How to evaluate Phoenix Legend?

If we compare the Chinese music scene to the poetry scene of the Tang Dynasty, then Phoenix Legends is Bai Juyi, popular but not vulgar, known to young and old.

I. Phoenix Takes Off (1998-2005)

The story of Phoenix Legend originated in Shenzhen.

In 1998, Zeng Yi, a young man from Yiyang, Hunan province, gave up his regular job to join his best friend who was running a cabaret in Shenzhen.

In late 1998, Yang Wei Linghua, a girl from Erdos, Inner Mongolia, who had been working in Shenzhen, applied for a job at the Golden Age cabaret and was accepted as a contracted entertainer, becoming a colleague of Zeng Yi, who was then the music director of the cabaret.

The duo formed a group named Cool Fire out of love for the South Korean singing group Cool Dragon. The group soon took off in Shenzhen.

In 2003, He Muyang, a Hunan-based music producer based in Shenzhen, had just finished producing a public service song to fight SARS and was trying to find a female singer with a strong voice to sing it. Yang Wei Linghua caught his attention.

In 2004, the group officially signed to a record label and successfully broke out of the underground scene, changing their name to Phoenix Legends.

In 2005, the group won the first runner-up prize in CCTV's "Avenue of Stars".

In the same year, Phoenix Legends released their debut album "Above the Moon", whose title song "Above the Moon" was customized by He Muyang, and Jay Chou's royal arranger Zhong Xingmin participated in the production of the album.

"Above the Moon" came out of nowhere, the degree of fire is incredible, people have never seen such a high-pitched atmospheric flavor of the female voice, Linghua Mongolian background has become a huge advantage, the grassland style comes; style, this song created a "national pop" this later Phoenix Legends is best at the music category, with Linghua's natural style. With Linghua's natural Mongolian voice, the male voice of Zeng Yi has taken on the burden of "pop", and the interlude treatment of whispering and rapping is still fashionable enough today, 14 years later.

Since then, the Phoenix Legends have taken the country by storm, embarking on a long journey.

Second, Outstanding (2005-2012)

Phoenix Legend's rise in 2005 was the last heyday of the Chinese music industry, and the last pinnacle of the traditional brick-and-mortar recording industry.

In the era of traditional recordings, music companies and TV and radio stations had absolute influence; in other words, it was a time when professional musicians controlled the discourse. In 2003, for example, Jay Chou's hit song "In the Name of the Father" from his "Ye Huimei" album was designated "Jay Chou Day" on July 16 every year because of its simultaneous debut on more than 50 radio stations across Asia and its 800 million listeners.

The radio station's influence was evident at the time.

Phoenix Legends had a stunning start with "Over the Moon," but in an era when tapes and CDs are still the dominant channel, they must continue to produce work of sufficient caliber to go on.

What's more, it was a time when Hong Kong's four heavenly kings had just retired from the scene, with male singers such as Jay Chou, JJ Lin, David Tao, Jet Wang, Wang Leehom, Wu Bai, Eason Chan and others at their peaks, and female singers such as Faye Wong, Lin Yilian, Emily Cheung, XIAO Ya-xuan, Sun Yanzi, Jasmine Leung, Jolin Tsai, and Shaohan Zhang blossoming, and the combination of RTHK's Mayday, Soda Green, and SHE all performing well.

From the grassroots rise of the Phoenix Legends, how to stand out?

In 2007, Phoenix Legend released its second album, "Auspicious". The whole album can be summarized by the words "ethnic" and "pop".

In terms of ethnic music, the hit song "Auspicious and Ruined" is in the Tibetan style, and there are also several other works with strong ethnic elements, which show that Phoenix Legend is very skillful in this field.

But the contestant who really took over the banner of the debut album "Above the Moon" was "Fly Free". The song inherits "Above the Moon" almost in its entirety, with an excellent arrangement, a more open treatment of Zeng Yi's raps, and even an attempt at male-female duets in some of the bars, with Linghua's chorus remaining a nuclear weapon. The mood of the whole song is starting to move closer to love song pop compared to "Above the Moon".

Free Flight proved to be a hit with both men and women of all ages.

