This is a topic I have wanted to write about for a long time.

In this issue of the Lexia semi-finals, Ma Dong and Zhang Yadong "formally" responded to some of the controversy about them and Mandarin on the Internet. The last time I wrote about Wu Tiao Ren, I wanted to write about this topic, because writing about Wu Tiao Ren would inevitably touch on Ma Dong, Zhang Yadong and Mandarin.

But this question is indeed a bit complicated, so I decided to take it slow. This is an era where there is no shortage of public opinions. In the past, we have always emphasized that we should deal with matters rather than people, and keep people and matters separate. But there are many things to talk about, and they are always inseparable from people.

Speaking of which, the people and bands who "overturned" on Le Xia this time, such as Housha, Fu Lushou, Mandarin, Zhang Yadong, and Ma Dong who almost overturned, among them, apart from Housha's overturn Apart from my own problems, almost everything else is related to Wutiao people. The second season of Le Xia is really about success and failure. Ma Dong's emotions can be called "love and hate". (His response brought me back to "Qi Pa Shuo" in a daze.)

1

Whoever the strong wind blows will be unlucky

Everyone thinks Being a ghost

They are all equally despicable

——There is no party in Caodong, "The Wind Blows"

Zhang Yadong was born in 1969, and Ma Dong was born in 1968. It's the same generation.

I have always been cautious about the division of generations. Generally speaking, if we talk about how a generation is, if it is not based on statistical data or a large number of interviews and surveys, it is very easy to fall into bias. Fall into the trap of generalizing or talking to yourself.

But unfortunately, the public opinion discourse field we are currently in has long been accustomed to the discourse system of the post-70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s, so I can only follow the trend. .

Speaking of which, teacher Zhang Yadong’s performance in the first season of Le Xia can be regarded as full marks. He is handsome, elegant, talented, slow and passionate. Many viewers who were not familiar with him before were amazed that there was such a treasured musician in China. Why didn’t I know about it before?

This is certainly related to his low-key character, but on the other hand, a very important reason is that he is somewhat "out of touch with the times."

This "not keeping up with the times" does not refer to music style. If we talk about music, the music that Mr. Zhang Yadong made in the 1990s was far ahead of the times. To this day, the music he made His music is half a step ahead of the overall level of the current music scene.

The problem is that in this era where streaming media controls everything, "advancedness" is not the defining attribute of music. Just like Zhang Yadong said when he and Pu Shu were together in Le Xia last year: "At that time (before 2000) we were very excited and felt that a new era was coming. Later...well, we were all "I'm old."

This reminds me of Lu Wei's comment on "Farewell My Concubine": "I was very happy at that time (1994), thinking that we had finally started, but I didn't expect that it would be ours. The end.”

Both Zhang Yadong and Ma Dong grew up in an era (from the late 1980s to the early 1990s) when China was moving towards reform and opening up and the revival of all industries. Ma Dong went to Australia to study in the late 1980s, and Zhang Yadong left Datong, Shanxi Province to "drift north" in the early 1990s. A new world was slowly unfolding in front of them.

Both Ma Dong and Zhang Yadong have appeared in "Thirteen Invitations". Ma Dong mentioned his experience in Australia, and finally realized that "how a system (society) operates more efficiently," while Zhang Yadong mentioned more about the pressure he faced from existing artistic achievements.

Speaking of this, it is inevitable to mention generations. People born in the 1990s may not be deeply aware of this, as Wang Shuo said: China is a world power when they are born. A more accurate statement is that since they became sensible, China's status in the entire world is no longer the same as it was in the past.

Therefore, the "looking up" attitude towards the world that the post-60s and 70s generation had when they were growing up, as well as the complex emotions towards development and the surrounding environment, are absent from the post-90s generation. Older people born in the 1980s may still be a little bit influenced by it, but the environment born in the 1990s and 2000s did not have this. How to say that, people will take everything that happens when they are born as normal.

2

Cry and shout

Ask your mother to take you to buy toys

Hurry up and show them off to school< /p>

Children, let’s make some friends

Zhang Yadong mentioned in "Thirteen Invitations" that he felt excited, yet timid and happy when facing the entire art system and civilizational achievements since the Renaissance. And a depressing feeling.

That feeling is that all the important things have been done, and all you can do is wander in this world, looking for what pleases you the most. However, as a creator, he does not want to repeat others, but he has to accept the despair that "all the important things have been done."

