Zhou Chuanxiong’s story

Chinese name: Zhou Chuanxiong

Previous stage name: Xiaogang

Zodiac: Rooster

Constellation: Gemini

Zhou Chuanxiong in life and singing (18 photos)

Favorite books: "Song of Weiyang", "Norwegian Forest"

Specialty dishes: Mapo tofu, kale beef , stir-fried vegetables with shrimps, roasted whole chicken, seafood and crab noodle pot, braised pork, three-cup chicken

Favorite pet: cat

Most satisfying part of the body: eyebrows

Family: the youngest (has one brother and one sister)

Marital status: married

Management company: Seed Music

Personality: Sometimes rigorous, sometimes relaxed (standard Gemini dual personality)

Interests: writing songs, collecting musical instruments, diving, swimming, singing, painting

Entertainment: traveling, watching movies, Playing video games

Biggest advantage: Doing your best in everything, persistence

Biggest disadvantage: Confusion

Most afraid of: pineapples, fear of heights

< p>Favorite creations: "Notepad", "When I Love You Most", "The Window That Cannot Be Closed"

Favorite works: "Dusk" "Lonely Sandbank Cold"

< p>Religious belief: Christianity

Growing up photos (19 photos) Poor boy

Like most musicians who laugh and talk about the past when they become famous, Zhou Chuanxiong talks about the beginning of his career in music. This is it: He had the dream and talent of music in his childhood. Singing has been a very easy thing for him since he was a child. However, his poor family background made him have a more difficult growth history than others. Listening to Zhou Chuanxiong talk about it calmly without any exaggeration, he felt a different kind of bitterness in his calmness.

He said that due to a poor family environment since he was a child, his family did not agree with his ideals, because they felt that artists only became famous after their death and were very miserable during their lifetimes, so his parents wanted him to study hard and thought that he should study science and engineering. It will be more promising. When he was in the third grade of middle school, his mother suddenly separated from his father and disappeared since then. Some macho fathers think this is a very shameful thing, and their hair turns white overnight and they abandon their homes and run away. From then on, his family was broken up, and his brothers and sisters, who were studying in different places, began to work to support themselves

The prototype of the zero-generation Little Tiger Team

. Later, I saw media reports that Zhou Chuanxiong, who attended the CCTV Mid-Autumn Festival Gala in Beijing, said that he never celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival because his mother’s birthday is the Mid-Autumn Festival. For their family, the Mid-Autumn Festival is not a reunion, but a memory of separation.

Family changes caused Zhou Chuanxiong to become a work-study student at the age of 16. He had to earn tuition for himself. He said that he had a sense of crisis since the year his mother passed away: What should I do in the future? This made him more precocious than the average person, but at that time he probably did not expect that such a sense of crisis would always run through his future life.

The young Zhou Chuanxiong worked many jobs. In addition to working at the Taiwan Youth Association while attending classes, winter and summer vacations were a good time for him to work and try different industries. He once borrowed his brother's license plate to drive a taxi. While his brother drove in the evening, he drove during the day. He once set up a street stall to sell earrings, went to a factory to wholesale raw materials and made various earrings himself. In this way, a pair of earrings cost 10 yuan and could be sold for 100 yuan. The sales were actually very good. He said with a smile: "The net sales Mature female customers. "Underage Zhou Chuanxiong also worked in restaurants, as a decorator, as an electrician's helper, as a truck driver, and as a swimming instructor. He was thin and often did heavy work. Dangerous physical work. However, he laughed about the past and said that he had gone through a lot of experiences at that time, and he did not feel hard, but happy because no one cared about it and he spent all the money he earned.

In this kind of life, Zhou Chuanxiong began to learn many musical instruments at the same time, and began to form a band with his classmates. He began to participate in the inter-school music composition competition in 1987. He did not achieve very outstanding results in the competition, but he said: "At that time, the competition was going to produce a collection of new talents. It is strange that I have been very commercial in songwriting since I was a child. One song is very commercial, so my song became the number one title song. The name of that song is "Dust Smoke". It was this song that introduced him to the record industry.

