Back in Black

August 29, 2018 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

The march of progress often tramples viable older tech underfoot, only for it to make a comeback later. The boom in artificial fabrics such as nylon, polyester and neoprene last century was followed by a return to cotton, wool and silk, eliciting in many a sigh of relief and comfort. Could vinyl records be set to do the same? 

As streaming and digital downloads have become dominant in our “connected world”, the compact disc has gone the way of the dodo. This is partly because new computers rarely come with CD players built in, but also because the tangible aspects of CDs, such as the flimsy plastic and paper packaging, hardly inspire devotion. For those who want to hold and feel their music, old-style records are rapidly replacing CDs. 

Vinyl sales are at a 25-year high, with pressing plants currently unable to keep up. Stores such as HMV are well-stocked with the black gold. Bands are excited about it, too – for one, 1980s legends Eurythmics are reissuing all their albums on vinyl this year. 

For most of the 20th century, the vinyl album was embedded in the world’s imagination and on its record shelves. But in the mid-’80s, the rug was pulled out from under music consumers when the CD was foisted on an unsuspecting public. It was digital, we were told, and therefore its reproduction must be perfect. 

In fact, however, it was a step backward for audio quality. To make a digital recording, analogue signals have to be “sampled”. The CD introduced the 44.1 kHz audio sampling rate, which takes “snapshots” of the analogue signal 44,100 times per second. Each snapshot is then measured with 16-bit accuracy, giving only 65,536 possible sonic values. 

Thus, CDs don’t capture the complete sound wave. Complex tones, such as trumpets or drum transients, may be distorted because they occur too fast to be converted adequately. On the other hand, the groove cut into a quality vinyl record mirrors the original sound’s waveform with a much greater frequency range. And while the analogue output of a record player can be fed directly to your amplifier, digital players need to convert the signal back to analogue. 

Barring dust, static or scratches, a quality vinyl record played on good equipment should be more accurate and richer than any CD – and even so-called “lossless” digital formats with much higher sampling and bit rates. While subtle surface noise is a facet of vinyl records, most people grow to appreciate the “atmosphere” it gives. Records do get worn over time, but if looked after properly, they’re still far more durable than CDs (and possibly even the internet). They’re less likely to malfunction than CDs or digital files because, well, there’s no such thing as a “vinyl virus”. 

Records also have a wow factor and were one of the most interesting cultural artefacts of the last century. A rite of passage for many music-addicted teens was to raid their parents’ dusty record collections (and wardrobes) to discover older music and broaden their horizons. It could be argued that the widely bemoaned quality level of modern popular music (US musician Moby recently shamed it as “terrible – shallow and trite and unredeemable”) is one consequence of this heirloom vacuum.

Vinyl’s demise also killed the art of visual design. From the American jazz album covers of the ’40s and ’50s to those of rock and pop a few decades later, cover art became an indelible visual counterpoint to the music of these golden eras. Many bands were intimately involved in the creation of the covers – no surprise, given the art-school background of many.

A Brief History of Vinyl

1877: Thomas Edison invents the “tinfoil phonograph”, an analogue sound-storage medium that allows immediate playback. It only achieves novelty status.

1887: Edison replaces the foil sheet with a hollow wax cylinder and a viable market for sound recordings develops. 

1894: Edison rival Emile Berliner introduces the gramophone system. Instead of wax cylinders, it uses seven-inch discs made of hard rubber, with an inscribed spiral groove. 

1910s: Following a format war, the gramophone dominates. 

1919: Berliner’s patents expire, leading to open season on the gramophone system. Standard “78s” are made of shellac, an insect resin. 

1930s: Vinyl plastic discs become common in professional contexts. They are lighter, longer-playing and yield less surface noise than shellac. But they’re still too expensive for the home market. 

1940s and 1950s: Polyvinyl chloride becomes the dominant material for records. The 3 1⁄3 rpm “long-play” (LP) and 45 rpm formats begin to replace 78s.

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Sounds Nice

June 6, 2018 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Step 1

Grab your favourite digital audio player or your smartphone, filled with the music that you usually listen to. It’s ideal if you can load it up with lossless files, eg. WAV or FLAC.

Step 2

With your files and your player, head to your local audio shop and test a range of custom in-ear monitors from various brands. Each model tends to highlight unique sonic characteristics, so different ones are better for specific kinds of music. Choose the one that’s right for your needs and start the order process. 

Step 3

Pick your favourite shell colours and artwork (the pattern on the top). Some brands can even do different designs for the left and right sides. And of course, this is when you pay the bill. 

