Shadow of Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 208 Sisi's Singing Style

Hu Xiaobei didn't feel too guilty about copying songs.

But if it can be original, that would be the best.

Of the three songs I wrote for The Condor Heroes, "Waiting for Your Return" and "Human Fireworks" can be considered as semi-borrowed.

Because these two songs are quite different from the original, the similarity between the lyrics and music is less than 50%, and the arrangement is completely different.

The lyrics of the song "Qi Ao" are based on the original text of an ancient poem, and the arrangement was done entirely by Hu Xiaobei. It can be considered his first original song.

All three songs were written for The Return of the Condor Heroes, and there's not much to say about their style or content.

But the album production was different. As the top scorer in the college entrance examination in recent years, Hu Xiaobei still had some sense of shame.

Therefore, this album needs to meet certain conditions, such as sales volume, popularity, cultural connotation, and conformity with An Xiaoxi's own characteristics.

In view of this, Hu Xiaobei turned his attention to two aspects: Chinese language and classical opera singing.

Take Chinese language as an example. Many classic ancient texts and poems in the textbooks need to be memorized by students.

If this content could be transformed into catchy ancient-style songs, it would undoubtedly attract a great deal of attention among students.

Traditional Chinese opera-style songs still have a certain market among consumers born in the 80s and 90s.

With the combination of these two factors, even those with limited spending power can likely use the guise of education to get their parents to pay for their children's education.

In fact, there are people in this era who have thought of this approach, but they have all failed to make a big impact.

For example, in Faye Wong's 1995 album "Faye's Melancholy", she arranged and sang "Wishing We Last Forever" based on Su Shi's "Prelude to Water Melody: When Will the Moon Be Bright?", and this song still feels timeless even 20 years later.

For example, Jiao Enjun once sang a song called "Confucius said XXXX". Because it had a lot of words and used rap, the song flopped very quickly. A decade or two later, there was basically no trace of the song.

Therefore, classical Chinese texts and poems should be paired with traditional Chinese style songs for the correct experience.

Classical texts and poems are easy to find, such as "The Road to Shu is Hard," "Like a Dream," "The Song of the Pipa," and "The Song of Everlasting Regret," all of which can be directly quoted and then set to music.

As for traditional Chinese style songs, we must mention the Peking Opera singing style.

Chinese drama is diverse in genre, each with its own unique charm.

Among them, Peking Opera integrates elements of Huiju Opera and Hanju Opera, with Xipi and Erhuang as the main singing styles. It emphasizes singing, recitation, acting and acrobatics, has a complete range of roles, and has a grand and solemn style with a rich and mellow charm. For example, "Farewell My Concubine" demonstrates its unique artistic charm.

Henan Opera is characterized by its powerful and rhythmic singing style, full of life and bold performance style. For example, the song "Hua Mulan" with the lyrics "Brother Liu's words are too biased, who says women enjoy leisure" fully embodies the characteristics of Henan Opera.

Yue Opera excels at expressing emotions, with its clear and melodious singing style. It often portrays stories of talented scholars and beautiful women, showcasing the gentle and delicate nature of Jiangnan. In the widely circulated opera "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai," the classic lyrics "Green grass and blooming flowers, colorful butterflies lingering in pairs" beautifully convey this tender sentiment.

Huangmei Opera features a simple and smooth singing style and a simple and meticulous performance, exuding a fresh sense of life. For example, in "The Fairy Couple," there are lines like "Birds on the trees are in pairs, and green mountains and clear waters are smiling," and in "The Female Imperial Scholar," there are lines like "To save Li Lang, she left her home, but unexpectedly, she became the top scholar in the imperial examination." These are well-known to every household.

In addition, there is Kunqu Opera, which features delicate and melodious singing, singing and dancing performances, and emphasizes the beauty and rhythm of body movements. It is full of elegant artistic temperament and is known as the "ancestor of all operas".

There is also Qinqiang opera, known for its high-pitched and passionate singing style and bold and unrestrained performance style, which often depicts historical stories and folk life.

