to cultivate wealth; they alone have come to spend time in the red dust.
Lu Qiaoyin is such a lonely dreamer.
Many people's impression of Lu Qiaoyin may be the song "Good Heart Breakup" with Wang Lihong, or maybe it is just Xie Tingfeng and Yu Wenle's ex-girlfriend.
However, people who know her well say that Lu Qiaoyin is even a female singer who is even cooler than Faye Wong.
A neat short hair, simple T-shirt, denim, no excessive embellishment, clean and neat, no procrastination, bones permeated with a tough and free temperament. Occasionally, I will wear a feminine long skirt, revealing a bit of water-like tenderness.
More often, the well-defined face is a kind of smiling, with a mysterious ambiguity, which is always elusive.
It is such a woman, her beauty lies in her uniqueness, her personality.
Lu Qiaoyin admits that his personality is like a boy, so there is no shortage of suitors since childhood. After entering the entertainment industry, it is a proper "male god harvester".
That year, she and Nicholas Tse held a concert together, and Tse Tingfeng suddenly bouqueted flowers on the stage, and then launched a fierce pursuit. The two immediately fell in love, but it was not long before Lu Qiaoyin found that the two personalities were incompatible, and ended the relationship.
△ Nicholas Tse, Lu Qiaoyin
Another public boyfriend is Yu Wenle. Many people say that "Good Heart Breakup" was written for Yu Wenle.
Talking about Yu Wenle's love affair, Lu Qiaoyin used four words to describe it: unforgettable.
Yu Wenle had just stepped into the show business circle at that time, very poor, but in order to please his girlfriend, he would still spend all his savings without hesitation.
Lu Qiaoyin said that the personalities of the two were too strong, and the separation was due to a misunderstanding, and now it is a pity to think about it.
"At that time, everyone was in love with each other, and I always wanted to see him again, but I didn't have a chance, and I was so happy to see him live happily now."
△ Lu Qiaoyin Yu Wenle
Last year, Yu Wenle got married, and many people sent their blessings. Among them, there is no shortage of ex-girlfriends he has had over the years. Lu Qiaoyin only said four words--happy things. But it moved many people to tears.
Not meeting the right person at the right time is a lifetime of regret. As the years passed, the young teenagers started a family, and Lu Qiaoyin and her husband Sammy also lived a low-key and happy life.
△ Lu Qiaoyin and her husband Su Haocai (Sammy)
The story ends, whether it is the people in the play or outsiders, all of them are scattered. But no matter when, as long as you sing the song "Good Heart Breakup", it will definitely be able to touch the tender memory in her heart.
Lu Qiaoyin is an outlier in the Chinese music scene. Some people compare her to a strong tequila, and those who like it will indulge in it without concern, and conversely, they will choke up because of the concentration of alcohol.
Her voice is not as sweet as that of pop female singers, but a tough and free. Even if it is a sentimental sad song, it can be sung by her decisively and freely, but it is a little bitter in the aftertaste.
Nicholas Tse once described her voice as durian, loved by people who could not help themselves, and hated people who were afraid to avoid it.
This description is extremely accurate, Lu Qiaoyin's commercial and artistic polarization is doomed to her not being favored by the market, but someone always appreciates it, which is enough.
Born in 1974, Lu Qiaoyin graduated in fashion design and grew up in Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s, and has long been addicted to the gloomy atmosphere of British rock. In the melody of loneliness, debauchery, obscurity, invincibility and extreme fragility, she was silent, ecstatic, and crying countless times, but more than that, she was thinking.
Like rock and roll, that is actually a spirit, a kind of introspection of reality. It was in this lonely reflection that she began to compose her own music, telling her own understanding of the world.
In 1994, Lu Qiaoyin joined the underground band Black & Blue, debuted as the lead singer, and then released their debut album Hope In Just One Day. In 1996, the band joined Rolling Stone Records and released their second album, Blue and Black.
Unfortunately, this Hong Kong band, which imitates European and American rock bands, has always been dominated by English songs, so it is difficult to establish a broad mass base. In 1998, the band disbanded and Lu Qiaoyin began his independent career.
"If heaven were a kite, what color would it be?"
This is an EP released after Lu Qiaoyin flew solo, "No need... A sentence of copywriting from "Perfect Eerie". Chen Huiyang's low-key and gorgeous arrangement with Huang Weiwen's calm and tough brushstrokes perfectly fits Lu Qiaoyin's maverick temperament.
Lu Qiaoyin is like a black kite, bringing a dark and decadent music trend to the Chinese music scene: the lament of "Garbage", the resentment of "Frustration", the astringency of "Narcissistic Theater"...
△ "No need... Horribly Perfect" album cover
Some people say that Lu Qiaoyin is lucky, and the first album is a concept album.
