Douban's 2021 Music List, NetEase Cloud Music's 2021 Music Awards, NetEase Cloud Musician's 2021 Inventory "List" and "Recommendations", Tencent Music Department's Annual Inventory "Your List" and "Inspur List" , 2021 Tencent Entertainment White Paper Music Chapter, etc., recordi

Picture source @Visual China

Text | Music Xiensheng (ID: nakedmusic), author | Echo, editor | Fan Zhihui, published by TMTpost with authorization

The end of the year is approaching, and the music lists of all major platforms have basically been released.

Douban 2021 Annual Music List, NetEase Cloud Music 2021 Annual Music Awards, NetEase Cloud Musicians' 2021 Annual Inventory "List" and "Recommendation", Tencent Music Department's Annual Inventory "You List" and "Inspur List" Chapter", 2021 Tencent Entertainment White Paper Music Chapter, etc., record the Chinese music scene in 2021 from multiple perspectives and different positionings.

From the hottest to the best of the year, from traffic to quality, the music and musicians in the list have become anchor points. After classification, sorting, overlap and connection, an increasingly clear outline of the industry is outlined. Texture also marks the direction of future trends.

The Chinese music scene behind the annual report

Among so many annual reports, the most recent one was the "2021 Tencent Entertainment White Paper" (hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper") produced by Tencent News on January 20. Next, we will use the "White Paper" as the main body and the lists of major music platforms and institutions as circumstantial evidence to restore the real Chinese music scene as much as possible from several data characteristics.

When talking about the Chinese music scene, Jay Chou is an inseparable name. In recent years, although Jay Chou is no longer as prolific, he is still active in the public eye with the frequency of releasing a single almost every year. But Jay Chou, who had no new songs last year, has disappeared from the domestic annual charts. From Jay Chou to 's big seed , the top spot on the "White Paper" new song hot list also changed hands for the first time in three years.

Dazi is the original singer of the short video hit song "White Moonlight and Cinnabar Mole". He is a new generation musician born in 2000. In addition to Da Zi, among the top 10 new songs in "White Paper", the singers Huang Xiaoyun , Yan Haoxiang , Wang Yuan , Wang Heye , and Era Youth Group all belong to the new generation. .

Among the top 10 rising singers/groups of the year, Wang Linkai, born in 1999, ranked second, and Times Youth Group, with an average age of 17 years old, ranked third and became the youngest group on the "Tencent Music Wave List" ; Among the top 10 new songs, there is also a situation where new musicians have fully occupied it. Except for Karen Mok , a traditional singer, the others are almost all new generations who came out of short video hit songs, such as DJ Xiaoyuer , Mo Mingjie, Wang Heye, etc.

In this year when Jay Chou has released songs intermittently, the light that was once focused on veteran singers is gradually being dispersed to the new generation of musicians, and the Chinese music scene is ushering in the relay of the new generation.

However, despite the popularity, the reputation of the new generation of musicians has not kept up. In the "White Paper", among the top 10 new songs by professional reputation and the top 10 male/female singers by reputation, except for and Liu Boxin, entered the top 10 by professional reputation for new songs with the song "Are You Fried Noodles", none of the other post-95s were on the list. Among them, most of the idol singers are involved in #unsounding #controversies, and the names of the most popular singers on the list are very unfamiliar to the public.

It is worth noting that among the top 10 new songs with professional reputation, female singers perform very well, occupying eight seats, from Stefanie Sun , Karen Mok, Tanya Tsai to Yuan Yawei , Deng Ziqi , Liu Boxin, Spanning multiple music eras, the songs on the list cover pop, RB, soul, and electronic music genres.

Among them, Karen Mok's ", there are so many people in the world " ranks first in the annual lists of all major platforms. For example, it won the first place in the TOP10 of the best singles of the year at the NetEase Cloud Music Annual Music Award, and the number of shares With more than 8 million views, Karen Mok has also become the "artist with the most champion songs" on the Tencent Music Wave Chart; Wei Ruxuan , who ranks second, is also the "TOP10 Artist with the Most Songs" on the Tencent Music Wave Chart.

In addition to the rise of the new generation of musicians and female music groups, the Chinese music scene has also ushered in a coexistence of idol singers, powerful singers, online singers, and crossover singers each taking a share of the pie.

