The Flowers (Chinese band)
The Flowers |
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The Flowers, also known as Hua Er Yue Dui (Simplified Chinese: 花儿乐队), is a popular boy band based in Mainland China. The band consists of four members: lead vocalist Da Zhangwei (大张伟), guitarist Shi Xingning (石醒宁), bassist Guo Yang (郭阳), and drummer Wang Wenbo (王文博). The group debuted in 1998 and have released five albums, the most recent one released September 29, 2007.
History
Originally, there were three members in the band but later changed when guitarist Shi Xingning joined. During their early career, the Flowers were a pop punk band playing in bars and clubs and at the same time, other bands were breaking out in Beijing's underground music scene. The Flowers, unable as they were to hide their hunger for commercial success, were somewhat aloof from this scene, and often derided in some quarters for their attitudes. No matter, as the accessible nature of songs like "Stillness", "Disillusion" and "School's Out" made the band perfect for the music market they wished to conquer. They were credited somewhat for helping to give disaffected Chinese youth a resonant voice, as many teenagers were deeply affected by their songs and felt that the Flowers' lyrics reflected their own life experiences. As a result, punk music in general became more widely known, no doubt much to the consternation of the Yunnan contingent.
In light of the band's commercial impact, some overenthusiastic commentators even declared that they were the true bringers of punk to Chinese. They pointed out that fans had previously found even the acoustic grunge of Nirvana's "Unplugged in New York" difficult to comprehend.
Although their music wasn't very hard edged, Flowers were at least punk enough to get involved in a two year long lawsuit with their first company, New Bees Music. The dispute almost brought the band to a premature end, but was eventually settled out of court. Flowers marked the end of their purgatory by signing to EMI and bringing in a fourth member, a guitar player by the name of Shi Xingning. Fortunately this change wasn't just a superficial face-lift, as the band had by this point become tired of the simple but effective music which had made them so popular. Like many other musicians, they were looking to diversify.
This diversification can be heard on their album, "I'm Your Romeo", which features musical styles such as hip-hop and techno. The band now seems to be a long way from their old punk roots, but they are as straightforward as ever in their ideals ...or lack of them. Vocalist Da Zhangwei says "We have to earn our living through music... Pleasing our fans is our reason for making music and we don't care about other things." The songs are still fairly upbeat and the lyrics pretty direct, although Da Zhangwei has softened the tone a bit for some of the love related songs.
The group was also nominated by organizers of the Pepsi Music Chart Awards in China for prizes in categories such as Best Arrangement, Best Lyrics, Best Composer and Best Rock 'n' Roll Band but were later cancelled when plagiarism accusations involving the band came to light. They were also involved in a plagiarizing scandal when it was discovered that they had copied at least 12 of their songs from foreign and overseas artists. Although frontman Da Zhangwei did not admit the songs were plagiarized, he admitted there were some flaws that existed in the songs. Contrary to his belief, Da Zhangwei claims he listens to hundreds of songs every week and when he writes the songs, some melodies come naturally, without manifesting their origins.
The Fighting Incident
In 2007, During the plagiarism scandal, the band was seen eating at a restaurant in Beijing. They were talking and started arguing. Soon, it escalated into a fight. This whole scene was captured by the cellphone of a nearby man who was in the restaurant with his girlfriend. EMI, the band's label admitted there was a dispute, claiming that it was all because they had different views on their new album. According to a senior official from the record company, Zhang Yi, the fight began when Da Zhangwei and another fellow band member expressed differences on the new album's sound. Some even questioned whether the fight was a publicity stunt for promoting the upcoming album but Zhang Yi says the band is too busy to do so.
Background
Da Zhangwei was born August 31, 1983 in Beijing. His inspirations are Green Day, Ramones, and Nirvana. He likes art and dislikes basketball.
Shi Xingning was the last to join the band, in 2001.
Guo Yang was born June 1, 1978 in Beijing, and like Da Zhangwei, also likes Green Day and Nirvana. He dislikes chatting and being waken by a phone.
Wang Wenbo was born October 22, 1982 in Beijing. His inspirations are Green Day, The Cure, and Nirvana. He likes sleeping and listening to music and dislikes being messy and making mistakes during performances.