It's worth noting that "Waiting for the Rose of Love" was Phoenix Legend's attempt at a pop love song, and it had a unique flavor. In the pop line, Phoenix Legend seems to have found its own pulse.

In 2009, Phoenix Legend launched a new album, "The Most Dazzling National Wind". Phoenix Legend, who has been on the road for four years, has come up with its own most musically diverse attempt.

The album's eponymous song, "The Most Dazzling Ethnic Wind," unabashedly shines a light on Phoenix Legend's music label: ethnic wind. But the song really hit its peak three years later, in 2012.

The real ethnic songs on the album are "Sky Blue Blue", "High Mountain Sophora Blossoms", "Slippery Love Song", and "Lady of Extravagant Fragrance". Similar to "The Most Dazzling Ethnic Wind", these songs are based on ethnic elements, and the song arrangement is rhythmic and has the implication of catering to the market. Probably no one expected that the catchy rhythm would give rise to the largest group fitness activity in contemporary China: square dancing.

As a group, the Phoenix Legends also give full play to the advantages of male-female duets, and have performed well in the field of pop love songs. The album's "All Love" and "Lang's Temptation" are such attempts.

The lyrics of "All Love" are very common, but it's a different style of song. Linghua, who is not a nationalist, sings love songs with a mixture of softness and rigidity, and raps in between, which shows that Linghua's voice is all-rounded.

"Lang's Temptation" can be said to be awkward to sing for anyone other than the Phoenix Legends duo. But with Zeng Yi's passionate rapping and Linghua's atmospheric yet supple twang, there was no sense of contradiction.

From this, it's not hard to realize that Phoenix Legend's love songs are definitely a string of firecrackers in Chinese love songs. Listening to their songs, you simply do not have a "sad", "decadent" and so on, and even have a different sense of joy. The openness, openness and boldness of Linghua's Mongolian voice may be an invisible hint, and people automatically default to her boldness, which is materialized in love songs as an atmospheric, not whispering female voice.

In 2010, Phoenix Legend released the album "I Come from the Grassland". In addition to featuring some old songs, the new songs also performed well.

The album's eponymous hit song "I come from the grasslands" is the conclusion of the Phoenix Legends' "Grassland Trilogy", and from the point of view of dominating squares all over the country, the melody together with eighty percent of you can also hum along with a couple of phrases.

And I'd like to single out one song in particular, "Moonlight in a Lotus Pond," which is a work that I've previously underestimated.

Suggested listening style:

Night, quiet night, preferably with moonlight outside the window, first find out Mr. Zhu Ziqing's essay "Moonlight in a Lotus Pond" to enjoy once again, and then lie on the bed, wearing headphones, looking out of the window at the moonlight, listening to the details, drunk as a dream.

Linghua lead singer, almost no soaring high notes, who still dare to say that Linghua will only howl voice to come? Zeng Yi's rap fully embodies the soft gene of Hunan's water town.

"Moonlight in a Lotus Pond" is Phoenix Legend's most important work in the classical Chinese genre. Although the lyrics are not presented in the form of traditional literary language, but rather an easy-to-understand vernacular rendition, a careful taste is still full of classical flavor, beauty and naturalness, as if strolling through the gentle and tender Jiangnan gardens at night.

In my heart, "Moonlight in a Lotus Pond" is a complete victory over such so-called "ancient style" music colors as "Sorrow of a Departed Person" and "Stealing the Line". The fact is that the actual fact that you have to be able to get a lot more than just a few of them is not really a good idea. We all graduated from nine-year compulsory education, so if you didn't learn the language well, do you really think that other people can only stare at you? Even if Hua congee's song is still great, it can't be spoiled by such awkward words.

In contrast, I prefer the sincerity of the Phoenix Legends from the beginning to the present, simple is simple, as long as people can understand what they are singing.

Three, finally become a legend (2012-present)

"The most dazzling national wind" in 2009 after the release of the heat does not diminish, three years later in 2012 to become the annual god song, greatly promote the fitness of China's middle-aged and elderly people and the utilization of urban and rural public **** open space.

It was a sign of the times. It was also a watershed moment for the Phoenix Legends.

Before 2012's "Dazzling Ethnic Wind" burst onto the scene, many of Phoenix Legend's albums carried an important mission - to explore styles that would meet the group's own and the market's needs.