Take "White Paper" as an example. Among the top 10 new song sharing TPs, the top three Sino-German cloud artists Zhang Yunlei and Yue Yunpeng occupy two places; the top 5 new songs in the quarter are taken by different types of musicians in turn, including Internet singers. Da Zi, Deep Sea Caviar, etc., powerful singers Zhou Shen, Jin Zhiwen and idol singers Wang Yuan and Yan Haoxiang are all on the list. On the word-of-mouth list of male and female singers, powerful singers are still the dominant ones, but among them are Stefanie Sun and Eason Chan. There are also veteran singers like Zhang Jie and Yu Kewei who have come all the way from the talent show stage.

It can be seen that in the situation of stratification, traditional singers and online singers are no longer distinct, and idol singers and powerful singers are no longer in opposition.

However, compared to the high-quality output of traditional singers, the new generation of singers only have an advantage in popularity. The Weibo topic #寷婷# with 5.8 billion views has even packaged most of the new generation of singers as "traffic and no strength" "A basketful of things."

But are they really that "ugly"? What does

’s nearly 6 billion readings of #寷音# reflect?

In the past year, #婷婷# has frequently appeared in hot searches, and it seems to have become a standard for black and red marketing of songs. As of 21:00 on January 24, this topic has had 5.9 billion views.

According to the statistical chart of "White Paper", almost all the popular artists who released songs last year were included in it, and there are also popular music that occupy high positions in the above list. For example, Yan Haoxiang, Cai Xukun, , and Times Youth League are among the top 10 most popular new songs. They even include Liu Boxin, the only new generation singer-songwriter among the top 10 new songs with professional reputation, as well as powerful singers Hua Chenyu , Deng Ziqi, Wang Feng.

What is surprising is that, except for "The Fiery Sarilang" and "Four-Character Song", almost no short video divine songs have entered the entry of #彰音#. Moreover, it is not clear which version of the "Fiery Red Sarilang" was ridiculed. Liu Boxin's subversive version of the song on the "Praise for Song" stage was once involved in a controversy between "unpalatable" and "advanced". In addition, Liu Boxin's "Are You Fried Noodles" also won the highest-scoring electronic song on the Tencent Music Wave Chart, but it did not have a name on any popular list. On the stage of "Praise for the Song", it was also commented by experts as "I can't understand it" ".

wanders between "advanced" and "unpalatable", which is almost a common dilemma for the new generation of musicians. Because the pursuit of "high-end" has almost become the common goal of new music creation, "unpleasantness" to the public's senses is only one dimension of judging songs, but not all songs that are ridiculed as "unpleasant" can wear the coat of "high-end" and listen to Perceptual violations require professional evaluation to justify them.

This is why the annual reviews of Tencent Music and NetEase Cloud Music have launched lists focusing on both professional and market dimensions. Judging from the two lists, many popular artists and popular songs have not achieved better results. balance. There is almost no overlap between the songs on the popularity list and the word-of-mouth list in the "White Paper". 65.4% of the songs on the Tencent Music Wave Chart, which focuses on the professional dimension, failed to enter the TOP100 of Youni Chart based on the market dimension. Good songs are not equal to hot songs. Hotness doesn’t equal quality either.

However, compared to the popular saliva song in short videos, songs by popular artists are often more sophisticated, but they are more likely to be ridiculed. In addition to the fact that popular artists are subject to more stringent public scrutiny, the melodies of saliva songs are generally pleasant to the ear, although they are greasy and vulgar. In order to pursue new arrangements, the new generation of musicians often conflict with the traditional public aesthetics, and most of their lyrics are also because of Deliberately flamboyant and superficial, it will not resonate with the public.

Compared with the traditional recording industry's insight into the mood of the times and public emotions and its precise control of song melody, the new generation of musicians is more from a personal perspective, has weaker narratives, and is more changeable in form, striving to get rid of the traditional framework. Passionate about "going out of line". But the more "out of line", the easier it is to "go off the rails". For example, Wang Feng's new song "No One Cares" last year tried to cross-border hip-hop to integrate with the new generation trend, but it overturned and became the most popular item in the #寷婷# entry. song.

In fact, there is no distinction between traditional music creation methods and the diversified attempts of the new generation of musicians. It’s just that the latter expression method lacks mature content expression in the process of benchmarking international trends, and it is easy to As a result, there is only a gorgeous empty shell, but no core that touches people's hearts.

