Serious music

1. Introduction

"Serious music" usually refers to various traditional classical music and all professional composers using traditional or modern composition techniques. music. Moreover, the inheritance of "serious music" is achieved through rigorous academic training. Serious musicians always strive to fully demonstrate their personality in their works, interpret profound propositions, and pursue innovation and perfection in musical skills. Therefore, as a kind of "elite culture", serious music's creators, performers, and appreciators must have certain cultural literacy and musical accomplishment.

2. Characteristics

The so-called serious music should have the following characteristics: First, serious music should show its profound meaning through its rich connotation, expressiveness and philosophy. The beauty of the essence, the appreciation and feeling of this beauty, requires the audience to have certain cultural literacy, sensitivity to music and psychological preparation; secondly, serious music should reflect the national will and the spirit of the times, and it often has serious social themes . In fact, it is difficult to imagine that monumental serious music can be produced that is divorced from the times and the national spirit; thirdly, the beauty and spirit endowed by serious music have characteristics that transcend the times. Although every serious music is produced at a certain moment in history, But it has lasting vitality and eternal value. For example, although "Bei Wu" was produced in his time, for two hundred years, that kind of passionate movement that fights fate and ends with a complete victory of light has inspired people in the world for generations, and it has not been affected by time at all. The passage of time will destroy its brilliance; fourth, compared with popular music, serious music has a "dignified" character, and music with "light and romantic" as the main tone will never be classified as serious music.

Popular Music

1. Introduction

Popular

Music originated in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. An urban, commercial music. Its marketability is primary and artistic quality is secondary. From the perspective of music system, pop music is music developed on the basis of American popular music structures such as tin-pop lane music, blues, jazz, rock music, and sole music. It is mainly based on the American and British popular culture systems, and European classical music. Musical cultural systems form differences. It has diverse styles and rich forms, and can generally refer to urban popular music born after the 20th century such as Jazz, Rock, Soul, Blues, Reggae, Rap, Hip-Hop, Disco, and New Age. The style and form of Chinese pop music are mainly influenced by Europe and America, and on this basis, local styles are gradually formed.

Main characteristics

The main difference between pop music and other mass media is that pop music has the following characteristics:

Popularity

This is Basic properties of popular music. Compared with elegant music, the lyrics of pop music are quite easy to understand and there are no obstacles to understanding. This is a necessary condition for pop music to become popular. On the contrary, if the meaning of the lyrics is obscure and censorious, then it will be difficult for the music to be widely circulated among the masses with relatively low cultural level. From the perspective of professional singing, pop music has a narrow range and is most suitable for ordinary listeners without specialized vocal training, which in turn contributes to the popularity of "pop music". The reason why pop music is popular largely lies in the fact that it has truly entered people's hearts. The easy-to-understand music content and closeness to people's lives are another important reason for the popularity of pop music.

Many works of pop music express one’s true feelings. What people feel in music is like the atmosphere around them, and what they hear is like their own inner voice, thus arousing a wide range of emotions** *Ming. Pop music expresses real life and living conditions. In a sense, pop music turns art into life and at the same time makes life into art.

Popularity

It can be said that "popularity" is one of the most critical inherent characteristics of pop music, and it is also the social foundation of pop music.

At present, China's economy is developing rapidly, and the social form is making great strides from an agricultural society to an industrial society and an information society. The construction of spiritual civilization is also placed in an important position. People often go to karaoke studios and karaoke studios for leisure and entertainment. In entertainment venues such as dance halls, coffee shops, and bars, pop music is the most popular. Because the popularity of some of its music styles allows people to participate in this cultural form, pop music's self-entertainment has become a good medicine for people to relax their body and mind, and provides a stage for the majority of music lovers to show themselves. Therefore, it has become an indispensable part of the cultural life of all strata of society.

Fashionability

Since pop music can adapt to the pace of development of the times and is closely connected with the most fashionable and popular materials, then "fashionability" also It can be said that it is a unique aesthetic feature of pop music. As we all know, the bands formed during the classical music period have basically remained unchanged for hundreds of years, from their instruments to their arrangements. The performance format and environment formed during this period have still remained intact. Pop music, on the other hand, constantly embellishes itself with the pursuit of fashion and the latest technological audio and video effects. Such as: electroacoustic instruments (electric guitar, electric bass, etc.), effectors, synthesizers, and MIDI production equipment, etc. The infusion of these "new elements" has led to unprecedented improvements in the creation, production, performance and other concepts of popular music. In addition, "fashionability" is more reflected in the creative concept of pop music. Many musicians are making articles around "fashionability", and their purpose is to reflect the development of the social era and the progress of human thought.

