Chapter 427 This Is the Global Album!

The rise and fall of national power determines the spread of culture.

Li Qian is not a master of Chinese studies like Cao Zhan, but he still knows that it is said that during the Tang and Song dynasties, including until the Ming Dynasty, during the hundreds of years and thousands of years, in Korea, Japan and other countries, They are all proud of being able to speak Chinese and write Chinese characters, which is considered to be educated and one of the symbols of high society. But when Spanish and British gunboats ran rampant all over the world, they quickly moved closer to the West in just a hundred years, and even the whole world, including China, worshiped the empire on which the sun never sets, and began to be proud of learning English , taking whether or not he has learned English as a measure of whether a person has received higher education.

In modern times, with the rise of the United States, the US dollar is used in the whole world, and the whole world envies the American people's life of "a large independent house, their own lawn, two children and two big dogs", and salivates. .

Around two thousand years in this life and around two thousand years in another time and space, China's national conditions are different.

To put it simply, the economy, culture and other aspects are more developed, and the political status in the world is also quite high. Simply talking about the economy, China in this time and space, as early as the 1980s, had become the world's fourth largest economy after the United States, Europe, America, and Japan. By 1992, with the rapid economic development, the GNP Its economic value has jumped to the third place in the world, second only to the United States and Japan. It is said that it is about to surpass Japan recently and become the world's second largest economy.

However, even so, the Chinese culture is still firmly compressed in East Asia and Southeast Asia by the extremely strong English culture. Even though the domestic economy is developing rapidly, the influence of the Chinese language , Even in North Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and other places, it is gradually shrinking and declining.

Places that have been deeply influenced by Chinese traditional culture for thousands of years have been tacitly committed to doing one thing in recent decades, even for nearly a hundred years, that is: de-Sinicization!

The result of "de-Sinicization" not only means that in Japan and other countries, more than 99% of people can no longer speak Chinese or write Chinese characters, and they don't even know that the country they live in has been influenced by Chinese culture. It has affected thousands of years, and one of the more terrible results is that, at the same time as the weakening of the influence of Chinese culture, English culture is becoming more and more popular.

English culture has not only already occupied the dominant position of the world's popular culture, and has the highest discourse power, but also has a growing influence and deepening trend—even in China, the influence of European and American culture The power is getting bigger and bigger.

The most important reason why Chinese-speaking culture is still prevalent in Southeast Asia until now is because there are a large number of Chinese living there, and they still use Chinese, not because the influence of Chinese-speaking culture itself is large enough.

And even there, many young Chinese nowadays like to eat steak, drink red wine, watch Hollywood movies, and listen to English pop songs more and more.

To put it simply, in today's world, English culture is the mainstream, while Chinese culture is the non-mainstream.

Refine this concept to the pop music world, and the result is that for a European and American superstar, his albums and records can still sell well in non-English-speaking countries, although this kind of sales may not be the main one for her personally. , and in non-English-speaking countries like China, his albums are basically invisible on the sales charts, and they cannot be compared with the album sales and personal influence of singers in their own countries, but after all, it is can be sold.

On the other hand, a superstar in the Chinese music scene, such as Liao Liao. She is definitely the top superstar in the Chinese music scene, but in the United States, except for the Chinatowns in various places, because it still retains a strong Chinese cultural atmosphere and is relatively closely connected with the country, the more popular domestic albums are often It will be sold here, only the generation of immigrants who were born and raised in China and came to the United States later, and some very, very, very small fans will sell out of curiosity. to listen. Apart from the first time, no matter how popular her album is in China, it has nothing to do with the American people.

Therefore, if you want to buy Liao Liao's album in the United States, you must either go to Chinatown to buy smuggled goods, or you have to go to some special audio-visual stores that sell to a small number of fans of hunting, otherwise, you can't even buy it at all!

This is the difference between mainstream and non-mainstream.

Jerry Cullen, the top pop star in the world today, his albums are mainly sold in Europe and America, of course, but in China, he has published seven albums and several MV videos, etc. According to statistics from Guanshudian, in 1998, a total of more than 70,000 copies were sold. In the same period, the total sales volume of Liao Liao's past four albums, one single EP and four MV discs of the same name in Dongguan Bookstore in 1998 was only nearly 800,000 copies!

