Don’t be embarrassed.
Editor’s note: This article comes from the WeChat public account “Music Prelude” (ID: nakedmusic) , author: Fan Zhihui.
On March 14th, the first phase of the band reality show “Our Band” produced by Mango TV and Vision Television was jointly broadcast on Mango TV and Jiangsu Satellite TV. Nicholas Tse, Wang Junkai, and Xiao Jingteng participated as the band’s president. After the band’s variety show last year, they marched again.
The next day, our band scored more than 50,000, and the Douban score rose to 7.3 on the afternoon, and the score showed significant polarization, that is, one star and five stars mostly, 2-4 stars rarely. Presents a clear C-type, that is, the evaluation of fans and passersby is polarized.
But after the second episode was broadcast, the rating dropped back. As of March 24, the number of scoring people was close to 100,000, and the rating was 6.4. The highest short comment was praised. It depends on our Chinese variety show. ” With reference to Yunhe data, the program’s effective broadcast market share of the feature film last week was 7.39%, ranking behind “Ace vs. Ace Season 5” and “Youth Has You Season 2”.
Of course, as a latecomer in a band variety show, how does “our band” perform?
What about “our band”?
As we all know, due to the epidemic, the recording of variety shows in China has also been affected to some extent. It is understood that the recording of “Our Band” began in September last year, and it was not until the end of February this year that the official Weibo of the program group started to update the program to warm up. After almost half a year, it only takes 8 days to go from the official file to the official launch.
From the perspective of the program mode, “Our Band” borrows the logic of the Korean band variety show “Super Band”, that is, individual musicians team up and compete with each other, and then undergo split and reorganization to use idols. Develop a way to build a band. Different from “Super Band”, “Our Band” identified 15 candidates for the core member of the band “ACE” before the official start of the show, and selected 10 ACEs after performing in sequence. Each candidate was only at the same time Passing the recommendations of the three partners was considered a success.
In the explanation of the program, “ACE” represents the originator of each band and is the core of each band. After 10 ACEs have selected partners and teamed successfully through competition, the 10 bands then A duel was played, and eventually a most powerful new-generation band emerged. If the band’s lack of tacit understanding or poor performance, they will face dissolution and reorganization, and ACE will replace the re-election.
You can see that the concept of ACE in “Our Band” is similar to the “frontman” mentioned in “Super Band”, but the latter is determined by the instructor after watching all the players and performing the performance. because. In the follow-up show, “frontman”, as the team leader, and the band members also showed mutual sympathy.
But in the format of “Our Band”, the concept and weight of “ACE” was enlarged, and the “core of the band” was overemphasized, which somewhat undermined the overall balance of the band. In the pilot, some players opposed the concept and said, “I think everyone in the band is the core.” On the other hand, the band members in “Our Band” can grab the “ACE” position in the subsequent competition system, which strengthens the competitive relationship between the band members.
Besides, due to the limitation of the program duration, in order to be able to present more content in one program, the performance content of the players has been greatly compressed, and the interaction between the players and players is almost ” “A cut of plum”, many players’ words in the show lack the logical relationship between cause and effect. For example, the first “ACE” CORSAK called the stage musicians “A Rong” and “A Rui” in the selection process, and in the subsequent selection, there appeared intimate titles such as “Xiao Ni”, but several players The relationship between the characters and the changes in the program have not been explained.
In addition, the mutual selection between “ACE” and the musicians was not fully presented in the feature film, which led to a lack of coherent story logic between the choice between “ACE” and musicians, making it difficult for the audience to understand Motivation on both sides. In the mutual selection link, because a large number of the player’s selection clips were cut quickly or not at all, but an interview with someone suddenly appeared in subsequent programs, which made people confused. This fragmented editing method makes it difficult for viewers to leave a deep impression on a certain player, and also raises questions about inconsistent character relationships.
In the selection of editing materials, most of the players’ words are like carefully prepared “line”, or their speech is too superficial. For example, the interview materials of a large number of players are centered on band members’ “looking handsome”, “good-looking” and other content that has nothing to do with music and bands, and have also made netizens say “temporarily gathered together for recording programs, not a band at all”.
