China’s First Hit Song of 2011 is way weird

China’s First Hit Song of 2011 is way weird

That the first hit song of 2011 should make its initial splash on the Chinese Internet is no surprise. Nor is it all that strange that it isn’t from a big name in the mainstream music industry. What’s really odd is the song itself: a song being described as “trans-boundary folk’ performed without actual lyrics by an overly expressive soprano. The song “Perturbed” (忐忑, tan te) by Gong Linna came in at number 2 on this week’s top-searched list.
Gong had already performed “Perturbed” several times in concert and on CCTV, but never got so much as a peep out of the audience. While the masses seemed indifferent to Gong Linna’s performance, one anonymous Internet user changed all that by posting videos of her bizarre performance at the 2010 Beijing early spring concert online (Not the one in the video below, but this one’s even more fun).
So why, of all the musical masterpieces out there, did this particular folk song go viral? We can safely assume that it’s not the actual song, but its performance, that has the Chinese Internet going wild. In fact, most people don’t really understand what the song is even about — not that they could, as the entire piece is made up of carefully articulated sounds and sometimes quite goofy ones carrying no apparent purpose or meaning, giving rise to the popular joke that the song is “holy music”(神曲, shen qu) composed in the language of the Enlightened Chosen Ones.
The professionally trained Gong attempts to make up for the lack of verbal content in her performance with over-the-top facial expressions. While experts call it brilliant and hail Gong as a rare talent, most users simply find delight and amusement in watching the singer muster up a gazillion facial expression within a mere 4 minutes and 21 seconds