And this was only obtained when she had strong sales of her new album last year. If the factor of the new album is excluded, the sales during the most influential period of "Women's Flower" are removed, or only Counting the sales of albums in the past, it would be good if she could have 200,000 to 300,000 copies-you know, in China, Liao Liao is at home, and Jerry Cullen is away.

In the United States, it was Jerry Cullen's home game and Liao Liao's away game. The sales data of Jerry Cullen and Liao Liao... Li Qian couldn't get the sales data from the United States, but he knew clearly that until now, Liao Liao had been popular in China for four or five years, but Still, no American record company has approached Minghu Culture to discuss the authorized distribution in the United States, so you can imagine that, except for the smuggled goods sold to the Chinese in Chinatown, her official sales may be one year. Can there be 10,000 to 20,000 copies?

That's it!

English albums can be sold in a non-English-speaking country like China, and the sales are pretty good, even comparable to the sales of an ordinary second-rate and third-rate singer. No one sold - not even many fans would know that there is such a person as Liao Liao!

For example, now, when Li Qian and Liao Liao went out shopping together during their spare time making music, when they walked into an audio-visual store that seemed to specialize in selling imported albums from all over the world in various languages ​​and countries, Liao Liao was miraculously in the Asian area. I found my own "The Sound of the Waves Still" and "Women's Flower" on the shelf, and that feeling was full of surprises.

Then, Li Qian went to the clerk to ask, the clerk helped to check the information, and told Li Qian: In the past few years, a total of 43 albums under the name LIAO-LIAO have been sold!

Compared with this, "Fake Monk" has sold more than 120 copies since its first sales record last summer. In this store, this album was even sold out , and last year, it was once the product recommended by the manager of this store—according to the clerk, many rock fans who like to hunt for novelties passed word of mouth after buying this album, making it popular among the extremely small rock fans. In the circle, word of mouth is excellent. Recently, because American newspapers have reported on the popularity of "Once Upon a Time in Asia" in Asia, many curious fans have even come to ask about this album. The dealer placed an order, and it is said that the album has been shipped and will arrive in a few days.

After leaving this audio-visual store, Liao Liao's mood seemed a little depressed.

In fact, for Liao Liao, she has been working continuously for four or five years, with one album a year, especially after the concert tour last year, this year she is going to take a break, not to arrange work, and not to make a new album , and no concerts. So at the beginning when Li Qian said that she wanted to make a new album for her, and that she would bring her to the United States to make this album, she really resisted in her heart, but she couldn’t stand it and looked at Li Qian who seemed to value this matter very much. I was on the verge of excitement, so I never made up my mind to refuse.

Including after coming to Los Angeles, Li Qian and Xie Mingyuan either stayed in the office of Rolling Stone Records or in the rented recording studio every day, and occasionally went back to the hotel, even having dinner, discussing the sound of which instrument to use, Liao Liao On the other hand, she wasn't interested at all. The two of them went to work, and she just carried a backpack and went out for a stroll—right as a tourist!

For so many days here, there are no reporters, no siege, and no fans. It is rare to have such a clean day. To be honest, Liao Liao has been playing very happily. Until now, suddenly, she suddenly understood Li Qian Why did you bring her to America to make this album.

When eating together at night, Liao Liao couldn't help complaining to Xie Mingyuan, which made Xie Mingyuan laugh out loud.

He said: "In China, you are the top, but after leaving China and coming to the West, Europe and the United States, to be honest, your influence and sales may not be comparable to mine!"

After a pause, he said proudly: "The albums of violin concertos I recorded in 1991 are still on sale, not many, but tens of thousands of copies can be sold every year. He is the best-selling Chinese musician in the Western world!"

Liao Liao couldn't help but roll his eyes.

However, I have to say that since then, she has stopped going out to play very much, and has frequently participated in the recordings that Li Qian and Xie Mingyuan are busy with.

After more than 20 days of busy work, finally, a total of eleven pieces of soundtrack for "Titanic" were all recorded. And, after listening to it, James Cameron expressed great satisfaction.

So, the next thing about the soundtrack is actually mostly over, and the rest is just the docking of the final release version and the two versions of the director's cut version. On this point, Li Qian had already greeted him in advance, and Xie Mingyuan would take over all the trivial tasks that followed, and was responsible for the final connection with the film.