Yes, the laws of mechanics and the law of universal gravitation have been discovered by Newton, and it will be impossible for anyone in the future to discover them again. Of course, this ground-breaking work can only be done by a very small number of people.

As for Zhang Yadong, he has completed the process of exploring the modern pop music system from the 1990s to the 2000s, so what happened later may be completely unimaginable to him, such as the rise of Divine Comedy, For example, traffic is dominant.

Therefore, when he denounced the shortcomings of the traffic era at Le Xia last year, he aroused bursts of applause from the band and the audience.

But this year, when Mandarin, whom he supported to represent the "ideal state of the future," advanced, it aroused boos from the audience. Obviously his views have not changed, why don't the audience accept this trick?

Of course, we don’t have a stone hammer to confirm the news circulating on the Internet. But in terms of his attitude towards Wutiao Ren and Mandarin, it is obvious that Zhang Yadong has different opinions from the professional and mass music fans at the scene. Ma Dong's response in the semi-finals also confirmed this from the side.

Back to the topic of growth. For the era when Zhang Yadong grew up, the biggest pressure was not that "I can't get so many good things", but that others "won't play with you." It feels like you are in school, and others don't seem to intentionally exclude or isolate you, but you just know that they have a circle with a lot of fun things in it, but you can only watch it from a distance but cannot enter. .

Later you learned that in order to join the circle, you must first learn their language, try to play the same things as them, and try to exchange. It's like Gu Jia's Hermès, or Caodong singing, let your mother buy toys.

This process involves putting down one's dignity, being humble and even a little humiliating. But who among us hasn’t experienced something similar in childhood?

People who have experienced this all want to give the next generation better conditions so that they can better integrate into the "circle" as soon as they are born. At the same time, when children can reach a better level than themselves at the same age, they will naturally feel joy from the bottom of their hearts.

Therefore, I believe Zhang Yadong’s love for Mandarin is sincere and from the heart. Therefore, he would say that Mandarin is "the thing that I yearn for more spiritually."

3

Ouch

Look what you are holding in your hand

We have long disdained that thing

p>

Hahaha

Haha

Compared to Zhang Yadong, Ma Dong chose another path. Judging from the interview in "Thirteen Invitations", it seems that he has no desire to change or influence the current cultural landscape.

But he actively participated in this situation, stirring up the entertainment world with various variety shows, and constantly expanding his influence. Therefore, Ma Dong's spiritual world has always been mysterious.

The interview in "Thirteen Invitations" caused an uproar in the discourse field, and even caused Liang Huan to appear and diss Ma Dong as "cynicism". Although Ma Dong did not respond officially, in the episode of "The Band I'm Hosting" and the date with the reinvented Mandarin, when someone brought up the word "cynical", Ma Dong showed an extremely unhappy expression. Obviously he was not satisfied with this. Words are very offensive.

In my opinion, Ma Dong is more "open-minded" or "cunning" than Zhang Yadong. Although he has his own position, he never makes value judgments easily. If Zhang Yadong's views still remain in the context of progressivism and developmentalism, Ma Dong has used his own interpretation system to resolve this confusion in "Thirteen Invitations".

But he is unwilling to accept the evaluation of "cynicism", so more often, he shows a kind of caution, that kind of careful balance and "don't overstep the limit". Comfort and security, whether in "Le Xia" or "Qi Pa Shuo", have become his subconscious habit.

This attitude is of course very suitable for variety shows, so Ma Dong's "water" has always been very good, and he is probably among the top three in the entire Chinese entertainment and culture industry.

However, the experience of Le Xia almost overturning the car this time probably made Ma Dong a lot more alert. Many people said that he put on a "stinky face" in the episode of "The Band I'm Hosting" Wu Tiaoren. And I don’t think it’s a bad face, it’s a state of tension.

Ma Dong obviously realized that the departure of Lexia Wutiao and the public opinion surrounding their continuous elimination and resurrection were completely beyond the control of the program team. His career The sensitivity made his nerves highly tense. By the way, I don’t think that Ma Dong, who comes from an artistic family, doesn’t know about “Dadaism”. It’s just that the Wutiao people who don’t follow common sense make him afraid to pick up the thread at will.