After being introduced by a friend, Zhou Chuanxiong joined the record company that was trying to create the famous "Little Tigers". He jokingly called him the zero-generation member of the "Little Tigers". At the age of 18, he started dancing and other training in the company. He found that the company wanted to be a pure idol group. As he wanted to be a "powerful group", he felt "very embarrassed and afraid of being laughed at". In addition, he thought that the group should be coordinated with each other. It's very troublesome and not easy to do things. So he bid farewell to the unreleased super idol "Little Tigers" group and entered another record company.

At that time, Zhou Chuanxiong was a "very troublesome" newcomer. Most people thought that signing a contract with a company was a good thing, but Zhou Chuanxiong always felt that being a producer was more advanced than being a singer, and he always had more ideas and requirements. When he signed the contract, he requested that the record be composed by himself, that he be able to learn production and eventually produce his own record. In his mind, he hoped to have producers like Li Zongsheng, Xiao Chong, Yang Minghuang, Niu Dake and others who were famous at the time. Achievement.

But after all, there was a company that didn't mind Zhou Chuanxiong's "trouble" and accepted his idea and signed a contract with him.

The young Zhou Chuanxiong was positioned as a gentle and fair student singer, and quickly became the student idol singer he had never expected. The era of "Xiao Gang" began.

The prototype of the Little Tiger Team - Zhou Chuanxiong, Lin Jinghui and Huang Yingxun (from left to right)

Crisis awareness

"Xiao Gang" is Zhou Chuanxiong's nickname, and he likes it very much This name, when every child introduces himself on the first day of school, he writes "Xiao Gang" on the blackboard. When he was about to release his first record, his boss felt that the name "Zhou Chuanxiong" sounded like he was very old, and the strokes were too many to remember, so he decided to give him a stage name. There were many names, but none of them were ideal. I decided to just call him "Xiao Gang". This name seems somewhat different, but it is quickly remembered.

When the second album "Finally Learned" came out, Xiaogang became popular in Taiwan. The business manager of the company came to him and said: "Your records are sold out." Because the owner of a small store said that if anyone can give him a thousand Xiaogang records, he will marry his daughter to that person. . At that time, Zhou Chuanxiong was 19 years old and had no idea about the situation. The company arranged for him to go to a promotional event in a department store in Taichung. When he drove there, he found that there were huge crowds of people and traffic jams. He was still thinking: "Who is coming today? "I don't know that all these people are here for him. He didn't know the extent of his popularity or why he became popular. He just gained confidence and felt that he could continue to be a singer.

At that time, Zhou Chuanxiong was still studying. Being a singer and a student made him very busy. Every day he had to consider how to coordinate his time between studying and being a singer, and how to avoid being expelled from school. Because he has to promote and appear on programs, he is either busy asking for leave after noon every day, or sometimes skips classes altogether. His school was in the mountains, and he had to rush to the city to do publicity. Zhou Chuanxiong bought a small car with the money he just earned, and drove to the city every day after class at noon. He had to be busy taking care of everything in the car, so while driving, he also had to put on makeup and eat so that he could go into the studio to record the program as soon as he arrived.

Success also made him a popular figure in the school. His classmates and teachers were either proud of him or looked at him coldly, but he still enjoyed the joy of success. But being busy and happy did not make him want to give up his studies. He felt that it was basic to finish the book, and what if the record was not successful? He agreed with his boss from the beginning that he would not be forced to drop out of school. The boss also supported his idea and even helped him communicate with the teacher when he missed a lot of classes. He always seems to have more plans for the future, which he was forced to learn the year his mother passed away.

He said that because he could not see a future in music, he chose this path just because he liked it. At that time, he often heard people say that he was an idol artist, etc., which made him think about what he should do? So he took advantage of the time when he was popular to learn production, so that when records failed, he could continue to make the music he liked to make. He also thought that if things failed, he could still work as a luthier in a bar. That's how great it is! If you think clearly, you can go on like this.

