Nothing To Fear
Jun. 7th, 2021 09:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoI don't think there's an official translation of the song titled《无所畏惧》 but it's probably close enough. The first time I heard this song as I was busy going over all of Zhou Shen's recent works, and at the time, it actually didn't really stand out to me among the sea of his other works.
Then the second to fourth time I heard it, I started thinking that the refrain was actually really catchy, even if the transition was a little awkward. But I still saved it into my playlist. Then the more times I heard the song, the more I liked it. Later when I started looking closer to the lyrics, I found myself liking the calmer starting part of the song too. And today I think I've been basically listening to it on repeat.
This is not the first of Zhou Shen's songs where this happened for me. For example, the same thing happened with 《和光同尘》 from my last post. I'm constantly upping the rating of various songs on my playlist, as they repeat on my playlist and start eating my brain, lol.
But can you believe that this was actually written for a cartoony game? It really sounds more appropriate as the main theme for a serious film or a TV documentary. Or as many users on bilibili have it, for stuff like this... (Huh, seems like you can't embed videos from bilibili here? Or is there something I'm missing?)
One more thing, found this behind the scenes video which I found interesting. Zhou Shen actually sang aloud for the filming of the MV even though he didn't have to (the boy just likes to sing, lol). The video shows that even without a microphone, his voice still carried through the mini orchestra. Haha, I guess that's what a degree in bel canto will do for ya.
Second addendum, found the English version of this song, obviously not sung by Zhou Shen. Man, the difference a vocalist and singing style makes. I wonder why they didn't just have ZS sing the English version too? I mean, he sings perfectly fluent English. (Was he too expensive to hire for two songs? :p)
Then the second to fourth time I heard it, I started thinking that the refrain was actually really catchy, even if the transition was a little awkward. But I still saved it into my playlist. Then the more times I heard the song, the more I liked it. Later when I started looking closer to the lyrics, I found myself liking the calmer starting part of the song too. And today I think I've been basically listening to it on repeat.
This is not the first of Zhou Shen's songs where this happened for me. For example, the same thing happened with 《和光同尘》 from my last post. I'm constantly upping the rating of various songs on my playlist, as they repeat on my playlist and start eating my brain, lol.
But can you believe that this was actually written for a cartoony game? It really sounds more appropriate as the main theme for a serious film or a TV documentary. Or as many users on bilibili have it, for stuff like this... (Huh, seems like you can't embed videos from bilibili here? Or is there something I'm missing?)
One more thing, found this behind the scenes video which I found interesting. Zhou Shen actually sang aloud for the filming of the MV even though he didn't have to (the boy just likes to sing, lol). The video shows that even without a microphone, his voice still carried through the mini orchestra. Haha, I guess that's what a degree in bel canto will do for ya.
Second addendum, found the English version of this song, obviously not sung by Zhou Shen. Man, the difference a vocalist and singing style makes. I wonder why they didn't just have ZS sing the English version too? I mean, he sings perfectly fluent English. (Was he too expensive to hire for two songs? :p)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-09 05:43 pm (UTC)Out of all the songs you've shared so far, I think this is the one that I like the most. (^_^)b Also, I find the song weirdly fitting the...*squints*...Battle of the Balls? I would've called Balls: Epic War, but Battle of the Balls it is. Now how does one play this?
The English version is actually...wow, I'm a bit impressed. I think they actually did an insanely good job translating the feeling. Personally, I'm glad they went with a different set of singers. Like you said, 周深's voice quality makes the song sound like it was meant for something a bit more serious. But switching to a deeper voice and going full chorus at the end actually made it work with the sillier premise.
And, no, Bilibili doesn't embed on LJ/DW code. (T_T)
Finally...um, I think I'm mildly disturbed that CCP's trying to use a national tragedy to solidify their power. They know they fucked up, but instead, because Western countries' response were even shittier, they came off looking competent. This current administration needs to get squeezed out ASAP. (=.=)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-10 06:35 pm (UTC)What specifically did you like about this work compared to his other ones? Is it the orchestra? The melody? The lyrics?
Regarding CCP solidifying power... are you talking about the other videos I linked from bilibili? Cuz those aren't from the government, just from normal users who wanted to set the music to more serious topics. There's also a bunch of vids which set the song against various other movies/TV shows. It's just that I have no context for those other shows and thus mostly skipped them.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-11 02:01 am (UTC)I like the lyrics better. It's more in-line with the cheesy uplifting types of lyrics that I like. Also, I enjoy the more epic feeling of the melody, probably because it was written for a game. ^_^;;
WRT CCP: the videos footage was clearly taken from a movie about the pandemic, and given the context from the subtitles, it seems the plot of the movie is about the Wuhan staff and how CCP sent medical staff from all over the country to support Wuhan. A quick search revealed that yep, they're cashing in on the "heartwarming story" and basically downplaying how the CCP officials completely fucked up the early response. Like, don't get me wrong, I think the post-pandemic response was decent, much better than the Trump administration for sure. But the first three months or so? Between November 2019-January 2020? Shit. Absolute shit. It never should've grown into a pandemic in the first place. If they notified the WHO faster and shut down the country faster instead of letting the "unknown cases of pneumonia" walk around coughing on everyone in the city known as China's heartbeat (九州通衢 is literally Wuhan's poetic name due to the fact that it is the central hub of China's domestic transportation), COVID-19 could've been stopped much faster with a much lower death toll.
(Still doesn't excuse the Western governments from fucking up their own response. I mean, they already saw the death count in China and basically went, "LOL, bet you we can beat that death toll 100x over with 1/4 of the population". WTF?)