Let's start with their second album Entertainment Jianghu.
The second album, perhaps the most important album for all musicians, especially for self-created musicians, is self-evident. Before the first album came out, perhaps musicians had been dormant for five years and ten years, and spent all their life completing songs that could support an album. But when it comes to the second album, the album to be created is not just a summary of one's artistic career, and it is not simply a summary and screening from one's own creation. The creation of the second album has to take into account the opinions of the audience, and must follow the feedback from the first album and the response from popular songs. Of course, for some musicians, the opinions of the audience are not important at all, but what they have to bear is the dissatisfaction and sarcasm of the audience.
When the first album came out, the audience didn't have a preconceived idea about the musician's style. It doesn't matter what the record looks like in the end, as long as the quality passes. However, when the second record came out, people had preconceived expectations for musicians, hoping that it would provide an enhanced version and an upgraded version of the previous works. If musicians start a new stove and the quality has not improved significantly, then, as mentioned above, the audience will naturally sneer at their records.
Second-hand Rose's second album, Entertainment Jianghu, was such an embarrassment when it was released.
In 23, Second-hand Rose, who had been hanging out in Beijing's rock circle for many years, released the band's first album of the same name, Second-hand Rose. This style, which mixed the two elements of Northeast Erzhuan and rock, suddenly aroused thousands of waves in the quiet music circle.
"Brother, you play rock and roll. What's the use of playing it?"
This lyric is simply a heavenly question in the rock circle. In 23, when the Chinese record industry was still able to survive on its own, and when the talent show was not fully rolled out, they released such a record that could not be sung in ktv. What was the purpose? If they know that today, ten years later, their band's performance has become the most exciting and interesting performance in all music circles, will they be grateful for their unprecedented foresight in their decision?
Without this integrated style, perhaps the "second-hand rose" would have been smashed to pieces on the beach by the rock circle, or with those popular songs, it would continue to wander around China's second-and third-tier cities and the fourth-and fifth-tier rural areas to make money. But they are still active in the front line of rock and roll, and even become a typical band of rock and roll with China characteristics.
No matter how well the British band plays, it can't beat the British. Garage music is excellent, and it is not as good as American garbage; There are more electronic music, and I still listen to the square dance aunt over and over again; Even if it is all kinds of music labeled "Chinese style", in the final analysis, it is nothing more than a marketing label. After removing the lyrics, it is full of R& B is the same. Won't it be a very boring and disappointing thing when musicians cross the country to create global music without regional color, when all music forms are wrapped in strong culture and invariably appear in headphones and stereos? If music must be appreciated through lyrics, it is the worst experience in the music world. Don't forget that in the era of classical music, music's dislike of words has always existed, and absolute music has always flaunted his own ideas. Beethoven changed the title of his Heroic Symphony, which also showed the helplessness of music being held hostage by words.
But for all people who don't have a Chinese background, as long as they hear the music of second-hand roses, they will surely know that this piece of music is from a foreign country, perhaps from the east or the west, perhaps from an island in the Atlantic Ocean, or perhaps from the indigenous people in the Sahara desert. In a word, it is another exciting music that is fundamentally different from the globalized music. It doesn't matter if you don't know Chinese just by the power of music.
When the second album was released, we found that the long-awaited folk elements still existed. But to borrow a sentence from Liang Long, "No one can deny that this is an era of entertainment. Now, only by letting the audience remember you first can it cause a sensation." Because of this, this record is like what the copy says, "In order to keep up with the entertainment trend and attract the attention of the audience," second-hand rose "has added many fresh elements."
There is no doubt that if the added elements are arranged reasonably, the music itself will be richer and the audibility will be improved a lot. Looking back nearly ten years after the discovery of this record, we will find that this arrangement is more enjoyable than simply focusing on duet.
But when the time is still in 26, you will find that everyone's comments on this record are completely different. When was that year? It's an era when CRBT music has made great achievements, when online singers are surging, and when talent show singers are still regarded as musicians. Two years after 26, the Modern Sky Music Festival came into being. It will be two years before the Strawberry Music Festival will debut. At that time, there was only the Midi Music Festival family struggling to support it. To put it bluntly, it is no exaggeration to regard that period as the low tide of China pop music.
On the one hand, the traditional record industry has collapsed, and various forms of piracy have done untold harm to mainland music. For the consumption habits of mainland listeners, the negative impact has never retreated. Even to put it bluntly, the reason why the mainland's copyright concept is so weak is inseparable from the proliferation of piracy. Of course, this can't be blamed on the record companies. After all, they are also victims.
on the other hand, the market for live performances is still immature. Although there have been many live performances in big cities, the nationwide tour is more in the form of a concert, such as this emerging concert form, which is still in the pipeline.
Just when the recording industry generally doesn't make much money, it is conceivable that what Liang Long said to make a wider audience hear would cause a backlash.
