The "real" and "dreamy" of a music variety show.
Author | Director
Edit | Shi Can
One night between the mountains of western Hunan Province, a group of people gathered in the picturesque scenery of the peach blossom garden, sitting around the grass under the bright lights, and from time to time there were bursts of singing and laughter.
This is not the beginning of a movie, but a scene from Hunan Satellite TV's latest outdoor music variety show "Time Concert". Tan Yonglin, Liao Changyong, Lin Zhixuan, Li Keqin, Xu Ruyun, Zhang Jie, Phoenix Legend, Yu Kewei and other well-known musicians came to Wulingyuan in Zhangjiajie to sing, chat and write letters in the landscape, bringing the audience the golden songs with rich connotations of the new era and the stories behind them.
Tan Yonglin Source: Stills from "Time Concert"
On October 22, "Time Concert" won the first place in the ratings of the three networks after the broadcast of Hunan Satellite TV, and the real-time ratings of the replay in the same period ranked first in the country, and mainstream media such as People's Daily, Guangming Daily, and China Youth Daily published articles one after another, saying that "music connects each other together, which not only warms the heart, but also transmits strength", and has won the "double praise" of the audience and the mainstream media.
Why does this "Time Concert" have such "magic", and where is it good to see? Hedgehog Commune (ID: ciweigongshe) has a dialogue with Ren Yang, producer of "Time Concert", trying to restore the ideas and values behind this "unusual" sound ensemble.
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"It's easy for viewers to think of it as a travel show or a life-related show before it starts." Ren Yang told hedgehog commune that the production team of "Time Concert" did not choose these two paths, abandoning complex links, scenes and mechanism settings, so that the focus of the show returned to the music itself, "setting too many reality TV tasks for singers will affect their musical performance." ”
"It was an adventure for us." Ren Yang said. The audience's taste is becoming more and more critical, and the types of variety shows that have been seen are also increasing, and people are getting used to getting more information and experiencing more scenes in a short period of time.
"Is it possible that, without addition or subtraction, we can also attract people, and after providing the audience with a week's work, we can completely relax, without thinking, and enjoy it for an hour or two of pure enjoyment?" Ren Yang believes that providing a minimalist variety show experience for the audience in the fast-paced era can provide a new healing possibility, which also creates the scarcity and product power of the program.
Xu Ruyun Source: Stills from "Time Concert"
Another highlight of "Time Concert" is that there is no scoring and "competition". "The show itself focuses on the representatives of the singers that the audience is most familiar with. After so many big winds and waves, they have looked down on the rankings, and there is actually a musical light behind each work. And we believe that the power of time can also produce a sense of freshness that attracts everyone. Ren Yang said.
In the show, when Tan Yonglin finished reading the letter he wrote to himself in 1985, he also brought back the collective memories of other musicians from decades ago. In "Time Concert", the musician seems to ride on the "time machine", following the memories, jumping to 1992, 1998, 2004, 2010, 2019...
"We found that the letter is a very good form, leaving a space and time for the artist to really calm down and do a serious thought; the speed of the letter is very slow, which is more in line with the program temperament of the slow variety show; we can also avoid variety show means such as question-answering and answering; secondly, we will not delay the main line of music because of letting the singer express the story." For the link of setting up the letter reading, Ren Yang gave multiple levels of ingenuity.
Li Keqin Source: Stills from "Time Concert"
In the letters and memories of the singers, we can hear the singers share "exclusive memories" that have never been revealed. Yu Kewei talked about Tan Yonglin's influence on himself, from the fact that his father especially liked "Principal Tan" to cut the same hairstyle; Tan Yonglin was Also Li Keqin's idol, and the magic was that one day Li Keqin really became a colleague with the idol one day; Xu Ruyun remembered the days of "One Man Show" and felt that "this is not the past", she remembered that year she opened a concert, but her husband was not present; Tan Yonglin mentioned that it was an episode of "Dragon Brother tiger brother" when recalling "Friends", reminiscent of the scene when Jackie Chan was seriously injured when filming ......
