Rye | Triad Life Weekly
In the 1980s, Zhang Qiang's disco songs were like an interloper, with a force of freedom.
Shy girl
Many people born before the 1980s have the impression of such a lyrics: "Since seeing you on the banks of the Acacia River, like the spring breeze blowing into the heart, I want to gently tell you, don't forget me..." This is an old Taiwanese song that came out in 1962, which has been interpreted by many singers such as Feng Feifei, Chen Shuhua, Cai Qin, Chen Baiqiang, etc., but people seem to be more familiar with the voice from Zhang Qiang, which comes from an album called "What If" released in early 1985.
In the early 1980s, the music trend of Teresa Teng, Liu Wenzheng and Zhang Di had just blown, and these music that had once been criticized and "only dared to eavesdrop at home" began to be accepted by the public, and people began to face up to this modern expression of emotion. In 1980, "stereo" gradually became a musical icon, when the number of tape recorders in Chinese families began to exceed the number of radios, and it was common for young people wearing flared pants and sunglasses to carry tape recorders from the hutongs, they were China's first pop music adopters, they looked for answers for their youth in songs. At that time, Zhang Qiang was still a student at the 205 Middle School in Beijing's Haidian District, and like many young people, listening to popular songs was a part of her life.
Born in Beijing to a musical family, Zhang Qiang's mother is a violinist in the China Film Orchestra, she began to learn to play the piano when she was in kindergarten, when she was a child, she was difficult to devote herself to, and the practice of the piano was also intermittent. She remembers that she often followed her mother to the studio to record, where she met Dedema, Zhu Mingying, Lee Guy-il, and conductor Kim Jong-pyeong doing recordings, and the recording studio seemed to fill Zhang Qiang with a certain expectation that she could one day record an album of her own.
Zhang Qiang
"I had more opportunities to watch the show than my peers." Zhang Qiang can still count some performances, such as Masashi Sada, Brigham Young University, Kansai Art Troupe that dances aerobics, Matsuyama Ballet in Japan, Seiji Ozawa, as well as Violin performances by Yu Lina and Sheng China. When she was a child, Zhang Qiang was very engaged in watching the performances, and these performances opened up a kind of musical boundaries and performance ideas for her, and it was in these performances that she began to look for a voice of her own, her own way of performing.
Before graduating from primary school, she wanted to apply for the Central Conservatory of Music Affiliated High School, so she took the violin to the interview, and as soon as she entered the examination room, she bowed to the teacher, said "I don't want to study in the Forward Primary School", and then pulled a song "The train runs towards Shaoshan", and then was "eliminated" by Rapagnani's classmates. Soon, she found a joy in singing, she said: "I had a direction early on, and I knew exactly what I wanted to sing. ”
Carpenters' "Yesterday once more" is the first song that teenager Zhang Qiang hears every morning when she gets up and closes her eyes and turns on the tape recorder. At that time, when she was twelve or thirteen years old, she always stayed at home to listen to radio programs, and no matter what language the radio station was broadcast, as long as there was music in it, it could resonate with her. One winter in 1984, Zhang Qiang, who was coming home from school, heard a song that began with a bass, and as the drum beat entered, she took off her sweater and danced at home, and for a long time, the melody lingered in her head, and it was a long time before she learned that the song was Michael Jackson's "billie jean".
