芒种 - I can't get you out of my head

Very rarely a song can be earworm for me for so long. Since I first heard it in September 2019, I still play it so frequently, almost approaching an unhealthy level. This is an attempt articulate my love for this song, so that I can move on from this earworm. 芒种 (Mángzhòng), created by 音阙诗听 Youtube channel, the title of the song means one of the solar terms in the traditional Chinese calendar. There are 24 of these solar terms in the Chinese calendar, and 芒种 is the ninth one, which is the 2 weeks period in June before summer solstice. As you can expect, they actually created 24 songs that are named after these solar terms. I have listened to the others but I think none can match the quality of 芒种.

The beats is modern, nothing much spectacular about it. However the few verses with Chinese traditional musical instruments never fails to give me goosebumps. What really nails it is really the lyrics, it is just so damn poetic. It is about love, about karma, about the season like what the song is named after. Some netizens even theorize that it is actually about the love story in the famous literature of Dream of the Red Chamber. I guess I always have a soft spot for Chinese songs with a hint of old Literary Chinese poetic lyrics. Songs like Wishing We Last Forever by Faye Wong/Teresa Teng, or River South by JJ Lin have been my all time favorites and now 芒种 joins this exclusive list.

This song cannot easily be sang. The singer has to possess a certain voice quality to perfect the song. Hitting high note is a must, but also he/she must hit the high notes with a certain ease and must not be forced, as a strain in the voice must not be shown. This song is hard to perform, even the original singer may sometimes fails in live performance I saw in some videos. I think may be Teresa Teng or Faye Wong could perfect it to my caliber.

The song was a hit in China when it came out. Naturally, people made cover of it, remix, etc.. The remix that I like the so far is this remix with rap lyrics, adding another western twist to it. The remix version actually leads me to imagine what kind of creative spark if 音阙诗听 could collab with Mura Masa as he is probably my favorite remix artist.