Not only fashion, music also has loops, hit songs from decades ago, "nostalgic feelings" are never out of date.
The "Cheri Cheri Lady" effect
One of the highlights of the world music scene in 2023 is the "resurrection" of the song "Cheri Cheri Lady" which was very popular in the 1980s and 1990s by the legendary band Modern Talking. "Cheri Cheri Lady" has a vibrant melody, telling the story of a lonely boy who always longs for a burning love with the woman he loves.
The online community has been stirred up by the cover version of "Cheri Cheri Lady" by 16-year-old singer Melena. The song was remixed by producer Tokionine with a modern sound but still retains the spirit of the dance-pop version released nearly 4 decades ago. Malena wrote on Instagram: "I covered the classic hit in Europe because I thought the song would evoke nostalgia for many people." On YouTube, most viewers praised Malena's (champion of the "Junior Eurovision Song Contest" - European Television Singing) sweet and suitable voice. Her version became the background music for many TikTok videos, with millions of views. The original song is also searched more on this platform, with several hundred thousand times being combined into users' videos.
Young singer AMEE covers the song “Em ve tinh khoi”. (Photo provided by the singer)
"Listening to "Cheri Cheri Lady" again, very emotional, feels like reliving youth", "After listening, I can't help but dance to the music. I listen to it over and over again without getting bored", "It's been a long time since I've heard this sweet sound, it feels very nostalgic", "I admit that this remixed version sounds really good, still keeping the 1980s disco style", "I've known and liked this song since I was little, now covering it again sounds so magical and addicted to this voice"... are the opinions of the audience when listening to "Cheri Cheri Lady" again.
The "Cheri Cheri Lady" effect has created a trend of choosing hits from memories to transform into hits of the present all over the world, including the Vietnamese music market. This trend quickly achieved success when the song's inherent appeal was combined with the nostalgic feelings of the listeners. European, American, Chinese, Korean music hits, and even the Vietnamese hit "Youth of a Time" of the audience suddenly "revived" with excitement in the Vietnamese music market.
This is also the reason why the Organizing Committee of the Westlife concert in Vietnam decided that in addition to the November 22nd show, there will be another show on November 21st, also at Thong Nhat Stadium, Ho Chi Minh City. Westlife is a music group from Ireland, famous for more than 20 years ago, with hits such as "My Love", "I Lay My Love On You", "Soledad"... Westlife's appeal is so great that by the end of September 2023, all 15,000 tickets for the November 22nd show were sold out.
"The additional performance on November 21 will be a gift for music lovers. Hopefully, Vietnamese audiences will enjoy two music nights that are worth the wait," said Ms. Do Thu Giang, representative of the organizing unit.
Get closer to the youth
It can be said that nostalgic music is becoming a trend of enjoyment for many music lovers today. Therefore, artists are also quickly renovating old music to meet the needs of the audience. It can be said that the project "Gen Z and Trinh" not only spreads the value of Trinh Cong Son's music to more young people but also receives approval from the late musician's family. Singer Trinh Vinh Trinh - representative of musician Trinh Cong Son's family - said he is very happy that Trinh's music is now resounding from the voices of very young people, especially these MVs have a large number of views, listens and are popular on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok... "I support young people to find creative inspiration in Trinh's music and to boldly release their products. The flow of music must always continue through generations!" - singer Trinh Vinh Trinh, musician Trinh Cong Son's sister, said.
Recently, the song "Autumn for You" has also been chosen by many artists to "rejuvenate", notably Juky San and Phuong My Chi. Both covered Ngo Thuy Mien's autumn love song, but the two Gen Z girls brought two completely different spirits. If Phuong My Chi brought a disco, youthful and dynamic sound to the new arrangement, Juky San sang on the background of Chopin's classical music. Either way, this song has become closer to young people through the covers.
Turning old famous songs into new ones with modern musical thinking is considered a wise approach. AMEE shared when covering "Em ve tinh khoi": "The feeling of singing a song that is older than my age is quite strange and exciting. I believe that there will be many young people who will renew immortal songs in the way of their time. Only then will audiences of the next generations see the value of old songs and those songs will live forever."
According to experts, enjoying old hits with a new spirit partly satisfies the need for entertainment. Old hits are too safe in terms of quality because of the guarantee of time and public acceptance. Remaking/covering is not only easy for the audience to accept but also easy for the artist (singer) when it does not require much cost and time to find a good song.
According to singer Phuong Thanh, the cover trend is an effective solution to the situation of not being able to find a good song as desired.
It is impossible to predict how long this nostalgic trend will last, but it is clearly a trend that satisfies the current audience with many advantages.
Talking about the creativity when renovating existing songs, singer Quang Dung said: “Old songs are a cultural heritage. A young artist like me must preserve, cherish, honor, and spread those values for today and for tomorrow. Renovating means elevating those values, not distorting them.”
Must innovate thinking in art training
Art education in the digital age is posing a great challenge when the results achieved must be oriented towards international integration.
Art educators are concerned about this issue as the way of teaching actors and directors in the past has become old and outdated. The Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts has just proposed a strategy to improve the development of Vietnam's cultural industry, specifically the art industry must diversify training types. Training programs must be updated promptly from advanced countries. In Ho Chi Minh City, there are currently art training institutions such as the Ho Chi Minh City University of Theater and Cinema, Ho Chi Minh City College of Culture and Arts, and many training units in the direction of socialization. The human resources trained from these units mostly actively and effectively participate in the theater, cinema, and television of Ho Chi Minh City.
Hoan Kiem Theater - one of the international standard theaters in Southeast Asia, was built to promote high quality, integrated art programs.
However, according to insiders, Ho Chi Minh City needs to soon have specific mechanisms with breakthrough policies in training the team working in cultural and artistic fields, especially in industries with many advantages and potentials. People's Artist Tran Minh Ngoc is concerned that currently, training is still based on old curriculum, each place innovates in its own way, without a standard, as well as timely updating of new knowledge. Therefore, when participating in art exchange programs with other countries, we have revealed many limitations and backwardness.
The development orientation of Ho Chi Minh City to 2030, with a vision to 2045, has been determined as "Building Ho Chi Minh City to become an economic, financial, service, cultural, educational - training, scientific - technological and innovation center of Southeast Asia and Asia, with global competitiveness...". According to experts, to practically contribute to achieving this goal, from now on, Ho Chi Minh City needs to focus on investing in training human resources for the fields of cultural industry, tourism products, cultural - sports services, etc. In particular, it is necessary to focus on equipping foreign language skills for young actors and directors, because if they are weak in foreign languages, they cannot absorb and exploit the advanced artistic knowledge that the world has exploited and applied in the past.
Thanh Hiep
Source: https://nld.com.vn/van-nghe/suc-hut-moi-tu-am-nhac-hoai-niem-20231031215650395.htm
Comment (0)