Guofeng music "out of the circle" to create a complete cultural IP

Guofeng music is gradually entering the mainstream public's vision from the niche culture of young people in the second dimension, and even becomes a branch of Chinese music that cannot be ignored.

Stills from the network hit drama "East Palace"

"The Hour Girl" sang "Love Death" debuted at the B Station New Year's Eve Party, and the "East Palace Girl" brushed on the bullet screen reminded everyone that this is an episode of the network hit drama "East Palace". Another song with "Wolf Disco" and popular all over the Internet, "Mangzhong", has successively appeared on the stage of local satellite TV variety shows and CCTV programs. It not only triggered a frenzy of fashionista choreography cover songs on Douyin, but even became the background music of square dances around the world. And the more famous avatar Luo Tianyi, last year with her "Power Royal World" and pianist Lang Lang opened a concert...

And the leap of this step "out of the circle" is not the "pop-up" effect of a few songs for a short time, but it took about 15 years. From the derivatives of the Xian xia game in the early years, to the "ancient style songs" that coexisted with popularity and controversy, to the musical works that showed higher quality and more diversified styles in the name of "National Wind Music" in the past two years, the changes they have experienced are multifaceted. The most gratifying thing is that the creative force has changed from the self-amusement of early gamers to the addition of more professional creative forces and even academics. Because of this, many website platforms also support it as original content in many ways.

Although many works still have problems such as rough production, immature lyrics and even misuse of allusions, melody thunder, etc., it is undeniable that the huge creative base and the enthusiasm of the majority of fans have jointly promoted the gradual improvement of the quality of Chinese style music. What is more worth mentioning is that a successful Chinese style music is not satisfied with the creation of lyrics, but also hooks up with ancient poetry, Hanfu, dance, etc., and can even be continuously fermented into a whole cultural IP that is enjoyed and deepened by teenagers in the secondary creation of the audience.

From ancient wind songs to national style music

From the self-entertaining and self-entertaining friends, they gradually dig deep into traditional culture and explore the creative consciousness of new music genres

Because last year's hit web drama "East Palace" liked the interlude "Love Death" "East Palace Girl" may not know, this national style music was created ten years ago. Originally, it was the soundtrack made for a game. Because the composer Xiao Fan was on a whim, he invited friends to fill in the lyrics, produce, and sing, and in early 2009, it was released to several original music websites such as 5sing. At that time, the young girl who was doing foreign affairs interpreting work recalled this life cycle even far beyond many popular songs of "Love Death", and the emotion was completely accidental. "After the release, we were busy with our own lives, but we didn't expect to be remembered by netizens all the time, so that the play of a group of friends at that time finally became a garden."

In the past ten years, "Love Death" has no so-called publicity, and the main creators have rarely created, but it has not hindered the repeated expansion of its audience. First, it was repeatedly covered during the popularity of ancient songs. And the lyrics of "Look at the sky at dusk, trance remember your face", and at the time of the fire of the costume fairy drama, it has become the most appropriate situation depiction for netizens. Therefore, since then, "Love Death" has become the musical material repeatedly used by netizens to edit popular film and television drama clips such as "Flowers and Bones". Interestingly, ten years later, it was under the recommendation of fans of the original book of "East Palace" that the crew purchased the copyright of this song, so that "Love" really became an interlude in film and television dramas with the power of "tap water", ushering in another round of wider singing ten years later.

The life trajectory of "Love Death" reflects the process of the national style music genre from germination to evolution to a certain extent. More than a decade ago, this kind of music was also the product of netizens spontaneously singing the soundtrack of domestic xianxia games such as "The Legend of the Paladin Sword". Until 2007, represented by the "Mo Ming Qimiao" composed of music lovers, the banner of "ancient style" was displayed. However, for the vast majority of enthusiasts without professional backgrounds, the professional standard has not yet caught up with the creative consciousness, and some of the creations still stay on the simple addition of the traditional five-tone scale "Gongshang Kaku Zhengyu" and antique pseudo-ancient lyrics.

In the pop music scene, Chinese style has long been popular in the Chinese-speaking world through the creation and interpretation of singers such as Jay Chou and Wang Lihong. Also in 2007, Jay Chou launched "Blue and White Porcelain". "Sketching out the blue and white, the pen is thick and light" Fang Wenshan's freehand lyrics are combined with Jay Chou's mixed R&B and melody full of ancient meaning, which is regarded as the peak of the Chinese style of popular songs. In contrast, the ancient style song sings "Drifting Ping Floating Lotus, Ge Shen Dream Shallow, Nowhere to Trust Hongyan". Indeed, folk power, whether in terms of rhetorical mood or professionalism in arrangement, is difficult to match the works produced by the record industry. However, Jay Chou, who has only produced one album in one or two years and only one or two "Chinese styles" on one album, obviously cannot meet the needs of the market. There are dozens of members of the Team, and more than 300 works have been created in 12 years.