According to the big data analysis of the lyrics of popular artists by the self-media "Yuli", English words are more popular than Chinese words in their works, but the most common ones are "you", "me", "love" and "baby" " and other simple words, and are full of various Chinese and English onomatopoeia; the chorus lyrics are keen to repeat, such as Wu Xuanyi "twenty five (25)", the chorus part is almost entirely "I'm twenty five". This is also a common shortcoming in many idol music. Although there are many big-name producers, most of them are just used as fans' enclosures.

Indeed, the hot idol talent show in recent years once caused the impetuous atmosphere in the entertainment industry to spread to the music industry. However, with the rectification of the fan economy and the suspension of talent shows and talent shows, the new generation may have more opportunities to settle down.

In addition to the Times Youth League, which received professional recognition from Tencent Music Wave Chart with its national style single " Zhuque ", INTO1, which formed a group from a talent show last year, also won many music critics during the release of its original EP "Wanli" has received positive reviews, and has also received the hot search of #风流沙成海好音#.

Of course, we cannot simply define the new generation of musicians by age. In the "Douban 2021 High-Scoring Albums", "Summer Wild" by the new generation singer-songwriter Wang Yuan ranked first, and it is also the only album by a popular artist in the TOP10. Some music critics commented that this album has the feel of the "golden age of records in the 1980s and 1990s", with a strong sense of narrative in the content, and a style that is also electronic and Trap.

This also proves from the side that the essence of the Chinese music scene has not changed. It can also be seen from the popularity of Mao Buyi and music in recent years that the public still prefers expressions with content and emotion.

In other words, after years of waves of auditions, and the expansion of music paths by emerging media such as short videos in recent years, the number of musicians has almost exploded, and there is not only a rich stock, but also a considerable increase. Among the new forces in the Chinese music scene, there is no shortage of talent that can be built. The key lies in whether there is enough patience and good industry channels to provide growth soil for them.

In addition, this year's major annual lists attach great importance to professional practitioners behind the scenes, which also sends a good signal for the industry to cultivate patience.

For example, NetEase Cloud Music’s Annual Music Awards has added a producer recommendation section for the first time. Famous producers Arai Eleven , Chen Jianqi and other senior producers have shared with the audience their top 10 of the year. On NetEase Cloud The 2021 annual inventory of musicians has set up a "recommendation section" composed of recommendations from practitioners; the Tencent Music Wave List dedicated the entire creator section to award awards to behind-the-scenes workers who made outstanding achievements last year, such as "the most works on the list" Composer" Qian Lei , "Composer with the most works on the list" Ge Dawei , "Producer with the most works on the list" Chen Jianqi, Recording Engineer with the most songs on the list "Xu Wei", "Most remixes of songs on the list" Teacher ", Zhou Tianche, , etc."

In addition, short video music is also realizing a shift from "continuously sinking" to "striving for the top". In the past, short videos were a tool for teams that concocted hits to capture the sinking market. Now they are an indispensable promotional tool for upstream music companies and mainstream artists, and the quality of popular songs on them is also improving day by day. For example, last year's "So Many People in the World" and Wang Yuan's "Even the Meteors Fall for You" promoted by short videos, as well as became popular for the second time on short videos with " don't call me Da Vinci " Xiaogui Wang Linkai.

In short, no matter how the music channels innovate, how the industrial structure changes, how the music power changes, how to be "new" and "good-sounding" at the same time is a common proposition before every generation of musicians.

Conclusion

With the continuous iteration of media technology, rich and diverse entertainment resources, and various new trends that continue to emerge, we are already facing an era of cultural "Great Leap Forward". Although

lacks the calmness in the historical context of gradual development, it has bolder imagination and more complex individual perceptions. The reflective mood and adventurous spirit of the new generation come side by side, just like the current Chinese music scene.

Looking back on 2021, the epidemic is no longer regarded as an obstacle to the music industry. Instead, there are a series of industry imaginations such as NFT, virtual idols, metaverse , etc., and there are more expectations for the stars and the sea. What's more, some new changes have occurred in all aspects of the music industry: the local online music payment rate has exceeded 10%, the popularity of short videos has not diminished, and the hot hits from them are still "difficult to accept" for many people, but The scoldings gradually subsided into criticisms filled with expectations; various new generation musicians were beginning to shine, with average reputations, but they achieved a full victory in terms of popularity.

Our acceptance and expectations for new things and the new generation have been greatly increased. Comparing the past and present, we can see that the conclusion that "the Chinese music scene is over" is more out of nostalgia and is worthy of reflection, but it does not cover the whole picture. Between the faults of

, a new chapter has begun to emerge.