Hakka pop songs have gone through ups and downs for more than 20 years. Now they are developing very rapidly and have shown a diversified style. The following is a classification of Hakka pop songs in terms of content, style, region and other aspects. Songs related to Hakka culture
Songs related to Hakka culture were created by creators who recognized the crisis faced by Hakka language and culture, represented by creators such as Tu Minheng, Lin Ziyuan, Lin Zhanyi, and Gu Chongli. Such songs are widely circulated in Taiwan's political arena and Hakka society. Representative songs include "Hakka True Colors", "Hakka March", "One Carrying Pole", "Hakka Stage", "I am a Hakka", "I Come to Sing a Hakka Song", "Hakka", "Ancestral Instructions", "Third Class Citizen", "Hakka", "Hakka Children" and so on. Among them, the song "Hakka True Colors" has always been known as the Hakka national anthem. It is widely circulated in both political circles and Hakka society. The content of the lyrics mainly advises Hakka people in the world that no matter how society changes, they should not forget the hardships of their ancestors to cultivate land. Follow the lessons of our ancestors and be a good person. The song "A Dangan" is also very popular. The lyrics cleverly use the elasticity and unbreakability of the Dangan to symbolize the perseverance of the Hakka people. From ancient times to the present, from Tangshan to Taiwan, such a spirit of shouldering the responsibility has broken through the barriers of time and space and been passed down from generation to generation, and has a long history.
Inspirational songs
For example, "The Emperor Lives Up to His Hard Work", "Be a Man and Love Ambitions", "This is a Hero", "Destiny is Arranged by Oneself", "Ideals Are Possible" "Dream", "Everyone Fights for One Breath", "Crossroads of Life", "Fight Again", "Afterlife is the Capital", "The Road of Life", etc. are all inspirational songs. Among them, "The Emperor Pays Off His Hard Work" is the representative song of teacher Lin Zhanyi. The whole song gives people a positive and enterprising feeling. As the saying goes, no pain, no gain, he who sows with sweat will reap with joy; "Be a Man Loves Having "Ambition" is Qiu Xiaoling's representative song. The lyrics of this song are very short, like inspirational phrases, constantly inspiring men's determination to work hard.
Love Songs
Love songs are represented by the works of Hakka love song prince You Zhaoqi. Representative singers include Liu Pingfang and Wei Haishan, the big-name Hakka pop singers. Representative love songs include "My Life Is Yours", "Heartache", "The Season of First Love", "I'm Willing", "Yingang Love", "A Flowered Handkerchief", "The Mood of Eighteen", " "I have no choice but to leave you", "Love Debt", "Love in Yingang", "This love is like sand", "Love", "Spring Love", "Hard to Separate", "Jet Age", "Nine Falling Winds" ”, “Good or Bad”, etc. Among them, "My Life Is Yours" is Miss Wei Haishan's famous song. This song is easy to learn and sing. It is still very popular today and has a very high radio demand rate; "Heartache" is a song sung by Liu Pingfang. Her love songs are very charming. , especially in terms of the feeling of sadness, and because the pronunciation part of the Hakka voice itself is close to the depth of the throat, when singing love songs, it feels like spitting out from the heart.
Homesick songs
This type of song is created by the creator out of nostalgia for his hometown. The representative singer is Chen Wei. Representative homesickness songs include "Missing My Hometown", "A Little River in Hometown", "Homesickness", "Song of Hometown", "Looking at the Moon and Thinking of Hometown", "Unforgettable Hometown", "Prodigal Son's Heart", "Rolling Jiayingqing" ”, “Stranger”, etc. A song like "Missing Hometown" (sung by Chen Wei) mainly expresses the deep longing for hometown and sings the voice of wanderers, especially the Hakka people who have left their hometown to work hard in the metropolis. The homesickness is even more prominent.