The road to reality seemed to be specially prepared for his sense of crisis. When Zhou Chuanxiong had been popular for three or four years and released his fifth album "Stay with Me Until the End of the World", this A thoughtful man thought that the world music style that was popular internationally at that time was very interesting, so he simply made an album of this style himself, using many elements of traditional Chinese music. Moreover, in order to match the style of his album, he also took the music video and photos of his album to the Silk Road in the northwest of the mainland to shoot. Unfortunately, such a pioneering work was not favored by the market. The sharp decline in record sales was Zhou Chuanxiong's first blow since entering the record industry. The rise of world music and Chinese style in the Chinese music scene happened after 1997. Zhou Chuanxiong's first musical Waterloo occurred in 1994.

At that time, he had just graduated from school and was about to take his first step in society. This record was also the first record that he led the production of. Unsuccessful and unhappy, he blamed his boss for not doing a good job in publicity and distribution, and his boss blamed him for not doing well in music, so one was unwilling to do it, and the other was unwilling to release it, and they were stuck there for a year. That was the first time Zhou Chuanxiong experienced the horror of not making a record. He didn't know what to do next, and he had no idea what the direction would be. So he chose to go abroad to study language and study music in England. A year of silence made him mature and calm. But he didn't expect that a more severe test was yet to come.

Shadow Life

Although the sales of the record were not ideal, the production of this record and his journey to the Silk Road in the Mainland had a profound impact on Zhou Chuanxiong. Especially traveling in the Mainland allowed him to see the openness of the world and different lifestyles. He said that this gave him his own world view and outlook on life for the first time, and it made him feel whether people are happy or needy. What music is does not depend on the complex conditions that people usually attach, but on a more essential feeling. So, he started an avant-garde move that other Taiwanese singers would not do, and decided to go to Yunnan in the mainland to collect music.

He had previously negotiated with the record company that he would make an album of world music. However, after returning from collecting music, the company refused to release the album. To this day, the music he collected still exists intact in his hands. He said that his ideas may be too avant-garde, and maybe until now, it is not yet time to make a world music album like that in Taiwan. At that time, he passionately believed that making music was about doing what he wanted to do and not considering the market at all. However, as a singer in a record company, the first priority was to consider the market.

At that time, Zhou Chuanxiong’s contract with his original company had expired, and just as EMI Records, one of the world’s top five famous record companies, was launching its battlefield in Taiwan with great fanfare, Zhou Chuanxiong, who was at a loss as to what his future would be, made a plan that he now looks like. Due to the questionable decision, Zhang Xinzhe's agent came to him and negotiated a good condition for both him and Zhang Xinzhe, and they signed with EMI at the same time. At that time, someone reminded him: "You and Zhang Xinzhe are so similar, and your agent and Zhang Xinzhe are so good. Will it be bad for you if you sign a contract with this company together?" Zhou Chuanxiong said: "Such a big company with so many singers, it shouldn't be Yes."

Facts have proved that this is indeed a wrong decision. From the perspective of the record market, Zhou Chuanxiong and Zhang Xinzhe are "old enemies". Zhang Xinzhe debuted early and became popular as a student singer. Unexpectedly, he served in the military when he was popular, leaving a vacancy in the market. When Zhou Chuanxiong signed a contract with the record company, the boss said clearly: "I just want you to replace Zhang Xinzhe's seat." So a "Xiao Gang" who looked exactly like Zhang Xinzhe, was fair, wore glasses, and sang lyrical campus ballads. Out of the oven. In those two years, Xiaogang really dominated the market. When Zhang Xinzhe returned from military service, the first two albums could not compete in the market no matter what. Until one day, Zhou Chuanxiong heard Zhang Xinzhe's new song "Love Like Tide" specially written for him by Li Zongsheng on the radio. "As soon as I heard it, it was over, it was terrible. That's when I started to run down." Zhou Chuanxiong Now I can't stop laughing when I talk about it.