Novelty

Novelty is a prominent feature of all popular things, and curiosity is a characteristic of human psychology. As a kind of commercial entertainment music mainly aimed at satisfying consumption, pop music must be "based on a basis that conforms to a certain representative social psychology and can be generally accepted by the public." Popular music. Music is based on this foundation, so it will inevitably "cause this behavior of singing, playing, listening to a certain piece of music or using a certain style and its objects to expand and spread within a certain social scope, and form varying degrees of Social fads and social crazes “Novelty is the basis of popular music.

Entertainment

Pop music plays an increasingly important role in popular culture, especially the rise of dance halls, karaoke OKs, and "karaoke studios", making pop music It has become an increasingly popular form of entertainment. The content of popular music in popular music is easy to understand, and the themes are mostly taken from daily life. Most of them express the theme of love. Most of the subjects who accept and consume it are ordinary people or subculture groups. Therefore, it emphasizes It is its own entertainment and entertainment. Its popularity determines that it has a mass base. People can actively participate in the performance, which increases the space for movement and fun, and allows people to relax and enjoy it. Therefore, popular music pays more attention to and emphasizes its own entertainment and entertainment. "Entertainment" is an important feature and function of popular music.

Commodity

The communication carrier of popular music is mainly various types of audio tape records as mass cultural consumer goods. In the market economy, because producers are faced with a With the huge commodity market, they will inevitably take making profits as their ultimate goal. Pop music has achieved industrialized mass production with the help of modern technology, fashionable packaging, convenient media and other means.

A complete set of commercial operation mechanisms has been established to realize its economic benefits.

Rapid replacement

Since pop music is commercial, like other commodities, it is one of the main forms of mass cultural consumption commodities, so there must be a large number of Production characteristics and rapid product introduction are in order to meet the constantly updated needs of consumers for cultural consumption. A few decades ago, the music of the post-60s and post-70s generations was called pop music. However, with the continuous changes in popular cultural needs, the change cycle of pop music has become shorter and shorter, and it was immediately replaced by the more fashionable and novel 21 century (post-80s music, and even post-90s music).

Participatory

Some styles of pop music are popular music, with melodies that are easy to remember and sing. When singing, you can satisfy your own emotional catharsis and create a sense of narcissism, thereby gaining a a sense of creative satisfaction. This greatly enhances the participation of popular music.

Improvisation

Improvisation means that during the performance of pop music, some creative things are often improvised according to the situation on the spot, whether it is language, movement, Variations in the melody and so on. Improvisation is a one-time point of time that cannot be reproduced. It is the most anticipated and creative thing in pop music. Improvisation is often a spark based on the performer's excellent musical sense and good musical skills.

Technology of communication

Popular music uses mass media (mechanical media and electronic media) as a means and operates according to the rules of the commodity market. It can be said that it is a social urbanization Products, which take ordinary urban citizens as the main audience or producers. The advancement of science and technology has caused great changes in the means of disseminating popular music, from tapes, records, CDs, and radio without images to TV, karaoke, VCD, DVD, and MTV with images, to portable mp3, mp4, The emergence of high-tech inventions such as MP5 has greatly satisfied the widespread "popularity" of pop music. The emergence of MIDI, multi-track recording technology and electronic sound synthesis technology has greatly improved the effects of pop music production and the richness of sound performance. Therefore, the expansion of the popularity of pop music is inseparable from these modern technological communication methods. Music has gradually developed from a folk self-entertainment activity to a salon art for princes and nobles, to modern pop music and has become a mass cultural communication industry. The most critical factor is also the development of communication technology.

Edit this paragraph for diversity

Pop music became popular in the 1930s, and it has been more than half a century now. Generally speaking, Western pop music can be divided into three major parts: jazz, rock, and country music, each of which has its own development and evolution process. In recent years, Chinese elements in Chinese pop music have gradually increased. For example, opera elements, classical elements, etc. have appeared in pop music, which has led to greater development of our country’s pop music, and musical elements in our country’s pop music have also begun to appear. Diverse development scene.

