Differences between eastern and western pop music

Europe and America have great space in the form and style of songs because of their profound cultural background and special historical background. Gospel, soul music, musical, R&B; B), Hip-Hop, folk songs, traditional rock and DISCO are all the original forms. In 1970s and 1980s, some new pop music forms appeared, such as electronic dance music, punk and heavy metal, which gradually formed the pop music mode we are hearing now. The arrangement of European and American pop music is generally complicated and ingenious. It combines the above elements into a tune skillfully, and adds rich orchestration to make the music even more icing on the cake. This arrangement style is very common in black pop music.

The arrangement of pop music in China is much simpler, generally consisting of solo, chorus and interlude, and the orchestration is generally composed of drums, guitars and bass. However, in the current China pop music, composers add the melody and orchestration of China traditional opera to songs, which can be said to be a fusion of Chinese and Western cultures.

The early popular music in China was mainly folk songs (campus songs), national pop (such as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau), country and traditional rock. After 1980s, with the opening of culture, some European and American music, such as R&B, hip-hop and electronic music, began to influence our local music. However, today, the unique music form popular among various ethnic groups still exists and can be derived, and Han Hong is a typical representative of this genre.

European and American pop music also has a superb level in the expression of lyrics, some of which are full of philosophy, picturesque, and some criticize the current disadvantages to alert the world. But at the same time, some songs describe violence, sex, race and gender discrimination in their lyrics.

Most of the lyrics of China pop music are beautiful, and the lines of the whole lyrics are smooth, but due to cultural differences, some artists can't really express their ideas. For example, Zheng Zhihua was placed under house arrest by the local government of Taiwan Province Province for nearly 10 years because the lyrics of a "big citizen" touched a sensitive point.

Singing methods and techniques

This is the biggest difference between European and American pop music and China pop music. Popular singing methods in Europe and America are mainly embodied in passion and improvisation. At the same time, Ji Cheng inherited the vocal state of some serious music. For example, the conversion of true and false sounds, the high-pitched part, the jumping skills, and the sound display that continuously spans the octave zone. If you don't have a fairly skilled singing method, you can't finish a work with certain difficulty at all. It can also be said that it can't be called popular singing in Europe and America. Of course, not all Europeans have singing skills. At the Grammy Awards Gala held in recent years, the winners often sing in a pure and natural style. However, their vocal bases are always the same-alto sounds like "talking", bass sounds like "sighing" and treble sounds like "calling people from a distance". Although electroacoustic has been highly developed and applied in today's pop music, it has always maintained its own singing characteristics and is not affected by style changes. Not only that, in the popular singing methods in Europe and America, dumb voice, angry voice, shouting, decorative voice, sliding voice, sobbing and falsetto, including some special uses of air sound, are often used to interpret sadness, crying, sincerity, euphemism, passion, etc ... Using the expression method of body language rhythm fusion, using mixed voice, harmony and irregular voice, some with or without accompaniment, some without accompaniment. In addition, some singers have created highly dazzling singing forms, which make pop singers have a shocking artistic charm on the stage and achieve high attainments in performing arts. And because of its profound cultural background, many vocal methods and techniques in European and American pop music are based on the essence of early church gospel songs and soul music. This vocal method is similar to bel canto, but different from bel canto, which keeps the sound clear and ensures the fullness of the sound. Let the songs that could have been more ups and downs look boring. Moreover, most pop singers in China don't use their voices when singing high notes and low notes, so that the high notes can't go up and the low notes can't come down, or they just "shout" with their throats, and the sensory sounds they hear are unsupported, floating and shaking. Not only that, the mastery of the breath is not very satisfactory, and there are often loud and rapid ventilation sounds, which may destroy the integrity of the song because of irregular ventilation.

