Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Yang Ye was preparing for the movies "The Myth" and "SPL" while also preparing for "The Voice of China".

It wasn't long before awards season arrived.

Since the Golden Melody Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards got off to a good start, other award ceremonies in Hong Kong are also held in clusters from February to April.

Hong Kong now has three music awards, namely the Golden Melody Awards held by Radio Hong Kong, the Jade Solid Gold Awards held by TVB, and the "Hit Music Chart" held by Hong Kong Commercial Radio.

Thanks to Yang Ye's support for the Golden Melody Awards, after ten years of development, it has become the most prestigious music event in the Chinese world, and musicians are proud to win the Golden Melody Awards.

TVB's Jade Solid Gold Awards is an imitation of the Golden Melody Awards, but places more emphasis on popularity.

Commercial Radio's "Hit Music Chart" is the most transparent music award in Hong Kong, as its list of winners is based on the year-round song playback rate of Commercial Radio Hong Kong.

Music fans only need to estimate the approximate list of winners based on the folk statistics of playback rates.

However, the final data will be based on Commercial Radio’s own data, so there will be slight differences in the list of winners.

Yang Ye only participated in the Golden Melody Awards and never appeared at the other two award ceremonies, and they would not invite Yang Ye either.

Fang Yihua and Yang Ye don't get along, so naturally they won't invite Yang Ye. However, in order to show fairness, they will also present awards to Yang Ye, and each time it will be Yang's singers who will accept them on his behalf.

Hong Kong Commercial Radio and the Hong Kong left have a deep hatred. During the June 67 riots, the "Current Affairs Commentary" hosted by Lin Bin of Commercial Radio was extremely popular.

The left hated him so much that they blocked Lin Bin and his cousin Lin Guanghai's car on their way to work and set them on fire.

Yang Ye and Xia Meng are as close as siblings, and they have a close relationship with Shi Hui, so they never interact with Yang Ye.

……

In addition to the three award ceremonies in Hong Kong, Taiwan also began holding the Golden Melody Awards this year, and the date is set for January.

In order to cope with the competition, the Golden Melody Awards began to reform. In addition to the regular awards, they added category awards, which was learned from the American Grammy Awards.

However, there is a huge gap between Chinese pop music and European and American music, so it is not as complicated as the Grammy Awards, which are divided into country, jazz, R&B... more than a dozen subcategories.

The Golden Melody Awards will only add four subcategories for the time being: pop, folk, rock, and musical/drama, and more will be added in the future depending on the situation.

This year is the first award ceremony after the reform. The organizing committee has spared no effort to invite people from all walks of life to come and show their support.

So this year's award ceremony was very lively, with many big names gathered. Almost all the famous musicians came, and it took a long time just to walk the red carpet.

Yang Ye and Deng Lijun were the last to appear on stage, triggering screams from fans.

The reporter approached the two and conducted a brief interview with them, asking them what they thought about the addition of four subcategories to the Golden Melody Awards this time?
Yang Ye said: “Chinese pop music started late and the genres are relatively single. This time, it is divided into only four sub-categories, but it is also a great progress.

I hope that it will grow stronger and stronger in the future, and that we will be able to see other types of music such as blues and jazz, and I hope that we will be able to see our own unique type of music.”

After Yang Ye and Deng Lijun briefly answered some questions, they walked into the Hong Kong Coliseum. Deng Lijun asked, "Will you create a type of music that belongs to us?"

Yang Ye shook his head: "How can I have such ability!"

Deng Lijun said: "I think you have already done it!"

"When did I do that? How come I didn't know?"

"Sixteen years ago, you sang "Country Road" for me, breaking the limitations of old Shanghai music and traditional folk songs, creating a simple, plain, and catchy style. At that time, you named it Chinese folk song. Doesn't that count?"

"Well, it borrows from the characteristics of American country music, so it doesn't count! Besides, folk songs can be found all over the world, and mine can only be considered a folk song with Chinese characteristics."

"Then the two albums of 'Light and Quiet Feelings' you made for me, which were composed with classical poetry, have a very unique style and are completely different from Western pop music. Doesn't that count?"

“If one person releases a few songs, no matter how unique their style is, it will not form a genre.

It can only be considered as such if a large number of creators participate, gain a large number of fans, and form a market scale.

For example, in recent years, with the urbanization of Taiwan, urban folk songs have gradually emerged.

And it will become more and more intense, and sooner or later it will become a trend, and then this school of thought will be born.

It’s just that urban folk songs are not unique to China; they were learned from Europe and America, from Bob Dylan.”

Yang Ye increasingly felt that this world was just repeating itself.

Campus folk songs became popular in Taiwan in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, with the rapid development and urbanization, urban folk songs came into being.

In fact, this is just a repetition of the American path.

