My Story with Music (I)
Why I Started
Zhouyang HOPICO discussed in this video a number of well-known pieces that many people recognize but cannot always name accurately, such as the ending theme of China's News Broadcast and the opening theme of Animal World. It is an interesting angle, and his production quality left a strong impression.
When he played "Le Rossignol" ("The Nightingale"), it instantly pulled my thoughts back to junior high, thirty years ago. On impulse, I wanted to write about my own story with music.
The Doorway into Music
My mother is a born singer. Ever since I can remember, I often heard her sing a few lines in her spare time, songs like "Ode to Red Plum Blossom" or pieces from The Battle on Shangganling. In those years, at the year-end school performances, she often had items of her own.
At first, whenever she sang, I felt a little embarrassed. We lived in the teachers' dorm building on campus, and I worried about disturbing others. But gradually I became absorbed and realized that her voice was something I could be proud of. She liked the mezzo-soprano range. I even bought her cassettes of singers like Paula Tsui, but that is another story.
Unfortunately, I did not inherit that gene. In singing I am essentially disabled: tone-deaf, with a poor voice. My many disastrous KTV performances have confirmed this again and again.
But that never stopped me from becoming a music lover.
In this article, I mentioned that in the summer of 1993, when I was in my second year of junior high, my parents decided to move the whole family into the county town for my education. I transferred to Class 2 in the second year of Jingde Middle School and began a new chapter of school life.
In a small county town in the 1990s, young people tended to gather in a few places: video parlors, arcades, audio-video stores, billiard halls, and so on. In junior high, I met friends like Qipei and spent many weekends at the arcade playing games like Captain Commando. Music had not entered my world yet.
Looking back, though, the soundtracks of games like Street Fighter II, Strikers 1945, and the famous stage 18 of U.N. Squadron were already tapping on the part of my brain that loves instrumental music.
By the third year of junior high, we had all become a little more mature. Emotions and understanding of the world began to deepen. I was no exception.
The first device I bought that could play music was probably a small radio-cassette recorder. "Small" is relative: there was a very popular advertisement for a brand called Yanwu, and what I bought looked quite similar, though mine was likely an off-brand. There was also an American cartoon that became very popular when I was young, Transformers, with a character that could turn into a tape recorder. Of course, my original intention was to use the device to practice English listening, because I was preparing for the National English Competition. Later I won a provincial third prize, under the guidance of Yu Zuofang. She was also a close colleague and friend of my mother since their time at Huatan Middle School in Jingde County, where I spent much of my childhood (five years of primary school plus one year of junior high).
Audio-video stores back then were like Doraemon's pocket. You could find cassettes of every genre. The best-selling ones were of course albums by the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Hong Kong pop. Perhaps because I knew I could not sing, I became more interested in instrumental music. I still remember buying relatively niche cassettes: Johann Strauss orchestral works, Richard Clayderman's piano pieces, Kenny G's saxophone, and so on. I was truly absorbed by those.
I also bought some vocal music that was less mainstream: Jessica Jay's album Broken Hearted Woman, and several "Disco Warriors" compilations. Some tracks, like "Walkie Talkie Tanze" and "Don't Cry," I still listen to occasionally. In a way, those songs reflect subtle emotional changes during growing up: putting on headphones, listening to your favorite music, and expecting something beautiful to happen.