The Tencent TMEA Music and Entertainment Ceremony held last week is still very popular.

The awards ceremony contributed many famous scenes, such as: Jay Chou, who has not been seen for a long time, brought a medley of golden songs; Mayday and Rene Liu performed "Later"; Cai Xukun, Times Youth League and other new idols showed off their beauty .

However, what completed the "topic KPI" for this entertainment ceremony was the list of "Top Ten Hot Songs" announced at the awards ceremony.

As soon as the list of the "Top Ten Hot Songs" came out, it quickly aroused a wave of "voices of condemnation" on all major platforms.

Netizens felt like a pot was exploding, and they expressed their grief: "The Chinese music scene is about to end" and "Believers would like to sincerely pray that the Chinese music scene can go back fifteen years."

Everyone's outrage over the "Top Ten Hot Songs" has really embarrassed the Chinese music scene, which has always boasted that there is "no shortage of good songs" and is "always improving."

How come after working hard for a whole year, the "Top Ten Hot Songs" are still at this level at the end of the year?

The "large-scale slap-in-the-face farce" caused by the "Top Ten Hot Songs" is actually a concentrated exposure of the flaws and shortcomings of the Chinese music scene.

Looking at the essence through the phenomenon, let’s take a closer look. Whose face does this list hurt?

The first slap must have fallen on the hot song on the list.

It is not without reason that the so-called top ten songs of the year are criticized and even despised by everyone.

Carefully "appreciate" this award-winning list, the ten works are more or less "dirty":

"Thousands and Millions" by Deep Sea Caviar It was once suspected of plagiarizing Lan Yu's "The Last Tenderness";

"The Dream That Can't Wake Up" was suspected of plagiarizing "Marshmallow" by Supreme Lihe;

"Clear" He was accused of plagiarizing EXO's "Mermaid Tears".

What’s more, it combines many “hot hits” into one.

Comparing the melody of "White Moonlight and Cinnabar Mole" carefully, you can hear "Contentment", "We Will Meet Again", "The Magic of Love", "Twitching Left Eyelid", "Yuhi Saka" ” and many other songs.

This is simply the second "tailor" song after "The Sorrow of Leaving People".

Although it is difficult to truly identify plagiarism in music creation, it is not difficult to see that these "Top Ten Hot Songs" all have the shadow of popular songs.

In our mature music market, popular trends have gone through several rounds: hiphop, psychedelic rock, reggae, experimental electronics...the variety is too numerous to count.

In such a striking and dazzling contrast, the sameness and lack of progress in melody creation by domestic musicians is even more "slap in the face".

What makes people feel even more slap in the face and headache is that the saliva songs produced by these Internet celebrities are often "death in the light".

This Tencent TMEA Entertainment Festival has arranged a 15-second medley of hot songs for each person for the "Top Ten Hot Songs". Without the support of sound cards and filters, every song is a large-scale rollover scene. Problems such as unstable breath and broken notes arise one after another.

In fact, it is not uncommon for Internet celebrity singers who are killing everyone on short video platforms to go on stage and sing on the mic with real swords and guns.

The second slap in the face of the "Top Ten Hot Songs" came at the awards ceremony.

Let's take a look at the "Top Ten Hot Songs" selected by this award ceremony last year.

"Girl by the Bridge", "Grand Ear" and "I Met You in a Big World" are exactly the same as this year's list: they are all "brainwashing songs" that are rampant on short video platforms.

Moving forward, the top ten golden songs and the top ten hottest songs in 2019 have not been separated yet, but they are still different.

This phenomenon contains a certain irony: all year round, the Chinese music scene has made no progress at all.

Each of these Internet buzz songs became popular and spread throughout the streets and alleys. But behind this brainwashing and addictive melody, there is a "bad street" melody and a crude mix that cannot withstand scrutiny. Sound arrangement.