With a large amount of music brought by "overseas relations" and various music tapes transcribed by herself, Zhang Qiang began to learn from these music references, and as a young woman, she fell in love with good-looking boys such as Liu Wenzheng and Jackson, and gradually found a favorite voice in those energetic music. "I like Gowa Makoto and Junko Ohashi very much, and although I have sung Songs from Seiko Matsuda later, they are never my favorite category, because her music is the kind of idol voice, and although I sang this kind of thing in the 80s, it was never the kind of singer I looked up to." Zhang Qiang said, "My favorite is still Cyndi Lauper, her voice is very recognizable, innocent and sweet, but there is also tension, from a child's voice to a rough, at that time I wanted to keep a Laupa hairstyle, my mother said that is not OK, are you not the yin and yang head of the 'Cultural Revolution'?" You'll get beaten up when you go out. ”
Disco intruder
At this time, the popular songs that began to be sung in China are no longer "mesmerizing sounds", and occasionally A few popular Hong Kong and Taiwan music will be heard on television, and many people think that it is "new wave", but they can't say what "new wave" is and what kind of impact it has on them. In 1984, CCTV broadcast the National Young Singers Television Grand Prix, although at that time there were only two categories of bel canto and ethnic singing, but there were still a considerable number of young people ready to participate in popular songs.
In the same year, Beijing also held a singer grand prix at the Haidian Cultural Center, and there were many contestants who sang bel canto, ethnic, and Su-style folk songs, and Zhang Qiang was the most innovative one in the crowd. The guitarist she worked with at that time was a worker at a peony TV factory, and this music lover seemed nervous when he came on stage, but Zhang Qiang acted relaxed. In front of four or five 50-year-old judges, she easily sang Carpenter's "Jambalaya", an American country song, and the judges pushed their glasses and kept looking at the teenage girl in front of them, wondering, What are you singing? I don't understand, I don't understand. To this day, Zhang Qiang still feels funny talking about this experience.
The competition did not disappoint Zhang Qiang, but unexpectedly met Guo Chuanlin, who was the manager of the Black Panther band in its heyday and an executive of several record companies after that. "At the time, he was a cave head (the planner of the 80s gala), and he approached me twice and took a large number of us to the show. The first cave I remembered was in Sanmenxia, where we gathered at Dongda Bell at Beijing Station, which was crowded with stars and groups performing in other places, Liu Xiaoqing, Jiang Dawei, Sun Guoqing, Ding Wu, Qin Qi, as well as radio orchestras and Haizheng folk songs, as well as performing music and art, and we sat on the green-skinned train and drove slowly to our destination. I remember wearing a pair of black stockings, and the uncle in the same carriage asked me what I was wearing, like a leg of hair. ”
In the 1980s, this kind of platter-style performance abounded, it was almost the only entertainment and life project of the people at that time, and it was also the epitome of the stars who started in that year. Zhang Qiang still remembers "Carlo", "Sad Movie", "Please Come to the End of the World" is her performance repertoire, when the thousands of people wearing vests and rolling up their pants under the stage heard the song, Zhang Qiang seemed to feel a strong aura, that is, people's love for music, like a certain instinctive need, it makes many people hear an emotion that has never been felt before. The next day, the people in the local cultural department still felt that Zhang Qiang's song was "toxic" and banned it, and Zhang Qiang talked about this story for half a day. "At that time, the ticket price of the performance was also eight cents, and a lot of the money collected was stinky, and the cost of one of my performances was almost 8 yuan, and there were more than 80 yuan a month, which was a little more than my mother earned at that time." Zhang Qiang continued to recall.
Due to the closure of the northern market, some people suggested that Zhang Qiang go to the tea house in Guangzhou to sing, because under the impact of Hong Kong and Taiwan culture, southern China has taken the lead in accepting popular music, and the music that Zhang Qiang likes seems to be right for the appetite there, or that these people think that Zhang Qiang can only develop and earn money if she goes to Guangzhou, but Zhang Qiang did not want to go to Guangzhou at that time.
When Zhang Qiang was not yet 18 years old, she passed the Yunnan audio-visual audition, won a record contract worth 1400 yuan, and then went south with the small band of the film orchestra, where she met the latest multi-track recording studio for the first time. Lin Shutai is Zhang Qiang's album arranger, as a folk musician from Da Nguyen performance, Lin Shutai is also influenced by Japanese pop music, at this time he is already a relatively outstanding producer in China, even so, Zhang Qiang is always dissatisfied with the arrangement. Zhang Qiang likes disco, but also like funk music, she thinks that kind of movement will make people dance, but Lin Shutai's understanding of dance music is not intense enough, but gentle a lot, in fact, before the two in Beijing, because of the musical idea of the dispute, Zhang Qiang even said bluntly: "Do you understand disco?" At this time, Zhang Qiang's guitarist Liu Lin will stand up and use his understanding to continue arranging the music.
