The king of ghost horse comedy

Chapter 387 The Situation in Hong Kong

Singer-songwriters in Hong Kong are relatively scarce. Many singers only win the love of fans because of their singing skills.But the songs they sang were either covers of other artists' hits, or they were written and composed by professionals.

In contrast, there are a lot of singer-songwriters in Taiwan. The godfathers of the music scene, Lo Ta-you, Li Zongsheng, Zheng Zhihua, Zhou Jielun, etc. are talented and their songs are very popular.

The reason why Xu Guanwu asked his record company to focus on launching some singers with excellent singing and writing skills is to establish a new trend in the record industry and give some opportunities to singers who do not have star appearance, but have creative talent and singing skills .He knows that creative singers are far more popular than singers who only know how to sing in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea.

Because the songs they create are different from those created by professionals. The songs they create are more individual and have their own characteristics.The songs created by professionals can be bought and sung by anyone, so the competition for singers will be very fierce.

Xu Guanwu wanted them to launch more singer-songwriters, just to avoid the phenomenon of singers of the same type appearing together, and their own people beating their own people.The three people launched this year were selected by Yisheng Records from nearly a thousand applicants after a series of selections.

In fact, there are many singer-songwriters in Hong Kong, such as the Tat Ming School, BEYOND, Xu Guanjie, etc., but Hong Kong record companies are generally very impetuous.Because if a singer-songwriter wants to pay attention to quality, the preparation of an album takes more than a year, and he has to create, choose songs, record and edit, and so on.

Such a slow speed naturally does not meet the profit requirements of the record company. If he releases a record in a year and a half, even if he sells 100 million copies, the money he makes is very limited.On the contrary, if you are a singer with relatively good singing skills and release three records in a year and a half, even if each record only sells 40 copies, the record company can still make a lot of money.In this comparison, natural singer-songwriters are not popular.

In Taiwan, Japan, the United States and other places, the market is huge due to the large number of people, and singer-songwriters can also sell relatively well, and they can have enough material to support them in pursuing their ideals.Compared with singers who only have good singing skills but lack creativity, music fans who really love music prefer songs released by singer-songwriters.Although compared with professionals, the songs they create have various deficiencies, but they also have their own very unique charm, which is enough to cover up other deficiencies.

The barren market of millions of people in Hong Kong is indeed not conducive to the survival of singer-songwriters, but Xu Guanwu still wants to give it a try.Because in the future, although singers with good singing skills will be very popular, in the final analysis, singer-songwriters are more popular.

Just like Jay Chou, when the record industry was in a recession, and ordinary singers could open champagne to celebrate when their records sold more than [-] copies, he could still sell a million copies, and he grew from a small singer to a The Uranus superstar in Taiwan's entertainment industry.It is because of his outstanding musical talent.

On the other hand, in Hong Kong, except for the older generation of singers who continue to stick to their previous popularity, there are basically no influential singers emerging. This is a very sad thing.You must know that in the 90s and [-]s, the Hong Kong music scene was dominated by Taiwan, and countless Taiwanese music talents went to Hong Kong to develop.

Xu Guanwu doesn't want to rely on singers to release frequent records now, get a vote in the coming golden age of records, and then wait 20 years to sit back and wait for death.He now wants to establish a new atmosphere for the Hong Kong music scene, focusing on discovering musical talents with creative ability.

Of course, this work is a long way to go, and it is also a thankless task.It is very difficult to combine beauty and wisdom. How many singers can be like Sam Xu Guanjie, who is handsome, talented and knows how to act, so full of star temperament?
It is self-evident which one is more popular, a singer with handsome looks and good singing skills, or a singer with creative talent but sorry appearance.It takes at least twice as much effort to promote a singer-songwriter and a singer with a handsome appearance and good singing skills, and the rewards are not as good as others.This makes the record company have no choice.

However, knowing that there are tigers in the mountains, it is Xu Guanwu's consistent practice to go to the tiger mountains.If he only wanted to make money, he wouldn't have the energy to toss about any record company, and he would make even more money by speculating in real estate and land.The reason why he still pays attention to the record business is that he wants to bring more new ideas to the Hong Kong music scene.

It's not like after the new century, except for a few veteran singers, there are almost no new singers who can do it. If you release one, you will die, and if you push it, you will die. It is clean and crisp.However, the Hong Kong music scene, one of the troika of the original Chinese music scene, was weak, and the mainland music scene was in chaos, and finally the Korean wave of Bangzi took over the market.This is a very scary thing.

……

The three groups of singer-songwriters launched by YESUNG in the first half of the year are not very popular now.Record sales have not been boosted, only a few thousand records have been sold, and word of mouth is not high, many music critics call it a mess.

There are also complaints from inside YSUN Records, saying that they spend money and efforts to produce these records, but no one will support them and they will be scolded. If I knew it, I would just learn from last year’s singers who promoted handsome men and beautiful women. A record can sell at least [-] to [-]. Zhang, if the publicity is good, it can still sell forty to fifty thousand copies, which can make the company a good profit.

Xu Guanwu also saw the dissatisfaction within the company in these newspaper clippings.Xu Guanwu 120 disagreed with their short-sighted statement.