Shouldn’t our platforms and institutions reflect on the fact that such deceptive bad songs and divine songs appear openly on the annual list?

In the music area of ??Bilibili, many music tycoons have already published some sarcastic "Tutorials on Making Divine Comedy."

"Teach you how to write a popular song in 3 minutes", "How to write a ballad in ten minutes", "You can write a Qianlong cabbage in one minute", such tutorials can be found everywhere.

It takes only ten minutes to create an "Internet Divine Song" with over one million streams. With such a simple and crude production process, the quality of the song is completely compromised.

Therefore, the third slap in the face of the "Top Ten Hot Songs" is a slap in the face of the corrosive sinking market.

This is a place where creators and companies make a lot of money while we, the listeners, are kept in the dark.

As a result, under such "huge profits", the entertainment industry has incubated a large number of companies that produce "short video brainwashing songs" on an assembly line.

Very different from traditional music production companies, they use the real-time hotspot monitoring system to write songs. From song writing to online, it only takes 4 hours at the fastest and 24 hours at the slowest.

In a nutshell, they write whatever is hot.

In a situation where many professional musicians cannot wait ten years for a hit song, this kind of company can exaggerate to create a "hit song" on the short video platform in one month, and a Divine Comedy can often generate income of millions or more.

There is also a music studio that specially signs a group of songwriters, who are responsible for researching various popular music lists every day, and then quickly producing songs of a similar style.

Even Xu Liang, one of the former "QQ Music Big Three", opened a music production company and switched to making short video songs behind the scenes. Many people thought he disappeared, but he just changed his vest and went to mass-produce more divine songs.

In such a creative process that is completely oriented towards traffic and money, "musical works" have become "music products". From the perspective of the audience, the music and melodies they hear are bound to become more simple and mouth-watering.

In recent years, the "devil's claws" have begun to tentatively extend into the mainstream music market, and some so-called "popular singers" who don't even have two brushes have begun to appear in various "high-end" music variety shows. "The figure.

Li Yuanjie, the creator of "Departure", participated in the large-scale music talent show "Tomorrow's Son 2", hoping that he could become "the second Mao Buyi".

Lao Fan, who is known as the "deep smoker" next door, frequently appears on the stage of ace music competition programs.

Lao Fan next door said, "I don't like singing skills." In the works he is proud of, "homogenization" is fully exposed, and he can't help but think about it repeatedly. It is the product of the aesthetics of lonely listeners. , destined to be forgotten by the times.

In "The Voice of God", the music critic's evaluation of Lao Fan next door was also very pertinent, "I recognize Lao Fan next door's sincerity and hard work, but the platform will use such huge traffic to exclude him." This will be a hindrance to turning a work that is considered too good into a hit and a success.”

Corresponding to the proliferation of top ten hot songs is the decline of the mainstream music scene. This slap is the most painful and the most severe!

The era of "Zhou Wang Lin Tao" is coming to an end, but there are very few new generation singers who can compete. Hua Chenyu "takes the wrong approach" and his songs are very artistic but alienated from the public; Zhou Shen has established a professional OST account , but few non-commercial works are presented.

It is hard to imagine that it has been 21 years since Jay Chou made his debut, but he still dominates 54 of the TOP100 hottest songs in mainland China in 2021 announced in the Apple Music App.

It’s 2021, and most of Jay Chou’s fans have already married and started families, but Jay Chou himself actually still occupies half of the Chinese music scene.

Although "Dr. Jay" himself is lying on his back and "his wife and children are on the bed" every day, he is so happy and happy, but the decline of the mainstream music world is already evident. Isn't this another kind of negative impact on the Chinese music world? Slap in the face.

In fact, it is not difficult for us to find that behind the "frequent slaps" in the Chinese music scene is the coercion of capital in the music market and the sinking of the public's aesthetics in the era of "fast consumption".

