When Riding the Wind 2023 is no longer ＂breaking the waves＂, what is left of ＂Wave Sister 4＂？

Text | Lao Zhang

As soon as "Sister Lang", which was renamed "Riding the Wind 2023" (hereinafter referred to as "Sister Lang 4"), was launched, the mainland variety market, which had been silent for a long time, became lively. The first broadcast was only 10 hours, and it won thousands of hot searches on the whole network, and many topics rushed to Weibo Hot One one after another. However, after the public closed last Tuesday, the popularity and word-of-mouth plunged sharply, and the speed of putting on the shelves could not catch up with the speed of pasting.

Not only did the beauty dance and song selection completely collapse, but there was neither a continuous personal line nor a group image in the reality show. The attention brought by Meiyi Liya and Liu Yiyun began to fade, and the new ideas of this program have been worn away with time …

Like many N generations, Sister Lang’s IP is deviating from its original development track and getting farther and farther away from the original audience. Aesthetic fatigue and lack of innovation have become commonplace topics. Then, how should "Sister Lang 4", who is trapped by fame and fortune, "break the waves"?

Judging from the presentation effect of the program, "Sister Lang 4" is full of gimmicks. However, except that Meiyi Liya set off the second circle with Pure Land of Blissfulness, the "memory killing" and "feeling card" that the original program wanted to copy met with a misfire, and there was no innovation in the competition system. Instead, the relevant negative news was searched on the arch. On the whole, the audience focused on the stage performance of the sisters and the scoring of the competition system.

The first is the Nana performance of Mango’s clique. Without the support of He Jiong, Vega and others, Nana’s hosting revealed the lack of emotional intelligence. On the performance of the program, the Dragon Boxing performed by a group of Nana seems to burst, but the actual impression is that Nana pushed too hard and the stage effect was embarrassing. And this kind of performance won the first place, surpassing "problem" and "Flower Sea", which caused the audience to question and spit.

In terms of competition system, it is not difficult to find out in several seasons that the chances of getting high or even the highest score in the first appearance are always great. If you want to win, you have to grab the first appearance, especially in the opening, you have to choose fast songs. The reason is that the audience waited for a long time at the scene, and finally started. Without comparison, the first sisters appeared, and it was easy for the audience to vote passionately. However, this large-scale variety recording lasted for five or six hours, and the audience was already tired. When they voted later, they would start to be cautious. If Mango doesn’t change the rules, it’s hard to make the result fair.

From the first stage to the second stage, no matter the performance of the sisters or the final score, it is not satisfactory. Most of my sisters are mediocre, and most of them are playing safety cards, lacking memory points, and they have become a variety show at the level of a platter concert. It is not surprising that they are called "standing pile singing" by netizens and "just want to ride the wind and don’t want to break the waves".

Originally, everyone’s impression of "Sister Lang" was "thirty years old and starting again". When her life was at a low ebb, her sister, who had achieved great success, opened the shackles that trapped her career and broadened the scope of her work.

However, the participation of artists such as Jenny Zeng and Angela Hui is puzzling. In the audience’s cognition, the two artists were still participating in the "Youth" and "Creation Camp" a few years ago, and their careers are on the rise. How can they become "sisters" this year? There is a strong sense of disconnection from the program purpose. Also puzzling is Gina, who is only 29 years old this year. In the past, she gave the audience the impression that she was young, smooth sailing and a winner in life, in line with all the mainstream secular "success". What "storms" does she have that she needs to participate in this program?

The initial touch of "Sister Lang" is true. The sisters are shining, and they will only be better than before, whether they form a group or not. So what we have seen in "Sister Lang" is: a sharp interview with Yi Lijing; The lyrics and dance music of "Orchid Flowers" accurately hit the hearts of thousands of women; After many years, Wang Feifei and Meng Jia danced missA again, leaving people with tears of the times; Bai Bing burst into tears after listening to Later, which made people feel distressed and many other emotional moments.

Although the slogan of "30+ breaking the shackles of age" played by "Sister Lang" a few years ago is still fresh, with the harvest of women’s topics round after round, the audience is no longer satisfied with such superficial value expression, and women’s variety shows like "Sister Lang" also need to tell new stories.

In the current program, only a dialogue between Gong Linna and Meiyi Liya pokes the audience’s tears. She said that she never dared to wear pink clothes because she was "not a pretty girl". Meiyi Liya also admitted that she was not confident on the stage. The two encouraged and hugged each other, which made the audience really feel the feelings of women helping each other. Later, Gong Linna and Meiyi Liya crossed the barrier of language communication and sang "Flower Sea" in each other’s mother tongue. With countless petals pouring down, the stage became a real flower sea, and the mutual understanding between women reached its peak.

However, such content is too little in this season’s "Sister Lang", and the original kernel is constantly lost, which is covered up by the more eye-catching topic of "tearing". When my sisters performed an inspirational story of 30+ women with maintenance, beautiful makeup and not excellent stage performance, it was difficult for the audience to find resonance in it and could not substitute themselves.

Like many N generations, the IP of "Langjie" has fallen into a bottleneck. At the beginning, the concept of "Braving the Wind and Waves" went ahead, and the program was still in the exploration stage. The director group and the audience all crossed the river by feeling the stones. Before the program started, the audience was not very optimistic, and even thought it would be a variety show of "paste coffee female artists pulling the flower", but surprisingly, the guests who relied on high concept, execution and content finally turned over against the wind.

Based on the influence of the first season, "Sister Langjie" was eager to reap the "Sister Bonus". In the following seasons, "Sister Langjie" went online in a hurry, but it kept hitting the highest amount of mango investment, and the pressure on the program group followed, and it also tended to be conservative in program production. The sisters who joined the program group had long been familiar with the routine of the program group with a clearer purpose. With the constant echo and even collusion between the program group and the capital and commercial market, the feminist color originally displayed by "Sister Lang" is constantly being dispelled.

Both of them chose the "safety card" in unison. The guests and the program group clearly knew that if you can’t dance, you can paddle and sing out of tune, and the audience is the password. It is not difficult to understand that the program is getting worse and worse. In just three years, "Sister Lang" has changed from "Sister Lang braving the wind and waves" to "Riding the wind" and now "Riding the wind". When "Breaking the waves" is gone, my sisters are still struggling to "tread the waves and sing" on the stage. What is the wind they ride, the northwest wind?

It is really embarrassing that "Langjie" went to the fourth season. The reason is that the platform can’t stop the loss in time, and it is not difficult to bear the dividend brought by IP, squeezing the residual value of IP, losing its original core advantage, and the lack of innovation. It is not difficult to understand that the popularity of word of mouth has fallen. The social environment and audience are changing, and "Sister Lang" continues to be depressed. Even though there are uncontrollable factors behind it, Mango should consider creating a dramatic topic and building a good stage balance. While mobilizing the enthusiasm of guests, it should keep watching and think deeply from the perspective of IP research and development, so as to seek more creative possibilities and depth.

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