Rebirth of Siheyuan starts in the 1980s

A few days later, the first single "Red Flag Fluttering", which had been delayed for various reasons, was finally officially released on Children's Day, June 1st.

In fact, Cao Zhiqiang's original plan was to regard the single "Bloodstained Style" as his first single in his life, and the original release date was set for May 25th.

Just because this month happened to be preparing for pre-exams and re-recording vinyl records, etc., the release date was postponed and changed to Children's Day.

Since it was first released on Children's Day, "Blood-stained Style" is not appropriate.

Because although "Blood-stained Style" is indeed very touching and has been proven by history to be a very good best-selling song, its content is too sad and conflicts with the cheerful atmosphere of Children's Day.

Therefore, Cao Zhiqiang finally decided to premiere the single "Red Flag Flying" on Children's Day.

"The Flying Red Flag" is exciting and positive, with a bit of a cheerful atmosphere, which perfectly complements the Children's Day.

After all, on Children’s Day during this period, children under the age of fourteen have a day off.

However, while children have a day off, parents do not. Therefore, the greatest pleasure for children during this period is not only to have fun, but also to read and buy books in bookstores.

Therefore, usually before Children's Day, various government institutions and state-owned enterprises will issue some book purchase coupons to employees, and then on Children's Day, children can take the book purchase coupons to bookstores to buy books.

Of course, you don’t just have to buy books, you can also buy things like audio tapes.

Because the so-called book purchase coupons are basically issued by Xinhua Bookstore to various units. You can take these to Xinhua Bookstore for consumption, and you can buy anything that Xinhua Bookstore has.

At this time, Xinhua Bookstore not only sold books, but also audio tapes, video tapes, vinyl records, stationery, musical instruments and other items. It could be said that it was a small shopping mall that focused on the cultural and educational system.

Older children can buy them by themselves, but in most cases, parents bring their children to buy them.

Just because many people are still working, most of the parents who take their children to visit Xinhua Bookstore are housewives or grandparents who are not working.

What a coincidence, Cao Zhiqiang's song "Red Flag Fluttering" was first sold at Xinhua Bookstore.

There is no way, who makes Cao Zhiqiang have a good relationship with the general manager of Xinhua Bookstore now.

Whether it is Hongguang Publishing House or Huaxia Audio and Video Company, they are all serious national brands.

Of course, products produced by national brands can be put on the shelves at Xinhua Bookstore.

Therefore, long before Children's Day, a large number of audio tapes and vinyl records of "The Flying Red Flag" have entered Xinhua Bookstore, and they are still in the most conspicuous positions, and even have many advertising slogans posted.

The advertising slogan is also very interesting: "Produced by Aqiang, it must be a high-quality product! The red flag is flying, cheer for the country!"

Well, this Ah Qiang refers to Cao Zhiqiang’s stage name.

Yes, Cao Zhiqiang did not continue to use the name "Qiangzi", but opened another trumpet account called "Aqiang".

Mainly, the pen name "Qiangzi" was originally a name that Cao Zhiqiang came up with that had a bit of a ridicule and a ruffian flavor, but it actually doesn't fit in with the current mainstream.

To put it simply, he is not very classy and too earthy.

But now that it is famous, I have no choice but to keep using it.

However, Cao Zhiqiang did not want to continue to use the pseudonym Qiangzi for the singer.

He thinks it's better to separate.

Although if his pen name and stage name are separated, there will be a lot less traffic, but he is not worried about this.

As long as the work is good, the trumpet will skyrocket, and there is no need for the help of the original pen name.

Qiangzi, just be his poet from now on.

As for the title of musician, leave it to A Qiang.

A true musician must rely on his strength rather than other factors.

Well, this is all external view.

The real situation is that Cao Zhiqiang simply felt that the pen name Qiangzi did not suit his identity as a singer, so he changed his name to Aqiang.

Anyway, Cao Zhiqiang has opened a lot of trumpet accounts before, and this Aqiang is no different.

Cao Zhiqiang talks about winning with strength, but in fact he doesn't just launch the work and that's it, he also advertises!

That's right, it's advertising, and it's almost free advertising.

It can be said that it was precisely because of this advertisement that Cao Zhiqiang postponed the release date of the first single to June 1st.

In fact, advertising is nothing new in China at this time.

Generally speaking, if you want to advertise domestically at this time, you must either publish it in newspapers or magazines. These are the two most common methods.

Then there are radio and television stations.

It's just that during this period, units like radio and television stations were no longer the era in 1979 when they could advertise just about any tonic.

At this time, if you want to advertise on radio and television stations, not only will the price be much higher, but you will also have to go through layers of review.

Take CCTV as an example. If you want to advertise on CCTV, you not only have to pay a large price, but you also have to get permission from the CCTV advertising department. Not just any other brand can be advertised.

Cao Zhiqiang wants to sell audio tapes, which is obviously not suitable for advertising on TV stations.

However, Cao Zhiqiang found another way and launched a public service advertising project.

Of course, when it came to this project, Cao Zhiqiang did not expect that the initiator, or inspiration, was actually his sound engineer Chen Guangming.

