There will be no second Phoenix legend in this era. /"Auspicious Ruyi"
Music critic Wang Xiaofeng once said that the Phoenix Legend represents the average level of Chinese pop music production, "after the high is Cui Jian, Luo Dayou, but there are more low-level things than the Phoenix Legend, including those who play rock and roll." There may be a bunch of legends that are not as good as the Phoenix. ”
Unfortunately, algorithms are now able to reproduce the "Divine Comedy" that dominates our ears, but we can no longer create a phoenix legend.
Throughout May, the dusty and lonely hearts of countless netizens were rescued by a "seabed salvage team".
At the end of April, Phoenix Legend sang the popular song "Under the Sea" on a music variety show, although it received the lowest score in the whole field, it was popular all over the network after broadcasting, with more than 500 million topics on the whole network, and the video "bloodbath" B station, played more than 15 million times, and continued to soar.
The original song is poignant and mournful, calm and desperate, and the new version becomes majestic and magnificent under the interpretation of the Phoenix Legend, like a response and redemption to the original version.
Netizens commented: "Listening to the original song wants to jump into the sea, listening to the cover song wants to go ashore", listening to this song "there is a feeling that she does not know me, but feels that she loves me".
Ling Hua and Zeng Yi are like two members of the underwater salvage team, Ling Hua's thick voice is matched with Zeng Yi's Sanskrit-like rap, and a pair of invisible hands step out of the lyrics and reach out to the depressed girl who fell in the boundless blue water, pushing her to the sea with sunshine and four seasons.
No one could have imagined that the old national groups that were once labeled as "tu hi", "agricultural heavy metals", "grassland bandits" and other labels would now "turn red" in such a form.
Netizens who were touched by the Phoenix legend version of "Under the Sea" have transformed into "underwater sightseeing groups", leaving their own sightseeing footprints on their previous Microblogs, concert videos, and variety shows, and after continuous "archaeology", they suddenly realized that they had long been in the phoenix legendary boundary.
The birth of the National Group
In the 1990s, the warm wind blew in Guangdong, and Chinese pop music set sail all the way north, repeatedly refreshing the ears of the people of the whole country.
Linghua, whose full name is Yang Wei Linghua, was born in the Ordos steppe of Inner Mongolia, her father was a judge, and her mother was a literary and art worker. In 1997, Linghua, who graduated from Ordos Art School for two years, came to Shenzhen alone for the sake of her musical dreams.
At the same time, Zeng Yi, an appliance maintenance worker from Yiyang, Hunan Province, also ran to Shenzhen to become a resident singer with a love for music.
Just like the fate of the meeting, the two "South Drift" successively entered the "Golden Age" of a famous performing arts center in Shenzhen, when Linghua was still a dancer, but Zeng Yi was already "noble" as a performance director, which was half of Linghua's leadership.
When they first met, Zeng Yi dyed a yellow hair, wore a camouflage and military hook shoes, carried a bag, and wore earrings, And When LingHua saw him for the first time, she only felt that "this man is really ugly."
Since 1997, the two have formed the "Nerve" and "Cool Fire" groups, but most of them are cover songs by Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korean singers.
The style of the Kuhuo combination was imitated by the Korean Kulong combination at that time.
At that time, they did not even have the consciousness to prepare the accompaniment tape, and when they performed, they directly sang with the soundtrack, making the sound of the original song smaller, and the sound of the microphone was larger, in order to cover the original song, they could only tear open the throat and roar. Because of this, Linghua was known as the female version of Daolang in the early days.
One cave performance after another made the two gradually gain popularity in the Guangzhou-Shenzhen area, not only earning more than 10,000 yuan per month, but also providing a house and living a well-off life.
Later, Peacock Gallery Entertainment Records signed them and renamed the group "Phoenix Legend", "Phoenix" was taken from the famous "Phoenix Brand Bicycle" at that time, and "Legend" was taken because Linghua was extremely obsessed with a game called "Legend" at that time.
