Every once in a while, I would browse videos on the Internet that depicted the peak of the Chinese-speaking world.
No one can clearly point out whether the so-called "peak" refers to 2003 or 2004, but in those years, it was unanimously known as the "Battle of the Gods" in the Chinese-speaking world, and its first song was the favorite.
Here, the amount is in the millions, and many people are reminiscing about their youthful days.
In the blink of an eye, 20 years passed by brightly.
It dawned on me that most of the young people who used to sing on stage were struggling under the influence of negative press:
The collapse, disappearance, or complete disappearance of a house.
Ashin, who is about to enter the age of "knowing the destiny of heaven" in two years, unfortunately fell into the turmoil of lip-syncing;
Leehom Wang, from a high-quality idol to a "scumbag" who disappointed the family;
Luo Zhixiang, the infamous "time management guru";
Jay Chou is no longer the ** superstar who "came to the stage to accept the award as soon as the nocturne sounded", but a forty-five-year-old young man immersed in European style and handwritten lyrics of youthful pain.
The ** idols of that year are facing a severe mid-life crisis with the Chinese ** community.
For ordinary people, the difficulties they encounter when they enter middle age tend to become more serious among celebrities:
Her figure began to lose shape, and her hairline visibly shifted back, and it was just the passage of time;
Although his every move seems very slippery, despite the difficulties encountered in the transformation of his career, he still insists that "brother is the first";
In private life, divorce and infidelity become major problems, while wealthy middle-aged people are more likely to suffer from pornography, alcohol, drugs, and gambling.
In short, the world is just, and no matter what your financial situation is, you are not immune to the general shock of a midlife crisis.
As the New Year approaches, the intense emotions elicit by such attacks become more intense.
In the middle age of the idol, his image is no longer there.
Travel back in time to the beginning of the century.
In that era, the Chinese-speaking ** world was full of fairy-like battles, and most of the singers in the ring were from Baodao.
From the perspective of male singers alone, we can see Jay Chou, Wang Leehom, Luo Zhixiang, Tao Zhe, Pan Wilber, **Soda Green, Feilun Hai and Xin Orchestra, etc.
This group of young boys in their 20s, although not all of them were born and raised on the island, but under the cultivation and guidance of Taiwan's record industry, they were selected as the first **icon members of the millennium:
Their *** filled the video store downstairs, and their hot songs dominated the mass merchandising KTV. On the streets of the county seat, every night it is "Flower Field Wrong", and the school's radio station always has people asking for "Happy Worship"; They gathered in the corners of the city, in order to chase that touch of light. For many girls, attending *** would be a dream, while the boys walked into the barbershop and tried to trim their hair to Jay Chou's look.
This series of events has provided inspiration for idol culture for many post-80s and 90s. With the passage of time, the popularity of Taiwanese male singers has gradually turned into the youthful memories of that generation shining with golden light.
However, as time goes on and as the years go by, you mature, and at the same time the idols you worship begin to become fuller.
Jay Chou, who used to always have eight-pack abs, is now deeply attracted to milk tea;
Ashin, who was once named a Japanese teenager, has now changed to a more relaxed uncle face;
For a person like Wilber Pan, who is naturally prone to obesity, middle-aged life is undoubtedly a nightmare full of big bellies and double chin problems.
Leehom Wang can only shave his beard through live broadcast and show how to be called the "frozen male god".
However, time has quietly robbed them of not only the faces and muscles of their youth, but also the exuberant vitality they once had, and even the songs they used to eat.
At last year's New Year's Eve party, 43-year-old Wilber Pan gave an extended performance with the theme of his classic old song "I Have to Love", and netizens generally believed that he "reached the middle-aged stage, and his middle qi was obviously insufficient".
Soda Green's lead singer Wu Qingfeng admitted in an interview that when he was just over 40 years old, "the frequency of broken sound gradually increased, and it was impossible to achieve broken sound in the past."
In the past year, Wu Qingfeng has completely lost his voice three times, and socially, he believes that this is "the natural degradation of age - something that cannot be avoided even with all kinds of efforts".
This is not a typical example.
** lovers who are neighbors of Jay Chou have begun to agree with the reality that it is difficult for Xiao Tianwang to push the treble to the peak, and try to reshow the past glory of idols through AI technology and covers.
** was temporarily labeled as a "middle-aged leek" because of a lip-syncing incident. In the eyes of Ashin, whose voice has been tempered by the years, the treble is not only a musical note, but also a belief in his ** career. The social ** declaration of "singing the treble of 10 beats of e6" has also become the "last stubbornness" of the lead singer Ashin and his voice that he has relied on for 24 years.
Even if a male singer is still able to sing and dance freely at the age of 40, it does not mean that he has the ability to escape the troubles of middle age.
In the past two years, the eternal young male god Wang Dongcheng sang and danced passionately on a variety show, but then he threw away his flattery and threw out an oil field directly, causing him to laugh at himself on Weibo in the future, suggesting "Let's get rid of oil".