Step 4

Visit a reliable hearing centre to get a custom silicon mould of your ear, and send that mould to the brand or the shop.

Step 5

Now, you wait. Your earbuds should be done according to the time frame that the brand promises.

Step 6

Choose a suitable cable that fits your earbuds once you receive them, as various conductors can have slightly different sonic effects. For example, silver can make the high range brighter and tends to be richer in detail, whereas copper delivers the audio in a mellow way and provides more profound mid- and low-range sounds. 

Step 7

Though the brand may provide a basic box, you can also select a nice carrying case for your new beauties; a hard-shell is ideal for protecting them. 

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Music

May 23, 2018 / by Shaun Kent

Music

April 6, 2018 / by Shaun Kent

Music

March 2, 2018 / by Shaun Kent

Rock My World

March 2, 2018 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, American Idol… the television-watching world clearly has a great passion for talent shows. Take Idols (including its American Idol adaptation) – the UK-originated reality show franchise debuted in 2001 and has now broadcast in 150 countries to 6.5 billion viewers, making it the world’s most widely watched show. Before launching Idols, British television producer Simon Fuller was inspired by the New Zealand all-girl band singing contest Popstars in 1999.

Though the word “talent” refers to a variety of skills, the most popular one on these types of shows is music – specifically singing, though it’s sometimes accompanied by dancing. Music talent shows entertain their audiences by televising the selection process, discovering budding stars from a vast pool of non-professionals or beginner musicians. An open audition is usually conducted as a transparent step to give all participants a chance to strive for that final performance on the stage – in Chinese, the arduous process is called “sea selection” (hai xuan).

As in the West, Chinese music talent shows rose to prominence in the early 2000s. But China’s very first talent show on television was in 1984 – the National Young Singers Competition, hosted on China Central Television (CCTV). The show featured Peng Liyuan (now the country’s first lady), who took third place in the first year and first prize in 1986 for professional folk singing. 

In 2003, CCTV introduced a new family pastime weekend show called Six Days and One Day Plus, hosted by Li Yong, who’s known for his humorous style – he’s also been a regular host for CCTV’s Chinese New Year’s Gala since 2002. In each 90-minute show, Li acted as a scout who discovered three people and invited them to a six-day training course with a group of stage professionals; on the seventh day, the contestants had to perform on the show’s grand stage in Beijing. It’s long been remembered as a signature show of Li and a nostalgic TV programme for many millennials in China – top model Sui He recalled standing behind Li, assisting him with the show’s popular “hitting golden egg” section, in which gifts were doled out to audience members around the country. Ten years later, the long-running show got a full revamp – and today, it’s hosted by Zhu Xun.

Among all the provincial satellite channels, Hunan TV is best known for creating entertainment shows – its Happy Camp is one of the most popular and longest-running variety shows in China. However, perhaps no other production can compare with the noise the all-girl singing contest Super Girl made, which debuted in 2004 and ran for three years. A spin-off of the previous Super Boy, the female version turned out to be far more successful and influential. “Regardless of genre, age, appearance and region, as long as you love singing” was the show’s open invitation for all in the nation to participate. With promises of lucrative bonuses and impressive rewards, plus an express pass to a star career, thousands of women were eager to join.

2005 was the most heated year for Super Girl. From May to September, 15 women made the final cut – from the initial 150,000 contestants. Four hundred million people tuned in, with the average rating beating out the wildly popular CCTV Chinese New Year’s Gala. The audience participation was extraordinary; at the time, fans voted for their favourite singers via text messages that cost RMB 0.5 to RMB 1 each – this alone contributed approximately RMB 30 million to the show’s revenue. More than 8 million votes were collected in the final-round competition. Mengniu Dairy was the title sponsor that year, paying about RMB 10 million to add “Mengniu Suan Suan Ru” (a yoghurt-based beverage targeting young people) to the show’s name; the sales of this single product reached around RMB 2 billion that year, compared to RMB 700 million in the prior year.

The top three winners of the 2005 competition all went on to successful singing careers after the show. Champion Chris Lee is planning her third world tour concert this March; she’s also a face of Givenchy and Gucci. Runner-up Bibi Zhou’s first album in 2006 was the bestseller of the year; she soon tapped into songwriting and has acted in a few big-budget films. And second runner-up Jane Zhang (nicknamed the “dolphin princess” for being able to hit those really high notes) became the first Asian singer to perform songs at the acclaimed Victoria’s Secret runway show in Shanghai last November; she sang “Work for It”, “808” and “Dust My Shoulders Off”. 