In 2005, Phoenix Legend participated in the first "Avenue of Stars" of CCTV, and finally defeated Ah Bao and won the second runner-up of the year. In the same year, the debut album "Over the Moon" was released, but at first almost no one cared.
Its real fire is attributed to Ji Minjia's cover on the 2005 Supergirl stage.
"Over the Moon" laid the musical style of the Phoenix Legend in the future: the melodic tune of the northern folk song flavor, the straightforward and heroic humanistic lyrics, plus the half-earth and half-ocean Rap.
Looking back at the Chinese music scene around the millennium, most iconic songs are so "East meets West".
Phoenix Legends blends ethnic, grassroots and urban styles.
At that time, when cremation ringtones were prevalent, Yang Chengang set a Guinness record of 6 million monthly downloads of singles with "Mouse Loves Rice", which the media called together with Eason Chan and Jay Chou as the "Three Giants of Asian Pop"; the song "10,000 Reasons" launched by Peacock Records reached 120 million downloads, and this record has not been broken so far.
Phoenix Legend also caught up with this CRBT boom, "Above the Moon" has been downloaded 79 million times, and the total CRBT revenue of the single "Lotus Pond Moonlight" released in 2010 is more than 100 million yuan.
CrBT also led to the development of the recording industry, with the 2008 Phoenix Legend's new album "Auspicious Ruyi" ranking second in the final annual sales, and 2009's "The Most Dazzling National Style" won the annual mainland sales champion, with more than 300,000 copies sold in the first three months.
I'm sure every Chinese has heard this song.
Phoenix Legend, which is far ahead in the fields of network search, CRBT download, and record sales, has embarked on the development route of "rural encirclement of the city", and has almost equally divided the commercial performance market with Wang Feng.
Countless retail vendors, long-distance truck drivers, and square dancers enshrine it as a spiritual Idol, and their songs have long occupied the top of the pop music charts and KTV song charts.
Phoenix Legend became a veritable national group of Chinese orchestras in mainland China at that time.
The Phoenix Legend is not the soil in the end
Hardly a mainland pop band has been popular for more than twenty years, and Phoenix Saga is an accident.
Since its debut, the word "earthy" has always revolved around this pair of national groups.
Even if you can sing each of their songs, presumably your music app will not store any of them; even if "Above the Moon" and "The Most Dazzling National Style" are the must-have tracks every time you go to KTV, it will still be a little embarrassing if strangers hear you listening to phoenix legends in the subway.
More than a decade ago, the national degree was the sharp blade of the Phoenix legend; now, the national degree has become their original sin.
After eating the dividends of the CRBT era, Xu Mingchao, the head of the Phoenix Legend Studio and also the husband of Linghua, has always regarded the sinking market as their main battlefield.
Xu Mingchao once revealed in an interview with Southern People Weekly that in 2013, the three concerts of phoenix legends were broadcast for free on CCTV more than a hundred times, and they were also the rating guarantee for CCTV's three sets of programs, and the ratings of "Open the Door" were two or three times higher than Han Hong and three or four times higher than that of the Korean group Super Junior.
According to producer Liu Zhengju, the audience of the three sets of CCTV is generally "the majority of middle-aged and elderly people in the north, low income, junior high school and below education account for the majority, rural areas than cities."
CCTV can be said to be the mother of the Phoenix legend.
On July 30, 2014, Phoenix Legend, a decade after debuting, released its sixth album "The Best Times", and Xu Mingchao focused his publicity on the countryside, becoming a pioneer in the band group's use of "painted walls" advertising.
"Sharpen the knife without mistakenly cutting wood, listen to the phoenix and then work again" "Comprehensively carry out the phoenix legend new album to learn to sing and dance work"... Similar copywriting began to appear on outdoor street walls in rural areas around the world.