Zhang Qiang felt that disco was a young emotion, a happy voice, but it was not understood by many people at that time, she was glad: "My classical music did not go too deep, did not enter the mood of compassion, but the violin is my foundation, it makes me have a touch on music, fortunately I have not been exposed to folk music, direct contact with pop, I like disco and funk, do this kind of music can not be numb and cold-blooded, it must be very sunny and direct." ”
It wasn't long before an album called Tokyo Nights went on sale. On the album cover, Zhang Qiang wears a bright red sweatshirt and a red headband, dressed up in a cute outfit, and she looks at the camera obliquely, as if laughing. The album's eponymous song "Tokyo Night" has a distinctly Japanese style, and lin Shutai, who is obviously the arranger, is stronger, and Zhang Qiang's singing is like a young girl, telling stories of happiness and sadness. The entire album was dominated by re-arranged and lyric-filled cover songs, and in that era, this "Sinicized" foreign song was a rare sound and a certain spiritual luxury.
Zhang Qiang - Album cover of "Tokyo Night"
Wang Jieshi said that At that time, Xie Lisi sang with a slight portamento, and a song became a bourgeois decaying song, so the duo had always sung very carefully and as demurely as possible, but as soon as Zhang Qiang came out, she was very fierce, as if she had no scruples. In that era, Zhang Qiang's singing voice was like an interloper, with a force of freedom.
From the initial 600,000 copies to 2.5 million copies, many distributors directly took cash and waited at the door of the printing house, and the record company did not even think about why this little girl with no name would be so popular. A month later, Zhang Qiang's songs spread almost all over the streets, and many people thought she was "female Liu Wenzheng", and many shops at that time were playing her songs in order to attract business. Chen Liandan, the owner of Yunnan Sound and Video, decided to record another one, and increased the cost of recording by 6 times, and Zhang Qiang calculated his own income - another 1,000 yuan, that is, ten thousand yuan households.
In the memories of musician Su Yue, it was an era when it was almost possible to record one album a day, and the recorder would make money as soon as it started. Although the Chinese at that time did not have any copyright awareness, and many people directly sang it with cover songs or filler words, it was the epitome of China's original popular music. In that period of history, Zhang Qiang's original delicate voice, and even the imitation of the "American actor" in "Popular Movie", was a subversion at the time. Musically, she subverts some kind of old, tedious, and false propaganda lyrical melody, allowing people to hear a real emotion and a fresh rhythm.
"Love You In Your Heart", "I Smile When I See You", "Walk Away", "That Night", "Shy Girl", "Saturday", "Please Stay", "Love Me Well" and other popular songs, like a whirlwind blowing all over China, from the beginning of 1985 to 1986 in two years, the 18-year-old Beijing girl published a total of 15 albums and sold 20 million tapes. In 1986, Zhang Qiang became the "World's Most Popular Female Singer" by Time in the United States that year, ranking third, and the two people in front of her were Whitney Houston and Teresa Teresa.
In 1987, Zhang Qiang was already a first-line singer in China, but at this time, she did not choose to stay in the Chinese music scene, but decided to go to Australia and start her own family. This news once made many people unimaginable, so rumors about her disappearance and banning have not gone away. One of the most common rumors is that she was "banned", and many people speculated that she had no troupe to rely on, was an independent singer, and therefore sang these "unhealthy" songs that were not accepted by the above. Speaking of this, Zhang Qiang shook her head, and she herself said that she was very puzzled.