With the development of Hong Kong's economy, the record market is gradually improving. In the past, only top singers could sell more than [-] copies in Hong Kong. Now, even first-tier and second-tier singers can achieve this sales volume.The rapid growth of Hong Kong's economy has also strengthened the export of Hong Kong films, giving it a great advantage in Taiwan and Nanyang, which are economically underdeveloped.Therefore, Hong Kong's records have good sales in the three places on both sides of the strait.

Economic advantages will bring cultural advantages, which is an inevitable law of economic development.Just like in the early days of reform and opening up, because of the rapid economic growth of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, people are proud to be able to speak Hokkien.Later, Shanghai's economic development surpassed that of Shenzhen, and people were proud of talking about Shanghai.

In the 90s, [-]s, and [-]s, Hong Kong's economy far surpassed that of Taiwan, Nanyang and other places, so economic advantages lead to cultural advantages, and the strong are naturally worshiped and admired.Therefore, Hong Kong films sold well in East Asia at that time, and it was rare to meet rivals.

However, with the successive rise of the economies of East Asian countries, Hong Kong's superior economic advantages disappeared. The economies of Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore quickly surpassed Hong Kong, making it lose its leading position in East Asia.And Hong Kong, which lost its leading position, was blown off the throne and became a mere mortal.

The economic boom of Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and other places has also brought more confidence to the people of their own countries. This kind of confidence is not only in life and career, but also in their own culture. Therefore, Hong Kong movies that represent Hong Kong culture , Music, naturally lost people's favor.

At that time, Hong Kong's cultural industry was hit hard, a group of popular stars became passers-by, and the film companies that originally dominated East Asia closed their doors. Before that, Hong Kong was a star-making machine, and many stars were released every year. Even Japan, Stars from South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and other places are all vying to go to Hong Kong for development.

But in the new century, Hong Kong's own stars have all died out, and the annual Miss Hong Kong election has also changed from the focus of attention to the carnival of Hong Kong people themselves, alas!
Naturally, Xu Guanwu didn't want to end up in such a bad state after working hard for a long time, so he had to face the pressure no matter what.

If the newly launched singer is not well-known, then he should appear on more TV shows and more newspapers and magazines.If the album doesn't sell, then do more publicity.The record business is always stuffed with money, so be sure to put the record in the most prominent position.If word of mouth is not good, then spend money to hire a few music critics to praise it. As long as you have money to make, are you afraid that they won't write? !

As for the difficulty of surviving as a singer-songwriter, Xu Guanwu also has his own plans.Raising the copyright fee is undoubtedly the best choice, but the copyright tax is set by the government, and it is impossible for Xu to make decisions unilaterally.However, Xu can pay a little more copyright fees when collecting songs.And you can also introduce them to do more work, such as soundtracking commercial songs, holding small fan parties, and so on.

With increased income, so that singer-songwriters have no worries, they can continue to create.Otherwise, if you pursue your ideals on an empty stomach, even if you can persevere mentally, you will not be able to bear it physically.

As for singer-songwriters, if they can generate good income after such advocacy, they can attract other record companies and work harder on singer-songwriters, which will form a virtuous circle.

In the next 20 years, if they can dig deep into creative talents like Xu Guanwu, at least the Hong Kong music scene will be able to last another 20 years in the future, and most people's jobs will not be smashed.

This is a good thing for the Hong Kong music scene, and Xu Guanwu intends to keep promoting it.

……

In addition to Yisheng Records, Xu's Xinghui Art School still recruited a lot of students, and also opened a film special effects major.The teachers who taught the class were those students who assisted George Lucas in filming Star Wars.They stayed in the United States for two years, personally participated in the special effects design of "Star Wars", learned a lot of useful knowledge, and accumulated very rich experience.

Xu Guanwu set up a major in film special effects to improve the visual effects of Hong Kong movies.Although Hong Kong filmmakers make steel with their own methods, some of the special effects that European and American filmmakers have been amazed by, such as the big tongue made of sponge and able to dance in "A Chinese Ghost Story"; Among them, the various Taoist arts performed by Lin Zhengying, etc., can be regarded as representatives of earth special effects.

However, compared with the exquisite special effects of European and American movies, Hong Kong's special effects are still a bit rough, only pursuing low cost but ignoring the feelings of the audience.When the European and American special effects blockbuster "Jurassic Park" came out, audiences in Hong Kong were all attracted by Hollywood's vivid computer special effects. Compared with the earthy special effects still used by Hong Kong filmmakers, they were naturally outdated.

And the audience is also fond of the new and dislikes the old. Since the story here is good, the effect is good, and the ticket price is the same, they naturally go to see Hollywood blockbusters one after another.Over time, Hong Kong even lost its local film market.

Therefore, in order to widen the gap between the department and Hollywood, Xu Guanwu ordered Liu Tianci to avoid this special effects class, and initially recruited [-] students.And after one semester, outstanding students will be selected to go to Industrial Light and Magic Special Effects Company in the United States for further study.

Being able to go to school here for free, and also have the opportunity to go to the United States for further study, naturally attracted many young people to sign up.However, because the special effects major is relatively difficult to learn, many times it requires both hands and brains. In addition, it is necessary to go to the United States for further study, and it is not acceptable to not know English.Therefore, the selection of materials was extremely strict, causing all the students who applied for the exam to complain.

(End of this chapter)