Text | Zeng Yadan
Edit | Jona Kun
Recently, a number of rap variety shows have all been launched, and "Big Hip Hop Times" is the earliest broadcast of similar programs, and it is also the first rap program produced in Taiwan, which makes everyone very curious.
Since its premiere on June 12, until the end of August, due to the epidemic situation, this show was suspended until the 6th episode, and there is no updated news on when it will resume broadcasting.
"'China's New Rap' only rap, 'Big Hip Hop Era' is real hip hop!" Under the YouTube comments of Taiwan's first rap music program "Big Hip Hop Times", many netizens expressed such views.
In 2017, "China Has Hip Hop" became a phenomenon in the mainland, and the same spoof version of "Taiwan Has Hip Hop" was also loved by many people. But this time, it is really "Taiwan has hip hop" appeared, not the 2017 spoof version of "Taiwan has hip hop". Since the warm-up and launch of "The Great Hip Hop Era", the comments of major rap music bloggers on Weibo have been occupied by the following comments - "Taiwan's variety show is still the level of more than ten years ago", "Taiwan's Hip-Hop listened to ten years ago is stronger than this" and so on.
Before the show aired, rapper "V" released a Diss track on YouTube saying that the show "signed a contract and signed a letter, and those who did not have the strength can become the hardest." Rapper EastWind Dongfeng Diss: "Please don't lose face and lose face to the mainland if the show rots like this", "Plagiarized the secondary two diseases, copied a lot of people, copied Li Daben".
So, how exactly is "The Age of Hip Hop Doing?"? Is Hip-Hop really in decline in Taiwan?
Production level:
"Supermarket opening", the stage is shabby, lack of points to see
On January 14, "Big Hip Hop Times" held a press conference, and the conference site was filled with Gil G, BR, Egghead, PEATLE and so on. On May 18, the final trailer of the show was released, and many people's perception of the show was "looking poor", and even the conference was spat on as "supermarket opening".
On June 13, the show released the mentor Cypher "By What", YouTube commented positively on each tutor, and most Of the Weibo netizens expressed their expectations for XiongZai.
The production cost of the show was NT$48 million (equivalent to RMB11 million), of which NT$20 million came from government sponsorship. The total investment of "China Has Hip Hop" is 250 million yuan, and the naming fee of Nongfu Spring alone is 150 million yuan. In terms of production costs, the two programs cannot be compared, and for mainland audiences who are accustomed to watching large scenes, such a stage looks simple and forgivable.
Stage of "The Age of Hip Hop"
There has always been a significant gap between the two sides of the strait in investment in variety shows, and Wu Zongxian once told the audience in a Taiwan program that "if we have 100 million, the bench you sit on is all gold-plated", and the investment of tens of millions of yuan has been considered a big deal in Taiwan.
At present, the program presents a 100-second display, team Cypher and 1v1Battle stage of the competition, the format is no different from most rap competitions, and the program also popularizes some of the professional vocabulary that appears in Hip-Hop music, facing the public.
In the comments section of YouTube-related video content, many netizens praised the show as a pure hip-hop contest rather than a variety show. From the overall performance of the first period, the contestants lacked surprises, most of them were more amateurish, and the quality of the performance did not meet everyone's expectations.
Some people are dissatisfied with the variety color of the show, threatening to boycott, mentor Xiong Zai posted on Instagram: "If you want to resist slow walking and do not send, you love not hip hop, you love to be an online hip hop café."
Judging from the presentation of "The Great Hip Hop Era", the show really wants to make a variety show effect and hopes to respect the hip hop audience to maintain a certain purity. In a long Instagram post, Xiong Zi revealed the program team's troubles about how to balance the Hip-Hop audience and the more mass market to produce the show.
Bear Boy posted content
Before the performance begins, some contestants will be shown video clips describing their experiences and personal lives. Many people in these experiences explain their situation of doing hip-hop music while working, so that the audience feels more whether there are still many young people in Taiwan who love hip-hop music.
However, in terms of the program's viewing point setting, the program is not attractive enough, and there is no conflict full of dramatic tension that the public is more interested in, resulting in fewer Rappers who can be remembered after the end of a program. For example, the performance of the mentor who said that he could see kanye West's shadow was only broadcast for one clip, which did not satisfy the curiosity of the audience who heard the tutor's comments. In the production of variety shows, the reality show part that can help the characters express themselves is still very lacking.
Judging from the performance of the players, everyone's competitive mentality is not strong, and the mentor is an "angel mentor", most of which have been given. The final result led to some players who were not strong enough to easily enter the next round, and the audience was speechless and dissuaded by the result.
This also leads to the fact that "The Age of Hip Hop" is very limited in terms of attention and communication influence. Up to now, one of the most out-of-the-loop news of "The Era of Hip Hop" is still the audition, and the song of the contestant named XIN has over-paid tribute to rapper Li Daben, triggering an uproar on the Internet.
Of course, mainland audiences are accustomed to the production standards of mainland variety shows, and watching this show again will inevitably produce a psychological gap.
