LIFESTYLE, MUSIC, Commentary: Why are their art lives so short?
By Zhenhua Huang
Nowadays, in the circle of pop music in China we find the very common phenomenon that new singers can easily gain fans' affection when they publish their first albums, but they can hardly draw our attention again, especially singers with originality. We are aware that their albums become worse and worse. Then gradually they will vanish from our sight. What worries us is that this kind of singer is not in the minority. Why are their art lives so short? What contributes to this? We believe that all of the participants in the album market, the producers, the singer and the album buyers, have their own roles in this phenomenon.
First come the producers. When they want to promote a singer, they make a lot of preparation before hand; it will take them a year or more to prepare fully and thoroughly, because, as we all know, it will be very hard for a singer to get in favor if he or she fails to strike customers with his or her first album. Thanks to the devoted preparation, the singers' first albums are always of high value and worth listening to. But once they become a little bit famous and own a number of fans, driven by profits, the producers will speed up the album publishing process. A singer can even publish five albums per year. Of course, usually they can't keep all these albums at a high quality. As a result, the fans won't support a singer whose albums are no longer worth listening to. Therefore, we can come to the conclusion that record companies are partly responsible for putting a singer in favor and also for shortening the same singers' art life.
Second are the singers. Before they own that first album, they have produced many songs, among which are their most outstanding ones. To publish the first album, which is obviously their dream, they will work hard. But after that, how can they write songs as good as or even better than their first ones? Since they do not have enough time to produce--both they and their record companies want to make more profit and they know that fans will forget them if they have nothing to offer quickly and often--their albums become "fast food" without much value.
Third appear the album buyers. We always demand singers to publish their albums as fast as they can. To meet our need, the singers often follow the most popular style--always changing their own styles to the current trend. But in fact, we need excellent and various types of music. It is ourselves that first ask for fast food and then dislike it.
Apart from these three reasons, there are other ones still and all of them result in the singers' short art lives. We all have to make our own contribution to developing our record industry. But maybe we can start with the reform of the record publishing system in China.
Nowadays, in the circle of pop music in China we find the very common phenomenon that new singers can easily gain fans' affection when they publish their first albums, but they can hardly draw our attention again, especially singers with originality. We are aware that their albums become worse and worse. Then gradually they will vanish from our sight. What worries us is that this kind of singer is not in the minority. Why are their art lives so short? What contributes to this? We believe that all of the participants in the album market, the producers, the singer and the album buyers, have their own roles in this phenomenon.
First come the producers. When they want to promote a singer, they make a lot of preparation before hand; it will take them a year or more to prepare fully and thoroughly, because, as we all know, it will be very hard for a singer to get in favor if he or she fails to strike customers with his or her first album. Thanks to the devoted preparation, the singers' first albums are always of high value and worth listening to. But once they become a little bit famous and own a number of fans, driven by profits, the producers will speed up the album publishing process. A singer can even publish five albums per year. Of course, usually they can't keep all these albums at a high quality. As a result, the fans won't support a singer whose albums are no longer worth listening to. Therefore, we can come to the conclusion that record companies are partly responsible for putting a singer in favor and also for shortening the same singers' art life.
Second are the singers. Before they own that first album, they have produced many songs, among which are their most outstanding ones. To publish the first album, which is obviously their dream, they will work hard. But after that, how can they write songs as good as or even better than their first ones? Since they do not have enough time to produce--both they and their record companies want to make more profit and they know that fans will forget them if they have nothing to offer quickly and often--their albums become "fast food" without much value.
Third appear the album buyers. We always demand singers to publish their albums as fast as they can. To meet our need, the singers often follow the most popular style--always changing their own styles to the current trend. But in fact, we need excellent and various types of music. It is ourselves that first ask for fast food and then dislike it.
Apart from these three reasons, there are other ones still and all of them result in the singers' short art lives. We all have to make our own contribution to developing our record industry. But maybe we can start with the reform of the record publishing system in China.
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