I think back when Cao Zhiqiang had just established the Huaxia Audio and Video Company, he had no choice but to rent equipment from other units because he did not have his own recording equipment.

At that time, Cao Zhiqiang's first thought was CCTV.

Relying on his relationship with Director Chen Hanyuan of the CCTV Editorial Office, Cao Zhiqiang was able to rent CCTV's recording studio to record records, and Chen Guangming was his sound engineer.

At the beginning, Cao Zhiqiang just recorded records normally, that is, he played and sang by himself in the recording studio, and then it was recorded. After some minor processing, it could be used as a master tape to record the record.

Although the process is simple, most domestic audio tapes of this period were like this.

However, when Cao Zhiqiang was recording "Wishful" later, Chen Guangming said that Cao Zhiqiang's songs are so exciting and heart-touching. It would be a pity to just listen to the songs. If only a war movie could be made and used as the theme song of the movie, it would be nice to listen to it while watching it.

alright.

The speaker has no intention, the listener has intention.

At that time, Cao Zhiqiang had already planned to promote the record and put it on the market. When he heard this, he immediately thought of MTV.

MTV had already appeared abroad at this time, but it had not yet been introduced in China.

There are many reasons, but the main reason is not the insufficient number of TV sets.

Although the penetration rate of TV sets in China at this time was not high, the absolute number was very high.

The main reason is the lack of relevant awareness and teams in China.

In the early days of CCTV, the overall thinking was relatively conservative, and the program production was also lackluster. It was only because there were too few TV stations that everyone could only watch those few channels. In addition, there was a shortage of entertainment methods. CCTV had the largest coverage, so the ratings were low.

The rate is extremely high.

However, this does not mean that CCTV cannot now produce music television programs in the form of MTV.

Well, maybe it's not the time to open a separate MTV channel at this time, but it's still okay to produce a few MTV programs and broadcast them on the CCTV channel.

Producing an MTV is not the problem, the difficult thing is how to convince CCTV to agree to broadcast his MTV.

Obviously, if it is purely used as an advertisement to sell Huaxia Audio and Video Company's records, there will still be some difficulties. Products such as major records are currently difficult to pass the review of CCTV's advertising department because they are not high-end enough.

For the same reason, it is not appropriate to promote the book series "Journey to Jianghu" and will not be approved.

After much thought, Cao Zhiqiang decided to find another way and simply create a public service announcement in advance.

I have already thought of a name, so I just called it "Advertise It Widely"!

After having this idea, Cao Zhiqiang went to Chen Hanyuan, the director of CCTV's editor-in-chief, and expressed his idea about "advertising it widely".

Well, basically, Cao Zhiqiang copied the idea of ​​"spreading the word" from later generations.

The basic core is very positive, that is, shooting some non-profit and public welfare advertisements, praising morals, cooperating with government propaganda, and advocating that everyone be civilized, polite, respect science, and love the party and the country.

The content can be diverse, it can be satirical, it can be a hymn, it can be a short film, it can be a song, it can focus on current hot topics, or it can recall the glorious past. Anyway, be as positive as you want.

As for the duration, it doesn’t need to be more, it just doesn’t exceed the time of one song.

Needless to say, as soon as the idea was raised, Chen Hanyuan immediately became interested.

Then Cao Zhiqiang took advantage of the situation and launched his first MTV-type public service advertisement-"Red Flag Flying"!

The filming of this MTV was also very simple.

I mainly photographed the three-person national flag-raising class, and then photographed some people standing aside to watch the flag-raising with tears in their eyes when the national flag was being raised. I also photographed some ordinary people's daily lives.

In addition, of course, there must be Cao Zhiqiang himself wearing a Chinese tunic suit, singing alone under the national flag, on the Great Wall, in front of workers, in front of farmers, in front of primary school students, with an expression that may be solemn or selfless, singing alone.

When these clips are edited together and matched with the background music of "Red Flag Flying", it will be an excellent MTV.

When Chen Hanyuan mentioned this idea, he was very moved and quickly found the relevant leaders to come over.

When the relevant leaders heard the concept of this project and the song "Red Flag Flying" that Cao Zhiqiang had recorded before, they burst into tears instantly and made the decision immediately.

Just like that, the column team officially announced the project.

Among them, Cao Zhiqiang himself became a consultant to the program team, and China Audio and Video Company was the exclusive sponsor of this column.

In other words, CCTV does not provide any funding for the widely advertised column team, and it is all funded by the column team themselves.

At present, it is entirely supported by Huaxia Audio and Video Company. In the future, we can solicit bids and solicit sponsorship from other units as appropriate.

It’s not like CCTV doesn’t show anything.

CCTV provides people, equipment, and program time slots.

But related production costs, such as consumables, food expenses, employee subsidies, travel expenses, etc., all have to be supported by Huaxia Audio and Video Company.

In fact, this is very conscientious, because the fees are not too high.

And CCTV has no choice but to do the same at this time. In fact, the country is undergoing reforms at this time, and CCTV is also within the scope of innovation. To put it simply, new programs can be produced, but the funds are not available.

