In the history of the development of Chinese popular music, there has been a phenomenon that is very rare in the global pop music industry, that is, a dialect that most Chinese people cannot understand has become the mainstream sound leading the trend of popular music. In the decades from the 1970s to the late 1990s, Cantonese songs became a trend in Chinese music and are still popular today. How did Cantonese songs in the history of the development of Chinese pop music produce development and prosperity and eventually decline? It also witnessed the rise and fall of Hong Kong's commercial culture represented by Hong Kong pop music. But until now there is controversy over which song is the earliest Cantonese song. So what was the turning point that made Cantonese songs pop?
Hong Kong in the 1950s
Before the 1950s, Hong Kong's social structure could be basically divided into three classes: senior officials in the British colonial government, senior managers of foreign commercial banks, and a small group of Chinese commercial and wealthy businessmen; the middle class was a small minority of professionals and elites among the Chinese. The lower classes are mainly domestic workers, clerks and the majority of the working population. There is little contact and mobility between the different classes, there are clear layers, and there is little mutual communication. However, since 1949, there has been a massive influx of immigrants into Hong Kong, and the population of Hong Kong has surged to more than 2 million, more than four times the original. Among the new immigrants, except for a few middle- and high-level capital businessmen and professionals, most of them have migrated from Cantonese-speaking rural residents in the nearby areas of Guangdong.
At the beginning of 1950, Cantonese opera was indeed popular in the lower middle class. Starting from Cantonese opera, Cantonese pop songs have reduced all Cantonese opera singing songs to zero, and since then they have been born in Cantonese opera songs. Xiaoqu is the dividing line of traditional Cantonese opera. In addition to the Cantonese soundtrack, a large number of popular Chinese songs, Western pop songs, etc. are used to fill cantonese lyrics. At that time, the general music scene was attached to the tea house for people to taste tea and listen to music. For the average person, consumption is fairly common and affordable. In the early 1950s, this form flourished.
In the 1960s, many Hong Kong films became popular in Southeast Asia and other places, but at that time, Cantonese pop music was only an accessory to Cantonese films, and film actors at that time had released Cantonese records. However, they have not been able to form a climate and become the cause of artist development. The main reason is that Cantonese opera style singing is not popular with young people in Hong Kong Cantonese films, and is considered to be old and marketable, just like Yin Guang, who was known as the "Prince of Temple Street" at that time, was one of them. At that time, most young people still liked Chinese songs and English songs. In the late 1960s, Singapore's Lisa and Cheng Kam Cheung successfully opened up the Hong Kong market. At that time, Lisa was called "Little Queen of Cantonese Opera" by Hong Kong citizens, and Zheng Jinchang was called "Little Prince of Cantonese Opera" by the citizens. Their classic songs include "Acacia Tears", "New Zen Temple Bells", "Tangshan Big Brother" and so on. At that time, film actors Chen Baozhu, Hu Feng, Lü Qi, Xiao Fangfang, etc. also sang many song works. Although they are widely loved, they still do not have the image of making Cantonese pop music out of the lower class music from now on.
Between 1973 and 1974, when Hong Kong was affected by the stock market crash and the buried energy crisis, all the neon lights on the original colorful streets were turned off, the whole street became lifeless, and television became the only entertainment for the general public. At that time, television stations and radio stations were still dominated by English songs and Chinese songs. In March 1974, TVB adapted the novel "Laughter Karma" into a TV series, a love story about a singer, because there are many songs to be sung in the series, and the dialogue is in Cantonese, if the songs are sung in Mandarin, it is obviously incongruous. Mr. Gu Jiahui, who was invited to compose the song for "The Cause of Laughter", made a bold attempt to sing a TV song in Cantonese, and invited Xiandura, a member of the "Chopstick Sister Flower", who was popular for her loud and sweet singing voice and lively and cute image at that time, to sing. The move was a resounding success. "Laughter Karma" became the theme song of the first Cantonese drama. The popularity of "The Cause of Laughter" began to drive the boom of Cantonese pop songs that year, laying a very important position for Cantonese pop songs.
In the same year, Xu Guanjie, who served as a TV program host, entered the film industry and launched the comedy "Ghost Horse Double Star" starring the three Xu brothers. Because television at that time was already quite popular, TV dramas and TELEVISION advertisements had penetrated into every class, and Cantonese culture was more and more consolidated, so the two brothers Xu Guanjie Xu Guanwen began to create, inserting the Cantonese theme song "Ghost Horse Double Star" in the film, and the movie "Ghost Horse Double Star" not only saved a lot of audiences for the stagnant movie at that time. Xu Guanjie also took advantage of the opportunity to launch his first Cantonese record "Ghost Horse Double Star", "Ghost Horse Double Star" really sang to the streets and alleys, a blockbuster in the Hong Kong music scene, this song composed and sung by Xu Guanjie, "Ghost Horse Double Star", is the collective memory of a generation of Hong Kong people. As a member of the "post-war baby boomer" generation, Hui Guanjie lived in the poor Hong Kong So Uk Village as a child, living in a cramped unit like tens of thousands of lower-class families, experiencing messy moments. Therefore, most of the music he creates is about the people at the bottom and the city, which is very humane. The "Ghost Horse Double Star" he created vividly sang the actual living conditions of the middle and lower classes at that time - for the two meals are willing to make the past life, bumping into the right and losing the heart is meaningless, hoping for development and blindly relying on Ding Ding...
"Ghost Horse Double Star" was widely popular among the middle and lower classes, and the album was bought all by grab, and became the first Chinese song broadcast by BBC Radio in the United Kingdom. Hui Guanjie was in the Hong Kong music scene for a while, and no one could match. At that time, it caused a great shock in the Hong Kong music scene, and this song seemed to be a turning point that made Cantonese songs start to become popular in the Chinese music scene. "Ghost Horse Double Star" is also the most recognized by everyone for the origin of Cantonese songs.