In the "sinking vitality", the Phoenix Legend can fight with Teacher Wu Bai. /@Phoenix Legend De LingHua
This whirlwind from the south, with a hint of earthy smell, blows all the way inland, county towns and even villages. However, compared with Wang Feng and Li Yuchun, who became popular in the same period, Phoenix Legend is much inferior in musicality, audience positioning, and even internationality.
For a long time, the mainstream music circle and music critics have also disliked them, believing that their music is not advanced, exquisite, immodest, has no content and spiritual height, while those few cultural scholars who are willing to express their affirmation have circled the scope of praise on their sincerity in music and the people's enjoyment of it.
On the one hand, the accusation of "earthy taste" stems from the lack of musicality of the Phoenix Legend, Ling Hua and Zeng Yi have never received systematic training in science and technology, and they have never hidden their shortcomings in creation.
The easy-to-understand lyrics and the cottage-full hip-hop are the reasons why they have gained great national popularity, after all, the musical aesthetic of the Chinese people at that time was there, and the high and low means a dead end.
The early MV was still "luxury cars, beautiful women, prodigal sons". /"Free Flight"
On the other hand, the "soil" of the Phoenix legend also comes from the grassroots nature of Ling Hua and Zeng Yi. One is a grassland flower from Inner Mongolia, and the other is a home appliance maintenance worker from a small inland county, and in the cultural and entertainment circles, they represent the lowest group of people.
Even after more than twenty years in the entertainment industry, they still haven't washed away the simplicity that comes from the identity of former herders and workers.
Recalling the years of hard work in Shenzhen in the early years, they hardly talked about bitterness, but remembered their favorite Guilin rice noodles; participating in the slow variety show, Zeng Yi cut firewood to make fires, borrowed cattle to cultivate the land, and was not unfamiliar.
Zeng Yi was doing farm work. /"Longing for Life"
At every concert, Phoenix Legend almost did not tell the story of his early years to "sell miserably", Xu Mingchao told reporters, this is because they do not believe in the story.
The three of us, I am a fisherman, Zeng Yi is a farmer, Linghua is a herdsman, you let the three people at the bottom of China talk to you about ideals, how to talk? ...... Two singers who didn't go to college, we don't want to have a story, and in the artist circle, we belong to the upstart. People like us are inferior, let alone telling stories to others. We ourselves always have only one goal, which is to set a goal and complete it, and there is no point in the process.
Making the Phoenix Legend, Southern People Weekly
In this sense, the Phoenix Legend's "soil" is also their talisman, enough for them to capture their audience and stay evergreen in an ever-changing era.
In this era,
There will be no second Phoenix Saga
All along, the Phoenix Legend has been surrounded by two major questions: 1. Obviously there are few words, why did Zeng Yi share half of the money; 2. These two people are not husband and wife.
In the eyes of many people, Zeng Yi is dispensable in the combination. Over the years, his role has been constantly switching between "Oye Brother", "Stay Brother" and "Yo Yo Brother", a song is sung without a few words, and even Li Shi complained: "Linghua is the pride of our Inner Mongolians, Zeng Yi, we Inner Mongolians have raised you." ”
But in fact, the relationship between the two is like the praise and teasing in the cross-talk industry, and no one can leave.
At that time, Peacock Records wanted to sign Linghua, saying that it would cost millions to give her a record, on the condition that only she was signed, Linghua did not agree, and it took a lot of effort to convince the supervisor that she and Zeng Yi were indispensable, and if they wanted to sign her, they had to sign Zeng Yi at the same time.
If you sign the company, it means that you can no longer take business performances, there will be no fixed income every month, Zeng Yi was raising a family and providing a house at that time, but when Linghua decided to fight hard, he said: "That line, I will play with you." ”
Queen Linghua and her little heel. /"Lu Yu has a date"
For more than two years, they did not have a stable income, and Zeng Yi reached out to his friends in Shenzhen to borrow money, and the borrowed money was halved by Linghua.
