On the watermelon video, there is such a group of middle-aged people who love music. When they were young, they dreamed of holding a guitar and "fighting the sword to the end of the world". But for a long time, they were too busy making a living to take care of anything else, and playing music became a luxury.
When people reach middle age, by chance, they pick up the guitar again and feel the touch that music has brought to them. The blood of youth and the emotions of life are all in the song.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > the musical soul of middle-aged people</h1>
With a guitar and a microphone, Mr. Zhang, 57, sat in a corner of a couch and sang Mr. Ye's "Home at Sunset" — a school ballad from the 1980s — in Mandarin with a slightly rustic accent. The whole video is shot to the end, there are no special effects, no editing, Zhang Dexiong is slightly sideways, rarely looks directly at the camera, and is completely immersed in his own world.
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The video garnered more than half a million views on the watermelon video, more than two thousand comments, and someone wrote: "It's like going back to when I was young, a few close friends, carrying guitars, riding bicycles, coming to the river, playing cappella." Spring walking, summer catching cicadas, autumn harvesting, winter skating. ”
Since January 2020, Zhang Dexiong has posted more than 100 videos on his watermelon video number "Yuezhi Kitty". In addition to some of the classic songs that are still familiar to this day, there are more old songs that young people are no longer familiar with, "One Road", "Tell Me", "Autumn Cicada", "Only Separation"... These songs, which are not fashionable enough today, are the youth of a generation.
At the bottom of Zhang Dexiong's video, many post-60s and post-70s generations with the same fun as him were gathered, and they reviewed their youth through Zhang Dexiong's music. "Sit on the guitar on the back of the road, and the brothers play and play." "I wanted to put the little tape recorder on the bedside and listen to it all night, this was when we were young."
If Zhang Dexiong's video gives people a sense of vicissitudes, then Xu Sister's songs have a bright beauty. The 45-year-old Sister Xu is also a middle-aged music fan on the watermelon video, and Zhang Dexiong's style is different, and her lyrical old songs are less sad and more bright.
In her watermelon video number "A Time of Sister Xu", the most played song is Xu Xiaofeng's "Heart Love", wearing a beige top, Sister Xu swings her head while singing, "I want to secretly look at him and pretend to appreciate a bottle of flowers", through playful transposition, she sang a shy and bold girlish heart. Some people say that her "Heart Love" sings a "slightly drunk, enchanting feeling".
From Zhang Dexiong to Xu Sister, their video production is relatively simple, more with style and feelings to win. However, the middle-aged musicians on the watermelon also have technical streams, and "pulsating light tone" is one of them.
When he was young, Guang Yin worked as an accompanist band in a dance hall in Zhuhai for two years, learning guitar notation for hundreds of songs. After leaving the band, he majored in fine arts and started advertising design, and has a lot of experience in new media.
"Technology Stream" light and sound are very particular about his videos. Since his first work in early 2020, he has insisted on shooting pictures of singing with his camera, recording sound with a professional microphone, and then merging, editing and retouching in the later stage. He also downloaded a lot of material on some copyright-free material websites, and even edited a high-style title himself. Many of his videos even have the texture of MVs.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="90" > to pick up the "long lost thing"</h1>
Old Wolf's "Long Lost Thing" is the first song released by Guangyin on the watermelon video. This campus ballad is one of the favorite tracks of Guangyin in college. "At first I don't know what the song likes, but then I listen to it." Playing music with a guitar has become a "long-lost thing" for today's light and sound.
In 1994, Guangyin was admitted to Jiangxi Normal University. At that time, the guitar swept the campus and was a symbol of freedom and fashion. In the impression of Guangyin, basically every dormitory has at least one guitar hanging. Guang Yin learned guitar from his classmates in the school's music department, and his progress was rapid, and he soon formed a band on campus.
After graduating from college, Guang yin and his band friends worked during the day and went to the dance hall to accompany him at night, earning 6,000 yuan a month. On weekends, they rehearse with singers from all over the world with different personalities, and from time to time they get together to rub a supper and live a full life. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and before long, the band industry took a sharp turn, and Guangyin and his friends changed careers. Since then, although he has occasionally played the guitar, he has no longer had the atmosphere of playing the band.
Sister Xu always misses the musical atmosphere in the university. Twenty years ago, she studied at Nankai University, and in addition to studying, she often got together with her friends from Tianjin University next door to practice songs. Friends played guitar, and she sang sweetly. "The song goes far, time passes very slowly." After graduation, tired of work and family, she gradually left music behind. Until the end of the year, Sister Xu did not want to live a life that looked at the end of the day, and decided to pick up the music again.
