RIDINGYOURMIND
"The madman of the generation, the king of music, I don't think I need a frame."
In 2022, Jay Chou will come to direct the traffic in the music world again. From waiting at the radio station to maxing out online platforms, countless people got to know Jay Chou again in just one song.
I live my life by treating you like a god, and I live my life by facing you as a mortal. I live my life in a peaceful way, if I am stupid, biased, overly angry, or peaceful. Later I realized that you are the king of your own field and also an ordinary person in life. We are the vast majority of people, and he is Jay Chou.
The greatest work
In the movie "The Untold Secret" filmed by Jay Chou in 2007, Ye Xianglun used a piano song "Secret" to travel through time and space in order to find a way back to the past.
In 2022, the MV preview for Jay Chou's latest album "The Greatest Work" will be released. This is also his new album return after six years since the release of "Jay Chou's Bedside Story" in 2016.
This time, Jay Chou still started with "Secret", a piano solo that transformed him into a time traveler and teleported to the 1920s to meet artists.
is dazzling to watch, but it is his unfreezing and interactive echo of the huge and spectacular musical river in his past.
In just five minutes, people heard goth , singing, medieval dark atmosphere, flamenco . The MV is even more packed: classical music , impressionism , baroque , salon culture, avant-garde cowboys.
Painting, poetry, prose, and installation art are integrated into one song.
paintings appear the most. For example, Magritte's Apple, Sanyu 's Five Women, Dali's Beard, Van Gogh 's Starry Night, Monet's portrait, Munch's 's Scream, Matisse's Coast...
Poetry is like Farewell Cambridge, installation art is like Lobster Telephone, and music is a piano ensemble with Lang Lang .
In addition to what can be seen, there are also some metaphors. Just like Xu Zhimo was once described by Bing Xin as a butterfly, and Hu Shi wrote a poem "Butterfly" that was once known as China's first vernacular poem.
also has some miscellaneous talk. Just like Xu Zhimo once exclaimed in shock when he saw Sanyu's "Nude lying on her side on the tapestry": he saw the "thigh of the universe".
Jay Chou knows that the production of great works of art benefits from the great art era, and he confesses himself: My works represent an era and transcend the era. He called them his "greatest works."
On the promotional page for the pre-order of this album, it is printed that "when a great work is created, the artist does not know that he has created an entire artistic era."
Many people say that they hear the shadow of many songs from the past in this song, but as the song sings: "The notes are still the art of the future." It is not "The Seventh Chapter of the Night ", nor is it " in the name of the father ". It’s not a filter, it’s not a sentiment.
Standing on the top of the mountain
"Just like the excitement in this world, it comes from loneliness."
One lyric is a piece of art, and Jay Chou's reputation for not doing his job properly in the past six years has been vindicated. In the MV, there is an easter egg: Jay Chou takes Monet to look at the Chinese painting lotus.
Chinese style has always been Jay Chou's biggest label, and it is also his biggest contribution to , the Chinese music scene, and .
In November 2000, the title song of Jay Chou's first album of the same name " Cute Woman " was released. It was also the first song sung and released by Jay Chou himself.
In that era, most of the popular songs that were named by their names were covers of foreign compositions with new lyrics. Starting from the "Wow" in the prelude of "Lovely Woman", the Chinese music scene officially opened a new chapter.
In 2001, letting a newcomer win the best album became the biggest favorite at the Golden Melody Awards that year. At that time, the gold medal judges who tried their best to persuade the conservatives said something, allowing Jay Chou to win the most valuable award at the Golden Melody Awards."Many years later when we write pop music memoirs, it is impossible to avoid Jay Chou."
A few months later, Jay Chou, who was recognized by the most authoritative awards in Chinese music, released his second solo album " Fantasy ". Since then, Jay Chou's name has been heard throughout Taiwan and directly hit the mainland.
On July 16, 2003, more than 50 radio stations across Asia premiered the title song "In the Name of the Father" from the new album " Ye Huimei " simultaneously, and more than 800 million people listened to it at the same time. After that, July 16th every year was designated as Jay Day .
Someone once said, "Excellent music works sometimes have a delay of a few tenths of a second in rhythm, and sometimes they are a little faster, which seems to be irregular." And what we are pursuing is just this little bit of irregularity.
Qilixiang became synonymous with summer, and the children had many questions, so "as soon as the nocturne played, I went on stage to receive the award." Some songs win right from the intro.
In 2009, 30-year-old Jay Chou said: I have no unfulfilled dream in my life. But Jay Chou also said, "If only one person can stand on the top of the mountain, I hope that person is me. But there are still people who can stand on my shoulders, and those who can stand will come right away."
Directing the traffic in the music world
Those who stand at the top must naturally be prepared to be scrutinized by the public. The world expects his melodies to be unrestrained and unrestrained, and also cares about the positive themes of his works, and then continues to regulate that he must be humane, sophisticated, and comprehensive. When
debuted, people criticized its non-mainstream songs for not reaching a large enough audience. Later, people said that 's slobbery songs and did not have a high level of humanism. And Gao Xiaosong once said that Jay Chou's fast songs are responsible for the depth, and the slow songs are responsible for the breadth.
In fact, Jay Chou's works are already ahead of the times. In " Dad I'm Back " 20 years ago, he opposed domestic violence : "In today's society, the term feminism is missing. Why do I see my father beating my mother all the time."
" Materia Medica Compendium 》It’s not for aerobics either. When Kazakhstan, Korea, and Japan became the trend, he was still proud of Chinese culture. " and Chinese herbal medicine , which have been rooted for thousands of years, have a power that others don't know about."
While it is well-known as "Qilixiang", the original name of this album was "The Sorrow to Stop the War". The cover of this album was shot in Vladivostok. Jay Chou said that he wanted to go to a place that had been baptized by war.
He wrote in Russian on the inside page of that album, "I hope there will be no more wars among humans, and I hope to be with my lover forever." For various reasons, the album name was changed to "Qili Xiang". The flower language of Qilixiang is: "Anti-war sorrow."
In addition to the humanistic core, the musical skills are even more unconstrained.
In "Reverse Scale", he changed the Chinese rhyme to adapt to the rhythm of hip-hop music , overcoming a major shortcoming of Chinese that is not suitable for RAP. In the prelude of "双刀", he absorbed the Tibetan accent, and the national style rock was about to come out.
No one has thought about the path he has taken to turn unpopular into popular. No one thinks that it is necessary to subvert the public's established impression of pop music and turn so-called non-mainstream songs into saliva songs that everyone sings in their eyes. How much energy.
But even in the years when he was most criticized, he still sang in "Turkish Ice Cream": "I might as well get off the car myself and direct the traffic of the music scene."
has been labeled "self-repeating" and "Zhou Lang" countless times. After his talents are exhausted, many people are still willing to believe in Jay Chou.
Some people say that he is the first superstar in the booming entertainment industry in the new century, the last nutritional supplement in this fast-selling era, and will also be the last king of the declining record industry.
Today, in an era where people are brainwashed by Douyin songs and can write songs with a synthesizer in 5 minutes, Jay Chou is a thorn bird that wandered from the declining record jungle, and he is also a watcher and climber in the era of entertainment to death.
text | Zhao Tianshu
picture | Jay Chou Chinese website
original statement
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