Of course, if it's done well, it doesn't mean that you can't ask for funds from other departments.

For example, the Youth League Central Committee and other departments are not immune to the fall wind.

So, at least in 1983, CCTV's life was not easy either.

In short, after the leader has passed the test, shooting will naturally not be a problem.

CCTV is like no other. The camera crew is complete and even super-staffed.

You heard me right, CCTV’s camera crew at this time is really overstaffed.

In fact, in the early 1980s, CCTV had quite a lot of production staff and logistics staff. You can understand why.

Later, after continuous reforms, it was continuously streamlined.

Of course, we are talking about production and logistics here.

CCTV front-end hosts and the like are basically nothing more than a carrot.

The main reason is that CCTV only has so many program lengths and so many program groups, and each program group only has a few hosts who can hold the spotlight.

For example, Teacher Zhao Zhongxiang was already the top brother of CCTV. Relatively speaking, Teacher Chen Duo was slightly inferior.

Naturally, a new program like this cannot be hosted by a guy like Teacher Zhao.

In fact, according to the definition, this "Advertise It" column does not need a host at all, what is needed is the content itself.

According to Cao Zhiqiang, there is no need to waste time with opening and closing credits, and there is no need for a host to come out to explain and preach.

Just put it into the film, directly touch people's hearts with its content, and let the audience figure out the connotation for themselves.

Because it is directly uploaded to the film, the content must be concentrated and concise, more concise and impactful than the sketch, and it must have good background music.

The combination of pictures and music can achieve sufficient audio-visual impact.

Well, actually Cao Zhiqiang almost said that he would directly engage in MTV.

No matter what, we have the program team, the funds, the creative plan for the first program, and even the background music. It can be said that everything is ready.

The shooting process went very smoothly. After all, we didn’t need too many complicated technical shots at this time. We just shot some of the shots that Cao Zhiqiang mentioned, then eliminated the essentials and edited them together. At most, we paid attention to the changes in light and shadow to highlight a scene from the darkness.

to dawn.

Such a picture, paired with the background sound of "The Red Flag is Flying", would be perfect.

At the same time, in order to film this positive public service advertisement, the program team, under the organization of the Communist Youth League and other relevant departments, also specially invited the China Symphony Orchestra and the chorus of the China Symphony Orchestra to accompany it.

Accompanied by the symphony orchestra and choir, and sung by Cao Zhiqiang's unique voice, they jointly composed a very exciting song "The Red Flag is Fluttering"!

This kind of configuration is far better than Cao Zhiqiang holding a guitar and playing and singing by himself in front of the recording engineer.

In fact, Cao Zhiqiang couldn't help but record the chorus version. With the consent of the symphony orchestra, he remade a symphony version and made it directly into a vinyl record.

In other words, the vinyl record version of the single is directly the symphony version, not the self-playing and singing version of the tape version.

At the same time, the symphonic version will also appear in future music album collections.

It is worth mentioning that the symphony orchestra itself originally paid no money to record and release the version accompanied by the Chinese symphony orchestra.

Because this itself is a political task, and the China Symphony Orchestra is not a for-profit organization at this time.

However, Cao Zhiqiang still insisted on giving dividends to those who participated in the symphony orchestra's score, including everyone who participated.

Regarding the specific dividend ratio, he also wrote a contract himself, stating the specific dividend ratio.

Yes, he wrote a contract himself, forced the person in charge of the symphony orchestra to sign and fingerprint it, and even took photos as a souvenir.

According to the contract written by Cao Zhiqiang himself, as long as a symphony version of "Red Flag Flying" in which they participate is released, the symphony orchestra will receive 10% of the net profit from the release of the product.

Yes, it is 10% of the net profit, not 10% of the price. The difference is huge.

The company's net profit refers to the total revenue from the release of this song by Huaxia Audio and Video Company, minus the total expenses, and the remaining profit.

If the record released is an album with more than one song, then simply divide it by the number of songs on the album.

All in all, Cao Zhiqiang cannot let those people work in vain. In market economy, more work will bring more.

Well, that's a nice way of saying it. In fact, the essence of what Cao Zhiqiang did was to win over the symphony orchestra. Not only would they be able to cooperate more smoothly in the future, but also if they had to defend their power or something in the future, there wouldn't be strength in numbers.

In this way, after busy and hurried preparations, CCTV's widely advertised program, namely "Red Flag Flying", an MTV that advocates everyone to love the national flag and love life, no, it is a public service announcement, will be on May 30th Sunday.

Before the midday news on Monday, it was officially broadcast for the first time.

Yes, according to the plan, this program will be broadcast before the noon news and after the noon news. As far as the time period is concerned, it is actually very good.

In terms of broadcasting, each program is broadcast continuously for one week and changes every Monday.

In other words, on Children's Day, the program "Red Flag Fluttering" has been broadcast for two consecutive days.

The effect of the program can only be said to be quite good.

I don’t know if you have felt the patriotic sentiment from the show, but at least the song "Red Flag Fluttering" has been remembered by the majority of the audience.