Coincidentally, Zhang Dexiong's story is also that people have the opportunity to pick up the guitar again until they are middle-aged.
In 1981, Zhang Dexiong, who graduated from college at the age of 18, went to teach in the countryside of Shaoxing. Because my family lives in the urban area, the transportation is inconvenient, and I only return home once a month. The teachers at the same school are all middle-aged local people and have no common topic with him. Every weekend, he would spend his time alone with a guitar in his arms.
Without a professional teacher, Zhang Dexiong groped on his own according to the tape of the song and a simple guitar teaching book, although he could not adjust the string distance and did not learn to sweep the strings, but he could simply play a little decomposition chord, show a hand in front of the students, or sing a love song to his girlfriend at the time, which was already a special sense of accomplishment and happiness.
Seven years later, Zhang Dexiong left school and worked in newspapers and government agencies. Due to the busy work, the love of music was shelved. Occasionally out to socialize, he would order a song at night stall, ask to touch the musician's guitar, and pluck the strings twice at random, which was the only intersection between him and the guitar for a long time.
After retiring at the age of 52, Zhang Dexiong picked up the guitar that had been abandoned for a long time, and he learned from the teaching video on the watermelon video, but his fingers did not listen to the call, he could only keep practicing.
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has given Zhang Dexiong a rare time to practice at home. He gradually regained the feel of the past and began to run his own watermelon video number; Sister Xu sang to herself in the study to the camera, she wore round-rimmed glasses and red striped T, and behind her was a large row of books, as if she had returned to college. At the same time, Guangyin nestled guitar at home and decided to build a virtual "dance hall" for himself on the watermelon video, and likes and comments became another form of cheering and shouting.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="94" > their golden age</h1>
Guangyin often says: One of the great charms of music is that it is a way of communicating. After the youth withdrew from the stage, the audience in college also silently dispersed. Now with the Internet, they have a "confidant" across the screen.
When Zhang Desheng first started, it could be described as a difficult step. Because he can't edit, when he just recorded, as long as there is a little error, he will choose to start over. The first song he recorded, "Ruthless Rain, Ruthless You", was recorded for no less than 3 days and sung more than 20 times, not to mention the time with subtitles in the later stage.
The encouragement and support of netizens made him feel that he could continue to sing. Sometimes, there will be some unexpected professionals in the comments, some time ago, Zhang Dexiong sent a song "Olive Tree", netizens pointed out, "Your retention value is not enough, the three strings are always put away in advance", for such suggestions, he will cherish in his heart.
Every time Sister Xu plays a song, she will bring her own ideas. In early January 2021, temperatures in Beijing plummeted to their lowest level since the 21st century. In this situation, Sister Xu sang Lin Yilian's "For You and Me by the Cold Wind" at home. This sad song, under her interpretation, has less bitterness and more relief. Netizens with sharp ears gave her a private message: Your "For You and Me by the Cold Wind" is not solemn at all, and there is a special feeling. Hearing such feedback, Sister Xu was surprised and delighted - that day her cat was at home, bathed in the sun to record this song, looking forward to the end of the cold wave, and her heart was full of joy and relaxation of "stealing half a day's leisure". The moment she saw the private message, she was sure that she had gained a confidant on the Internet.
In August last year, Guangyin sang a song by Qi Qin's "Wild Stream" on the watermelon video, and there was a sentence in the lyrics that "no one can save the wild flow of time", which he chose as the title. Some netizens sent him a private message, looking for him to ask for the score of this song. Netizens accompanied their mother to the hospital for treatment, hoping to learn this song and play it to her. After some time, Guang Yin asked him, is your mother feeling better? Netizen replied: Mom has passed away. Also middle-aged, this feeling of "children want to raise and not wait", Guangyin, who has passed the age of confusion, is also related.
Since February 2020, Guangyin has updated 145 videos. Old Wolf, Qi Qin, Park Shu, Luo Dayou, Zhang Yusheng, Teresa Teng, Mei Yanfang, Chopstick Brothers, the works of these older generation musicians gathered in his watermelon video number.
Guangyin said: "I have personally experienced the golden age of Chinese music, and I hope to be able to record it in my own way. Modern people don't go to the old records, everyone is watching videos, sometimes they see it on watermelon videos, they will listen to it. That's fine too. ”