Text | Linghu Boguang

Recently, Bilibili's 2021 music variety show "Do You Listen to My Music" on Bilibili, a small broken station that netizens call, was launched. This is another music variety show launched by Bilibili after last year’s successful “New Generation of Rap”.

That is "Do You Listen to My Music" where Joker Xue, Dai Penni, and Xu Song are the first variety show instructors.

If I want to make a personal evaluation, it is that the overall level of the first episode of this variety show is indeed better than other music talent shows in 2021, but if there is still a lack of popular contestants and songs that "out of the circle" in the follow-up, Then it may not be possible to replicate the success of "Rap New Generation".

There is no intention to criticize this music variety show. On the contrary, there are a few songs that I personally like. However, in the environment of Chinese music auditions, it is indeed a bit worse, not even as good as "Rap New". Generations Issue 1. What makes a good music talent show? What kind of players and songs will become popular?

Let’s talk about the standards first. I personally am not a music professional, so I can’t speak to any music expertise. However, I have been watching Chinese music talent shows for nearly 20 years since "Super Girl" became popular. Later, I listened to a lot of pop, independent and other music. At the same time, I have always analyzed individual works based on the development of the cultural industry.

What a good music talent show needs most is contestants and songs that are out of the circle, but this is difficult

There are many popular programs in the history of domestic music talent shows. In recent years, "I" Do you listen to the music of "Do you listen to music?" Similar music talent shows are probably "Tomorrow's Son" and "Rap New Generation" on the same platform, and even earlier, "Super Girl" and "Happy Boy", but this variety show focuses on original, Singer-songwriter.

Because contestants in programs such as "The Voice" and "Good Song" have no restrictions on age, gender and music style.

How can a music talent show where these contestants are young people become popular? Before the launch of "Tomorrow's Sons 4", I personally made a systematic analysis based on the first three seasons.

In this kind of music talent show that limits the age of the contestants, if the contestants and their songs want to "break out" of the music industry, they must meet these two points. They must either be unique enough or be geniuses, but even if they are unique enough, genius is not enough.

Because after more than ten years of repeated tossing through high-frequency drafts, the talent pool in the Chinese music scene is obviously not keeping up. Those great gods and musicians who cannot participate in variety shows will never participate. Those who can still participate in variety shows are either very amateurs, or "twice-cooked pork" who have repeatedly appeared in variety shows.

"Do You Listen to My Music" has a significantly more sophisticated lineup, more similar to last year's "New Generation of Rap".

After all, as an audience like me who has watched Chinese music talent shows for twenty years, I didn’t know any of the 36 contestants in this variety show, and I didn’t see a single “twice-cooked pork”. This is different from this year’s “Who There are differences between "The Treasure Singer" and "The Man from Strawberry Planet".

Most of these very amateur players come from music conservatories and have a solid foundation.

The problem with their music is often that it has a solid foundation but lacks inspiration, those who have inspiration lack life experience, and those who have life experience lack something that touches people's hearts. Even if a few of them are taken up, but limited to age, there are very few people who can balance the basics, inspiration, life experience, and touching people's hearts.

I believe that most people who listen to a lot of music do not have strict requirements for the popularity of songs. On the contrary, they have more pursuits for breakthroughs and uniqueness in all aspects of music (those who despise pop are There is a sense of superiority at this point).

However, according to the aesthetic level of the Chinese public, the development environment of Chinese music and the development status of Chinese music variety shows. Players whose songs have both quality and popularity, that is, "Bad Street", are more likely to become popular with everyone.

This is still a question of elegance and vulgarity. Music that is too unique will appear niche, and music that is too simple will be too slobbery and vulgar.

In the past few years, the only music talent show of its kind is "Tomorrow's Sons 1". The first season was broadcast in 2017. In the past five years, we have only launched one Mao Buyi. Subsequently, so many music talent shows have won so many awards. There are many people, and even the subsequent development of the players of "The New Generation of Rap", at least for now, is not easy.

Let’s go back to the program “Do You Listen to My Music?”. I won’t analyze the performance of the instructors. In the first 30 minutes, the contestants make friends to let the audience become familiar with the contestants, which slows down the pace. Issues such as the slightly cluttered editing of less-than-stellar songs.

Let’s go back to the contestants and songs in the first issue of "Do You Listen to My Music". If I had to choose my personal ranking, it would be roughly like this, excluding the performances of the three mentors from top to bottom.

Champion: Yu Ziyuan "Moon Enough"

Second runner-up: Yang Moyi's "RedDream", Juan Juan's "Want to Say", Zhang Ronghao's "Day Dreamer", SHARK Wei Binyue's "Roman Star Ruins", Pan Junzhou's "Far".

Finally: Zhang Jinming's "Wind", Chen Hongli's "Uneasy", Liang Mingchen's "Previously Said", Qian Runyu's "Silk", and Yihe's "Dawn". The first episode of "Do You Listen to My Music" is excellent, but it's not as good as "New Generation of Rap"

This is just my personal feeling. If you like the contestants and songs on the show, please don't worry. This is from the perspective of music. From the two perspectives of itself and music variety show, let’s start from bottom to top.

Finally: Qian Runyu's "Silk" and Yihe's "Dawn" The biggest problem is naturally mistakes. But even if there are no mistakes, these songs have two serious problems. First, the music is too similar to its predecessors and not recognizable enough. Second, the music itself is too mediocre in all aspects.

Those who are similar to their predecessors include Chen Hongli in "Uneasy" and Liang Mingchen in "Previously Said".

At first glance, the former sounds almost the same as Gongge, while the latter is just a low-end version of Joker Xue. Similarity to the predecessors in the music industry is not a fatal problem. After all, most people start by learning and imitating, but whether the singing and music style are recognizable or not has a great impact.

