The Big Wave and Small Waves of Chinese Folk Songs in 30 Years

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  In the opinion of music critic Guo Xiaohan, the hot topics related to Chinese folk songs generated by the variety show will eventually go away with the flow, and the people who grew up in rustle and their songs will stay.

The stories in those songs have nourished her and told everyone who listened to them seriously. The most innocent, moving, simple, and natural things are often the most precious and powerful.

  This year, "Summer of the Band" has once again become a phenomenon-level variety show, and many new and old bands and musicians have reached more people through this show.

  When everyone was conquered by the unrestrained and unrestrained "Five Tiaoren", no one wanted to know which corner of the map was Haifeng that nourished them; When the Wild Kids decided to choose a song from their hearts and accepted the rules calmly How many people care about that song without any orchestration, and why the singing of just a few people can have such a huge energy.

  At the end of the summer, music critic Guo Xiaohan returned to her hut in her alley from the professional music fan stand on the second floor of "Le Xia". She reviewed and reviewed her precious time and memories in the past as the development of contemporary Chinese folk songs and rock music. As a witness and observer, Guo Xiaohan has updated and revised the band articles and interviews he has written over the past 10 years, and published two books, "Sand Growth" and "Born to Rock".

  Observer on Earth

  In the preface of the new book, Guo Xiaohan wrote: Every folk song is created by the era, region, and creators. It is about the observation, recording and expression of the world. It travels through time and is passed down from generation to generation.

  Whether it is Wujo people or wild children, every folk singer, they are the observers of the earth. Now when we discuss folk songs, we are also exploring the way to open the world and the way we open ourselves.

  Looking back at the development of contemporary Chinese folk songs, divided by age, it has gone through three stages: One is the campus folk songs of the 1990s represented by Gao Xiaosong, Lao Lang, Xiao Ke, Shen Qing, etc. They are the elites of the academic and recording industry. .

The second is the new urban folk songs represented by Yezi, Xiaohe, Wan Xiaoli, and Zhou Yunpeng. They are miserable urban strangers.

The third is the new folk songs of the Internet age represented by Song Dongye, Ma Di, Chen Hongyu, Cheng Bi, Good Sister, etc. They are new cultural IPs that grow freely.

  "For me, folk songs are some time. I keep saying that music is not just a melody or a line of lyrics, it is the time when this song accompanies you. In fact, folk songs have always been based on the growth context of the self. One or two generations grow slowly, all the songs accumulate little by little, and are slowly tempered in life. In the so-called age of traffic, it is another power that can calm us down and sink. A power." Guo Xiaohan said.

  Guo Xiaohan has interviewed many leading figures of Chinese folk songs; later, he served as a performance agent for musicians such as Yezi, Zhou Yunpeng, Wan Xiaoli, Xiaohe, and personally participated in the process of Chinese folk songs from Xiaomiao to Xiaoshu, from the mainland to Hong Kong and Taiwan; Later, as an Internet platform entrepreneur, he grew up and grew up with a new batch of musicians such as Chen Hongyu and Cheng Bi, exploring the broader future of independent music.

  In her view, "Sand Growth" is not only the growth of folk music, but also the growth of listeners, readers and practitioners.

  Rock concert in the county town

  In the new book "Sand Growth", Guo Xiaohan recorded that in 2013, she followed Wu Tiao people back to their hometown of Haifeng County, Guangdong Province, and participated in the "Return to Haifeng Concert" held in their hometown once a year. This year is already the seventh time of this county concert.

  In Guo Xiaohan’s description, when she first arrived at Haifeng, she was a bit disappointed when she walked on the streets of the county seat as an ordinary outsider: “You will find that all counties in China are the same, and Haifeng seems to be worse. Some. Cars and motorcycles are speeding on the street without any rules, and they keep honking their ear-piercing speakers along the way. Street vendors use cheap speakers to play "Little Apple" at maximum volume, foreign trade fashion, international communications, and motorcycles. Specialty stores, commissaries and snack bars form a standard county business district. You can’t find any beauty in it. You can only experience foreign customs in street stalls with strangely-named local snacks such as millet, kway teow, and vegetable tea.”

