Exploration and hidden worries about whether ancient music can set off a craze after commercialization

whether antique music can move from a minority music type to a larger audience in the future, or even be a good model for carrying forward Chinese traditional culture, is worth looking forward to. If one day the influence of ancient style is so great that everyone can enjoy listening to elegant music and wear Chinese clothes as a fashion, everyone knows history and every family knows etiquette.

recently, with the continuous broadcast of "there is Hip Hop in China", the hip-hop trend has been very popular. For a while, all the major social media are "freestyle", and this music network has become a hit with a niche music genre. Hip-hop culture, as an "import", can be so popular that it seems to be the trend of the times.

recently, the Weibo account of Miman Media announced that a grand concert with the theme of "Ancient style" will be held at the Hall of New year Prayer at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on August 26 this year. Some people may be surprised that the concert went to the Temple of Heaven? But in fact, this is not the first year of a high-profile concert like this.

in fact, as early as 2015 and 2016, the same organizers and artists stood on the Bird's Nest Stadium and the Great Hall of the people. The influence of a minority group that emerged in the local network more than a decade ago has gradually penetrated into the mainstream vision and should not be underestimated.

this has to make us curious and expect: will the archaic style be the next hip-hop?

< strong > from cover to originality: the big work of small groups < / strong >

in 2003, a song by Jay Chou and Fang Wenshan, "the Breaking of the East Wind", led the trend of Chinese style in the pop music world, while similar but more minority antique music has been developing in a low profile on the Internet for a long time. Since 2005, the ancient style group is mainly active in decibel network and 5sing network, and in recent years it is also popular in YY, bilibili and singing bar.

Ancient style music mostly draws lessons from games, anime and network novels to write lyrics, and quotes Japanese Harmony Music or Oriental online Game soundtrack for adaptation or rendition. Later, under the gestation of cross-cutting fields such as COSPLAY and Hanfu, he gradually grew up eating hundred-family rice, won a large number of fans and emerged a lot of antique teams.

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Out of the idea of entertaining themselves, they uploaded excellent original works to the Internet, quickly attracting like-minded musicians and a large number of fans. After that, original ancient style teams such as "Pingsha Luoyan", "Qiange Weiyang" and "Huan Fengming" also emerged one after another.

after the decibel network was closed in 2010, 5sing has become a new frontier for antique musicians and fans. Although the influence of 5sing, which bears the name of "Chinese original music base", is still limited, the name "original" does not feel unworthy of its name because of the rising antique original works. In the "original" section of its official website, antique works still account for a large proportion.

5sing China original Music Base

with the help of various social media, a group of antique singers such as Hetu and HITA have quickly become famous civilian idols in the circle, with thousands of comments or likes on any Weibo. It is the existence of such a group that has a close relationship with idols that makes antique musicians continue to push through the old and bring forth the new. for example, Hetu's "all the World" has been downloaded more than 10 million times in Baidu Music.

Hetu

from borrowing chicken eggs to team originality, no longer relying on foreign themes, it can be regarded as an important milestone in the development of antique music industry. On the other hand, the groups of antique musicians and fans support each other and grow together, which has gradually contributed to the ecology of today's antique music circle.

< strong > Exploration and hidden worries after commercialization < / strong >

at a time when capital is overheating, the music industry also has a mouth to say. When the antique market grows to a certain extent, capital will follow.

around 2010, Mo Ming Qi Miao team began to appear in some comic and comic fairs, followed by a series of themed performances such as the Beijing Sparrow Washer Ancient style Concert in 2012 and the Qinhuai Night Line Concert in Jinling in 2013. With the support of capital, this group of small groups gathered online unwittingly went offline. Originally do not know where the audience, how to price the antique musicians, but also slowly began a more independent business exploration.

in 2015, Miman Media, which focuses on "national style culture", was founded, and its team members became the original team. In 2016, the team received 63 million yuan A round financing, and then signed a number of antique singers, released albums, organized concerts, concerts and animation music festivals, sold around artists, and continued to enter the gaming and costume film and television industry.

in addition to startups, antique musicians are also favored by the film and television side and the game side. For example, this year's popular costume dramas "three generations of Peach Blossom" and "Datang Glory" have respectively thrown olive branches to famous musicians Dong Zhen and audio monsters in the circle.

