Author: Liu Yuhan
Jay Chou named his new album “The Greatest Work”, which at first felt a little absurd. After the release of the prelude MV, everyone understood that “The Greatest Work” is a tribute to the artists of the early 20th century. This is a literary rhapsody belonging to Jay Chou, and it also conveys the creative gesture of “no frame required”.
Having not released a new album for six years, Jay Chou can probably expect that his new work will be “viewed in revenge”, so he has injected enough information into the songs and MVs so that everyone can interpret them frame by frame. People who have seen Jay Chou’s new song MV will say that other people’s MV is Music Video (music video), and Jay Chou’s MV is Movie (movie).
The director of the MV for the first song is Jay Chou himself. He entrained a lot of private goods in it, allowing the audience to experience Jay Chou’s happiness. Jay Chou’s self-directed and self-acted movie “The Secret That Can’t Be Said” plays the piano song “Secret” again in the MV, “I use the piano keys to shuttle through the immortality that I missed in 1920”, this time he traveled to Paris in the early 20th century. Jay Chou has always preferred European classical literature and art. Even his wedding with Kunling was held in churches and castles in Europe. This time, Jay Chou has passed the European literary and artistic addiction with new songs, and staged a time-travel story similar to Woody Allen’s movie “Midnight in Paris” in the MV. However, this MV directed by Jay Chou is more open-minded than “Midnight in Paris”, because he also brought inspiration to artists’ masterpieces through his favorite magic.
He first “encountered” two surrealist masters – René Magritte and Salvador Dali. Jay Chou conjured a green apple, a key element in Rene’s later masterpiece, Son of Man. Then Jay Chou changed the magic of turning a spoon into a curved spoon for Dali, and “inspired” Dali to create the world-renowned masterpiece “The Eternity of Memory”. The clock in the MV is just the opposite of “The Eternity of Memory”, which corresponds to Jay Chou’s song “The Clock in the Opposite Direction”, which is a hidden easter egg. He also made water lilies for Monet, all of which are in line with the lyrics “borrow your inspiration without paying me back”.
The artist with the most scenes in the MV is Sanyu, who is known as “Oriental Van Gogh” and “Chinese Matisse”. Sanyu was only well-known in the auction collection circle before, and was the most popular artist in the MV, but through Jay Chou’s popular science, Sanyu was instantly known to millions of people. Jay Chou’s transformation of dead branches into flowers inspired the painter, and Sanyu’s potted chrysanthemum series is his representative work. Finally, Xu Zhimo with glasses appeared, and he brought his own work “The Claws of Paris”, and Jay Chou successfully realized the portrait of Xu Zhimo that Sanyu failed to deliver in time in the real history. In addition, artists who did not appear in the MV but were mentioned in the lyrics include Van Gogh, Matisse, Edvard Munch, etc. At the same time, the MV also invited Lang Lang, and the scene of the two playing the piano makes people dream of Jay Chou The movie “The Untold Secret”.
Netizens said that this is a European literary and art travel guide and an art science education film. “I have watched it for two days, and I feel that my artistic taste has improved.” The content style of the MV is closely related to the lyrics. The lyricist of this song is Huang Junlang, who has painted for many years and is an art lover. Huang Junlang is also known as the lyricist of Jay Chou’s peak work “In the Name of the Father”. He wrote in “In the Name of the Father” that “behind the glory is engraved a loneliness”, and in this song, he Write “The excitement in this world comes from loneliness”, the two have the same effect. What Huang Junlang wants to express through the lyrics is, “Only art can transform those thoughts that are not recognized by the people around them, wayward words and deeds, absurd life, poverty and loneliness, into the most beautiful and reverie existence. .”
The artists involved in the songs, whether they are Impressionism, Fauvism, Surrealism, Expressionism, Chinese painter Sanyu, or pianist Lang Lang, are all creators of new trends that break the shackles and break the framework. Looking back at Jay Chou’s music history and creative philosophy, these artists should be able to arouse his greatest empathy. At the beginning of its birth, new art genres have the fate of being ridiculed and strangled. With the passage of time, these paintings, which were dismissed as “beasts” and “impressions” in the early days, have gradually become highly regarded classics. The golden age of art was created by the original anomalies. And Jay Chou is also like this. When he debuted, his weird style, messy lyrics, and ambiguous pronunciation have all become the factors that have been criticized and criticized, and the song has not been accepted for many years. And now, he has become the brightest light that has illuminated the Chinese pop music scene in the past 20 years.
Jay Chou borrowed the lyrics to give himself a self-portrait: “The madman of the generation / The king of music / I don’t think I need a frame / It can’t frame the speed of the keys / All my notes are future art”. In the MV, the great artist who painted the piano symbol in the travel manual has not yet been found, but at the end of the MV, Lang Lang suddenly raised his eyebrows and smiled, and hit Jay Chou with the light beam of the flashlight, which has a profound meaning.
Some netizens said that this new work shows Jay Chou’s absolute sense of control over music, lacking the spirit of youth, but adding a heavy romance. Some people also think that this song does not have many breakthroughs, “more like an AI original single after deep learning of Jay Chou”. Some netizens made skewers of Jay Chou’s songs such as “Chapter 7 of the Night”, “Nocturne”, “In the Name of the Father”, “William Castle”, “Ninja”, “Prague Square”, “Nuncle”, “Rainbow” and “Sunny Day”. , replaced with new songs, and there is no sense of disobedience. In the face of the question of fried rice, Jie Fan responded, “Even if it is an arrangement 20 years ago, it still slaps the current music scene.” Music critic Lu Shiwei made a relatively neutral and objective evaluation, “A good song must still be good, but, Some people may say that there is no special feeling, or that there are no surprises, but we don’t need to be surprised all the time! It’s good to listen to a song happily! Jay Chou, that’s what he means now.”
If Jay Chou has any mission for the Chinese pop music scene, it has already been achieved. With more than 400 of his own original works, Jay Chou has been able to dominate the major music charts so far – if not, it may be because the platform has not obtained the copyright. Just the songs that Jay Chou wrote to others, they have already won the award and won the soft hand, and they can form ten best-selling albums. When Wang Xinling sang and danced “Love You” in “Sister Lang” and returned, when Xin said in the music program that “all TV stations are doing cover songs”, in the empty but buzzing pop music scene, Jay Chou Become a “living” legend. It is unfair to Jay Chou to put the expectation and pressure of saving the Chinese pop music scene on him alone, or to sing badly “Jiang Lang’s talents are exhausted”. He once said in an interview that he is not worried about being overtaken by others, “I will step down one day, and I hope that I can step down a little more beautifully.” At present, Jay Chou is still beautiful. (Liu Yuhan)
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责编：崔益明 ]