Even even the contestants have edited the program group on Weibo.
In addition, in order to spread the band’s culture and popular science performance skills, similar to “Let’s Band Together”, the program group has added various flower characters on the screen to introduce the skills that players are showing, but for ordinary audiences, the screen is fast A lot of professional terms such as “dual-tone performance”, “pad performance”, “three-dimensional die-in”, “black vocal singing”, “sweep-string accent shift” and so on are still in the clouds and fog. It was not elaborated later, which caused some difficulties in acceptance.
When the program system and editing methods are not satisfactory, the feedback after the broadcast is mostly given below the passing line. For example, the music critic Ding Taisheng gave two stars on the Douban score, and commented on Weibo that “it feels no different from” Together with the band “, the thunder and rain are small.” The music blogger “Poisonous Mushroom Music Scene” commented that “Although the participating players are powerful, the quality of the performance has not reached the level expected.” From the barrage point of view, most of them came for Wang Junkai, and they didn’t pay much attention to the programs and players.
From the perspective of music pioneers, the original intention of the “Our Band” program was to select excellent musicians, to “form a band” and spread the band culture in a cultivated manner, but under the chaotic editing logic, The entire program is not much different from the previous draft programs, emphasizing selection and competition, placing the “group band”, which should be the core, in a secondary position, putting the cart before the horse and putting the cart before the horse.
As of now, only two episodes of “Our Band” have been broadcast. Although the performance of the first two episodes is indeed a bit boring, the follow-up team PK is the highlight of the entire show. Whether the show can open and go high is worth continuing. Observed.
People-oriented, High-quality music content is the core
Looking back at 2019, the film and television industry returned to rationality in the cold winter, and variety production ushered in a moment of “decreasing and improving quality.” According to the “Tencent Entertainment White Paper 2019”, the total number of variety shows broadcast in the past year was 184, a decrease of 15.2% from last year. Music variety is a red sea, the competition system is difficult to innovate, and the mentor and player cross-repetition rate is high …
The birth of the explosion of “China Has Hip Hop” in 2017 instantly focused the major platforms on the vertical subdivision culture, and the “Band” as an unexplored blue ocean, its commercial value also last year Confirmed.
In April last year, the Korean music variety “Super Band” gradually grew in popularity in China, with the most popular broadcast compilation at station B having more than 2 million views and nearly 200,000 barrage. For a Korean music program that only relies on subtitle group translation and netizens to carry it, it has already become very popular. In terms of ratings, Douban of “Super Band” rose to 9.7 points after the broadcast of “Our Band”.
In China, “Summer of a Band” produced by Mi Wei Media last year and produced jointly with iQiyi has become a small hit in the domestic music variety show. Two months after the end of “Band Summer”, Chan Xing’s “Let’s Band Together” was launched on Youku and the market feedback did not meet expectations, but the Douban score was only 4.2. Last year’s three band shows, plus this year’s “Our Band”, the gains and losses during this period may give us some inspiration.
In the production process of music variety shows, the competition system is regarded as the core of a show. But in fact, careful analysis, whether it is “Super Band” or “Summer of the Band”, the format of these two programs is not new, but still received high praise. The reason lies in the fact that the program group filled the slightly outdated format with a lot of high-quality content. Needless to say, the music quality of “Super Band”, Coldplay’s “Viva la vida” and “Adventure Of A Lifetime” adapted by previous bands have been highly rated, and the latter was praised by the original author. . The stage production and music selection have also achieved the top standards in music variety.
Some netizens believe that in a similar mode, Korean variety shows are better because Korean players are better than domestic players, but after careful analysis, this view is not very valid. With great demographic advantages, years of music education and major music colleges all over the country have cultivated many outstanding musicians, so why are there still very few outstanding players in band programs in China? First, during the early selection of players, due to the musical aesthetic preferences of the directors and consideration of the player’s personality and appearance, many outstanding players have become “missing fish”; second, even if excellent players participate, However, it may not be well presented in the program, leading to becoming a bead. Third, some outstanding players may not all have the willingness to participate in the recording of the program.