Player level:
Insufficient reserve resources, insufficient quality and weak competition
In fact, the quality of the contestants in the music competition program means the degree of success of the program, let's take a look at the source and quality of the contestants of this program.
In the eight-minute pilot film of "The Age of Hip Hop," the show said that the contestants came from all over Taiwan, attracting a total of 1,500 contestants to sign up. From the 66 contestants who finally entered the studio to record, it can be seen that these contestants come from all walks of life, including takeaway delivery, stalls for a living, and players who work as security guards in bars at night, etc. There are fewer contestants whose main business is music.
For mainland audiences, the rappers who are more familiar with Taiwan are still stuck in the hot dog, egg castle and naughty childhood. In addition, in recent years, the rise of domestic rap variety shows has exported a large number of powerful Chinese rappers to the market. No one cares how rap in Taiwan is developing, and the contestants who appear in many programs are more completely vegetarian for mainland music fans.
At present, the more popular Taiwanese rappers are Ge Zhongshan, 911, Naughty Boy, ØZI, etc., and the expectation of mainland audiences who pay attention to the development of their hip-hop music is that even if they can't afford to hire hot dogs as mentors, they can at least invite Egg Castle to be mentors, and Xiong Zai will compete in such a level. But in fact, Bear Boy has already taken the mentor's seat in the show, and other influential Rappers, such as ØZI, have only participated in the guest mentorship.
In the program, the contestants who have developed in the field of Hip-Hop music are mainly divided into two categories, one is Rapper, who has a reputation foundation, such as BR, and the other is the contestants in the Taiwan hip-hop community, such as the 88 male of the Taiwan Hip Hop Research Society. Other Rappers who already have a certain degree of influence, such as Gil G, have performed on the stage because they are not fully prepared, and the performance on the scene is not satisfactory, not to mention the effect of borrowing variety circle fans.
Contestant performance clips
For talent shows, there are enough contestants to sign up for the competition, which means that the show can sort out more story clues and possibilities in the display of "character group portraits" and "personal charm" in the variety show, and in terms of musical talent, there are more opportunities for the audience to discover dark horses.
Beat types are more abundant
Met a rapper with potential
Since the beginning of "Big Hip Hop Times", the content of the contestants in the program has a high tolerance, and the parts with dirty words in the lyrics have only been literally mosaic processed, and the contestants have not been silenced.
In the expression of the song, many contestants sang what they wanted to say, such as the contestant Zoe's performance of "Bao Qingtian", which satirized the obscene man who sent strange harassment messages to women. In the song "On the Shore", the kokujo frog said that "the things that are taught in class are basically all, but none of them are useful in society", and this performance has reached 1.66 million hits on YouTube, becoming the most played video in the current "Big Hip Hop Era".
The music directors of the show are Mitchlin and Pan Xinwei, Pan Xinwei has cooperated with jolin Tsai, Pan Weibai, Zhou Tanghao and other singers, and Mitchlin has cooperated with Zhang Huimei and Hot Dog.
The cost of the production of the program also has a greater impact on the production of the song, and netizens said when they heard the Beat provided in the second stage of the program Cypher link that the production was too rough, not like a complete song should look like. But there are also different voices that indicate that Beat Simple can just show the state of Cypher in the most primitive Hip-Hop competition.
However, the show Beat covers a wide range of genres, and there are Beats of Dubstep, G-funk and BoomBap, showing the compatibility of different styles of Beat rap in different music genres, compared with some rap programs that use the Trap type in a large area, which is indeed richer.
Some tracks in the Cypher session
From this program, we still learned about the current development status of Hip-Hop music in Taiwan, but also met many potential contestants. A UP master in the field of rap told Music Finance that he did not have hope for the show, but he was still a good player by Amway, such as Frog, who was just a middle school student but had strong rap strength.
Once upon a time, Tai Rao was indeed the initiation of many young people in the mainland to listen to Hip-Hop music.
From XiongZai's Instagram speech, it can be seen that the program team and the contestants have paid a lot for the program, and the producers also hope that the program can contribute to the development of rap music in Taiwan. Although the show was updated to the sixth issue and did not continue, the possibility of continuous updating after the epidemic is also questionable.
However, from the perspective of the final effect of the broadcast program, the limited production funds of the program, the poor effect of the stage performance, the weak viewing point of the program, and the poor performance of the contestants are all objective facts that affect the popularity of the program. But becoming a window, expressing sincerity and temperature, original ecological diversification, helping local newcomers get the opportunity to be seen by more people, can also be regarded as the realization of the original intention of investors to produce this show.
Nowadays, the mainland is booming, and there are three more rap variety shows broadcasting this summer, although they have not exploded, but they have a wide influence among young people with a large basic disk. The platform can not ignore this group of young people who like rap music, but also must participate in the investment layout to the industrial chain, from the label to the performance, whether it is offline tour, hip hop music festival or trend brand, has formed a strong correlation with rap music culture "new consumption" wave.
After the epidemic, rappers with potential in the program can also choose to come to the mainland for development, whether it is on the show, participating in the platter tour or striving for a music festival, etc., there are already relatively mature exports to promote the development of the cause.
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