From the "first snow" to the "Rakshasa Sea Market", who is promoting the "Dao Lang phenomenon"?

Dao Lang, "Rakshasa Sea City" and "Mountain Song Few" have become special events in the Chinese music scene in 2023, and Dao Lang has once again become a phenomenal existence since "The First Snow in 2002" in 2004; "Mountain Song Few" and "Rakshasa Sea City" have instantly exploded on the Internet since their launch on July 19, and the popularity has continued unabated, and Dao Lang and his team have also been unusually low-key, refusing direct voices and media interviews. But with Dao Lang himself entering the short video platform, the driving force behind the scenes also surfaced. 

Songs such as "The First Snow of 2002" and "Impulsive Punishment" caught up with the CRBT era, and Dao Lang's grassroots attributes had a great impact on the mainstream pop music scene of that year; To "Rakshasa Sea Market" and the new "Mountain Song Few", it was first fermented on the short video platform, and various interpretations and second creations also spread from the short video platform to social media. As of August 30, 2023, Dao Lang himself had only 261,000 followers on Weibo, but after he entered the short video platform, his fans quickly exceeded 15 million. Some insiders analyzed that from CRBT to short video, Dao Lang actually did not miss the outlet, although the time to enter the field of short video is considered a latecomer, but it is still unstoppable.

The cover of the album "Mountain Song is Few".

1

The era of CRBT

I have to admit that "Rakshasa Sea Market" is a successful "marketing", Dao Lang starts from his own musical life, combines the survival experience of the entertainment industry, maps it with the literary story scene of "Liaozhai Zhi Yi", and uses backer modulation to make the song, which has been interpreted in various ways after it was launched, among which the most interesting is the old "grudge" between Dao Lang and celebrities such as Na Ying, Wang Feng, Yang Kun, etc., because "emotional guidance" pushed "Rakshasa Sea Market" to the position of the first national hit song in the second half of 2023. 

As early as 2004, the era of "The First Snow in 2002" was not a publicity routine of the traditional record industry, and was even criticized by industry insiders for its rough production, but because of the street singing from taxis, hair salons, restaurants and other streets to fermentation in CRBT and the Internet, it gradually became a phenomenal existence. As early as that year, Dao Lang and the team also remained "mysterious", and it was not until the premiere of Zhang Yimou's "Ambush on Ten Sides" that it was first faced to the public. 

Senior record planner Zou Xiaoying revealed in an interview with this magazine that Dao Lang's company was Deweilong, and in that year, pirated records were rampant, and Deweilong boss Zheng Jinbiao planned for Dao Lang the first way to "fever disc", so Dao Lang's original song was actually a classic cover, and "Western Regions Love Song" launched in 2003 is a cover album with a strong Western Regions flavor. By 2004's "The First Snow in 2002", there were still cover songs such as "Xinjiang Good" and "Camel Bell", but because Dao Lang himself had creative ability, he added his own original to the album, making him stand out among the group of "enthusiast singers". 

After Dao Lang "fired", the traditional record company Universal and Song Ke and other promoters quickly entered the game, Song Ke announced at the end of 2004 to acquire the copyright of Dao Lang at a sky-high price, officially entering the field of new technology, which is actually the CRBT market. At the same time, Tan Yonglin flew to Xinjiang to invite Dao Lang to sing, and Li Zongsheng also began to work as a producer for Dao Lang, Dao Lang swept the pop music scene that year, and many big-name singers such as Na Ying and Yang Kun had to express their position, which also laid the groundwork for "Rakshasa Sea Market" 20 years later. 

Song Ke once revealed in an interview: "If Dao Lang's CRBT copyright is divided by 42.5%, I should get 100 million yuan from his songs, but because it is squeezed to 10%, I only get 20 million yuan." Dao Lang's national acceptance can be seen in that year, but because of the irregular data of pirated records and CRBT market, although Dao Lang enjoyed high popularity, he did not become a "heavenly king". In 2008, the cover album "Red Classic" was released, and the concerts before and after did not continue to become phenomenal.

2

Wear colorful clothes

In 2011, Dao Lang released the album "Dao Lang 2011", also known as "The Girl in Colorful Clothes", but it is no longer the same as it was then, and the degree of topic and discussion is not the same as around 2004. Dao Lang seems to have "passed", or become a "shooting star"-like existence, many people know this name and remember his songs of the year, but the influence is difficult to sustain. Mr. Lu, an insider, revealed to this magazine that Dao Lang's commercial performance price was about 600,000 yuan that year, but he only participated in a few performances such as the Snow Mountain Music Festival and did not go around. 

Then Dao Lang began to fall silent, and even disappeared from public view, and in October 2020, he released the album "Playing Words and Words", followed by the album "As I Hear" in the form of his real name Luo Lin, covering the full text of the Diamond Sutra. In February 2021, the album "Everyone in the World" was released, but few responded. Throughout the 2010s, Dao Lang was semi-retired, and Mr. Lu said that there were also popular variety shows attracted with heavy money, and some performers took money to find Dao Lang, but he declined. 

Dao Lang seriously made music to make several albums, almost no echo in the market, Zou Xiaoying described "Playing the Word Book", equivalent to a desert swordsman put down the butcher knife at the age of 50 to practice eight dan jin, not surprisingly, these songs are not popular. Dao Lang revealed the state of life in the copywriting - reading books in the morning, practicing the piano in the afternoon, and sometimes holding the pipa for more than ten hours a day. In his spare time, he rides a battery car, explores the large and small alleys in Suzhou, goes to Guangyu Bookstore to listen to books, listens to Mr. Xing Yanzhi's Suzhou dialect class, goes to Baihua Bookstore, Shifang Bookstore, and Leqiao's antique bookstores to search for books, and creates while living. 