And then, the main energy of their three-person group was of course quickly transferred to the work of Liao Liao's first global album. It's just... things are a little more complicated.

Li Qian had already presented several songs before, and Rolling Stone Records was responsible for inviting some famous lyricists and musicians in the American music scene to help fill in the lyrics for the English version. However, they did not accept good lyrics that could satisfy Li Qian. However, it has received purchase requests from many record companies and singers.

In other words, as soon as the songs composed by Li Qian entered the American music scene, they were immediately followed by many people. Many singers expressed their desire to buy the right to use a certain song by Li Qian, among them there was even a top superstar and pop queen in the European and American music circles——Christina Twain.

And the song she likes, if Li Qian wrote the lyrics, he would call it "I-will-always-love-you".

In another time and space, the original singer of this song was called Whitney Houston.

And in that time and space, as soon as this song came out in 1992, it won the championship for 14 consecutive weeks on the Billboard, the most authoritative music list in the United States, and later won the 36th Grammy Award. The two awards of "Best Recording of the Year" and "Best Pop Female Vocal" are not only one of Whitney Houston's well-known masterpieces, but also classic works of soul music.

Of course, in that time and space, this was not Whitney Houston's original, its first version appeared in 1975, Whitney Houston can only be regarded as a cover, but in this time and space, it is obviously original.

Li Qian is a fan of Christina Twain, and Liao Liao is also her fan. Of course, Zhou Mo and He Runqing are all her fans. After all, they are world-class superstars. It is said that she heard this song from a friend of hers, and she loved it very much at the time, and even filled in the lyrics for this song before her friend, and then... Undoubtedly, she liked it even more.

Her manager contacted Li Qian through Rolling Stone Records, expressing that she wanted to buy the right to use this song. Considering that Li Qian had a cooperative relationship with Rolling Stone Records, and the music of this song was released internally, she just wanted to buy the right to use the song. It was just to find someone to fill in the lyrics, and she did this to win people's love, so her agent repeatedly said that the price was negotiable.

Ordinarily speaking, for European and American music circles, Li Qian and Liao Liao have just arrived, and they come up with a song to make friends with a top superstar and even become friends. Qian personally likes it very much, and plans to use it as one of the important works that Liao Liao will promote, which can still be regarded as a good deal.

After all, although Li Qian's understanding and mastery of European and American music in another time and space is not as good as that of Chinese music, there are still many classic works in his stomach. It is a pity that such a song is missing, but the impact is not great.

But after much deliberation, Li Qian still chose to refuse.

After all, with "Titanic" as a foundation for a big production that is bound to sweep the world, with "My-heart-will-go-on" as the title song of the album, Liao Liao, who borrowed the big ship Dongfeng, is actually To some extent, there is no need for any "support" of European and American singers. Not to mention, the publisher of her first English album will be Rolling Stone Records.

So, after that, Li Qian turned away all the buyers. Before that, he entrusted Rolling Stone Records to find someone in the industry to help fill in the English lyrics. Regardless of whether the other party's lyrics were filled in or not, all the songs were taken back.

Although the level of English in the previous two lives was not high, and the rest of the foundation up to now is mostly derived from American dramas and Hollywood blockbusters, Li Qian still decided to "write lyrics" by himself.

In the initial negotiation with Rolling Stone Records, Li Qian asked Liao Liao to use five English songs and five Chinese songs in this album, but Rolling Stone Records expressed firm opposition. After repeated negotiations and repeated struggles, in the end, Minghu At the cost of reducing their own commissions and ensuring the interests of the other party, the cultural side won six English songs and four Chinese songs.

Therefore, in addition to the melodies of the three songs that Li Qian had produced before, what Li Qian needs to "create" in the next period of time also includes the lyrics and music of the other three English songs. , and four Chinese songs.

Four Chinese songs are easy to handle.

To make this album for Liao Liao, the intention is to push Liao Liao to a higher level, but Liao Liao himself is the top queen of the Chinese music scene, even if he does not consider the matter of promoting Chinese culture to the world, first of all It is absolutely impossible for her album to be without Chinese works - if the ten songs in Liao Liao's fifth album are all English songs, Li Qian is very worried. Liao, will he be hung up and scolded by the angry youths in China!