Controversy arose, too – specifically about how the show gave young girls unrealistic dreams of achieving fame overnight. The period in which the show aired was also a critical time — the intense preparation period for 12th- graders in China getting ready for the national higher-education entrance exam (gaokao). Ultimately, in 2007, China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television imposed a series of highly tightened rules to regulate all talent shows – and Super Girl was its main target. These included not allowing any talent shows to broadcast during prime-time hours (7.30pm to 10.30pm), which immediately pressed pause on the overall development of entertainment shows in China. 

In 2011, the number of entertainment shows allowed to broadcast in prime time was relaxed – to nine per day. The following summer, The Voice of China became an overnight sensation. Premiering on Zhejiang TV in July 2012, its first episode broke the national ratings record as the most-watched first episode of all time. And thanks to online video streaming, which had just begun to flourish at that time, the first episode released online hit 100 million views in 20 hours. 

The Voice of China acquired the rights from the Dutch reality show The Voice of Holland, which debuted in 2010. The Chinese adaptation features a similarly distinctive blind audition, which is led by four celebrity coaches, recognised by their red chairs that turn around when they hear a good voice. Each coach selects seven singers for their team and sends the best four to the finals. The show delivered some memorable performances and young talent emerged – such as then-20-year-old music school student Momo Wu, who impressed Taiwanese music coach Harlem Yu with her debut song, a cover of Jessie J’s “Price Tag”. Summer Jike Junyi is remembered as the “girl from the mountain” in Western China, with her tanned skin and her reinterpretations of Chinese Yi ethnic folk songs. 

Throughout The Voice of China’s four popular seasons, it topped the ratings every Friday. The title sponsor enjoyed its popularity, too: JDB Group, the herbal tea maker, reportedly contributed RMB 60 million to a total of RMB 300 million in revenue during season one; the latter number had more than doubled by season four in 2015. Though the show singled out high-quality voices and talented singers, it was also mocked for its sometimes over-the-top emotional scenes, which generally happened when a singer narrated his or her “chasing the dream” story; some quipped on social media that it should be named “The Tears of China”. 

However, the fifth season faced difficulties. The Chinese producer, Star China Media, has been in legal dispute with the Dutch copyright owner, Talpa; the latter signed with another Chinese company to continue the production after season four. Stuck in legal limbo, the fifth season wasn’t released in 2016. Star China Media instead made a new show, Sing! China, which adopts a similar format but mixes up some of the details – the turning chair was changed to a sliding one that moves up and down a track, though it kept the iconic red colour. Gradually, as more music shows emerged in the market, such as Hunan TV’s I Am a Singer, the fever pitch of The Voice cooled down. 

iQiyi is a leading online video platform owned by China’s most-used search engine, Baidu. In 2017, the streaming company invested RMB 200 million to produce a talent show specialising in a specific music genre: hip-hop. The Rap of China is the biggest project it has done, viewed exclusively on the iQiyi platform. Led by a panel of star judges – featuring former Korean-Chinese boy band EXO member Kris Wu and three Taiwanese artists – Wilber Pan, MC Hotdog and Chang Chen-yue – the first episode’s “sea selection” hit more than 100 million views in four hours. 

“You got freestyle?” is the Kris Wu catchphrase that soon became an unavoidable buzzword on social media, with countless GIFs and memes of the style icon. It was all the rage among the younger generations from the post-’90s to the post-’00s – the latter is referred to as the Z-lennials, associated with enormous spending power and their tendency to be self-oriented in the context of China. 

A champion of the final live competition, Gai (Yan Zhou), was an underground rapper in Chongqing. On the show, he’s recognised for rapping in the Sichuan dialect, including his most popular song, Hot Pot Soup. Wearing a golden mask and competing under the alias “HipHopMan”, Chinese-American rapper MC Jin had actually cracked the Billboard Top 200 in 2004 with his debut album The Rest Is History. On the show, Jin rapped in Putonghua for the first time, after performing in English for the past 20 years. According to the show’s director, Che Che, the top 70 rappers who appeared on The Rap of China increased their Weibo followers by a total of 20.85 million fans. 

With 12 episodes in three months, The Rap of China hit 2.68 billion views, though criticism about the show arose due to its similarity to Korean rap reality show Show Me the Money, which debuted in 2012 – even the logo design was similar. So far, however, the Korean show’s producer has not taken any action in filing a legal case. 