To this end, Phoenix Legend has made diverse attempts across the two categories of "pop" and "ethnic", and developed a new singing genre called "ethnic pop". The first is a new category of singing, "ethnic pop".

It can be said that Phoenix Legend has succeeded in gaining a foothold on the basis of its own ethnic characteristics, while breaking new ground with its attempts at pop music.

Early pop works such as "Above the Moon", "Flying Free", "All About Love" and "Lang's Temptation", which were pioneering in style, greatly expanded the audience. In my experience, for example, my buddies and I, who were in high school at the time, could listen to Jay Chou, love Avril Lavigne, and loop "All Is Love" constantly.

But "The Most Dazzling Ethnic Wind" certainly gives the strongest example -- it's a song that bets on the pulse of the times.

Inspired by the success of "The Most Dazzling National Wind," the Chopsticks Brothers, who rose to fame early on with the gold-standard songs "Old Boy" and "Father," quickly released "Little Apple," with simple lyrics and a rhythmic melody that hit the market right on the head.

After 2012, Phoenix Legend's works appeared in the "New Year's Songs", such as "Chinese Happiness", "Family Happiness", etc., the main theme of family reunion and harmony throughout. This is also in line with the rhythm of Zeng Yi and Linghua's respective families.

Four, why is the Phoenix Legend?

The Phoenix Legends are the most successful music group in mainland China, and now Mr. Hu Haiquan can only agree.

Born from grassroots, it took more than a decade for Phoenix Legends to sing from a cabaret in Shenzhen to the Bird's Nest with 100,000 people.

1, first of all, must recognize the musical talent of the Phoenix Legends.

Before the group's rise to fame, Zeng Yi was the irrepressible lead singer, with solid vocals, ahead-of-its-time rapping, and grounded all-around dance skills, all of which made Phoenix Legends' musicality full of diversity.

Yang Wei Linghua, God rewarded, to the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and three places, the only female voice appeared, the Mongolian background to achieve the ethnic style songs by the Phoenix Legends as a "base" of the fact.

Zeng Yi and Linghua have been working underground for many years, and their rich singing experience has sharpened their solid basic skills, and the Phoenix Legends' live performance is no less impressive than the studio version.

2. Sticking to their roots on the wave of the times.

Phoenix Legend has experienced the transformation of the Chinese music industry from the traditional record era to the digital music era.

Behind this is the general trend of China's rapid economic development, the increasing standard of living of its people, and especially the significant acceleration of urbanization.

When the Internet, especially free mp3s, dismantles the physical album industry, and when on-the-go music carried by smartphones is rapidly gaining popularity, whoever can satisfy the masses to the greatest extent will get the biggest piece of cake.

"The Most Dazzling National Wind" has given Phoenix Legend a clear taste of the sweetness of the welfare of the times. As a result, Phoenix Legend has firmly held on to the territory it has fought for, and it doesn't need to try to expand to new audiences, as holding on to the middle-aged and old-aged, a core fan base of more than 300 million, is enough.

In the Chinese music industry, the only musician who can compare his fan base with that of Phoenix Legends is Jay Chou. And as strong as Jay, but also in his thirties in one of the concerts suddenly found that their own fans holding the baby to come from the beginning to the end of the whole chorus - after 80, after 90 grew up into the center of the stage of the times.

A great man has educated us, "A person's success certainly depends on their own struggle, but also depends on the course of history."

Phoenix eventually became a legend of its time, and in this long journey that set sail from the last century, Zeng Yi and Linghua, two grassroots-born contestants, have always stayed true to their roots, staying close to the ground and not far from the common people in the mundane smoke and mirrors.

They never hunted. Even though they have such unique musical conditions, they have never put on a "high-fashion" attitude, and never sang lyrics they couldn't understand.

They never complained. This is a music group that can make even bitter songs sound like stress relief, and there is no sorrow that can't be waved on the Hulunbeier Grassland.

They love family reunions and a happy life, and while the main theme of such wishes is indeed a bit cheesy and clichéd, what's wrong with that?

The world is full of people who have been harboring such wishes for generations.

In the face of such a simple wish, the Phoenix Legend with their songs sincere blessing, debut 15 years, not proud a little.