After all, the collapse of middle age is not just a physical collapse.
You may suddenly realize that as you get older, the possibilities in life are gradually decreasing. By the age of forty, you may not have become the person you really want, but just an ordinary middle-aged person.
has also encountered stagnation on the road of self-exploration and development, and still hopes to use the strategies of his youth to win the love of the audience.
However, I didn't realize that when I did that or said that, I was actually forgiven and tolerated by others because of the innocence and naivety on my face.
When you reach the age of forty, this really becomes no longer feasible.
It can neither go up nor down.
Huang Weiren, an expert in the field of marriage, once pointed out that when men enter middle age, they often want to show their youthful vitality, so they will make a choice:
When you're wearing clothes, opt for leather, and when buying a sports car, red is the first choice.
Those Taiwanese male singers, who are about 40 years old, are probably the most loyal practitioners of this theory.
In the course of the interview, this group of "old brothers", who are extremely cautious in terms of age, will also constantly emphasize to the public that they are still a "big boy" who has not yet fully matured and has not yet experienced the ocean known as "puberty".
Therefore, an idol who is a little older sometimes deliberately behaves like a cute and innocent child.
Such a mindset may satisfy their fans, but it will not be able to properly handle the core issues of middle life, such as maintaining a stable emotional connection.
So when you look back at the Taiwanese male singers who have been called "disenchantment" in the past few years, you'll notice that their homes have collapsed, many of which are closely related to their marriages and sex lives:
Wang Leehom was praised as a "high-quality idol" in his 20s, but in his 40s, his ex-wife Li Lianglei accused him of "infidelity in marriage and a long time of buying sex", which caused him to become the focus of public overnight, and his career and popularity fell to freezing point.
In a 2010 news report, Luo Zhixiang was described as a professional brother who was hurt by his feelings when he was young, so he was particularly careful about love;
In 2020, due to the long criticism published by his ex-girlfriend Zhou Yangqing on Weibo, the chaotic private life of "Little Pig" was completely made public, and he himself was happy to mention honorary titles such as "multiplayer sports" and "time management master".
These obvious differences can't help but be reminiscent of Faye Wong's classic "Open to Tuli":
An idol, one is no exception, an idol that is deeply involved in it, disappears one after another.
Interestingly, in that apology letter, which is more than 7,000 words, Luo Zhixiang, who is over 40 years old, still uses the word "boy" to describe himself, as if his mind is still stuck in that error-prone age.
Equally stagnate may be the creative talent of these Taiwanese male singers.
Jay Chou is now a father of three children, but he still sings those outdated songs of youth that are difficult to understand even after 10 years in "Waiting for You to Get Out of Class" and "Say Yes Don't Cry".
Similarly, a person with an average age of 45 years old has not bypassed the creative theme called "youth" that is no longer theirs; In this world, Wilber Pan has proved with his own hard work and persistence that he is a person who can be called "youth". At present, Wilber Pan's most popular works are undoubtedly the Korean classic songs he "translated" when he debuted.
For this generation of Taiwanese male singers who "debuted at the peak", their achievements yesterday have become their current constraints.
Their deep understanding of life, their endless desire for **, and their desire for all good things seem to have been sung before the age of 27, and the rest of the time is just a repetition over and over again.
If you look at it from a positive point of view, this is actually evoking the most precious memories of youth of fans again and again; On the negative side, it's like the elders of your family always say "your brother and I were pretty good" at a party or dinner......"That's the case.
For these ** idols, they have reached their peak from the beginning, but in their careers, that passion for climbing has disappeared.
It is not surprising that when Tao Zhe, the father of **, reaches the age of 40, he will once again have a deep affection for riding heavy machinery, even if his finger is injured, he will regain his youthful passion in an environment of meat and iron.
When a person's life enters a period where they can neither live like a young man nor fully accept themselves as an uncle, all men may feel confused and lost. He began to re-examine his **, no longer escaping the marks of time, but seeing it as a precious treasure. Unless the singer can genuinely embrace his aging and make sure his ** style matches his actual age.
As Luo Dayou said in his work "Qiang Qiang Threesome":
Middle age can be seen as the second stage of life, and in the ** field, always facing yourself is the most crucial part. ”
Only in this way can creators create works like "The Hills" and "Mortal Song" that directly reveal the true meaning of life.
Until then, male singers who grew up in the early 21st century and shared the ups and downs of Taiwan's record industry would still wander the desolate places of life, constantly capturing the glory moments of their past with their hands, and then watching them emerge from the cracks, blend into the memories of the past, and sometimes even hurt themselves now.
It's undoubtedly heart-wrenching when celebrities face a midlife crisis, as they can no longer represent the energy and creativity of ordinary people. In this vain world, they are shackled under the yoke of money and lose their true selves inside. Despite this, their living conditions in middle age were so barren that only money remained.
What about my midlife crisis situation?
Without further ado, I've already gone to work overtime.