1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhou Yan did not refuse anymore and started to ponder while holding his guitar.

His guitar skills are average to begin with, and he doesn't practice regularly, so there aren't many songs he can play live. After all, he can't sing, so he can only play solo.

If he could sing, he could just strum a few chords and sing a song for the audience, which would be much easier.

After thinking for a while, he finally spoke, "At this time, it should be dawn in the United States. Today happens to be the first release of another song I wrote for Mariah Carey. Since it is such a coincidence, I will play this song for you."

Before Zhou Yan could say the name of the song he was going to play, an audience member shouted, "People Like You."

Some people also shouted the English name of the song, "someone like you!"

Hearing someone in the audience shout out the name of the song, Zhou Yan also laughed, "Yes, it's the song 'Someone Like You'. This song was not only put into the movie 'Sense and Sensibility', but I also put it into the album 'Rain Bells and Rain'. You haven't heard the song version yet, but it shouldn't be long before this song is introduced to China. As for me, I'm not good at singing, so I'll just give you a solo."

Zhou Yan has arranged a solo for this song, so you can play it directly without having to rack your brain.

In fact, with Zhou Yan's ability, he can improvise a solo for any song, which is a very simple thing for him.

It’s just that his guitar skills are not good enough, so even if his brain can keep up, his hands can’t.

After Zhou Yan finished speaking, he began to adjust the guitar in his arms and prepared to play. At this time, the audience in the audience was very cooperative. They did not make any sound and waited quietly for his performance to begin.

It was completely dark at this moment. The sound of waves came slowly from the sea, mixed with the sound of the wind, reminding everyone that they were at the seaside.

The guitar solo Zhou Yan composed is actually quite complex technically, but now that he is playing it himself, he has to reduce the difficulty, and some of the more complex techniques have been directly simplified.

Of course, even a simplified solo can still conquer the audience's ears.

Compared to the soundtrack of "Sense and Sensibility" and the live recording of "Rain Bells", Zhou Yan's solo is much simpler. After all, there is only one guitar and there is not much he can do.

But simplicity has its advantages as well. The audience doesn’t understand much and just thinks it sounds nice. As for the harmony and texture, they don’t understand and don’t care.

Since the 1980s, the trend of learning to play the guitar has become popular in China, especially in Shenzhen. At that time, young people wearing bell-bottom pants and holding guitars could be seen everywhere on the streets.

Many young people learned to play the guitar with just a fire poker and a lot of passion.

Although these people's ways are wild, their feelings are sincere.

It can be said that the guitar is the most familiar instrument to the general audience, and its popularity is even higher than that of the harmonica.

So when the audience saw Zhou Yan playing solo, they were naturally very happy and very friendly.

If Zhou Yan was playing a violin instead of a guitar, the melody might sound better, but the feeling it gave to the audience would be different.

At this time, Michael Hui had already retreated to the side of the stage, with his hands behind his back, watching Zhou Yan in the center of the stage performing his solo seriously.

He also knew Zhou Yan's music, and after knowing Zhou Yan's music, he was deeply moved, because Zhou Yan's musical style was too avant-garde and special.

Over the past two decades, Hong Kong's pop music has developed rapidly. Songs like "Iron Tower Soaring into the Sky" may have special meanings, but to be honest, they are too simple and old-fashioned, even Xu Guanwen himself admits this.

The development of Hong Kong's music over the years has actually been following Japan's path, and many of their songs are imitating Japan's style.

Most of them are like this, some are imitating Europe and the United States, and the remaining small part is innovating on its own.

Unfortunately, even if we innovate, it is difficult to make it very new.

As a creator, Michael Hui knows deeply that when a person creates, he will always be influenced by his predecessors.

This is basically the case in all walks of life as long as it involves creation.

No one can create something out of thin air, and many people's creations have the shadow of others.

The same is true for the development of music. It is usually about learning, imitating, and then improving. Therefore, the development of music can be traced step by step.

But Zhou Yan’s music is different. His music seems to have come out of nowhere, and its style is different from other songs at the moment.

His music not only does not follow the trend of Japanese music, but also does not imitate Europe and the United States.

Although Zhou Yan's music is not a new musical form, the way it is produced is different from other songs.

For example, the song "Yellow" is a typical British rock song and does not escape the general category.

But when you listen to "Yellow" together with other British rock songs, you can hear obvious differences.

Xu Guanwen is not a music student and he doesn't know why this is the case. He only knows that the songs written by Zhou Yan rarely have the flavor of the times.

The same goes for "Someone Like You", which is an obvious pop song, but you can hear blues and gospel in it, which are all existing things.

Many people do not mention the word "subversion" when they mention Zhou Yan, because what Zhou Yan created did not subvert anything.

The "avant-garde" nature of his works lies more in the details, and these details are precisely the ones that are not easy to imitate.

Just when Xu Guanwen was listening carefully to Zhou Yan's solo arrangement, he suddenly heard Zhou Yan pressed a wrong chord.

It was obviously a wrong key, not intentional, because it sounds very discordant, and the same place was played once before, and it was different from this one.

Xu Guanwen smiled and said that Zhou Yan’s guitar playing skills were not very good, just at the level of an amateur. With this level, he probably couldn’t join most bands.

However, although Zhou Yan's guitar playing level is average, his guitar playing posture is very beautiful.

First of all, Zhou Yan knows how to hold the guitar handsomely, and his guitar-holding posture makes him look like a master.

Secondly, Zhou Yan has a good figure and is handsome, which adds to the performance.

Xu Guanwen believed that if Zhou Yan could sing, he would become famous all over the country just by holding a guitar.

He is good-looking, but that is too much of an advantage. His younger brother Sam Hui is a typical example.