For Ma Dong, when he grew up, the cultural atmosphere of the entire society was "in line with the world's advanced level", and he was familiar with the context of progressivism and developmentalism. Even as "Thirteen Invitations" said, regarding the general cultural and psychological pattern, the understanding that "there has been no big change" has been imprinted in his mind since he was young. But he never refuses the changes and driving forces brought about by technology and material civilization.

Therefore, whether in terms of Le Xia or Qi Pa, Ma Dong has always seemed very "down-to-earth", and there is no "generational gap" or "obstacle" in his communication with young people.

Ma Dong has obviously realized that today's young people have become tired of the developmentalist tone of "people must work hard and constantly pursue progress". The cultural products he provides always revolve around "diversified cultural and value choices". Because he knows that no matter how strange the tastes of each generation of young people are, they will never reject "market freedom."

However, perhaps what Ma Dong did not expect was that young people today are disgusted with and abandon progressivism and developmentalism to such an extent that Zhang Yadong and several bands, and even "Le Xia" This brand has suffered such a backlash from public opinion. When the growth of economic indicators brings about a widening class gap, when the improvement of cultural and aesthetic tastes does not bring about an improvement in the quality of life, but reflects the dual sense of material and spiritual dislocation, young people's depression and Part of the anger was directed toward the mourning culture, and part of it formed a larger online voice, engulfing the program and its performers and commentators.

Of course, it is also debatable whether the Wutiao people really have a "civilian perspective" and what the attributes of their music are. Some people think that Wutiao Talent is the real sense of high-end, while Mandarin and others use the complexity of the technical level to cover up deficiencies in other levels. In any case, the embarrassment between Zhang Yadong and Ma Dong is just as Ma Dong said in "Thirteen Invitations": "We pursue refinement in every era, but we have never had it." The young man's response was even more shocking: "Then We have long disdained things

Hahaha"

4

Same as drunk and crying again

Same humiliation The feeling

Blame it on time, it gives you the starting point

Blame it on time, it gives you the ending point

There is a saying called "Time is also destiny", many times Maybe it was just bad luck. Mandarin was unlucky enough to be approached by Wu Tiao for PK, and Zhang Yadong and Ma Dong were also implicated. In other words, who did Mr. Lu offend last year?

I particularly don’t want to fall into a binary opposition of ideas, such as localization vs. internationalization, civilians vs. elites. This time Lexia, the series of public opinion turmoil related to Wutiao Ren and Zhang Yadong, seems to be easily involved in such disputes.

But is this really accurate? Looking through variety shows, not only bands, but also hip-hop, hip-hop, etc., you will find that "Chinese style" is talked about everywhere.

This is certainly a manifestation of China's increasing world status, but at the same time, it does not mean that the choices made in the past era were necessarily wrong. In the era of Zhang Yadong and Ma Dong, "internationalization" and "integration with the world's advanced levels" were contexts that they could not refuse. Today's young people all know to "be themselves", but they do not reject progress and development, they just don't like the business and capital-coerced environment behind progressivism and developmentalism.

And I think that in fact, most problems and things can be explained and solved using time. Zhang Yadong said in "Thirteen Invitations" that he longed for Bach's era, which was the adolescence of art. However, if Bach could time travel, would he yearn for our era?

For now, there may be a gap between us and the "world's advanced level" in many aspects, such as music. But this does not touch upon regional, ethnic or cultural differences, it is often just a matter of time. While others are studying these, we are still doing other things, so catching up takes time.

At the same time, there are some things that time cannot solve. Especially in the field of art, aesthetic preferences are something that cannot be completely unified. When we have enough time, we can gain diverse cultural experience and aesthetic taste by experiencing different types of music. At this point, everyone's "wall" is actually not that thick.

But the problem is that the pressure of real life makes people nowadays need to "give directly" more and don't like to go around the bush. Therefore, the pursuit of multiple values ??is more likely to be forcibly "pressed" into a realistic framework today. go.

Is this good or bad? Perhaps it is also dialectical. On the one hand, this improves the commodity attributes and service functions of popular music, and on the other hand, it also makes the music pattern unified.

The solution still depends on time. If our listeners can be like the two foreign friends in "German Music Fans Watch Le Xia", they can choose a career path according to their own interests. You can also start your own band, and comment on variety shows while watching them. If time is not so tight, then you will naturally have more diverse artistic pursuits and choices.