From Xinjiang to Suzhou, Dao Lang lived a middle-aged life of literature and art, which was unusually calm before "Rakshasa Sea City". If it weren't for this "Divine Comedy", maybe the whole "Mountain Song Few" was another "Playing Lyrics", Zou Xiaoying said very "poisonously", "If it were not for the behind-the-scenes promotion and big data distribution, "Rakshasa Sea Market" does not have much potential to become popular, and it still uses a very rare rhythm of 7 beats, which is not easy to sing in itself." Zou Xiaoying further said that because there are masters behind the scenes, "Rakshasa Sea Market" is labeled as "revenge", and after various fermentations of over-interpretation, Dao Lang has become a swordsman who "I waited for this day for ten years", and the emotional confrontation provoked the sensitive nerves of too many people. 

According to the analysis of "New Music Industry Observation", this song was first released on high-traffic music numbers selling car U disks, driving the first wave of transmission. Mention that "swearing without dirty words" in the song triggered netizens to list the names of other singers in the comment area, and then from the short video platform to rush to Weibo hot search, once the emotions are on the head, the traffic gate will open. This "emotional guidance" then spread to major social platforms and eventually became a "national carnival". 

After that, there are various "rhythms" such as ""Rakshasa Sea City" broke the Guinness World Record with 8 billion views - some people sing, some people create a second creation, some people turn over old accounts, some people ask about the current situation, some people talk about music, some people talk about literature, some fake it, and some people refute rumors. At the same time, the three companies associated with Dao Lang (Luo Lin) are Beijing Jiuyu Tianxia Music Culture Development Co., Ltd., Shanghai Shangliuyu Culture Studio and Urumqi Luolin Music Creation Studio have all been cancelled, which has added a sense of mystery.

3

Surfaced

The discussion about "Rakshasa Sea City" is very popular, many netizens asked Na Ying and other singers to apologize, Wang Feng also specially filmed a video to deny the criticism of Dao Lang that year, but Dao Lang and the team rejected all interviews and voices, the music company senior Mr. Liu said to this magazine that all kinds of actions on the one hand show that the Dao Lang team is very calm, on the other hand also shows that the Dao Lang team is very smart, at this time must not come out for interviews, the less vocal, the higher the degree of discussion, and this time the voice will be inappropriate no matter what. 

On the evening of August 26, Dao Lang updated his personal Weibo, and his last Weibo was still stuck in 2016.

It wasn't until the evening of August 26 that Dao Lang updated his personal Weibo, and his last Weibo post was still stuck in 2016, when he announced that he had not received a single performance since March 30, 2013. From 2013 to 2023, it's exactly ten years. But before posting Weibo, he posted a short music video on the short video platform for three consecutive nights, and in the short video released on August 25, Dao Lang said that he would share the music content here in the future, and then Dao Lang picked up a guitar and sang a song "My Constellation". 

Dao Lang used a photo from his childhood as an avatar for his video platform account.

So far, the Dao Lang phenomenon in 2023 has come to light, and in the list of Dao Lang Weibo's followers, there is a "Xu Run Music", and this company is also the record company of "Mountain Song Few", and "Xu Run Music" Weibo has also been updating Dao Lang related content. In addition, although Dao Lang's company was deregistered, "Beijing Ah Ya La Lang Music Culture Development Co., Ltd." still existed, and the shareholders were Zhu Jimei and Luo Tian, who were said to be Dao Lang's wife and daughter respectively. In addition, "Xurun Music" was also the record company of Yang Kun's album "The End of the River of Love". 

A recent photo of Dao Lang.

After the explosion of "Rakshasa Sea Market", Zou Xiaoying analyzed that just as Dao Lang said 20 years ago that Wang accounted for the dividends of the CRBT channel, Internet café channel, and HIFI fever car audio channel, "Rakshasa Sea Market" this time accounted for the dividend of big data distribution, "When many people brush Dao Lang's new songs on the short video platform, the imbalanced form that has been in the absence of voice for a long time has been released", in addition, "Mountain Song Few" is also in line with another wandering target of the short video platform - national style. 

But at the same time, Zou Xiaoying believes that no matter the backer tone in "Rakshasa Sea Market", the "embroidered purse" in "Painting the Wall", and the "Taoist love" in "Flying Pie", these are all the results of Dao Lang's hard work, and Dao Lang is still a creator with limited talent. Mr. Liu, a senior executive of the music company, further said that the foothold of this traffic carnival is that Dao Lang settled in the short video platform, and at the same time has a certain impact on the reputation and commercial performance of his "revenge" singers, but unlike the overwhelming grassroots craze in "The First Snow in 2002", the Dao Lang phenomenon in 2003 is more about the popularity of Dao Lang himself, and the word-of-mouth controversy over individual singers, but it has little impact on the Chinese music scene as a whole, "Dao Lang has not given up making music, and has always been very pursuing, the direction is clear, can only sigh." , the push of short video platforms is too powerful."

From the rise of the CRBT era around 2004 to the current rise of short videos, Dao Lang has become the beneficiary of every music carrier innovation, from "The First Snow in 2002" to "Rakshasa Sea Market", which also records the changes in the Chinese pop music scene to some extent. Dao Lang's musical practice continues, and the exploration of the popular music form of Chinese and Western is worthy of recognition, and he and his songs can become the driving force behind the phenomenal existence, whether it is saliva songs or the saliva triggered by songs, they have become a footnote of the times.

Written by: Nandu reporter Ding Huifeng Intern Pan Tingting