Zhou Hong was watching Zhou Yan performing solo on the stage from the audience, with a smile on his face. He came here to join in the fun tonight, and what he wanted most was to see his younger brother perform on stage.

Although Zhou Yan has given many concerts, Zhou Hong has only watched a few of them. Most of the time he watched them on TV.

It is a rare opportunity to watch my brother perform up close like this.

Zhou Hong suddenly remembered that when he was a child, his mother always liked to stand at the window of their house and play the bamboo flute in the evening. At that time, he was his mother's most loyal audience.

Now that his mother is gone, he has become his brother's audience again.

Sitting on the other side, Joey Wong held her chin and quietly enjoyed her boyfriend's performance.

Although they have been together for several years, every time she sees Zhou Yan playing a musical instrument, Joey Wong is still fascinated by him.

As long as Zhou Yan has a musical instrument in his hand, it seems to glow. It seems that there is an invisible and intangible field around him that can control people around him and make them unable to move.

The solo was very fast, only about four minutes, and Zhou Yan finished playing it very quickly.

At this time, the enthusiasm of the audience had been completely ignited.

To be honest, before Michael Hui came on stage, the tourists at the scene were a little disappointed.

Among the first eight programs, there were a few that were noteworthy, but overall they did not meet their expectations, especially the skit and stand-up comedy, they really could not feel the charm of them.

Among the previous eight programs, the one that received the most responses from the audience was the Peking Opera sung by Jiao Huang. However, what impressed the audience the most was the part where Li Xiaoran danced on the stage. After all, beautiful women are really pleasing to the eyes.

Later, when Sam Hui came on stage and sang "Iron Tower Soaring into the Sky", the audience was really excited and they finally felt like they were watching a show.

The main reason they came here today was to see the stars' performances.

At this moment, Zhou Yan's performance brought the performance to a climax.

Without anyone leading the rhythm, the audience shouted in unison, "One more, one more!"

Many of the audience members in the back had already stood up and waved to Zhou Yan excitedly.

Zhou Yan looked at his watch and smiled, "Thank you all for your enthusiasm, but it's really late. We haven't eaten yet. Tonight's performance is over..."

Before he could finish his words, the cheers from the audience started again, directly drowning out his voice.

"One more, one more."

Seeing the enthusiasm of the audience, Zhou Yan smiled helplessly, then patted the microphone and said, "Ahem, everyone, be quiet."

After the noise died down a bit, Zhou Yan spoke again, "How about this, I'll play one more song, and then we'll end it."

"Two of them."

"Come three."

"a hundred."

When Zhou Yan heard someone shouting "one hundred", he couldn't help but roll his eyes. They really treated him like a donkey pulling a mill in the production team.

"Well, let me give you a multiple-choice question."

Multiple choice question?
After hearing Zhou Yan's words, the audience became confused. What did it mean to give them multiple-choice questions?
Did Zhou Yan want to make a joke on them and give them two choices, to listen or not?
"You have two options to choose from. First, I can continue to play three songs for you."

"Three songs!"

Many viewers exclaimed.

Although someone just shouted for a hundred songs, that was just for fun. They all knew that the celebration banquet would begin soon and it was impossible for Zhou Yan to play too many songs. They would already have made a fortune if they could play one or two more songs.

Now Zhou Yan actually said that he could play three songs for them, which naturally made them overjoyed.

If we play three more songs, then we will play four songs in total today. You know, even in Zhou Yan's concert, it is impossible for him to solo so many songs live.

Someone couldn't help but shout, "I'll choose the first option."

However, some people are more calm. Since it is a multiple-choice question, are the other options as attractive as this one?

"What about the second option? What is it?" someone asked.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "As for the second option, I will play a song for you."

"a?"

The audience looked puzzled. They all wondered if they had heard it wrong.

One option is one song, and the other option is three songs. There is such a clear difference between the two options that even a fool would know which one to choose. So what is the point of such a multiple-choice question?
"Yes, one song." Zhou Yan nodded with a smile, "Of course, since it's one song, it must be special. If you choose the second option, you will hear a song you have never heard before."

After Zhou Yan finished speaking, the scene fell into a brief silence, but soon, warm cheers broke out.

"New song!"

After hearing the cheers, some audience members realized that Zhou Yan was going to play a new song.

"Let's choose the second one." someone shouted.

"Yes, we choose the second one."

Soon, more and more people shouted that they wanted to choose the second one.

That’s a new song. Even a fool would know to choose the second one. Those who choose the second one are the lucky ones who witness the release of the new song.

Not to mention choosing between three songs and a new song, even if they have to choose between a hundred songs and a new song, they will choose the new song. After all, the next song is always better.

Zhou Yan nodded. "Since everyone agrees so much, then next, I will bring you this song..."

At this point, Zhou Yan paused for a moment, and finally uttered two words, "waves."

Obviously, this was a name that was thought up on the spur of the moment, and many viewers realized this. Many even looked back at the waves behind them.

The song that Zhou Yan is about to play is certainly not called "Waves". Its original name is "bleeding love", which means "bleeding love".

Just by listening to the title, you can feel the pain and sadness that this song conveys.

The reason why Zhou Yan did not use the original name was because the version he played next was not too sad.

Zhou Yan rearranged the chords of the song to make it relatively lighter and sound like waves. They happened to be at the coast, so Zhou Yan named it "Waves".

……

After Zhou Yan's modification, "bleeding love" does not sound like bleeding love, but rather like "spreading love".

The lyrics of this song describe and express that love is too painful, just like being cut open and bleeding continuously.

But the version modified by Zhou Yan sounds more like the feeling of lovers who love each other deeply and want to see each other all the time.

Although it can't be called a sweet song, it is indeed very romantic. It is also one of Zhou Yan's rare romantic songs. (End of this chapter)