It may be said that Entertainment Jianghu is an untimely work. It is wonderful, pleasant to hear, profound and popular. However, in the big environment at that time, when all musicians were confused and agitated, its attempt to compromise and ease became a puzzling scarecrow and suffered the impact it should not have suffered.
In 213, when the new album "Stand Out" of Second-hand Rose came out, all the disputes were no longer a problem, and everything was just the right time. China's music fans are ready to accept such a weird and wild record, and China's music scene is big enough to withstand the impact of various styles.
In "Stand Out" in 213, many songs came from EP "Yue Jing" two years ago.
The first title song I heard in Yue Jing was Dance Music. The beginning is full of the breath of various third-and fourth-line wild bars, which creates a feeling of pseudo-live. Dance music in the 198s, Mandarin with an accent, and various samples of vulgar online songs. But when Liang Long opened his mouth, the once familiar second-hand rose came back.
As the title of the song says, the rhythm of the whole song can be used as the accompaniment of the square dance aunt, but there is a guitar solo behind it, interspersed with mysterious and elegant female voices, which makes the whole song complicated and full of vitality.
Different from the variety of elements in the second picture, it can be seen in this song that the second-hand rose is more confident. In the previous Entertainment Jianghu, I felt their seriousness and awe of these elements, but in this one, there is still seriousness, but my self-confidence is bursting, and various elements are handy and pieced together. Instead of feeling chaotic and messy, they complement each other.
The most obvious feature is that in Entertainment Jianghu, when other elements are about to appear, the duet must be weakened for fear of usurping the host's role; But in the songs of 211, the duet is always the main line, and other elements refer to the supporting role of icing on the cake. Listen to the theme of "We Will Rock You" in the first song "Bad Things", and you can't feel that their rock music has been melted into their bones.
The two versions of Xianer are the same. The first one used the rock arrangement method, and the three major pieces took turns to go into battle. Various national musical instruments and suona guzheng also came on stage one after another, and even the singing was soaring, which made the two people turn to pronounce. But in the later "Slag Son (Fairy Falling South City Edition)", it is completely folk style. A guitar constitutes most of the soundtrack, and the singing is also suppressed, telling the inexplicable love story. What is the significance of these two versions? No one knows until Liang Long tells us. However, it is conceivable that everyone has to admit that if second-hand roses cross the border to engage in folk songs, a large part of China's folk songs will definitely die.
So, once this record was released, it aroused people's admiration for second-hand roses again.
Although all kinds of irrelevant features of lyrics have been mentioned at the beginning, it is impossible to have a more subtle and in-place understanding of second-hand roses without mentioning their lyrics.
Like the traditional duet we understand, the lyrics in it are full of a lot of the most basic desires and gloom from human beings. Simply put, there are all kinds of explicit or implicit sex-related languages.
This kind of example is full of pitch. In "Visiting the Door", there is "People are in the city, the city is in the village, and where is wet dream"; In "Yellow Poetry", "The wife is someone else's good, the children are their own relatives, and the children can adopt them to others, but the wife can never"; "Gentleman" "One two three four five, my lover is so happy, I depend on you and me, from sunset to sunrise." These are all excerpts from "Outstanding", not to mention "Sticking to People", a work that directly uses the traditional duet, and what I want to say is also obvious.
However, if the lyrics of second-hand roses are only understood as arousing the singing of * * * through sexual suggestion, it is too underestimate their level. Go back to the first sentence, "Big Brother, you play rock, what's the use of playing him?" This lyric alone is enough to make this band never forget.
"The Train is Leaving" constantly asks "Our life is about to leave, where to go, where to go"; "Allow some artists to get rich first" talks about "allow our farmers to get rich first, our beauties to get rich first, our servants to get rich first, and our artists to get rich first"; In Take-off, < P > lamented, "Who was left on the road first when my name was engraved on the pager, my soul was stored on the mobile phone and my blood was used in science." It is not difficult to see that an obvious feature of them is that they love to express their views repeatedly with large sections of parallelism. And this form is also the usual way of traditional opera.
In addition, narrative is also a feature of their lyrics. The song "Picking Flowers" in the first album is the most obvious. The story is very simple, that is, a man and a woman get married and have an unhappy life after marriage. Finally, like a traditional allegory story, there are a few comments on this matter: "I said, girl, don't be afraid. < P > Who will always be like a flower? I would like to sing a song for you. Where can I find a natural couple?" Think about our comfort to our lovelorn friends around us. These four sentences tell all the stories. The same is true of personals on the same album.
If they are the most representative band in China, it is no exaggeration to say this. On the one hand, there are serious folk elements in their music; on the other hand, the quality of their music is too high.
I don't know what their next album will be like. After all, they are gods, and I am only human. But I hope that their next album will have more electrification attempts, more psychedelic and more restless.