As for the modern pop songs in the 1930s and 1940s, it was almost an undeveloped virgin land. As far as the cultural market in the elbow period of the Republic of China is concerned, movies, popular novels and popular songs go hand in hand. However, after the films and popular novels represented by Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School were re-evaluated and recognized in the Republic of China, popular songs did not enter the field of vision of literary researchers. Only a few scholars from Hongkong and Taiwan Province participated in it. For example, An Overview of Contemporary Music written by Huang Qizhi at 1978 focuses on the contemporary music of Xianggang in the 1950s and 1960s. Sun Kun's A Brief History of China Pop Music: 19 17- 1970 provides the development of modern pop songs in Shanghai and Hongkong. Among them, although Huang Qizhi emphasized literary research, it is a pity that the main space is Xiang Gang's music of the times, and Sun Kun's works are intended to describe history, with little attention to literature and few works included. Relatively speaking, the music industry explored this field earlier than the literary world. For example, Hong et al. studied the popular songs in 1930s and 1940s in Taiwan Province academic circles. Dr. Su Wei Chet, a musician in China, made a detailed analysis of the musical and cultural characteristics of popular songs in 1930s and 1940s. Mainland musicologists have also provided some case studies on old Shanghai singers, such as "As a genre, take China's early songs and records as an example, take Zhou Xuan's films starring in 1930s and 1940s as an example, and compare them with Hollywood musicals of the same period.
Introduction 1, the origin of textual research, don't sing! Poetry and songs are too elegant. Stop singing! Stop singing! Love, love, they said it was disgusting. It is relaxed but not great, majestic and terrible, and no one loves it solemnly. Stop singing! Stop singing! Don't speak for fear of being scolded, don't speak for fear of being scolded. Stop singing! Stop singing! 1 1 "Don't sing" is a popular song in the 1940s. Its composer Li Jinguang, lyricist Li Juanqing and singer Zhou Xuan were all the most famous creators of pop music before liberation. China's modern pop songs have shown amazing expansion in the past two decades since they appeared in the late 1920s. This new type of song, which absorbs modern western music and combines elements of China traditional music, has been adopted by radio and magazines, and has become a popular form of entertainment with the help of modern media such as movies. At that time,' Don't Sing' reflected the embarrassment faced by China pop songs since their birth, and revealed the helplessness of pop song creators and artists. In the first half of the 20th century, influenced by economic development and the impact of modern western culture, modern pop songs rose rapidly in large and medium-sized cities with Shanghai as the center, which was spectacular for a while. However, this also immediately attracted criticism from all sides. On the one hand, the quality of pop songs is mixed, and more importantly, the persistence of modern pop songs in entertainment conflicts with the mainstream thoughts of anti-Japanese and later class struggle, thus encountering strong pressure from the ideological field. Cultural circles' general comments on pop songs, such as "Huang Ge" and "decadent voice", have long dominated public opinion, seriously affecting the objectivity of the latecomers. Influenced by historical issues, until the early 1980s, popular songs were still under pressure from public opinion and policies, and the process of correcting their names became more and more difficult. The discussant is either echoing the public or blindly touching the elephant. There is no comprehensive analysis of pop songs, which has lasted for decades. In order to overcome some people's prejudice against pop songs and strive for a relatively peaceful development environment, professionals even have to carefully avoid the name of pop songs and deliberately use relatively vague concepts such as "light music", "lyric songs" and "pop songs". Look at' 65438+ In the last century, the Art Bureau of the Ministry of Culture and the Theoretical Creation Committee of the Musicians' Association jointly held a national symposium on light music, suggesting the use of the concept of "light music" or "pop music" ... Pop music was later widely used. 1986, the second national TV Grand Prix for Young Singers was held by CCTV. The pop songs that appeared in the first half of the year do have defects and similarities. However, this is a phenomenon of any literary type. When the smoke of the Anti-Japanese War dispersed and broke away from the special wartime atmosphere, we objectively reviewed the songs that were popular for a while but were criticized, and it was not difficult to find the flash of light in them. The current pop songs also show amazing appeal and influence. So many listeners are mainly teenagers, including many young people with higher education-remembering their youth in songs, promoting their ideals in songs, and. Even more and more people are used to using lyrics to convey their feelings and express their love and hate. They cry with the song, but they are intoxicated with it, but they are both sad and happy. Even people who don't care about pop songs can't deny that pop songs have this charm that can make the audience feel happy and sad. In the face of all this, can we really be indifferent and ignore it? But now it seems that the academic field is indeed like this. Even after getting rid of the notoriety of "Huang Ge", pop songs are still not worth mentioning among modernist scholars who uphold the ideal of elite literature. The so-called pop culture only provides cheap and accessible entertainment for ordinary people who have no aesthetic ability and will only passively accept it. It is simply "not worthy of real or authoritative literary or cultural analysis." L. "The masses" and "popular culture" were rudely swept to the corner that they despised, and no one could see clearly. The inherent literary evaluation system plays a negative role in it. We have long been influenced by' classic