Other songs
The alternative songs mentioned here refer to songs that are an alternative to the mainstream Hakka pop songs: different from traditional folk songs, they are both inherited and innovative songs. . Alternative songs are mainly Hakka nursery rhymes, folk songs and rock songs, such as "The Stray Puppy", "Ninja Turtles", "Jiguai Fairy Encounters the Puffy Wind Gun", "Big Gun Gun Car", "I Teach You to Sing Folk Songs" ", "Wandering Puppy", "Fresh River Water", etc. are all alternative songs. The Oriental Song School
is represented by musicians such as Tu Minheng, Lu Jinshou, Lin Ziyuan, Chen Zhiming, and Chen Yuan. Since Oriental songs were very popular in Taiwan after the Japanese occupation, these Hakka musicians were influenced by Oriental songs and created Oriental-style songs. These songs played a very important role in the early Hakka pop music scene. Representative singers include Liu Pingfang, Wei Haishan, Gu Huihui, Liu Xiuwei, Xie Lei, Gao Xiangpeng, Peng Yuechun and others. Representative songs include: "Broken Love and Broken Dreams", "Thousands of Mountains and Thousands of Rivers", "Ode to Guanyin", "Broken Love", "Loving Couple", "Blessings with Measures", "One-collar Stitched Shirt" ", "Moth's Crescent Moon", "Flowers in Wine", "Woman's Heart", "Lotus Mist Flowers Blooming" and so on.
Rock (Rock) school
Represented by the former Handsome Band, the Hospitality Band and the Hard Neck Band.
In the 1990s, the Jiao Gong Band worked with the Meinong Hometown Lovers Association to challenge the system and oppose the construction of reservoirs that may harm the ecology. In the process, the Jiao Gong Band used music to record the tough-necked character of the Hakka people and their lack of shelter. Difficult situation, and sang the voice of labor in a rock and roll way, which had a great influence on the working class. The Jiao Gong Band disbanded in 2003. The original lead singer Lin Shengxiang went solo and continued to compose Hakka pop songs. The other members formed the current Hakka Band. , their songs are still based on rock music, but they lack the hardship of the original movement and the impatience of leaving home, giving people a completely new feeling. Their representative songs include "Chrysanthemum Night March", "Hakka Appearance + Hakka March", "A Cheng Goes to Nanyang", "We Wave to Happiness", "Worker Infant Song", "Wind God", "County Road 184" , "Worrying Up and Worrying Down", "Little Sister", "Look, Little Sister", etc.
The Hard Neck Band is the first band in Taiwan to sing Hakka pop songs in Hakka. It has completely subverted traditional Hakka music and made everyone realize that they can dance just as well as singing Hakka pop songs. Representative songs include "Black and White Movie", "Begging for a Girl at Eighteen Years Old", "Fan Pocket", "Stiff Neck Passed Through Generations", "Be Contented", "Remember the Cold Weather of That Year", "Smoky Past", etc.
Countryfolk school
Represented by Yan Zhiwen, Xie Yuwei, Chen Yongtao and others. The Mountain Dog Ensemble, with Yan Zhiwen as its leader, was established in March 1997. Its main purpose is to promote the creation of new Hakka music and to inherit the re-arrangement and singing of Hakka ballads, hoping to inject a youthful and modern atmosphere into Hakka songs. Over the past few years, It caused quite a ripple in the mainstream music circle. Representative songs include: "Ya Teaches You to Sing Folk Songs", "March Wind", "Early Autumn in Taipei", "Paper Harrier", "Beautiful Voice", "New Hakkas and New Expectations", "Pingpu Schoolmate" "Hakka", "Ashu Ge's Grocery Store", "Let's Sing a Happy Song", "Flower Girl", "Big House", etc.
Xie Yuwei, who already has a place in the mainstream music scene, does not like to be restricted by Hakka music, nor does he like to use music to restrict Hakka people. Every piece that Xie Yuwei creates has a small story behind it. The songs are mainly adapted from traditional Hakka songs. Representative songs include: "Questioning Song", "Eighteen Girls A Flower", "Start Over", "One Couple", "Peach Blossoms Blooming", "Folk Song", "Naihe", "Moonlight", "Flower Tree" "Down", "Go Forward Bravely", etc.
The music style of Chen Yongtao (Atao Ge), known as the Hakka folk poet, mainly combines folk rock, blues and other forms, and has the characteristics of traveling poetry. He has a great influence on Taiwanese pop music. His songs have a broad mass base for both Hakka and non-Hakka groups. Representative songs include: "You with a Swinging Head", "Yang Ge Sha", "The Blind God Is Coming" ", "Dreaming", "Heavenly Questions", "Water Road", "Fresh River Water", "Lullaby", "Calm Waves", etc.