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Music

January 26, 2018 / by Shaun Kent

Let’s Go Crazy

January 26, 2018 / by Marine Orlova

Established in the heart of the Golden Triangle of Paris, the Crazy Horse cabaret is undoubtedly one of the most glamorous attractions in town. When avant-garde artist Alain Bernardin founded it in 1951, he wanted to create a unique and contemporary temple of femininity. He cast the “most beautiful women in the world”, created dazzling acts inspired by pop art and new-wave aesthetics, and designed what remains the Crazy Horse signature: dancers dressed in nothing but hypnotic lighting effects. Don’t expect to see gaudy feathers, French cancan dance or bulky costumes at “le Crazy”, as it’s commonly referred to by fans. 

Far from the clichés of the old Paris, the cabaret offers an iconic yet resolutely modern show. To enrich its repertoire over the past ten years, Crazy Horse has called on some of the trendiest artists and designers – among them Philippe Decouflé, Christian Louboutin, Chantal Thomass and Dita Von Teese – to co-create original tableaux. The new show, Totally Crazy, pays tribute to 65 years of creation and showcases the most glorious acts of the cabaret. And for the first time, Crazy Horse reveals its hidden world with the Crazy Experience, a private behind-the-scenes tour.

Mika Do is one of the dancers in charge of the Crazy Experience. Dressed in an elegant black-and-white suit, she retraces the cabaret’s history in an epic tale sprinkled with some crunchy anecdotes and fun facts. Did you know that the dancers use 500 litres of make-up per year? As she discusses the recruitment standards, the audience is brimming with questions; they yearn to know what the Crazy attitude is – and how to get it. “It takes three months of intense training to transform a ballet dancer into a Crazy girl,” Mika Do explains. “The way we walk, look or do our make-up – nothing is left to chance. Once you enter the Crazy Horse, you are changed forever!” 

The dancers are “baptised” before their first performance. It’s a way to preserve their anonymity, as well as to highlight their personality and their most special features. Rita Renoir, Psykko Tico, Zula Zazou and Hippy Bang Bang are among the fabulous stage names. Be they dramatic, seductive, funny or romantic, the Crazy girls must have a certain je ne sais quoi that makes their presence unique. “No less than 500 dancers from all around the world apply each year to be part of Crazy Horse,” says Mika Do. “Beyond artistic and technical skills, personality is an absolute requirement. If we are to create a perfect unit for the chorus line, we need to be true actresses during our solo performances.” Just before the show begins, she opens Bernardin’s private office. Velvet, lacquered red wood, mirrors and vintage magazines provide a glimpse into the founder’s fantasy. 

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Yuletide Yodels

December 1, 2017 / by Shaun Kent

As the season of making merry bears down on us again, the radio airwaves – never mind the shopping malls and supermarkets – will be ringing to the sounds of “Jingle Bells”, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman”.

If there’s one thing that has united pop bands, opera singers, rappers, country music stars and velvet-voiced crooners over the years, it has been the irresistible urge to produce a Christmas record. The results have so often been cringeworthy, so why have so many been willing to risk their hard-won credibility in search of a Christmas hit?

Nostalgia and a desire to create some Christmas cheer may be part of it, but the biggest incentives are commercial – a Yuletide hit can generate millions of sales and climb back up the charts every December. In fact, the biggest-selling single of all time is Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”, which has sold more than 50 million copies since its release during the Second World War. Add this to multiple versions of the song – by Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson and Coldplay, among numerous other artists – and “White Christmas,” written by American composer Irving Berlin, has racked up more than 150 million sales. 

Over the years, Christmas recordings have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. Compare the majestic, soaring voices on the 2015 recording Carols with the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir to Bob Dylan sounding like a drunken uncle who just gatecrashed lunch on 2009’s Christmas in the Heart. And country outlaw Johnny Cash may have cultivated his tough guy image with “Folsom Prison Blues”, but that didn’t stop him from warbling through “The Little Drummer Boy” on his album The Christmas Spirit. The Beatles even used Christmas to send festive cheer to members of their fan club, recording songs and messages that were given away free on bendable, vinyl flexi-discs.

Bob Geldof raised millions of dollars for famine relief with the 1984 single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” It was a worthy cause, but the title prompted critics to respond with a resounding no: starving children in Ethiopia probably didn’t know it was Christmas.

More recently, Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber, Destiny’s Child and Kanye West have all succumbed to the lure of recording a Christmas song. And this year is proving no exception, with acts including veteran boy band 98 Degrees (“Let it Snow”), Gwen Stefani (“You Make it Feel Like Christmas”) and the brother-trio Hanson (“Finally It’s Christmas”) all jumping on the Yuletide bandwagon.

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Screen Gems

December 1, 2017 / by Jon Braun

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