works' and have been in the circle of pure literature or serious literature; We have made a set of value labels, but readers at all levels may not be able to recognize this price label. "Accordingly, a new paradigm of literary research is needed. However, neither the new value system nor the establishment of a new literary research paradigm can be easily solved. It must resist the strong resistance of the original value judgment standard and the inherent research paradigm. The rise of western postmodern theory makes people see the hope that popular literature research can rely on it in theory. However, the distinctive deconstructive nature of this theory itself makes it have a strong impact on "breaking", but it is inherently deficient in "standing". The consequence of "breaking without standing" is that popular literature cannot grasp its surging vitality. Lost the power of norms and guidance. So what we are seeing now is: In today's booming pop culture, pop songs have firmly occupied the main position in the music circle, and it and its audience are becoming more and more independent. The evaluation and guidance of the government and cultural authorities have gradually lost their influence, and pop songs are no longer shivering. They are proudly scattered over every city, even drifting to hills and farmland. Apart from the music circle, in essence, the text of popular songs has invaded the original field of poetry and robbed a large number of recipients who originally belonged to poetry. In the forties, the helplessness of "not singing" and "being afraid of being scolded" became the paradox of "persisting in singing" and "scolding if you want". However, the public and researchers are still arguing with each other and going their own way. This literary genre, which is judged as "inferior", is missing in the history of orthodox music and literature. The huge contrast between the heat of communication and the cold of research actually leads to a lose-lose situation.
In the era when many cultures occupy the mainstream, the cultural radiation mode that was originally enlightened by cultural elites to the general public has completely failed, and cultural authority has been pushed down from the altar. In the eyes of modern people, people who have no "initiative" are unexpectedly and resolutely fighting against the indoctrination from the so-called elite. This means that elite literature can't shake the real world and people's spiritual world if it loses its adaptability to the market. What it advertises is to save literature and society. The great responsibility of saving the human spirit will not be fulfilled. Therefore, blindly flaunting the sublime can only block the dialogue between English studies and popular literature and lose the opportunity to gain greater dissemination and influence from popular literature. For modern pop songs, if they have never been helped by rational criticism, their development and popularization can only be explored in the dark, or they will never find a bright exit. Maybe there are too many avoidable scars left in the darkness. If we are willing to open our eyes, get out of the cage of literary hierarchy and face this diversified cultural world calmly, it is not difficult to find that although pop songs have such and such problems in the context of large-scale reproduction of cultural industrialization, their rationality and significance are also clearly identifiable. The preface of the poem' Day:. Emotion moves in the middle and is formed in words, but it is not enough to sigh. It can be seen that songs are the main form for people to express their emotions, and human nature is always connected. The fundamental reason for the popularity of songs is nothing more than the universality of the emotions expressed. Because of this, how can we doubt that popular songs that are loved by so many people sing the voices of people in this era and tell their true feelings? ! Only by expressing this feeling accurately and fully can the song be recognized and loved by more people, and can it cause the reflection of various emotions such as joy, sadness, melancholy and gloom. Therefore, it is worthwhile to bring pop songs into the field of literary research simply on the basis of their true feelings and human nature "1". Before the rational study of pop songs, the first thing to do is to sort out the conceptual confusion and make clear what it refers to. For modern people, "pop song" 2 is a familiar term. It is not difficult for people to understand the type of music it refers to, and it is quite easy to distinguish it from folk songs, art songs and other categories, and easily list their familiar pop songs. However, when we try to find a clear definition for it, there are many different opinions. Since its birth in the late 1920s, many modern pop songs have appeared in China, such as Love Song for Family, Huang Ge, Light Music, Popular, and Zhang Heluo's New Edition of China Literature History. Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House 1998. P3。 This paper mainly focuses on pop songs. In order to avoid confusion with instrumental works in "pop music", this paper uses the word "pop music". However, in previous studies, "pop music" was used to refer to popular and bold songs. If there is no objection, several different names such as ",Song", "urban folk songs" and "pop songs" will not be pointed out in the discussion. These names are even discussed in technical terms in daily conversations. Among them, the word "pop songs" has the most extensive influence. In fact, "pop songs" cover much more content than "pop songs". The Encyclopedia of Music and Dance in China said: Pop music generally refers to music that is easy to understand, lively, easy to spread and has a wide audience. It is different from serious music, classical music and traditional folk music, and is also called "pop music". "Classical music" and "traditional folk music" are a kind of music, which refer to a wide range. Apart from indicating the language, music level and lively style of the song, there is almost no clear description of its characteristics. It is a musician's strategy to adopt this concept of "pop songs" with vague connotation and unclear extension, which accords with the purpose