Hearing Aid is a quarterly magazine that talks about the music trends and habits across China.

In this issue, we go back in time and look at what was happening musically 20+ years ago. We then zoom to the present and look at what’s happening right now and who are the biggest winners and losers in today’s music scene.

Hearing Aid also turns the spotlight on one of China’s less well known music stars… 47 year old Zhang Qiang. She’s China’s Queen of disco and she wants to make you dance.

“助听器”—— 一本关于中国音乐趋势和环境的杂志。

在本期中，我们不仅追溯流行音乐近二十余年的历史，更加关注近期音乐市场的最新动态和导向。

“助听器”同样也为大家介绍一些“非主流”音乐…张蔷，47岁的disco女王，你一定不能错过！

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ISSUE ONE

HEARING AID

KATE LU

EDITOR

TIFFANY WONG

DESIGNER

AUGUST 2014 INTRODUCTION

01

For most Chinese, Beyond represented a spirit… as desire to pursue your dreams, and their lyrics helped them stand out by saying things few would ever dare say out loud such as “forgive my unruly and my love of freedom.”

Beyond were a rock n roll band but defined a time.

Beyond 华语地区史上最具影响力的摇滚乐队（没有之一）于21年前的6月30日因舞台意外致死，此事轰动整个华语乐坛。

黄家驹，作为乐队的灵魂人物，他的离世宣告着人们，热血摇滚的Beyond时代已经结束。

去年是黄家驹逝世20周年，Beyond的粉丝们纷纷以不同的形式纪念这位史上最伟大的主唱和吉他手。

Beyond影响了一代华人，虽然他们的歌多为粤语，但包括中国大陆，新加坡，马来西亚，beyond精神影响着整个华语地区。

对于绝大多数华人来说，Beyond是一种精神，一种追求梦想的精神，他们的歌词说出了留藏在大家心中一直想做却从未说出口的梦：“原谅我这一生不羁放纵爱自由。”

Beyond是一个摇滚乐队，可他们，定义了时代。

Beyond - the most influential rock n roll band in Chinese music history - lost their singer, Wong Ka Kui this month 21 years ago. He was involved in a tragic stage accident and it shocked the whole nation.

After he died, the band carried on for a while, but they became likea band with no soul and everyone knew the Beyond era was over.

Last year was the 20th anniversary of his death and many Beyond fans got together to remember one of the greatest guitarist and singers in both Hong Kong and mainland China history.

Beyond influenced a whole generation and despite their songs being in Cantonese, mainland China took them to their heart – as did countries like Singapore and Malaysia.

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THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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Jack Ma said, he wanted to build a whole online eco-system in China and this summer, he started entering the music market.

Using online streaming music website Xiami, Taobao created a new division of their mega-site that is focused purely on music – where you can buy the latest CD’s, concert tickets, headphones, speakers, instruments and music products.

How did Taobao use Xiami to help develop this side of their business?

When you listen to an album on Xiami, you can’t buy a physical CD directly, so Taobao will have a button that links you to music.taobao.com so you can buy the CD directly and quickly.

This means Taobao can leverage Xiami’s large editorial music content without having to invest too much money creating their own content.

马云曾经说，他要在中国建立一个完整的在线生态系统，今夏，他尝试开始将自己的生态系统继续向音乐市场扩建。

基于在线试听和下载网站虾米，淘宝衍生了新的音乐产品购买网站，你可以在这里买到唱片CD，演唱会门票，乐器配件，和音乐周边。

为什么说淘宝音乐馆基于虾米音乐？

当 在 虾 米 网 站 在 线 试 听 时 ，你并不能直接购买实体CD，所 以 ， 淘 宝 在 试 听 页 面 设 置连 接 按 钮 ， 将 购 买 流 量 直 接连 接 到 m u s i c . t a o b a o . c o m

这样，淘宝音乐馆就可以依靠虾米强大的编辑力量而无需再重新制作全新的基于音乐的内容。

Here’s a example of how music.taobao.com connects to Xiami.

1 Let’s say you go to Xiami and are interested in learning more about Reggae.

2 Xiami introduce you to the icons of Reggae and let you hear their songs. If you like it and want to own it, there is a button that takes you to music.taobao.com where you can buy the album.

3 But the nice touch is once you’ve done that, it will also show you other things you can buy to either improve your knowledge of reggae or you look of a reggae fan.

举例：

1 对雷鬼音乐感兴趣的人会

在虾米点击雷鬼专题。

3 同时，你也可以买到很多

关于雷鬼音乐的周边，他们让你看上去更有雷鬼范儿！

2 首先虾米将为你推荐一些

雷鬼“灵魂人物”和他们的音

乐试听。如果你喜欢并且想要

拥有这些音乐，你可以直接去

淘宝音乐馆购买实体CD。

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WHAT’S HOT

03

Are talent show judges losing their popularity?