In the mainland, which is less developed than Taiwan, that group of people listened to Taiwanese campus folk songs during their teenage years.

By the 1990s, they began to enter society and became the backbone of society, and thus campus folk songs, which had already declined in Taiwan, became popular in mainland China.

After the millennium, the mainland began to urbanize rapidly, and urban folk songs naturally came into being, with representative musicians such as Song Dongye and Hao Yun emerging.

……

After entering the Hong Kong Coliseum, Yang Ye sat in the front row and greeted Zhang Minyi next to him: "Sister, it's been a while since we last met. What have you been busy with recently?"

Zhang Minyi said calmly: "What else can I be busy with? It's about the Golden Melody Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards."

"Thank you for your hard work. You have made a great contribution to the prosperity of Hong Kong's entertainment industry!"

"I can't take that responsibility. The success of Hong Kong films is mainly due to the efforts of filmmakers like you. We are just providing a good service."

The two of them exchanged some fake pleasantries, secretly set a date for their one-night stand, and the award ceremony officially began.

"Please welcome... Yi Nengjing and F4 to bring us "Only Feelings for You"!"

This year's opening show invited the main cast of "Meteor Garden" which was popular in Asia last year. Naturally, their popularity was used to stir up the hype.

The song "Only Have Feelings for You" was the title song of Fahrenheit's first album in the original time and space. It was written by JJ Lin and sung by Fahrenheit and Heibi.

Fahrenheit is also a four-member group, and with Hei Bi, it becomes one woman and four men, which fits in perfectly with the five-member main character group of Meteor Garden.

The sales of F4's "Meteor Shower" last year were so huge that it was not only popular in the Chinese-speaking regions, but also entered the Japanese and Korean markets in one fell swoop. After half a year of release, sales had exceeded four million copies.

The two major record companies, Baiyang and Rolling Stone, will strike while the iron is hot and produce the second and third albums for them respectively. The second album will be in Mandarin and the third album will be in Cantonese.

"I Only Have Feelings for You" was chosen by Yang Ye as the title song of F4's Mandarin album.

This song is in dance style. Nowadays, in the Japanese pop music scene, people like Tetsuya Komuro are creating a dance music craze and leading the trend in Asia.

Yang Ye came up with this song at this time, which can be said to be at the forefront of fashion.

"No matter how beautiful or sweet a smile is, it is not special if it is not yours.
No matter how bitter and salty my tears are, with your comfort, it will be sunny again.

No matter how close we are, or how close we are, without a hug, we are too far away.

The whole world only has feelings for you!"

Yi Nengjing and F4 jumped and danced on the stage, causing fans in the audience to scream wildly.

Yi Nengjing was born into a girl group and trained for many years before her debut. She is much more professional than F4 and her performance is obviously better.

However, there were many more people shouting "F4" in the audience, female fans are just crazy like that. Despite this, Yi Nengjing has reached a new peak in her career with "Meteor Garden".

The album released separately last year sold more than 800,000 copies in Asia, which is a very good result.

However, her innate conditions were limited and she didn't have much potential to tap, so she stopped there.

In the F4 of this time and space, there are two singers named Cheng Yi-kin and Sun Yao-wei whose singing skills are pretty good.

It won't be a big problem for Koo Tim-lok and Nicholas Tse to paddle a little into the water.

Better than the four in the original time and space who were all counterfeits.

After Yi Nengjing and F4 finished their performances, the award ceremony officially began, starting with the folk song category.

The awards are relatively simple, divided into Best Male Folk Singer, Best Female Folk Singer, and Best Folk Song.

What’s more interesting is that Yi Nengjing and F4, who had just finished their performances, served as award presenters for the best male and female singer respectively.

Yi Nengjing opened the list of winners and read sweetly, "The winner of the Best Male Folk Singer is... Sir Yang Ye!"

There was a burst of warm applause on the stage. The camera turned to Yang Ye, who looked a little confused.

How could it be me?
After all the names were called, Yang Ye still went on stage cheerfully, took the trophy from Yi Nengjing, and said into the microphone: "Thank you everyone, I am honored to be the first to receive the award, but is this a mistake? I haven't released an album in many years."

Today's emcee is James Huang, who immediately responded, "You still know that you haven't released an album in many years?"

"Ah this..."

Huang Zhan said again: "Aye, you are a little biased!"

"Why should I be so biased?" Yang Ye was puzzled.

"You released three movies last year, and your fans are thrilled. But what about your fans? What about your fans? If you don't release an album, your fans will starve to death! Don't you agree?"

The audience was very respectful and immediately shouted loudly: "Yes!"

Yang Ye could only perfunctorily say: "It's almost there, it's almost there!"

In fact, it is not wrong to give him this award. Last year, "Enemy at the Gates" was released, and the soundtrack album that was released afterwards included the song "The One I Love" sung by him.