Later, Ling Hua said that since it was half a point when borrowing money, it was also half a point when making money.
Both have a kind of homegrown pride and "fierceness", which may be the reason why they can be partners. But the personalities of the two are so different.
Ling Hua was bold and straight, grinning widely, Zeng Yi was only a promise, but he looked unpredictable. Just like Ling Hua said, the relationship between the two is like a wrongdoer, can't see, can't leave.
At work, the two support each other, sometimes Linghua's mood is a little unstable, Zeng Yi is like a little daughter-in-law, not squeaking next to her; which day Linghua's voice is not in a good state, maybe singing wrong, forgetting words, Zeng Yi immediately used his unique bubble sound rap to find a way to make up for it.
Ling Hua couldn't find the paper and directly pulled out Zeng Yi's suit handkerchief to wipe her tears. /"Spit Conference"
Looking back at their previous songs, the quality is not as earthy and unbearable as everyone thinks.
"Above the Moon" is the earliest song in China that perfectly combines ethnic wind music and rap music; "Lotus Pond Moonlight" changes the previous atmospheric and heroic style, and the gentle and delicate lyrics also make the majority of music fans at that time refreshed.
Starting with Lotus Pond Moonlight, phoenix legends began to change styles.
Their songs are not limited to simple praises of flowers, birds and trees, but also try to express more. "Lady Xiangxiang" uses the Yi hero as the prototype; "All Love" is about the alienation of the emotional relationship between the two sexes in the process of urbanization.
In recent years, the Phoenix Legend has also worked hard to get rid of the label of "agricultural heavy metals", singing "Will Enter the Wine" and "Don Dong Da" on the "Classic Aria", singing the deep heroism and open-mindedness in the poems.
Phoenix Legend sang "Don't Dong Da" with deep feeling. /Classic Arias
With a cover of "Under the Sea", the phoenix legend becomes holy and healing, pouring the vitality of the rooted earth into the sea, whispering softly to all the young people who have been drowned by the suffering of life.
Music critic Wang Xiaofeng once said that the Phoenix Legend represents the average level of Chinese pop music production, "after the high is Cui Jian, Luo Dayou, but there are more low-level things than the Phoenix Legend, including those who play rock and roll." There may be a bunch of legends that are not as good as the Phoenix Legends."
Music is a reaction of an era, and what kind of era will give birth to what kind of music.
Once, phoenix legends broke through in the Internet era of chaotic music categories and audience differentiation, and gained a firm foothold as the originator of square dance and the spokesperson of the Divine Comedy.
Nowadays, music has become a careful calculation in the era of algorithms, the continuous repetition and iteration of 15-second short videos, and the aggressive control and evaluation of the rice circle, and the Phoenix Legend seems to have departed from the times.
But if you look closely, what is the difference between the lyrics in "Lotus Pond Moonlight" "Cut a period of time and slowly flow, flowing into the moonlight and swaying slightly" and the sentence of the Douyin Divine Comedy "The Wind Blows" now, "Take a cup of water from the sky and shake it according to the bright moon"?
Regrettably, algorithms are able to reproduce the "Divine Comedy" that dominates our ears, but we can no longer create a phoenix legend.
[1] "The Controversy and Excitement of the Phoenix Legend" Lu Yu has about.2013-04-15
[2] Making a Phoenix Legend, Southern People Weekly, 2014-06
[3] "Phoenix Legend Studios, May Be More like an Advertising Agency" Lu Yunfei. Curiosity Daily.2014-09-25
[4] Academic || After studying the magical combination of Phoenix Legends, I found the following mysteries..." Miss Huang and Miss Blue.2020-08-14
[5] "15 Seconds Dominate the Ear: Making the Divine Comedy in the Age of Algorithms" By Liu Min. Mr. Manufacturing.2021-05-10
[6] "23 Years Later, the Phoenix Legend Sang after the 90s", New Phase X Institute.2021-05-25
✎ Author | An Yuqian
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