For example, Ge Dongqi, who was accused by netizens of plagiarizing Jay Chou, has hit songs such as "囍" and "Hanging" with distinctive styles and can be popular in the circle. As an independent singer-songwriter, he is quite successful.

Musicians who are too similar to their predecessors in all aspects will live in the shadow of their predecessors. After all, when the public mentions this style, they think of Xue Zhiqian. When they think of the palace, they will think of you, right!

Musicians with average musical standards include Zhang Jinming's "Wind", Qian Runyu's "Silk", and Yihe's "Dawn".

These three songs are really mediocre. There are a lot of songs like "Wind". In retrospect, the one that makes a little impression is the "wind" at the beginning of the chorus, but in terms of impact and "wind", Compared with Xiang Yahong's rock song "Good Song" "Injury", similar treatment methods are far behind.

Even if there are no mistakes, Qian Runyu's "Silk" is a mediocre ancient song popular with traditional instruments. Good ancient style songs also meet the requirements of having good lyrics, music, arrangement and singing and being popular. If they are not so average, they must either have good lyrics or good music, or the expressions can resonate, or they can play amazing instrumental music. This The song is nothing.

Yihe's "Dawn" is exactly the same, and the overall level is even more mediocre.

Second runner-up: "Want to Say" by Juan Juan, "RedDream" by Yang Moyi, "Daydreamer" by Zhang Ronghao, "Ruins of Roman Star" by SHARK Wei Binyue, "Yuan" by Pan Junzhou is somewhat similar The upgraded version of the column below has obvious style in lyrics, music, singing and arrangement but not enough recognition, and the performance is mature and complete.

Juan Juan's "Want to Say" probably ranks first. The song is a decent Chinese urban love song.

But the contestants have a strong sense of variety, strong on-site appeal, and everything is faultless in terms of lyrics, music, arrangement, and singing. At first glance, I didn’t feel like they sounded like a senior, but they just weren’t outstanding enough.

Yang Moyi of "RedDream" is worthy of having collaborated with Yuan Yawei. This is simply a low-profile version of Yuan Yawei, with similar singing methods, similar music styles, similar expressions, and even similar turns. The sound and the song itself are naturally not as good as Yuan Yawei's.

Zhang Ronghao's "Day Dreamer" is also very mature. Many comments and comments have pointed out the problems. The appearance and singing style are very similar to Lu Guangzhong, but the song style is somewhat like Liao Juntao, and even the intro is inconsistent. Point, in fact, this music style is not exclusive to Liao Juntao. The problem is that it is not only good but not popular enough, and it does not have a distinctive self-style.

Let's recall that the first song in Liao Juntao's "Tomorrow's Son" was "Who", but in fact it is not as complete as this one. But it satisfies the following two criteria: distinct musical style, level and popularity. Look at this song again.

SHARK Wei Binyue's "Roman Star Ruins" is inevitably similar to Yu Zhen's "Particles", but the lyrics, music and arrangement are obviously inferior; Pan Junzhou's "Far" is somewhat similar to Li Jian, with enough lyrics and music arrangement. It's mature, the timbre is recognizable but not varied enough. My biggest personal feeling is that I feel a little tired after hearing it.

Runner-up: "Listen to You", "Stand on Tiptoes to Reach the Moon" and the winner "Who Am I" are mentioned together, because these three songs are all recognizable in terms of lyrics, composition and arrangement, and use music to It is a work that creates and heightens emotions while expressing one's own life experience. The only flaw is that the "singing ability" is somewhat poor.

Zhang Sanqi's "Listen to Your Words" talks about family love and oneself, and Nono and Chen Tongyan's "Stand on Tiptoes to Reach the Moon" talks about loneliness. Of course, this girl's singing skills are a bit poor, but her eloquent talk is still Very carefree.

Zheng Chuang's "Who Am I" music expresses emotions in a progressive way, and it can be said to be the best song in terms of heart.

When this song is used in Chinese music talent shows, it’s hard not to think of He Dahe’s “Pig Lao San” from “Good Songs” and Xu Jun’s “Myself”. I think it’s a little inferior, but it’s okay. It doesn't lose much, and the processing of emotional progression is quite good. What makes it stand out is that the "lyrics" tend to be stream-of-consciousness, and the singing difficulty is high.

Champion: Yu Ziyuan It’s a complete crushing of the strength of the Novice Village by the max-level bosses, but it’s lower than my personal expectations.

I personally am a fan of Fu Lu Shou. After listening to Fu Lu Shou, I also listened to foreign Heilung, domestic Shaman, Mamul/IZ bands and other religious bands. When I saw these two people The traditional costumes also include the alms bowl used in Fu Lu Shou's "Transfer Me", plus burning incense and red ropes before the game. I thought their music style was either biased towards the traditional culture of wild children, or it was an alternative fusion of traditional elements.

As a result, it turned out that the song was an ancient song at the beginning. It felt like An and Cavalry singing a mainland costume drama from 20 years ago, or a CCTV traditional cultural variety show song.

This song is very suitable for use as an episode of a costume drama with a suitable style, a song for a traditional cultural variety show next door, or even a CCTV-type party program. There is no problem with ranking first in the first episode. Of course, for listeners like me, this is still a bit surprising. Epilogue

Finally, although the quality of the songs in the first episode of this variety show is slightly inferior to that of "New Generation of Rap", especially in terms of the extent of the songs being released, it is already considered excellent compared to this year's music talent show.

Moreover, only one episode has been broadcast so far, and there are still many contestants who have not appeared. I hope there will be better contestants and songs in the end.

Finally, I hope that Chinese music will get better and better!