Singers of the same type signed with the same company, and the other party is obviously stronger, and everyone’s energy is focused on Xinzhe Zhang. Zhou Chuanxiong has also released an album, and he is also faced with the problem of how to transform from a "student-type" artist as he gets older. The company positioned him as an "urban-type" singer, but he collided with the transformed Zhang Xinzhe. Good opportunities will naturally change. To the strong side. Zhou Chuanxiong's life began to be very difficult, and he felt that life behind Zhang Xinzhe's shadow was very difficult.

He began to think about how to create a market for records, and began to think about what pop music is and what the nature of the record industry is. He said that he found that the record industry is about commercial application of music, and records are for people. Listen. So he began to try to transition to commercial production and determined to be a commercial producer. "My Heart is Too Confused" is an album that gradually matured through exploration. That record did not get much favor. Unexpectedly, the album sold well when it was released in the mainland. The mainland asked Xiaogang to promote it, but there was no response from the Taiwanese company, because at this time, Zhou Chuanxiong was working at EMI. He is already a singer on the "blacklist" who has gone to the end.

Those years were the most painful experience for Zhou Chuanxiong as a singer. As an artist, he was about to come to an end, but he didn’t know where he was heading. His contract with EMI also expired. At this time, we are catching up with the trend of Hong Kong artists entering the Taiwan market and achieving success one after another. The space for survival in the market has become more difficult. That was when the media started to boom, artist promotion fees started getting higher, and record investments were bigger than ever. Most record companies would rather spend money to become new artists than to become established Mesozoic singers. In such a trend, the market value of many famous singers has become very low. In order to make a living, many people have changed careers. Some people are acting. , someone is the host and so on. Zhou Chuanxiong, whose recording career was almost in dire straits, was also faced with a choice of survival. He thought about it carefully for a long time and finally decided that if he switched to acting and hosting, he didn't like it and the chances of success were not good. He decided to do what he loved most. --- Make records.

He said that he decided to change his career. If he couldn't change his career, he would change his career. This would mean changing his entire life as an artist and working behind the scenes. Xiaogang became a thing of the past, and Zhou Chuanxiong's musical life began.

Steel turns into steel

Zhou Chuanxiong became a "self-employed" and decided to write songs. He felt that his songwriting should be good, and people would not want to reject it. "But I didn't expect that they really didn't want it at first." Zhou Chuanxiong couldn't help laughing again. Later, he asked people why he was not good, and they told him that his demo tape was too crude and poorly made, and would not be noticed at all. Among the songs that were withdrawn, many were popular hits that later became popular in the Chinese-speaking region. This lesson made him become the best musician in Taiwan in making demos. The lyrics, arrangement, and harmony were all meticulous before being released to others. To this day, he proudly says: “Just send them out. "

The days of writing songs also made him depressed for a long time because he was "unappreciated". Finally, one day, Fumao Records called him to produce a transformation record for singer Zhang Kefan. He worked hard for half a year to produce the album. After "Loneliness Bombing" came out, it became popular, and many people in the industry were asking: "There is a new producer, who is Zhou Chuanxiong?" Therefore, the case of Hong Kong singers Kelly Chen and Andy Hui who wanted to enter the Mandarin market came up.

Zhou Chuanxiong listened to all Kelly Chen’s records and found out that her voice sounded better with the piano. He collected all information about Kelly Chen, studied her personality, and saw what kind of songs she would sing. He It is said that only when the singer feels something when he sings, will the listener feel something. According to Kelly Chen's character, he specially tailored the song "Notepad" for her - a song that he once submitted everywhere but no one wanted it. This song instantly made Kelly Chen famous in the Taiwan market. This move began to establish Zhou Chuanxiong's status as a commercial producer.

Kelly Chen went to Hong Kong to make records. Hong Kong and its commercial work style also taught Zhou Chuanxiong a lesson, allowing him to learn the important concept of cost. The other party didn't ask for a reception, but only gave an address and asked Zhou Chuanxiong to carry the box and find the recording studio by himself. During this time, his manager called and just said: "When I sign a contract with an artist, it's all about money. Can you finish the recording quickly?" In the end, he decided to let him record 4 songs in 3 days. In the past, he always wanted to polish his work slowly. Zhou Chuanxiong gained an experience from this, which is how to make good things in the shortest time.