In addition to players, high-quality content also requires the cooperation of software and hardware, as well as preparation in the early and late stages. On the one hand, the music literacy of the program group determines the tone and direction of the program from the source. In addition to maintaining awe of the culture that is not known, it also takes time to learn more about music and bands. It is understood that Mi Wei Media has been preparing for “Summer of the Band” since September 2018. The production company has invited “easy FM” DJ Li Yuan to give lectures to all the directors, and also visited Modern Sky and Taihe Music , Street sound and other music labels. These upfront costs undoubtedly set a certain threshold for doing band shows, but the solid upfront work also laid the foundation for the success of the show later.
On the other hand, the band ’s own music team is also crucial, but the lack of talent behind the scenes has led to high-density single-person work. In addition to industrial standards, each team has their own preferences and views on the aesthetics of music, and the diversity of musical performance in band programs places higher demands on the music team. Obviously, each band knows their own musical style and musical characteristics, so “Summer of the Band” simply abandoned the music director and let the bands take care of the quality of the music themselves, while avoiding the music produced by the fixed music team Aesthetic homogeneity.
However, domestic musicOn the basic issue of respecting music, art shows still have a lot of conceptual confusion. For example, in order to meet the length of the show, “Let’s Band” and “Our Band” cut a lot of performance content, some players often only perform 10 to 30 seconds. In contrast, South Korea’s “Super Band” spent a lot of time to show the performance of the players, only the first round of selection has two programs, the entire link is longer than three hours, most players perform one long, one short and two. Tracks, show the talents of the players more comprehensive. The difference in the presentation of music content also affects the audience’s perception of the players’ memory and musicality.
In other words, the planning and editing of music content are inextricably linked. Compared with the four programs, “Super Band” and “Summer of the Band” also opened a gap with the other two programs in the planning and editing.
“Super Band” has been around from the beginning with “people who make music together”. In the follow-up player interviews, reality show parts, narration and subtitles, etc., this concept has been continuously strengthened. For musicians throughout the entire The emotional connection and changes between the show and other players also have a complete story line. Although “Our Band” also borrowed from the “Super Band” at the beginning of the show to conduct interviews with players on “What does it feel like to make music by oneself”, it also elicited keywords such as loneliness and loneliness, but it failed in the later stages. Grasp this theme tightly, and gradually drifted into the entertaining laughter.
“Summer of the Band” is very clear about the character story in the editing. Producer Mu Yong said in an interview: “These bright people, their persistence and love for the ideal of music, and the sadness and joy behind them, are inherently treasures of variety shows.” In order to make reality shows more real, the show group He has sent special character directors to follow the daily rehearsal of the band and run tours with them. By building a more intimate connection with the band on tour, he successfully reserved enough material for the later recording and editing of “Band Summer”.
Can Xing Yin, who has repeatedly opened the top ratings in the entrepreneurial worldIn order to have too many “successful experiences”, “Let’s Band” not only continued the “brilliant star” style on the mentors and players, but also continued the stylized character stories and dreams to support the reality show, but the audience for this The curing mode is already tired. There is no doubt that the planning and editing of the show needs to be innovative, and drawing on the success of others or yourself is no longer enough to ensure a good show that attracts viewers.
Since 2018, there have been music variety shows in the form of bands in China, and it is now the third year. However, at present, only “Band Summer” breaks through in many similar programs in China, and most of the music variety shows have not shaken off their dependence on the previous model, which makes it hard for the core of the “band” to be truly accepted and recognized by the public. The circle is impossible to talk about.
Summary
In the context of similar competition and swarming, it is not easy for domestic music variety shows to make new ideas. But before considering how to commercialize, it is always essential to ensure the music and viewability of the show.
In these band variety shows, many problems of music variety shows in recent years have also been exposed. In addition to the fact that the reality show is too patterned and scripted, the player’s character is not presented; in the presentation of the content, the lack of understanding of the music leads to inadequate editing, and it is difficult to plan new; and rely too much on the music team , Resulting in unstable quality of the music content itself.
The coming of winter, relying on a traffic artist to drive the topic of the program can not make the program successful, and if the band variety show and music variety show want to make new ideas and go out of the circle, the creation of the program content itself is still the most secure and effective s Choice.