Watching Jin Yong martial arts dramas since childhood, playing Xian Xia Ancient Style RPG (role-playing game), chasing overseas animation and network fantasy literature grew up after the post-90s and post-00s, both creators and consumers, the xianxia theme inevitably becomes the most important theme of ancient style songs. Around 2015, riding on the trend of film and television adaptation of online literary IP, music creation has gradually expanded from the game circle to the entire online youth group, and even influenced the mainstream music scene to give birth to works such as "Rolling Bead Curtain" and "Cool Cool".

Bidding farewell to the germination stage of self-entertainment, the addition of professional musical power has made the musical style more diverse and rich. The original form of "ancient style" can no longer be covered, and many people have begun to use a more inclusive and generalized definition of Chinese style music, that is, works with Chinese elements, which can be included in this category.

At the same time, the "North Drift" professional mixer Yan Xiaojin established the "Music Que Poetry Listening Music Club". The solar terms series created by the team unexpectedly became a hit last year. A song "Mangsang" is even more from online to offline. Bidding farewell to the grassroots creation of "a computer + a microphone", the female vocal chant that jumps lightly at the beginning is very "ear-catching", and the interlude part of the "dialogue" between violin and guzheng adds a lot to the work. On Douyin, the song's related topics have been played more than 4 billion times. The evolution from "ancient style" to "national style" is more and more a kind of creative cultural consciousness for creators like Yan Xiaojin - national style music is not only a continuation of the Chinese music tradition, but also a branch of popular music. The creators try to integrate Chinese elements such as folk music and ancient music into popular music under the influence of European, American, Japanese and Korean cultures, so that they are more in line with the Chinese aesthetics that are infiltrated in the classical culture of traditional poetry.

A song becomes a garden

It's not just a song, it's a story, and even a complete cultural IP

Perhaps it is with this sense of cultural identity that the development of Chinese style music to today has evolved into a complete set of content matrices.

If someone asks what is good about the popular "Koi Copy"? Fans will not only tell you that because the melody is good and the words are gorgeous, they will always tell a story implied by the lyrics. Once upon a time, there was a painter who was obsessed with carp. One day, when his home was on fire and he was trapped in the fire because he cherished his paintings, the carp he raised transformed into a human form and rescued him. The creators even created a wenyan version of this story, which can be found in the "Ningwu Emperor Renguang Ninth Year Jin Wenxuan Inscribed Book "Strange Tales"". The MV, Cosplay and other secondary creations of netizens around "Koi Copy" are even more hooked up with a series of national style content that young people are enthusiastic about, such as Hanfu, anime images, and Chinese dance.

In the B station, "Thousand Autumn Years Introduction" selected six cultural relics such as "Kunyu Wanguo Quantu" and Yue Wang's Gou Jian Sword from the CCTV variety show "National Treasure", which were not only displayed in an anthropomorphic animation images, but also through the role-playing interpretation of six singers, trying to show the characteristic connotations of cultural relics with young people's understanding.

It can be said that The consumption of Guofeng Music is not only the music itself, but also a whole cultural IP. According to statistics, in the first quarter of 2019, the number of B station guofeng related submissions and UP masters increased by 331% and 304% year-on-year, respectively, of which 70% of up the main UP owners were between the ages of 18-24; the traditional culture lovers in the station also exceeded 40 million, of which up to 88% were post-95s and post-00s. The "stacking of elegant words" that has been criticized in the past has also self-corrected in the deep cognition of traditional culture among teenagers, and has spread to the audience through songs. In the video of the national style music "Prosperous Singing All Over" in Station B, the bullet screen heatly discusses the meaning of the lyrics. The lyrics sing: "Tiptoeing to look forward to the pear garden, I was only thirteen years old." "Why not twelve or fourteen?" Because Du Mu in the "Farewell" poem Yun "Lou Lou Yuan more than thirteen, cardamom head in early February." Thirteen years old is the so-called "cardamom age".

However, the rapid growth of the market size does not mean that a mature industrial model has been established. At present, equipped with costume film and television dramas, national style music is gradually being known to more and more people. Major mainstream music platforms have also carved out the category of "ancient style". In particular, songs such as "Mangzhong" and "Koi Copy" have been played on major platforms such as Douyin and other major platforms. Compared with the mature pop industrial system and its business model, the national style music created by non-professional creators from the bottom up is still on the edge of mainstream music. At one time, the unevenness of the works, especially the lyrics, also caused public misunderstanding and controversy.

Because of this, although it is possible to release albums, cooperate with film and television dramas, and sit on hundreds of millions of plays, the "monetization" model is still unclear. The "power generation with love" of non-professional creators is still the norm in the national wind music circle. Last year, Xiao and his team created a series of works such as "Love Evening Pavilion Side" and "Yuelu Mountain" for Changsha landmark buildings, in order to explore the ancient architecture and history and culture of their hometown, so that Chinese style music can move from the two-dimensional world where young people gather to a wider public group.

And Yan Xiaojin described the process of being seen as "waiting for the wind to come." In addition to constantly improving the creation, as much as possible to put into more platforms, "when the wind comes, just when your leaf blows a little farther." Although the process of the creator himself is passive, he is optimistic. "Just like Li Ziqi, if China can rush out with music in the future, it must have something with our own culture." (Huang Qizhe)

(The original title is "It's Time to Re-recognize Chinese Style Music")