After that, Zhou Chuanxiong’s situation as a producer gradually opened up. Na Ying’s “Betrayal”, Ren Xianqi’s “Eternal Night”, Zhou Huajian’s “Is there a song that reminds you of me” and other songs became popular. Zhou Chuanxiong has become a famous online producer. His songs are lyrical, catchy, pleasant, and can be sung very quickly, which has also earned him the reputation of "The Godfather of Love Songs." After that, he composed the music for two idol dramas "Lavender" and "MVP Lover" that were very popular in Taiwan, which made Xu Shaoyang and 5566 famous in one fell swoop, and established his authoritative position as a commercial producer. At this moment, no one in the record market remembers the young singer Xiaogang. The industry only knows the popular record producer Zhou Chuanxiong.

However, he did not give up on releasing records by himself. However, as soon as he released the record, his rough fate happened again.

Happiness and Troubles

Piracy everywhere

I have written many golden songs for others and accumulated a lot. Sony Records found Zhou Chuanxiong and decided to release a collection of his creations. In 2000, this collection of creations was released in Taiwan. It was just released at a time when Sony Records had high-level changes and was undergoing reorganization. As soon as the record was released, it was like nothing, so Zhou Chuanxiong told his boss to terminate the contract.

However, in May 2002, he discovered that his collection of creations had become popular in the mainland. In 2001, Zhou Chuanxiong was invited by Sony music director Chen Yaochuan to go to the mainland to produce Man Wenjun's "I Need You" album. After finishing the album, he discovered that there were pirated copies of his album in Beijing's audio and video stores. He felt very strange: "There are actually pirated copies of mine here?" At the same time, he thought it was fun, so he bought it as a souvenir. . Unexpectedly, other record stores also found three or four different pirated versions. He was surprised, so he kept buying them, and ended up with more than a dozen pirated versions of the same record. At the same time, he met different people who told him: "Your song "Dusk" is very popular!" He thought everyone was complimenting him. As a result, Anhui TV station came to Taiwan and asked to record Zhou Chuanxiong's fan club. He was quite surprised again. After being invited to Anhui, he was surprised to see so many enthusiastic fans in the studio. A friend said to him: "Let's go to more shows and see what's going on." So he walked around the mainland to various fan clubs, and he suddenly realized that He is already a very popular singer in the Mainland, and the song "Dusk" is really popular. And all this is thanks to piracy! As he walked around the mainland, he discovered that there were more than 100 pirated versions of his records. A friend helped him conduct a survey in Anhui. In this place alone, his sales of pirated records reached more than 5 million. However, this collection of creations, which had been coldly received in Taiwan and had never been released in the Mainland, was pirated and brought unexpected gains to Zhou Chuanxiong, allowing him to return to the stage as a singer. How could he not be moved by such an encounter in life!

As for his dark popularity in the Mainland, Zhou Chuanxiong said that he was afraid, because as a trader with great business experience in the record market, when he had been frustrated repeatedly as a singer, he was now in such a position. The way he succeeded and became so popular was so incredible, he said, he couldn’t understand it either. And he began to study why his songs from "My Heart Is Too Confused" to "Dusk" became popular, so that he could have new contributions for the new album.

In July 2004, Zhou Chuanxiong held his first solo concert as a singer in Singapore in fifteen years since his debut. Facing this belated concert with tens of thousands of people, he choked up and shed tears three times. On the stage, he had a passage that moved many people to tears. The passage went like this: "Hey, have you ever had a dream? Or lost a dream. I have had one but it has also been shattered. From playing (fun) A junior college student in the band, during the Xiaogang period, when I was writing songs and producing, there was a time... I thought I would never make another record, until one day, on the streets of a foreign land, I heard a song of my own, this song It is played constantly in the streets and alleys, because this song has changed me, because this song makes me believe that as long as I persist, beautiful flowers will bloom even in the ice and snow.” I hope the poster will adopt it. ,Thanks. Thanks.