Faye Wong debuted six years ago, or obey the record company to sing commercial songs "Wang Jingwen". Until the release of "Impetuous", Faye Wong became Faye Wong, and Wang Jingwen and Faye Wong were always disconnected.
△ Faye Wong", "Impetuous"
Karen Mok said: "It took me ten years to get mainland fans to accept me. In the past ten years, Karen Mok has worked hard to make the public recognize herself, and has produced a large number of popular singles; while actively exploring the possibilities of new music, from time to time bursting out a "Golden Flower".
△ Karen Mok", "A Golden Flower"
Whether it is Faye Wong or Karen Mok, they all have their own involuntary on the road of music, and they have made some compromises more or less.
So, from a certain point of view, Lu Qiaoyin is indeed lucky. For her, it is better to be nameless, and without the constraints of the market, she can soar freely in the world of music.
The company gave her enough freedom, so almost every album she made was a concept album. Her musical purity is much higher than others, and with each new album, we can see a Lu Qiaoyin who is actively looking for new elements.
She was unwilling to compromise with the market, alone and proudly walking ahead of the times. And such a woman is doomed to failure.
Why isn't Lu Qiaoyin red? One of the main reasons is that her song style is too high, and the song is so high that it is harmonious.
All of her music is concept first. "Miao" is about a cat, "Muse" is about an incredible dream, and "Color Release" uses color to interpret the changes of life.
△《Miao》
A song "Good Heart Breakup" pushed Lu Qiaoyin's singing career to the peak, and the subsequent "Appreciation of the Human World" and "Falling flowers" quickly brought Lu Qiaoyin's music to a "k song" period.
△ "Taste of the World"
However, just when many people thought that Lu Qiaoyin would fall into the cookie-cutter "k-song" market, in 2005, she completely put away all commercial compromises and threw out a stunning work" "Heavenly Speech".
This concept album with the theme of a brief history of mankind is not commercial, and some people even lament that Lu Qiaoyin's album is undoubtedly committing suicide.
△ "Heavenly Evolution", which is known as the "suicide album",
This album is a grand epic. The title song "Asura Tree Sea" depicts a brutal picture of trees in the forest competing for sunlight and soil with mournful brass pipes, deep bass, low-fi processed oppressive vocals, and airtight cascading strings of Liang Warpberry.
The opening "Lucy (3 180 000 B.C.C)" takes the earliest human fossil "Lucy" found by mankind so far as an allusion, telling a story of the passage of time, and Zhou Huiyao's lyrics are extremely romantic:
From then on, I kissed you peach blossom snow
From then on, I will live with you in the cave
It was me in the bustling street
It is good to look at the primitive society from afar
But there is no way to restore it
The album contains a wide range of styles, the folk -- "Lucy (3 180,000 B.C.C)", the tropical "Descartes' Temple of Eternal Life", the "Soul Sending Sutra" with Indian dance music as the foreshadowing, and the slightly electric Folk Pop work "The Scavenger Girl of the Enemy State".
However, the album still continues the gloomy British rock atmosphere that she is good at, and it is still such a tough, free, and nihilistic Lu-style singing voice.
Lu Qiaoyin single-handedly composed 8 songs on the album, unfortunately, the market failed to accept her hard work. The album sold dismally, and she was abandoned by the market and the record company.
In 2011, Lu Qiaoyin, who had been fighting against the mainstream market for thirteen years, from album albums to sporadic singles, finally chose to retreat behind the scenes and tearfully wave away from the stage.
She said:
"I've had a hard time in the past 13 years, but I don't really want to win any favorite female singers, I just want to find myself in music."
All along, what Lu Qiaoyin wanted was never popularity or awards, and music was a mirror for her to know herself. Only in music can she find herself that she wants.
In fact, as long as she makes a little compromise with the market, it will not be such an outcome. But stubbornness like her, persistence like her, is not willing to compromise at all.
"I'm not going to give up on music, I hope you remember one of those 13 years."
However, she loved music so much, after all, she was still reluctant to music, so a few years later, she had this "Philosopher" composed by Huang Weiwen:
Passers-by probably don't know how to appreciate your prophet for the first century
Are you too nice
It's going to be regressive
Some of them I don't understand either
Luckily, I know how to love you
Just wait for me to guard
You who are too far ahead of you in the world
In fact, Lu Qiaoyin is like a philosopher sung in the song, a singer who insists on himself in the era of sinking, a dreamer who dreams even if he is lonely.
Over the years, she has been floating in the hustle and bustle of the pop music scene, but what has not changed is that she has always been obsessed with her own music world, and has always wandered in her own musical journey to find herself.
As for how the outside world changes, it has nothing to do with her.