Dong Zhenxian sings" three generations of Peach Blossom "episode

at present, these theme performances of antique music are among the top in terms of lineup and specifications. For example, China's National Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra were invited to support the "Knot of the Rope" in the Great Hall of the people in 2015, and the 2016 Mid-Autumn Festival Bird's Nest concert was even more spectacular: 40,000 people, with 90% attendance, gathered famous singers from the ancient world. CCTV appointed Luyu as the host of the party. What is worth pondering is that the organizers of the latter actively abandoned the term "ancient style" and renamed it "national style", which shows the team's strong desire to show people in an orthodox position and to enter the room as an eulogizer of five thousand years of Chinese culture.

of course, although there are opportunities, it is clear that antique music and musicians are not ready. This is the most obvious and concentrated in a live performance.

HITA sang

take last year's Bird's Nest performance as an example. Despite the blessing of the big names in the circle, the highest-standard venues and music equipment that night, the overall effect can only be said to be satisfactory. Many audiences later reflected that the singer frequently lost the shot at the scene, lost the tune, and could not hold down the scene; the sound at the scene had many low-level failures, and the hearing effect was not good; the whole performance planning was not innovative enough, and the performance process was like taking turns; the singing repertoire is mostly the cooperative repertoire of game sponsors, and so on. In the field of performance, it still takes time for musicians, organizers and behind-the-scenes teams.

for more than a decade, antique groups have walked from online to offline into the Bird's Nest and Temple of Heaven, which are beyond the reach of many pop singers. In the eyes of many people in the circle, this feeling is like your child growing up day by day and finally getting married one day.

but others have revealed deep concern: as the commercialization of antique music has gone further and further, will fast-food commercial works be kidnapped and lost by capital in the future? When the feelings of "just to meet the idol of ten years" are satisfied and released, how long can a performance like this keep them spending?

< strong > how long will it take to hit the tipping point? < / strong >

some people on the Internet describe antique songs as follows: time has to wait for "a thousand years", the place does not move "the world", the characters are "who", the story is "sorrowful", and the result is all kinds of "death". As a number of antique works have entered the mainstream, the lyrics of antique songs have often become the focus of criticism, mostly due to "paying no attention to grammar for the sake of elegance", "affectation, not knowing what to say" and "listening to it. A hundred songs are saying the same meaning.

A good antique work, especially those songs promoted with the halo of "carry forward Chinese traditional culture", and cultural activities similar to the slogan "fulfill your heart for five thousand years", it is more necessary to control the quality in all aspects of song creation. After all, only good works can go far.

in the pursuit of "tuyere thinking", the commercialization of the ancient wind circle is unexpected. However, if you are blindly kidnapped by games and film and television manufacturers, the capital game that is too anxious can only encourage the seedlings and promote the maturity too much.

Music prelude believes that since hot money has entered the ancient wind circle, we might as well find a proper balance between input and output and lay a good foundation. In terms of content, we should spend more energy on cultivating musicians' singing level and on-the-spot ability, improving the level of specialization, creating IP; channels for works and musicians, establishing diversified exposure channels, creating fan consumption ecology, and exploring more commercial realization models with "archaic style" as the core.

of course, it is worth looking forward to whether antique music can move from a minority music type to a larger audience in the future, or even be a good model for carrying forward Chinese traditional culture. If one day the influence of ancient style is so great that everyone can enjoy listening to elegant music and wear Chinese clothes as a fashion, everyone knows history and every family knows etiquette.

chicks can't be hatched in a day. It's really urgent to keep laying eggs and eggs.

Edit: mary