of finding rationality for the development of pop songs at that time. In essence, under the broad concept of "pop songs", pop songs have gained space for survival and development with the help of other kinds of songs (such as mass songs and artistic lyric songs). ) is recognized by public opinion and orthodox critics. The word "pop music" we are talking about now comes directly from English. Popular is called "sic" (pop music), and "popular" means "pop" and "pop". "Popular" and other meanings. The narrow definition of pop songs comes from the west, which has obvious western cultural color and social and historical background: Western pop songs originated from the United States, and absorbed the music of European immigrants and African blacks, so they also showed the characteristics of the United States as an immigrant country: "The world-wide music language, that is, the fusion of multi-ethnic cultures, the entertainment and consumption of pop music brought by modern urban life, are the most essential characteristics of modern pop music." 4438+0. The book borrows the definition of western pop music given by Knight and Peter Manuel, and roughly summarizes the following characteristics of pop music: 2: 1, which originated in the city and is oriented to urban audiences; 2. Style connection with national art music; At least in the 20th century, it was mainly spread through radio and mass media such as records and tapes. 4. Pop music is music popular for entertainment; 5. Pop star system: 6. Fast track updating is a typical feature of pop music. Communication tools try their best to keep people interested in a pop star's new work. From this definition, we can find that "pop song" is a comprehensive art, and modern communication methods and production methods have added a lot of technical content to it. Trying to give a clear and generally accepted definition of this matter will often lead to endless confusion and futility, and researchers in different disciplines such as musicology, sociology, economics and culturology will have different emphases. From the perspective of literary research, if the lyrics are taken as the standard, music and pure technology issues will not be considered for the time being. Although modern pop songs in China grew up under the direct influence of western pop songs, they also have their own freshness. Jin Zhaojun's Popular in broad daylight-Experience China Pop Music. People's Music Publishing House, 2002 edition, PI .2 Today's Carnival Season-Century Leg Style of Pop Music, Guangju People's Publishing House, 1999 edition, P 15 1. 4 Ming China characteristics. Based on this, we can summarize the following basic attributes when investigating popular songs (mainly lyrics): First, popularity. Pop songs are a form of pop culture, and the audience it faces is not elite intellectuals with professional literacy in music and literature, but ordinary people with a larger number and uneven education levels. Therefore, its melody and lyrics must be easy to understand and conform to the appreciation ability of the broad audience. This is the basic premise for popular songs to spread widely, and it is also the main reason why popular songs have been among popular songs for a long time. The second is entertainment. The Book of Songs initiated the tradition of "Feng" in China's poetry (also a song of 1), and the function of carrying Tao became the embodiment of poetry value. Through poetry, we can "observe customs". Almost without exception, songs of all times involve enlightenment or political functions, and so do pop songs. But first of all, they take entertainment as their main purpose, meet people's entertainment needs, strengthen aesthetic and entertainment functions, and dilute political and educational colors. Therefore, the content of "emotion" is more than that of "carrying words", and the form is lighter than that of Zhuang. Entertainment is one of the main reasons why pop songs are criticized. However, this is also the most basic feature of pop songs. Third, it is commercial. The birth of pop songs is closely related to the consumer market. It is a cultural and entertainment product, and every link such as creation, performance, production, communication and publicity is permeated with commercial atmosphere. His creative motivation is that his works profit from popularity, increase communication channels and expand communication fields with the help of commercial power, which is restricted by economic development in different historical periods. There are different ways and degrees of commercial expression, but in the final analysis, its essence lies in the feature that pop songs are literary consumer goods. Since literature has become a commercial product, it is bound to be influenced by commercial development, controlled by commercial operation mode and influenced by commercial consumption demand, so it also determines its "kitsch" characteristics. No matter how the market of pop songs changes, creators will actively follow suit. Try to meet the needs of consumers (the highest level in this respect, that is, the real business success is to create and guide the trend), so as to get more profits. The demand for commercial profits stimulates the creation and dissemination of pop songs, and of course, the quick success of business may also have a negative effect on pop songs. Fourth, it is civic. Different from folk songs, pop songs are cultural products that appear with the development of cities, with cities as the main communication space. Its emergence and development depend on the cultural consumption needs of the general public in commercial cities. It takes citizen's life as the main description object and citizen's interest as the main orientation, and shows the various lifestyles of the city and the psychological feelings of citizens. It has distinctive urban characteristics, which are reflected in the theme, artistic conception and language. In addition, corresponding to the characteristics of the city, pop songs are more inclusive and open, pursuing novelty and fashion, showing diversity. Therefore, the emergence of popular songs, unlike ordinary popular folk songs, is only possible when there are obvious differences in the lives of urban and rural people.