The jazz school of electronic dance music
Represented by Liu Shaoxi. Liu Shaoxi, a well-known Hakka pop musician, based on his many years of behind-the-scenes creation experience, uses his native language - Dabu Hakka, combined with JAZZ, Latin, FUNK, electronic and other music elements to form jazz-style pop songs. The representative song is "Rao Ximei" ", "Come on", "I am CrazyJazz", "The Coffee House in Sanfan City", "The Ups and Downs of Hell", "Visitors from All Directions", "Blue Bird Ci", "The Book of the Dead", "That Autumn" wait.
Western and Urban Song School
Represented by Dongdong, Li Yifan, Xu Xiaoning, Gu Chongli, Qiu Xingyi and others. In recent years, due to the participation of many new-generation singers, Hakka pop songs have developed into Western and urban styles, and have a large lineup. Representative songs include "Speak Out of Love", "True Love", "What Is Love", "Drums in the Distance", "Don't You Dare to Remember", "Hakka DJ", "Direction", "Nine Falling Wind", " "Lost Flower", "Hope is Today", "My Favorite Is You", "May Snow", "Mom", "Heart to Hand", "Dear Baby", "Moonlight", "Swallow", " "You don't know where you are" and so on. Taiwan
Taiwan is the most active region in the development of Hakka pop songs. More than 95% of the Hakka pop songs released in the world are from Taiwan. This is inseparable from the awakening of the consciousness of the Hakka community in Taiwan. The Hakka people began to actively strive for political, economic and cultural status. Especially after the establishment of some Hakka political institutions such as the Hakka Committee of the Executive Yuan, they played a very important role in the creation of Hakka popular songs. great promotion effect.
Today’s Hakka pop songs in Taiwan, the works of two musicians, Tu Minheng and Lin Ziyuan, still play a large role. Among them, Mr. Tu Minheng has composed more than 2,000 Hakka pop songs. As for singers, Hakka pop singers who have published more than ten solo albums include Liu Pingfang, Peng Yan, Lin Zhanyi, Chen Shufang, Gu Huihui, Wen Ruiyuan, etc.
Indonesia
Indonesia has about three to four million Hakkas. Due to the long-term anti-Chinese policy of the Indonesian government, the Chinese language proficiency of Indonesian Chinese including Hakkas is not high. Indonesian Hakka pop songs are mainly cover works. For example, they take more popular Chinese songs and re-write the lyrics in Hakka language, with the main theme of expressing emotions. The number of creations is relatively large, but there are few original compositions.
Malaysia
There are many Hakkas in Malaysia, but not many Hakka pop songs. According to my understanding, most of the Hakka pop songs in Malaysia are composed by Qiu Qingyun, Xie Lingling, Zhang Shaolin and The works of these four Downeys. Among them, Qiu Qingyun, known as the King of Hakka Singers, has achieved the greatest success. His songs have a certain influence on the global Chinese record market. So far, Qiu Qingyun has released more than ten albums of Hakka pop songs.
Mainland
Although more than 90% of the Hakka people live in the mainland, Hakka pop songs in the mainland have not developed and are still in their infancy. Professor Yan Xiuhong of the Hakka Customs Network analyzed this. He believes that there are three reasons: first, the Mandarin culture overwhelms the local dialects and is unified, lacking a free and diverse ideological foundation; second, the lack of Hakka folk cultural talents; third, the lack of traditional culture Stimulating, no sense of innovation in form and content.
Fortunately, there have been some developments in the past few years: the Hakka dialect pop song album "Moonlight Light" was sung by Xu Qiuju, the Queen of Meizhou Hakka folk songs. This album contains 10 songs, but due to the The publicity was poor, the sales volume was not very satisfactory, and it failed to cause much impact. There is also a principal from Heping County who was once popular on the Internet. He has sung some famous songs in Hakka and also has some of his own creations. He is cooperating with Meizhou Feifan Film and Television Company to release an album of Hakka pop songs he sang. We look forward to his performance. Create more Hakka pop songs to promote the creation of Hakka pop songs in mainland China.
There are also Qiulin from Shaoguan, Liu Qianlong and Zeng Huibin from Meizhou, Pan Haibing and Li Zepei from Huizhou, Xitongmu from Maoming, Lu Xiaojuan from Longyan, etc., who have composed or sang many Hakka pop songs.