1. Chinese elements in pop music

Pop music is an important part of the field of popular culture. In recent years, there has been a "Chinese style" in pop music. Music Musicians with different styles use this element to express a trend of moving closer to traditional Chinese elements, giving pop music a unique Chinese style. In fact, "Chinese style" has always existed in the music world, and melodies with strong traditional meanings and poetic lyrics can be classified into it. But what really arouses people's pursuit is the series of masterpieces such as "East Wind Breaks" and "Hair Like Snow" jointly created by Jay Chou and Fang Wenshan. The greatest feature of these works is that after a touching piece of music is completed, it can be embedded with heart-touching lyrics every word. When Fang Wenshan used his unconstrained thinking and painstaking writing skills to inject Chinese elements into the music that seemed loose but had the same charm, he truly achieved the heart-stirring "Chinese style". Various elements outside the basic musical framework are strongly regional. The rise and recognition of "Chinese style" are also due to this regionality and the public's recognition of its regionality. A very interesting phenomenon is that the emergence of Chinese elements in music and art (also including other categories of art) is basically at the same period as the rise of "Chinese Studies" in academic circles and public opinion. The Chinese style in music is "Chinese Studies" The specific manifestation of "heat" in a certain field. The convergence of the emergence time of these two cultural phenomena may be explained by the national identity under cultural weakness, and this "national identity" has great cohesion because every single ethnic group has the same psychology. feature. Integrating the new "Chinese style" concept into popular music works is a new musical experience for the audience. It skillfully blends traditional Chinese music and Western music to create certain musical possibilities. It bridges the gap between these two very different styles of music.

2. Classical elements in pop music

There are many songs in pop music that contain classical connotations. They often use traditional imagery, melancholy, sentimental elegance, and poetic The picture creates a magnificent classical beauty. These songs are not only very helpful in improving students' music appreciation level, but also promote the development of literary level and exercise students' artistic intuition and perception ability, thereby achieving the ultimate goal of music teaching - improving students' artistic ability. training.

Let’s take Jay Chou’s lyrics as an example to see the classical artistic appeal in them. His lyrics completely subvert the traditional love writing scene in Chinese lyrics and open up a new space for lyrics. Its classical artistic conception, vivid pictures, implicit expression techniques and sentimental tragic mood have become the biggest features of his lyrics. It can be said that "Zhou Ci" appeared in today's music scene at the right time. It evokes the warm memories of past aesthetic experiences among the audience who are familiar with classical poetry, fits the aesthetic taste cultivated by the audience in the long-term reading of classical poetry, and satisfies the audience's aesthetic taste for the exquisiteness, beauty, harmony, and sentimentality of classical poetry. The vision of sexual expectations soothes the audience's dissatisfaction with pop songs that are plain, vulgar, messy, and lacking in poetic beauty. Classical elements that appear in pop music also include classical music. For example, the melody of SHE's "Don't Want to Grow Up" is a copy of Beethoven's 40th Symphony, making pop music elegant and noble.

3. Opera elements in popular music

Before, Peking opera and pop music were completely unrelated. Each had its own singing method and melody. But now, Peking opera and pop music have their own singing methods and melodies. Pop music has sparked a spark, from Tao Zhe's "Susan Said" to Wang Leehom's "By the Plum Blossoms" to Chen Sheng's "One Night in Beijing". In recent years, pop music has played with the national style of Peking Opera and introduced elements of Peking Opera into pop music. middle. The music includes soundtrack, singing, and costumes, creating a new music trend! Many people think that this combination is not only fresh, but also helpful for promoting Peking Opera. There are different categories of art, each with its own characteristics and charm. Chi Xiaoqiu, a famous contemporary Peking Opera master, said: "The artistic characteristics and charm of opera have its commanding heights. When pop music incorporates elements of opera, it is particularly popular and artistic." The reason why popular music frequently incorporates elements of opera is that the characteristic singing and artistic charm of opera are like the finishing touch that make the songs come alive and make people endlessly memorable. The opera elements appearing in popular music are the embodiment of the infinite charm of opera. At the same time, she believes that whether it is Peking Opera or pop music, it must be constantly explored in development according to the aesthetic and cultural needs of the public in order to be passed down and endure for a long time.

It can be seen that popular music has played a great role in promoting the development of society. Excellent music is beneficial to people's physical and mental health, and has driven and led the progress and development of society. The development of Chinese pop music is very rapid, and our musicians are constantly innovating, and the musical elements in pop music are also diverse. Excellent musical works can not only please people's physical and mental health, but also improve people's connotation and enrich people's artistic accomplishment. I believe that diversified popular music will develop more rapidly in the near future.