"After we entered such a dream together in 2010, and then looked at what Lin Zhixuan did that year and what I was doing, there was a kind of resonance and contrast at this time, so that the singer's story behind the song also had meaning and a sense of involvement for the audience." Ren Yang said, "So this show is both real, but also has a dreamy part." ”
"Time Concert" also adapts the classic old songs, allowing musicians to sing each other's classic songs, with the help of new styles and singing voices, giving the old songs a new life connotation. For example, "Left Lin Right Lee" Tan Yonglin and Li Keqin sang "Friend" and "Red Sun" respectively, bringing the audience back to their youth and experiencing calm and calm, and the classic taste became more and more evocative after time precipitation.
Looking at the entire variety market, the healing core under the wrapping of the slow variety show of "Time Concert" returns to life in a quiet environment and plays back the memory of the times, and the content is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so that the audience can resonate with the music and story in the program, and find a reason to immerse themselves in the program. The pioneering way of the time concert can be called a typical representative of the fine variety show, and it is a feasible way to break through in the fiercely competitive music category.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="107" > why we all love Time Concert</h1>
"There is no show and noisy drama of popular variety shows, and the invited guests are really powerful and representative singers, and they are more representative musicians in their respective eras." They recall the songs and the stories behind them, and they are also common memories that many people have experienced together. "There are mainstream media comments on "Time Concert" in this way.
Slow variety shows are "easy to digest" and "good to spread", which are inseparable from excellent production. First of all, the excellent production team makes the content of "Time Concert" quite solid.
The music director of "Time Concert" is Arai Eleven, who holds 11 Golden Melody Awards and has been nominated for 42 Golden Melody Awards, which is his "first time out of the mountain" in music variety; well-known jazz guitarist and composer Gu Zhongshan as the band director; violinist Liu Xingmaru, bassist Damien Banzigou, keyboardist Liu Xiaoguang, guitarist Hu Chen and other well-known musicians in the industry, together forming this group of stars and strength team.
"This time we did not use the idea of adapting for the sake of adaptation in the past, but gave the golden song a new life, to awaken the inner emotions of the golden song, just like creating an album to design a song in a variety show." Ren Yang believes that such a music team has built a professional background for music synthesis.
Lin Zhixuan Source: Stills from "Time Concert"
Ren Yang gave an example from the first variety show. For example, Lin Zhixuan's "The Tears of the Mona Lisa", this time (adapted) launched a new piece with a completely Spanish playing style; when Zhang Jie became a 35-year-old father with three children, his "This is Love" also corresponded to the addition of Nordic style breakpoints and elements; as well as the gypsy girl version of "Above the Moon", the American musical version of "Monologue", the world's Datong style "Friend" ... In their hands, the classic not only did not have "fried cold rice", but the golden light on the golden song became more and more shining.
Ren Yang's team also did a lot of groundbreaking work that the audience could not see. For example, they have raised the quality of outdoor sound synthesis to the level of professional studios with the blessing of professional-level cameras and speakers. There are about 30 aircraft positions alone, not counting drones in the air.
Ren Yang told the Hedgehog Commune that this was not easy, and just a dew in the mountains of western Hunan in autumn could cause huge trouble for video recording. However, after overcoming these difficulties one by one, compared with the outdoor variety shows filmed with portable devices before, the picture quality and sound quality have been greatly improved, and a big step forward in the direction of the extreme.
The "chemical reaction" between the singers is also an important reason for the success of the show. In the early planning stage, the program team determined three criteria: "Every singer audience knows, every anti-hit camera audience can recognize, and the audience can hear the melody at the beginning of each paragraph." ”
"We hope that these 8 singers should have a musical intuitive experience and precipitation, and when he enters the program, he can bring you different states of other programs." Ren Yang said they did not want a platter of "a traffic star, a Cantonese singer, a classic singer..." a healing slow variety show that brought the audience a sense of familiarity.