Subsequently, two singles, "On the Shore of Lake Baikal" and "Birch Forest", were released.

These three songs are all in Russian folk style and of excellent quality. If he doesn't win the award, who will?

Yang Ye raised the trophy and said, "According to convention, I should give a speech to express my gratitude for winning the award, but I would like to take this opportunity to say something else.

The Chinese music market is booming nowadays, which is inseparable from the support of the majority of music fans. We musicians must thank everyone.

But what comes with it is increasingly rampant piracy. According to estimates, the proportion of pirated sales in the two major markets of Hong Kong and Taiwan has now reached 20%.

Piracy will cause heavy losses to record companies, musicians and singers, and will make them lose their enthusiasm for creation. Ultimately, the ones who are harmed are... the fans.

So here, I want to appeal, say no to piracy! "

Some of the audience thought it made sense and were ready to respond to Yang Ye's call.

Some people disagree, saying that your genuine products are so expensive, so what's wrong with me buying pirated products?
Yang Ye suddenly brought up this matter because although the market is doing well now, the impact of piracy on genuine products is not that great.

However, piracy is getting worse and worse. If it is not curbed, it will climb to 50% within ten years, which will completely undermine the development of pop music.

In the original time and space, IFPI announced that if piracy was not eliminated, it would no longer publish sales charts and ranking statistics for the Taiwan industry.

Taiwanese record companies began to report sales figures recklessly, bringing about a trend of exaggeration that spread across both sides of the Taiwan Strait and across the four regions.

It was not until Jay Chou publicly questioned the record sales and Taihe Maitian announced the sales figures of Li Yuchun's album that the listeners truly faced the seriousness of the inflated record figures.

However, Yang Ye had no good solution for this kind of thing. The two sides of the Taiwan Strait and the four places are not a unified country, and the rule of law is not sound. He could only make an appeal, which was better than nothing.

Next was the Best Female Folk Singer award, which was given to Chyi Yu.

After Qi Yu went on stage and gave a speech, she sang "Boat Song" which she released last year.

The Best Folk Song award went to "Birch Forest". Yang Ye won two awards. He didn't say anything on the stage this time. He just sang the song live and then left.

Next is the popular category, where competition is the most intense.

In the original time and space, because the "Alan Tam and Cheung rivalry" was too annoying, Alan Tam and Rosamund Kwan announced one after another that they would no longer accept awards.

At that time they had the right to pretend because they were really tired of it.

But not now, the competition is too fierce.

Not only did a large number of Hong Kong singers such as Zhang Xueyou enter the competition early, but Taiwanese singers also joined the competition. There was also the Yang Ye bug, so no one could win the award consistently.

In this situation, isn't it a joke that you announced that you would no longer accept awards and would promote younger generations?
Why are you pretending? No matter how shameless you are, you will definitely get what you want.

So every year there is a bloody fight.

Veteran singers released many good songs last year, including Alan Tam's "Love and Friendship", Zhang Guorong's "Side View", Anita Mui's "Lady" and "Sunset Song", Danny Chan's "What Do You Want in Life", and Priscilla Chan's "Night Flight"...

But the Best Pop Song award was finally given to Wang Jie's "Who Understands the Heart of a Wanderer".

It has only been two years since Wang Jie rose to prominence, but he has already defeated a number of veteran superstars to win the award, proving how fierce the competition is now.

When it came time to present the Best Female Singer award, it was even more surprising. Pan Meichen, who had just debuted for a year, swept away all the divas with a song she wrote herself, "I Want a Home."

"I Want a Home" is indeed a classic song. When Pan Meichen was studying, she moved three times within half a year. She was even so poor that she had to stay in a rented house and eat instant noodles for several days in a row.

She wrote this song based on her own personal experience and insights, expressing her longing for family from the perspective of a person who lacks family warmth.

After the song was released, it became popular across both sides of the Taiwan Strait and across the four regions of China, and everyone who listened to it felt the same way. It was also performed on CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and moved a generation of people.

It is no surprise that such a meaningful song won the award, and those divas had nothing to say.

Next up is the rock category.

Rock is a small genre in Chinese music, but it also has a certain influence and has produced many well-known rock singers.

Compared to jazz, blues and other music, it is much more popular.

This time, Yang Ye was invited to the stage to present the awards.

After Yang Ye came on stage, he said: "Rock music is very niche in Hong Kong. According to estimates, there are only about 5,000 rock fans in Hong Kong. Even if one person buys one album, the sales volume will be at most 5,000.

Therefore, it is difficult for rock singers to survive in Hong Kong, but there is a band that has tenaciously survived until now and has achieved very impressive results.

The winner of the Best Rock Vocalist award is… Beyond, congratulations! "

When the four heard Yang Ye read out their names, they were so excited that tears welled up in their eyes and they hugged each other tightly! (End of this chapter)