  And it is such an ordinary county town, where there is a rock concert every Chinese New Year.

It belongs to Haifeng, belongs to the county seat, and everyone enjoys it.

  The "Return to Haifeng" concert was held on the third day of the Lunar New Year. The Wutiaoren band has been doing this for seven years. It was just a coincidence at the beginning, and it gradually became a habit and custom of local youths.

Every year when the New Year's Eve is approaching, Amao and Nishina take the bus back to Haifeng from Guangzhou with overweight musical instruments.

  After this concert, the Wutiao people took Guo Xiaohan to Haifeng. She asked Nishina and Amao: "The parents and elders in your hometown will not understand your work. You can't make money. You use that special tradition. Do your values ​​torture you?"

  Amao said, from the initial incomprehension to slowly understanding, for parents, knowing where you have been and what you have done is relieved.

Even now they hold concerts every year. Parents and family members will take the initiative to ask if they need help. In this concert, his father helped him go to the electrical street to buy electrical appliances, and his brother helped them borrow costumes from local theater troupes in the county. Drive them around...

  PeopleSoft's answer is as always Ke-style humor: "Fortunately, my parents have never cared about me. They didn't say that I must make money. Just be happy. I have always reminded my dad: You can't stop this. The world goes around."

  "Sing your own song"

  Speaking of this year's Le Xia, another impressive band that was also involved in the retiring storm, the Wild Children, perhaps it was the first time that many people heard the heart-stirring Yellow River rhyme on Le Xia's stage.

And for such a band, in their 20th anniversary Gongti performance in 2015, Guo Xiaohan described them as "the best contemporary folk songs in China", none of them.

  When the Yellow River Ballad was sung by tens of thousands of people on the scene, it was sacred and solemn, like a ceremony.

And Guo Xiaohan, as the former agent of the wild child, sat down with the fans, tears already running away.

  For Guo Xiaohan, the wild child not only has a profound influence on Chinese folk song music, but also a beacon of her ten years of wandering.

"I remember when I first came to Beijing, and a friend from Lanzhou gave me Xiao Suo's phone number, saying that other people are good and can let him take care of you. He died before the call was made."

  Xiao Suo and Zhang Quan founded the Wild Children Orchestra in 1995. They later came to Beijing together and opened a bar in Sanlitun South Street in 2001, named "He".

  According to Zhang Weiwei, a member of the Wild Children Band, the River Bar is the "Mother River" of Chinese contemporary folk songs. From the beginning, the River Bar held regular performances and was the prototype of the early Livehouse in China.

The main performers here are folk musicians such as the Wild Children Band, Wan Xiaoli, Xiaohe, and Wang Juan.

  Time came to 2010, this year is the 10th anniversary of the River Bar. Zhang Weiwei led a commemorative performance with Zhou Yunpeng, Wan Xiaoli, Xiaohe, Wu Tun, Zhang Weiwei, Guo Long, Zhang Quan, Zhang Qianqian and many other musicians. participate.

The name is "Still Water and Deep Flow-Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the River Bar" folk theater performance.

Performed for two days in the small theater of Sparrow Washe.

  It was this performance that Guo Xiaohan participated in for the first time as a producer and planner.

Together with those people, she carefully sorted out the history of this Chinese folk song, and gradually realized what such a place, such a group of people, meant for China's music and cultural life.

  "From these people, you can see that contemporary folk songs are not products of industrialization, but naturally grown-foreigners are inspired by music to come to Beijing to realize their dreams, and they gradually have the consciousness of'sing their own songs' from the cover of bars. They wandered around the corners of the city, trying to find an exit, and then the river bar appeared, giving people in foreign countries a spiritual home and carnival place. They gathered together and truly expressed that they also experienced each other and grew up in the future. Infinite possibilities." Guo Xiaohan said.

  After that, Guo Xiaohan and the Wild Child Band have kept in touch and cooperation. In her writing, we have seen the development and story of the Wild Child and her along the way. Many people expressed their incomprehension about Le Xiazhong’s “retirement”, but It seemed to Guo Xiaohan that this was the wild child she knew.

Su Mo