Post-production in Europe and America is a very complicated process, which generally goes through many steps, such as noise reduction, voltage limiting, excitation, attenuation (attenuation envelope), distortion, reverberation, equalization, mastering and so on. And each step is adjusted according to the singer's different degree of play in each time period. Therefore, an excellent European and American popular work sometimes takes weeks or even months to make a late effect. The production of popular songs in Europe and America is not only the production of human voices, but also the accompaniment and harmony of songs. In the process of accompaniment production, producers usually make different instruments produce different effects, including volume, interval, saturation, cold and warm, dry and wet, rhythm fluctuation and so on. In this way, every instrument has to go through these procedures, and the final pure music accompaniment is very three-dimensional and layered accompaniment music; The second step is to make harmony, which plays an important role in European and American pop music. European and American pop music generally uses gorgeous harmony and accompaniment to create beautiful effects. Different harmonies show different effects. The most common way is that the harmonist records the required harmony for many times and uses different sound frequencies to make the harmony output from the left and right channels at the same time, which is the so-called "whispering" effect. This method was later adopted and applied to the production of China pop music. Another method is the most primitive harmony method, that is, many people sing the high, middle and low areas of the harmony part at the same time, and then combine them to make an effect. Among them, the production method of harmony is the oldest and the most difficult, which is a great test for harmonists and producers. This kind of harmony often appears in church gospel songs and soul music. Then there is the processing of the tonic, which usually includes general effects (studio effects), radio effects, telephone effects, live effects, electronic synthesis effects and so on. After completion, the previously produced accompaniment with harmony is mixed with the tonic. This is what we usually call the master tape (DEMO), and the final master tape is the finished product we hear.

The post-production of China pop music has undergone fundamental changes after the introduction of European and American pop music, such as the "whisper" harmony effect. Up to now, the radio effect, telephone effect, field effect and electronic synthesis effect are all products of learning from Europe and America.

Newcomer introduction and system operation

In European and American pop music circles, it can be said that there are many newcomers who are real idols and powerful singers. European and American entertainment circles have their own methods to promote new people. The first is the club, and the most famous is the Disney Club. Britney spears; Now it is famous in European and American pop music circles; Her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake; Known as a new generation of pop kings; Her arch rivals and childhood friends, christina aguilera, jessica simpson and Hilary Duff, who are regarded as diva's successors, and some up-and-coming stars such as JC Chasez and Jesse McCartney were once members of this club. Mickey Mouse Club is a specialty of American culture and a lucky place for American children to realize their dreams. Of course, the competition there is also harsh, and not all children with dreams can be favored by God to become dazzling stars. Followed by all kinds of competitions to find new people, the most famous one is American Idol. This competition for selecting new people is not entirely American competition now. Young people from all over the world who have dreams about the future come to participate in this competition. This competition won the popularity of newcomers of different styles and types like kelly clarkson and Kong Qingxiang overnight. The next method is self-recommendation, that is, young people who want to become famous go to professional recording studios at their own expense, ask professional producers to make them, and then make samples of their works and send them to record companies. Of course, there are many ways to promote new people in Gulu area, but the above are the most common and effective ways to become famous.

China is greatly influenced by Europe and America in promoting new people, and among many influences, holding competitions is the most popular one at present. Now we are familiar with "Super Girl" and "Lycra Going My Own Way" competitions, all of which are held to promote new people in China pop music. These two competitions are relatively open, just and fair, but most similar competitions have affected the mood of the contestants because of the lack of due fairness.

Urban Traditional Music When watching Japanese movies and TV series, we often hear a kind of music with unique oriental charm. Most of their melodies are based on the traditional music of Japanese cities. In the pure Japanese atmosphere, there is a specious western music, which is the result of years of interaction between two contrasting cultures in the East and the West. Although japanese pop people have borrowed a lot of American pop music, they can calmly recreate it in their own way.

Although many Japanese pop music and American music are in the same strain, Japanese music creation is permeated with national uniqueness. In addition to the perceived nationality, Japanese pop music is also the product of cultural interaction between the two countries, and it is this interaction that produces the unique comprehensiveness of Japanese pop music. It is true that American music once had a great influence on Japanese pop, but at least in Japanese pop, japanese pop has a greater influence.