Zhang Jie Source: Stills from "Time Concert"
Ren Yang also told the Hedgehog Commune that since planning the "Time Concert", he would receive information or phone calls from the singers participating in the show every day, "Principal Tan Yonglin" called almost every two days every day, Zhang Jie was more frequent, almost every half a day on a message or a phone call, discussing the costumes, discussing what to talk about on the show, "Less than a month after the recording, we were almost every day together. ”
Tan Yonglin likes "Time Concert" very much, and he believes that the program group is "particularly professional from beginning to end" and is really considering musicians. In order to take care of the general performance status of musicians, recording is usually scheduled after 5:00 pm, and the daytime recording will not set too cumbersome links, leaving time for musicians to prepare songs. After returning to the essence of music, musicians are also more relaxed and enjoy the recording process in this show.
Yu Kewei Image source: Stills from "Time Concert"
The ingenious content setting of the program satisfies the common pursuit of people to reminisce about time and seek spiritual healing and comfort. Let the singers who rarely meet sit around the stove, talk freely, as if chatting with friends to do the program, in a warm, mutually helpful atmosphere, the distance between the singer and the singer, between the singer and the audience is shortened.
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Music variety shows have always been the traditional strength of Hunan Satellite TV. Starting from super female fast men, the strong music gene has continued to the Internet era, discovering countless excellent singers and high-quality music works, Li Yuchun, Zhang Liangying, Zhang Jie and other singers, still play a vital influence in the music world.
In recent years, Hunan Satellite TV has launched new music roundups such as "Singer", "I want to sing with you", and "Who is the Treasure Singer", which have achieved good reputation. The emergence of "Time Concert" is another landmark work of Hunan Satellite TV, leaving an impressive mark in the variety category of slow variety shows.
"Putting all the variety shows into the music variety show is too much, and now the addition of the variety show has reached the extreme." When talking about the trend of the development of music variety shows, Ren Yang said that by "doing subtraction", the audience can be provided with a kind of eloquent work that maintains a basic constant sense of happiness and gives the audience a new experience.
This may be the just need of a generation of audiences. When the pace of social development and change is getting faster and faster, people are more and more eager for an idyllic spiritual home in the day-to-day rush and hard work. For warm, soothing content, people are often more likely to have yearning and empathy, willing to wander through it to relive those good memories. The "Friends" style of warm healing music variety shows will continue to be sought after by the audience.
Liao Changyong Image source: Stills from "Time Concert"
In addition to the innovation of categories, "Time Concert" also represents the exploration of The social value of Hunan Satellite TV in variety shows: how to use the form that young audiences like to hear, promote warm and healing atmosphere and positive energy, and convey a positive value proposition?
In the singing of "Time Concert", we heard the answer to this question from Hunan Satellite TV: with a healing atmosphere, soothing rhythm and professional production, let the guests and the audience find emotional resonance in an immersive environment, jointly define the meaning and beauty, and explore the era value behind it.
This innovative paradigm of variety shows has become increasingly sophisticated in Hunan Satellite TV's recent programs. Hedgehog Commune noted that in the fourth quarter of 2021, Hunan Satellite TV officially launched a new slogan of "Youth China".
Behind the launch of the new slogan is Hunan Satellite TV's initiative to upgrade the youth brand, deeply cultivate the youth gene, lead the youth ecology, and build a bridge of communication between the new era and young people. Natural, warm content temperament, focusing on daily and ordinary value propositions, is increasingly reflected in the recent programs of Hunan Satellite TV, the newly launched music variety show "Singing Caravan" in the fourth quarter, the "Little Shop on the Clouds" that reflects the revitalization of the countryside, and the workplace variety show "Today You Are Hard".
These innovative variety shows that focus on life have opened up the program territory of Hunan Satellite TV that continues to export the value of "youth", and also added new connotations and footnotes to the content genes of Hunan Satellite TV's "Youth China". With the power of thought and the temperature of youth to spread excellent culture and better lead and shape a generation of young people, the success of Hunan Satellite TV's "Time Concert" is by no means an isolated case.