After three years, the concert will resume. Are the singers ready?
Fan feedback: frequent unequal situations with expectations, industry insiders: offline concerts cannot be rushed
With the further optimization of epidemic prevention and control measures at the end of 2022, offline concerts are also recovering: on December 24, 2022, Zhiqian Xue held a live concert in Haikou, and the attendance rate that night was amazing. Zhiqian Xue dyed his hair into "chestnut" color, which means smooth and smooth, and also made a good start for the smooth recovery of offline concerts in the future.
According to the ******* Youth Daily reporter, many singers have booked **fline performances this ******: Huang Minghao’s Suzhou concert culture and epidemic prevention approvals have been passed, and will start singing on January 7. Tickets have been sold; He Jie’s "Platycodon" 2022 national tour ******* Station is January 13, 2023; singer Huang Qishan will hold the "Qiwang 30" Xi’an concert on January 17; Meng Meiqi will hold an **fline concert in Chengdu on January 23… In addition, Wang Jiaer’s mainland tour projects have been finalized, including Guangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu and *******, etc., will set sail this ******, with 8 tentative shows scheduled.
As for Jay Chou, Mayday, Lin Junjie, Stefanie Sun, Wang Xinling, Zhang Jie, Hua Chenyu and other singers with both popularity and strength, there are also news of concerts one after another.
It’s just that the concert will resume after three years. Are the singers and audience ready?
Jay Chou, Zeng Yike offline concert complained
The "Carnival" world tour, planned by Jay Chou to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his debut, resumed after nearly three years, and held its first performance in Singapore in December 2022. Jay Chou brought fans classic songs such as "Sunny Day", "Daoxiang", "Blue and White Porcelain" and "Love in BC", and also sang songs such as "Wish Me a Happy Birthday", "With Your Name", "Say I Love You" and "Pink Ocean".
A large number of fans came to the scene, and some fans burst into tears because of the long-awaited scene. But soon, there were negative noises: obviously to see Jay Chou, but there were a large number of singing assistants and magic performances interspersed in the performance, and the sound volume was still fluctuating – the opening sound was so loud that it was noisy, and when Jay Chou sang, it was big and small. In addition, the support glow stick was also blurred and could not emit light.
Coincidentally. On the evening of December 31, 2022, singer Zeng Yike held a New Year’s Eve concert in Shenzhen, but after the end, fans shouted "refund". According to netizens, the concert was named "Double Length Double Happiness New Year Special", and the full standing ticket was priced at 680 yuan, twice that of other cities. As a result, after the concert started, Zeng Yike himself was half an hour late, only sang songs for an hour and a half, and played DJing for an hour. The next day, Zeng Yike Studio responded that tickets could be refunded, but only tickets for the January 1 concert could be refunded. On January 3, the topic of the concert was also on Weibo’s trending topic list many times.
In the three years of the epidemic, the audience’s aesthetics and star chasing have changed
On January 3, Zeng Yike Studio responded to the audience’s rights protection demands and controversial points raised by Zeng Yike’s Shenzhen New Year’s Eve concert.
Regarding the issue of Zeng Yike’s late arrival, the studio said that on December 31, Zeng Yike himself arrived at the scene at 3:00 pm and left after 3:00 am on January 1. During this time, he did not leave the scene. The delay of half an hour was due to the slow scanning of the ticket code due to the poor network at the scene.
Regarding the most controversial part of the live DJing performance by fans, the studio responded: "Live DJ DJing is part of the performance. This part of the content may not be liked and accepted by some audiences, but it is not a deception of the performance." Since the DJing part of the performance on December 31 did not meet the expectations of the audience, in order to avoid a similar situation during the performance the next day, Zeng Yike listened to the audience’s suggestions and urgently discussed with the team, and issued a refund announcement for the performance on the same day in the early morning of January 1, and immediately opened a refund channel.
Many fans did not buy the response from Zeng Yike’s studio, and some questioned whether it was "a mistake of work, not mentioning a word, and only letting Zeng Yike take the blame". Some fans said that although the performance was not perfect, Zeng Yike himself communicated with the fans on the spot and was sincere enough. "As a person who was present that day, in order to appease the fans at the scene, Zeng Yike did not ask the staff to respond and communicated with the fans himself."
Why do the offline performances that have just resumed frequently appear unequal to the expectations of the audience? Fan Ms. Chen told reporters that the epidemic has not seen offline performances for three years, and too many fans around him have turned to the stage of Buddhist star chasing that only listens to old songs without spending money; in addition, with Cui Jian, Andy Lau, Luo Dayou and other online concerts, fans’ acceptance of online concerts is also increasing. Senior performance operator Ms. Zhao said that in recent years, with the development of new media and the increase in entertainment methods, audiences have higher expectations for content quality, which requires careful polishing by the production team, rather than fast food packaging production.
Wang Yi, founder of Understand Music Entertainment, believes that the holding of a concert needs to go through the whole process of planning, rehearsal and operation of the artist team, performers and other large and small departments to take shape. The stage performance is only the final stage, and the process of products, there is a law of "practice makes perfect". Affected by the epidemic, the frequency of activities of producers and artist teams in the past three years has been lower than before, and it is inevitable that there will be loopholes in the business. As for artists, in recent years, large-scale concerts have rarely been held, and the performance status and physical strength have been affected to some extent. It is not objective to evaluate the current state of the singer according to the business standards of many years ago. Moreover, after listening to offline concerts after three years, fans also have high expectations, so it is not surprising that there are gaps and controversies.
It’s been three years, don’t worry, it’s a while and a half
Lu Shiwei, a well-known music critic, said in an interview with the Beijing Youth Daily reporter that the offline concert has been suspended for three years, and everyone is still looking forward to it. As for the situation of Jay Chou and Zeng Yike’s concert, it may be that the organizers’ preparations are not sufficient and the completion is relatively rough. On the other hand, it may also be that the epidemic has caused insufficient staff and some problems have occurred.
In Lu Shiwei’s opinion, whether it is Jay Chou or Zeng Yike’s incident, it should be just an example. After the offline concert gradually resumes in the future, I believe these problems can be solved. Wang Yi also said that the tour has just resumed, and the team also needs a period of adjustment process to push the business performance back to the best state.
Meng Lun, a veteran media person, believes that in the past three years, whether it is the performance practitioners, singers, or musicians themselves, they are all preparing for the resumption of offline concerts. What they have to do is to not be too hasty, and everything is ready before launching the project. It is also a kind of success to be no worse than three years ago. "I have been waiting for three years, and there is no hurry for this moment and a half. If you want to do it, do the best, do the best, and live up to the three years that you and your fans have been waiting for."
By our reporter, Shou Penghuan
(Beijing Youth Daily)