It is true that in the era of "fast consumption", even entertainment is "short-lived", from "long videos" to "short videos", from "TV series" to "short plays"; visual art It can adapt to the times in various ways, and there will be excellent works regardless of length.

But for music with an "appreciation threshold", such a rapid change is almost a devastating blow.

The formation of music itself and the cultivation of musical literacy are both a "slow process". It requires musicians to spend a long period of time learning music theory and polishing their singing skills before excellent works can be created.

In the era of "fast consumption", music must also start to pay attention to timeliness. What was popular yesterday may not be popular today.

Therefore, music has also begun to pay attention to "hotness" and "fastness". Music that has lost its original intention and pursued fame and fortune will inevitably be criticized by Zheng Jun. Nine out of ten songs cannot be listened to.

Some music producers said frankly, ""Heart Like Still Water" became popular in the short video on the first day, and the next day a company went to the singer's house with money to sign the copyright."

"There is no way, the popularity of songs is on a downward curve. If we don't catch up, this wave of popularity may pass."

Another main reason for the proliferation of "saliva songs" is the sophisticated algorithms in the era of big data .

Li Zongsheng, the godfather of the music industry, sadly proposed the "Pig Food Theory" on the Golden Melody Forum: If you feed him pig food, he will become a pig. If you feed him songs that are in bad taste, he will always be like this.

In the era of big data, the way songs are spread has begun to undergo drastic changes. In the past, the popularity of a song relied on the recommendation of a TV station or radio station. Only when a singer appeared frequently to promote songs could the album be sold well. Can be played in shops on the streets.

Now, Internet celebrity production companies can first use big data to cast a wide net on short video platforms, spread these saliva songs "virally", brainwash users on a large scale, and then extend to major music platforms and Entertainment platform to achieve full user coverage on all platforms.

To a certain extent, these "Top Ten Hot Songs" are just the choices of big data.

For the sake of bread, many musicians can only temporarily put aside their dreams and succumb to the status quo. From this perspective, the "Top Ten Hot Songs" is not a slap in the face to this overly impetuous "big data era".

Is it really the big data and short video industry that has caused "the Chinese music scene to be repeatedly slapped in the face"? In fact, the choice of big data is still based on the audience's choice.

These top ten songs are not only the choice of big data, but also the "choice of the public".

With the rapid development of Internet entertainment, there are more and more entertainment methods for the public to choose from, and the forms are becoming more and more diverse. As a result, people's "pleasure threshold" is getting higher and higher, and they need more and more entertainment. Something short-lived and intense to stimulate the senses.

This forces musicians to seek changes under this current situation. As Deng Ziqi said in a variety show: "If you can't hook for three seconds, they will take you away."

How many people can listen to a new song seriously and completely without watching the short video or watching the stage? How many people can take the initiative to break through the "information barriers" surrounded by big data, and actively jump out of their comfort zone to find good new songs?

From another perspective, in the past, record companies and media companies had the final say on what the public listened to; but now in the environment of self-media, the choice has been placed in the hands of the audience to a greater extent. .

So the "Top Ten" reflects the most authentic choices.

Compared with other mature music markets, our music education and aesthetics are generally lacking.

In fact, this phenomenon is very normal. Think about it, music classes from childhood to adulthood were either occupied by Chinese and mathematics teachers, or used for self-study.

In this case, the decline of musical aesthetics seems inevitable. We sit here and laugh at the fact that the Chinese music industry is being slapped in the face, and the one being slapped in the face is not ourselves.

In the words of musician Liang Huan, "Tencent's top ten hot song list is the most authentic public opinion and represents the broadest musical aesthetic. No matter where you are in the contempt chain, you should always look forward to It is meaningless to judge people. If there is any meaning to despise the product of low-level civilization, it is for climbing up."

So instead of lamenting that "the Chinese music scene is dead", it is better. Strengthen music education, improve your own musical literacy, and think more about what we can do to prevent the Chinese music scene and this era from being repeatedly slapped in the face.