A return to the age of Earth disco
In her days abroad, she still pays attention to the domestic music scene, and by the time she returns to her hometown, disco is no longer the most popular musical style. Northwest wind, campus folk, underground rock followed, Zhang Qiang felt like a high-level ticket holder, as long as there is spare money to record records, arrange music, please musicians, in short, take the video studio as karaoke.
Zhang Qiang remembered that 20 years ago, in the building of the Film Symphony Orchestra, someone brought her a "fan brother", but what she did not expect was that this young man named Shen Lihui, who looked a little shy, would eventually become the owner of her record company. After 2005, Zhang Qiang refused two performance invitations from Shen Lihui. In 2011, she opened the "Drunken Rose" concert at the Poly Theater, and many people once again saw the youthful past of the light and crazy years, like a song, and soon, Zhang Qiang was invited to Shen Lihui's modern sky office.
Shen Lihui hoped that Zhang Qiang could participate in the music festival, but he did not want people to think that this was a singer's performance, so he asked Zhang Qiang, do you think that if you perform at the music festival, will the audience buy it? Subsequently, he threw out the new pants band, saying that this band also played retro, and Zhang Qiang's first reaction was, cooperation? I don't refuse. After listening to the new pants band's "bye bye disco", Zhang Qiang seems to have some expectations for this cooperation.
New Pants' "bye bye disco" is from an album called "Dragon Tiger Ren Dan", which uses fashionable costumes and Beijing Jing grassroots culture to interpret retro with a kind of earth coolness and humor. In the debut of the album, the band dressed up as a ring for Bruce Lee and kung fu lovers to match their playful music. The two young men of the New Pants Band, Peng Lei and Pang Kuan, are Beijing boys, and Zhang Qiang feels that they have a cold and sad thing in their bones, and their ideas in music are very consistent.
Of course, Zhang Qiang also has some uncomfortable places, such as the environment of the rehearsal room, she still remembers the "snake cave" of andingmen, the rehearsal room is located in the basement of an old community, entering the rehearsal room to pass through the long aisle, that day Zhang Qiang wore a performance suit, walked to the rehearsal room to see, directly gave the gas away. Zhang Qiang said that she had never been to the livehouse before she met the members of the band New Pants, and she said that she did not want to sing the song "TractorSki" at first, but these trifles were no longer a problem after repeated run-ins.
"We come from different musical worlds, but we have one thing in common, which is that we like more riotous music." Zhang Qiang said. In 2013, Peng Lei's "Don't Ask Me What Is Called Disco" became the title song of Zhang Qiang's album, and on the album cover, the disco girl who likes to burn her head is back, but this time, there is one more person around her, a dancing robot that seems to contain technological energy.
"My Eighties" is a song written by Pang Kuan specifically for Zhang Qiang, the lyrics are: "Our love is the trouble of young Werther, our heart is John Christopher, and there is a poem, a hazy poem, and a song, a disco." Zhang Qiang felt that this album made her suddenly find her youth and enthusiasm, she joked, the only thing that was a little dissatisfied was the name of the album, which should be called: "You should know what disco is."
Not long ago, a song called "Beijing Girl" was launched, which is the title song of Zhang Qiang's new album. She invited dozens of Beijing girls of different identities to perform the mv of this music, and Zhang Qiang, as the "Big Sister of Beijing", felt that the biggest feature of her and these girls was free and direct. In this album, Pang Kuan has created a new Kind of Diss science fiction for her, "Two Rooms and One Hall", "Everyone Is Playing Mobile Phones", "The Boy Who Plays the Guitar" is the kind of story that Zhang Qiang likes to tell, and she feels that the reason why she likes disco is because there are happiness and sadness in it, and the music is luxurious and depressed. "It's a rich emotion." She said.
Zhang Qiang debuted on the new album "Beijing Girl"
life+ Speech x Zhang Qiang
September 22 (This Friday)
Pine cone "life + speech" cool girl session
Come and listen to Zhang Qiang talk about "Disco Girl"