Chapter 6 Another branch of the modern folk song movement

Meeting in the season of folk songs, trying to use music creation to write the story of my mood, picking up the guitar to play and sing is a happy thing, writing and writing songs to share my mood is a pleasant enjoyment. ——Su Lai, folk singer and host of China Radio In the second half of 1977, after prior market research and planning, Xinge Records held a series of activities for the "Golden Rhythm Award" to release the album and the corresponding "composed by the voice of this generation of young people". The campus tour concert immediately created a trend.The following year, Haishan Records, which started out producing Mandarin pop songs, also released the album "Folk Song Style", which also became popular. This is the basis for the development of "Campus Songs".

The campus song route is quite different from the modern Chinese folk song or the Danjiang-"Xia Chao" folk song movement. Trying to present social reality, it only focuses on the "essential theory of young people", so it is different from the general Mandarin pop songs produced by the existing recording industry. Commentators often look at campus songs with terms and viewpoints such as "intervention" or "commercialization" by commercial forces, and even think that this is one of the main reasons for the "decline" of folk songs.The commercial turn of folk songs has caused folk songs to lose their original reflection on national consciousness, making them only a music form mainly for young people.But on the other hand, when folk songs were transformed into campus songs, the excessive ethnic and political colors in the early stage were removed, but it also attracted some adult listeners who only listened to the wind, flowers, snow and moon, expanding its audience and consumer market.

Regarding commercial intervention, Tao Xiaoqing once said in a program hosted by the host: Because of the standardized operation of the business, folk singers can obtain funds for living security, and can better continue to promote the development of folk songs. The Golden Rhyme Award was founded by the newly established Xinge Records Company at that time, and was vigorously promoted by the musician Yao Housheng. From May to June 1977, the first "Golden Rhyme Award Youth Ballad Singing Contest" was divided into singing groups and creative groups to conduct island-wide selection and competitions; there were 1,200 applicants, 70% of whom were college graduates. student.Basically, most of the selected candidates are not outstanding in appearance, and they did not win by dressing up, which is quite different from ordinary singers. Therefore, the subsequent recording of the album "Golden Rhyme Award Series 1" caused obstacles in distribution and dissemination, because " Radio is not interested, TV is dismissive, and record store owners are unwilling to sell."Faced with such a situation, Xinge adopts a strategy of directly contacting students face-to-face, that is, campus tour concerts. Until now, this is still a common way of publicity for pop music.

The first campus tour concert was held at Cultural University on December 15, 1977, and it was an unexpected success.A few days after the concert, record stores began rushing to rush for the goods.After the first wave of five concerts in Taipei, the sales volume increased significantly. In just a few months, the sales volume exceeded 100,000 copies. This not only exceeded the break-even point of 50,000 copies, but also exceeded Sales records for some big-name pop stars. In the next four years, Xinge will conduct a round of selection of singers all over the island every year-record recording, release and tour.The intervention of commercial means made the development of early folk songs more standardized.Xinge Records is the first record company to package, distribute and promote folk songs through commercial means.With the strong advocacy of producers Yao Housheng and Huang Cloning, Xinge released a compilation album under the name of "Golden Rhyme Award Commemorative Album" for newcomers and new works that emerged in each Golden Rhyme Award Competition.In addition to recording two compilation albums after each competition, Xinge will also find out the favorite singers from the audience feedback of these compilation albums, and then record the solo albums of these singers, such as Bao Meisheng, Chen Mingshao, Albums such as Wang Menglin and Li Jianfu were basically born under such circumstances.

Winners of previous Golden Rhyme Awards The first (1977) champion singer: Chen Mingshao Winning singers: Fan Guanghui, Bao Meisheng, Zhu Tianyi, Yang Yaodong, duet of Tai Zhaomei and Shi Biwu, etc. The second (1978) champion singer: Qi Yu Winning singers: Wang Menglin, Li Jianfu, Huang Dacheng, Acoustic Guitar Choir, Traveler Trio, Quartet, etc. The third (1979) champion singer: Wang Hailing Winning singers: Zheng Yi, Wang Xinlian, Ma Yizhong, Shi Xiaorong, Luo Jizhen, Four Small Chorus, Yang Fangyi and Xu Xiaojing duet, etc. The fourth (1980) champion singer: Zheng Renwen Winning singers: Su Lai, Zheng Huajuan, Li Mingde, etc.

The fifth (1984) champion singer: Pan Zhiqin Winning singers: Yang Haiwei, Gao Huiyu, Ke Huizhu, Chang Xinyu, Yu Taiyan, Yao Daiwei It can be seen from the list that there was a four-year gap between the fourth and fifth awards. The fact is that the fifth Golden Rhyme Award in 1984 was already the last of the best campus songs, and the champion singer was rarely even remembered. live. At that time, the folk song rankings were counted by postcards sent by the audience, and some audiences really called on the students around them to write more postcards and vote for their favorite singers.Unable to buy or afford records, students followed the radio programs and dubbed rolls of tapes by themselves, and the business of "recording for customers" also appeared accordingly.

The success of the "Golden Rhyme Award" immediately led to other record companies to follow up, such as Haishan, Sihai, Lige, Songlin, Universal and other record companies that mainly released Mandarin pop songs. Rhyme Award", only Haishan Company's "Folk Song Style" for four consecutive years since 1978.Due to the implementation of "Folk Song Style", Haishan School began to have its own folk singers, such as Cai Qin, Su Lai, Ye Jiaxiu, and Liang Hongzhi.Interestingly, Qi Yu was not only the champion singer of the second Golden Rhyme Award in 1978, but also the champion singer of the first folk song style in the same year.

List of previous folk song winners The first session (1978) Solo group: Qi Yu, Ye Jiaxiu, Lin Shida, etc. Group group: Little Crow Choir The second session (1979) Solo group: Li Lifen, Zheng Yi, Cai Qin, Wu Siming, Su Lai Group group: Fuxing Industrial and Commercial Chorus (Li Bihua and others) The third session (1980) unknown In addition to the production and marketing of the recording industry, campus songs are also deeply disseminated through television media.Later in July 1980, the "Creative Ballad Ranking" voting activity jointly organized by "Minsheng Daily", Zhongguang, Jingguang and China Television, all the famous songs on the initial list were campus songs.The top ten in the first week are "Descendants of the Dragon", "Just Like Your Tenderness", "Autumn Cicada", "Returning to Shacheng", "The Voice of Young People", "Returning to People", "Mountain Jin" Ancient Road", "The Wind of Hometown", "Little Grass".The overall publicity and dissemination effect of this activity is obviously far greater than the folk song rankings co-organized by Tao Xiaozhiyi's radio program and "Rolling Stone" magazine, and even greater than the record company's own publicity.

The momentum of campus songs reached its climax around 1980.In addition to the publication of albums and a large number of media promotions, the government also showed its attitude of affirming campus songs this year: the "Freedom Youth" magazine under the Kuomintang Youth Trade Union held a symposium in early 1980, affirming the "campus songs". Song Chuyu, who was the director of information at the time, also used "Descendants of the Dragon", which attracted the most attention at that time and was "deeply moved" by himself, as the main topic in his speech at the summer training of Chenggong Ling University students. Manually rewrote a few lines of the lyrics.