Summer is the time for talent shows in China. During this time, every channel is trying to find the most popular undiscovered singer or produce.

In the old days, viewers used to look at the judges as experts in their field, but now, many judges are using the show as their own stage.

People feel they are less interested in discovering new talent and more focused on promoting their own career because they never miss a chance to promote their own music or upcoming concerts.

With all this self-publicity, we wonder if it will stop their fans liking them as much as before. We will see but many think they’ve gone from stars to desperate stars.

Wang Feng (Judge from the voice of China): “Your performance remind me of my young age.”

是选秀节目评委还是赚人气？

夏天，是选秀节目季，每年各大电视台纷纷试图邀请最具潜力的歌手和制作人参与节目。

几年前，观众们视这些选秀节目的导师或评委们为音乐领域的专家，可是现在，很多导师们似乎在将自己慢慢变成选秀节目的主角。

有人认为他们并非真正意在发掘歌坛新星，他们正抓住选秀节目这一机会努力宣传自己。

这些导师们有些曾确实红极一时，可现在，他们逐渐利用选秀节目的平台来宣传自己，他们能够以此成为歌坛的不老传奇么？我们拭目以待，不过很多人说，他们现在早已今非昔比。

Yang Kun (Judge from the voice of China): “I have 32 concerts this year.”

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WHAT’S NOT

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Little Apple – Chopstick Brothers

When people first heard the single “Little Apple,” they thought it was one of the cheesiest songs ever written but it’s turned out to be this summers hottest song.

Chopstick Brothers - known for the track “Old Boys” in 2010 - are famous for their songs that talk about the dreams and feelings of every post-80s teenager.

But for “Little Apple,” they introduced more electronic music into their style and created a video that introduced China to the Little Apple dance which turned it into more than a song, but a phenomenon.

Their out-of-the-ordinary music style gave a breath of fresh air in the Chinese music scene.

当第一次听到“小苹果”时，人们无法想象如此恶俗的歌曲竟成为了今夏最流行的单曲。

筷子兄弟——因2010年的“老男孩”走红，他们的歌唤起了绝大多数80后关于青春期梦想的回忆。

这次，他们将大量电子舞曲的元素融入歌曲“小苹果”中，并创造了“小苹果舞”，现在它已不仅仅是一首歌，而成为了一种现象。

筷子兄弟“与众不同“的音乐风格为 中国的音乐市场注入了一股”新鲜“的活力。

小苹果－筷子兄弟

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SOUNDCHECK

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China’s Disco Queen: Zhang Qiang

Zhang Qiang was China’s disco queen way back in the 1980s. This was an exciting time for music in China as the country was opening up to the World and more diverse music was hitting the nations ears.

Over a very busy 2 year period, Zhang Qiang released more than 20 albums and achieved sales of over 2.5 million copies – a record for the time. [Remember, this was the 80’s]

At the peak of her career [1986] Zhang left China and went to study in Australia before getting married.

Zhang explained, “At the time, we were curious about foreign life and wanted to live in a foreign land”.

However, despite all this, she never give up her passion for disco and last year – at 47 years old - she signed with Modern Sky, a record label in China.

After releasing her album No Question of Disco [with punk-pop band New Pants] early in 2014, her popularity skyrocketed and she performed a massively successful set at the 2014 Strawberry Music Festival.

Zhang said: “Disco is in my heart” and it seems it’s in other people’s hearts too as she not only is an icon for people born in the 1960s and 1970s, but also for the younger generation that weren’t around for disco’s last period of popularity.

中国迪斯科女王：张蔷

张蔷曾经是中国大陆80年代的迪斯科女王，那是一个令人振奋人心的年代，当时中国因刚开始执行的“改革开放”政策才能真正开始接触来自世界各地多样化的音乐。

张蔷曾经在当时的2年时间内发行了超过20张专辑并卖掉了总共250万张唱片，她简直是那个时代的唱片纪录保持者！（请注意，是80年代）

但是，她在事业高峰期（1986年）却选择了去澳大利亚学习并结婚。张蔷解释说：“那时候，我们都对国外的生活十分好奇，大家非常希望能够到国外生活”。

尽管如此，她对于disco的热情从未退减，去年，张蔷47岁，她签约了国内的唱片公司摩登天空。

2014年初，在摩登天空发行了第一张唱片 《别再问我什么是迪斯科》后，她的人气直线飙升，在草莓音乐节的演出也取得了巨大好评。

张蔷说：“迪斯科音乐永远在我心中”，现在看来，迪斯科同样也在大家的心中，张蔷已不仅仅是中年人的偶像，她让更多的年轻人知道了什么才是真正的 流行的迪斯科音乐。

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SPOTLIGHT ON UNEXPECTED

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Contact: Share your news, questions, ideas with us at kate.lu@wk.com