Among the many styles of Peking Opera singing, some are particularly suitable for An Xiaoqian at this age.

An Xiaoqian was not yet 18 years old at the time, and her own childlike voice was sweet, clear, soft and lively.

This vocal quality is a perfect match for the Xun School of Peking Opera. The Xun School's voice is forward-pointing, rich in embellishments and ornaments, and has a lively and playful style, which allows her to perfectly portray the image of a quirky and clever young girl.

(PS: "Forward" here means that when producing sound, the resonance point of the sound is relatively closer to the front of the oral cavity.)
In addition, she is also well-suited to the Yin school of Yue Opera singing, which is gentle and lingering, and can fully showcase the tenderness and delicacy in her voice, making it easy to create gentle and affectionate characters.

At the same time, her sweet, childlike voice is a perfect match for the fresh and natural style of Huangmei Opera, and she can perfectly portray the sweetness and agility of young and lively women in Huangmei Opera.

Of course, Hu Xiaobei wouldn't let her spend so much time and effort learning about these different factions.

Instead, they would analyze and break down the singing techniques suitable for An Xiaoqian, tailoring a foundation for her in the most appropriate way and teaching her the core skills. In this way, An Xiaoqian could skip 99% of the irrelevant content and directly learn the techniques she could use.

Although this kind of accelerated learning has certain drawbacks, such as a lack of understanding of various basic knowledge.

But for An Xiaoqian, who only needs to sing some opera-style songs and doesn't want to enter this industry, it's not a problem at all.

All of the above are based on one premise: Hu Xiaobei must first learn and understand the techniques of various schools before he can put them into practice.

In this day and age, it is not easy for theater to survive, and even its inheritance relies on national support to barely maintain its existence.

It's not difficult as long as you're willing to spend money, time, and energy to learn drama-related skills.

With Hu Xiaobei's learning and perception abilities, he will be able to learn all of this in less than half a month.

Learning something well doesn't mean being able to sing it well, but rather mastering pure theoretical knowledge.

In short, he's all talk and no action, but when it comes to teaching knowledge and skills, he's far better than those masters.

This is the same principle as acting. Although Hu Xiaobei can't act, he can perfectly guide actors in their acting.

It took nearly half a month just to learn it myself, plus I also needed to produce related songs and teach An Xiaoqian specific singing techniques.

It took a full two months, and we've only just finished the preparations.

The album recording will have to wait until the students are on holiday before we can borrow the equipment from the Beijing Film Academy.

Before we knew it, it was already mid-July.

It has been more than two months since Hu Xiaobei established the anti-rumor special fund.

First, the real-name registration system on the internet has effectively curbed the spread of rumors.

Secondly, the law firms achieved remarkable results, burning through nearly two million RMB of Hu Xiaobei's money in the first month alone.

The figure plummeted to 1.5 million RMB in the second month.

A week has passed in the third month, but the expenditure has only been less than 200,000 RMB.

It's not that law firms don't want to make this money, but rather that companies, media outlets, and individuals are too sensible.

After all, not many people would turn down money.

After witnessing how law firms were like mad dogs, relentlessly attacking and attacking anyone they could, most companies and media outlets backed down within the first month.

The reason why so much money could be spent in the second month was mainly due to the targeting of some small companies and small media outlets.

These groups always feel that they are small and can write whatever they want without worrying about being sued.

But I never expected that there would be such a way to harm people with their own resources, specifically targeting small and insignificant families like theirs.

As these groups are sued and compensated one by one, what remains are just scattered individuals.

These are the most numerous and the most difficult to deal with.

The difficulty lies in the large number and scattered nature of the targets, as well as the need to pinpoint individuals. However, once network technicians are hired to locate individuals, the problem becomes the easiest to solve.

These kinds of people, despite their online attacks and mudslinging, seem omnipotent.

In reality, however, they often live unsatisfactory lives and are at the bottom of the food chain.

Generally speaking, they surrender the moment they receive the indictment; they kneel down faster than they can speak.

(End of this chapter)