It’s not scary to be scolded and attacked by others, but what’s scary is that many times public opinion will be driven by a small number of people. It was originally a purely commercial behavior, and later it will even be linked to topics such as "nation" and "country". Take the bait, at that time, it will be troublesome.

Although until now, Li Qian has not seen these very bad thoughts from the richer and more confident Chinese people in the past few years that Li Qian has experienced in this time and space, but in his previous life, he has seen it with his own eyes. Quite a few similar incidents.

Therefore, with Liao Liao, he would not allow this kind of thing to happen.

Li Qian took out the four Chinese works with ease - "Rap Mask", "Phoenix Hairpin", "The Forgotten Time", and "Paradise".

The purpose of these four songs is very clear.

"Rap and Sing Mask" is a typical Beijing opera style work, which looks at one's own national culture from the perspective of young people, and expresses one's love and hope.

"Phoenix Hairpin" is a work in a fever album that Li Qian heard very much in his previous life. The original singers are Guan Dongtian and Mao Amin. The lyrics of the song "The Hairpin Head Phoenix" are integrated, almost a question-and-answer response. From the lyrics, to the music, to the arrangement, to the singing, the whole work is full of wit and wit.

For Liao Liao's first album for European and American audiences, these two Chinese opera-style works not only show Liao Liao's love for the national culture of his motherland, but also his desire to pass it on to Western fans. At the same time, it also truly incorporates the style of Peking Opera, which can make European and American fans feel refreshed after listening to it-many people say that Peking Opera is outdated, but this kind of thing that has been passed down for a hundred years and is still loved by Chinese people, Li Qian Never thought it was outdated.

There is a saying that "what belongs to the nation is what belongs to the world", and Li Qian very much agrees with it.

For the current European and American music markets, all Chinese works are definitely niche. It is conceivable that Peking Opera is definitely even more niche. Therefore, Li Qian does not expect these two songs to be popular in Europe and the United States. Li Qian doesn't think it will be popular in China even for works like "The Hairpin Head Phoenix", even if it is sung by Liao Liao. After all, it was only recorded in a fever disc with a small sales volume and a very narrow audience in its previous life.

However, whether it is considering the matter of promoting national culture to the outside world, or considering that the issue of domestic public opinion must be properly dealt with when releasing this album mainly composed of English songs, Li Qian believes that such two A song, sure fits.

Moreover, when he was studying opera with a teacher before, he promised Mr. Cheng that he would give more voices to Peking Opera, promote Peking Opera as much as possible, and strive to make the younger generation also like Peking Opera. Now, these two songs appear In Liao Liao's first global album, it can naturally be Li Qian's answer to the old man.

Even, considering that his drama studies are half-baked, and his level is not very good, Li Qian also considered that when recording this song, he should ask his big brother Fang Shaobai, who is the leader among the veterans of Peking Opera in China Character shot, we must ensure the high standard of this song.

Therefore, among the four Chinese works, there are two songs like this, and the national culture already exists. Even with such a sad and poignant work as "The Hairpin Head Phoenix", there is even love in ancient China.

Then, "The Forgotten Time", Cai Qin's classic work, what it needs to release is Liao Liao's classic oriental singing. And the song itself represents the current life and emotions in China.

As for "Heaven"... If the first three songs, "Rap Face", "The Hairpin Phoenix" and "The Forgotten Time", represent Liao Liao, the queen of China, the interpretation of the length of the history of her country, Time is the dimension, so what this song "Paradise" represents is the breadth of China.

In China, in the eyes of a Chinese singer who releases an album to fans all over the world, China not only has a splendid and long history and culture, but also has delicate human emotions in the present, as well as a vast territory and magnificent mountains and rivers - in one The Chinese songs appearing in an English album may not be popular, but they must be thick and stand up to scrutiny!

Of course, for European and American audiences, these things are precisely what arouse their curiosity and curiosity the most.

On the contrary, it is the other six English songs that must catch the ears and hearts of European and American audiences.

After all, this is still a global album after all!

***

This chapter should have been longer, but there is not enough time, and it will be past twelve o'clock before I finish writing, so I have no choice but to write again tomorrow!