Little Apple (song)

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
"Little Apple"
Song

"Little Apple" (simplified Chinese: 小苹果; traditional Chinese: 小蘋果; pinyin: Xiǎopíngguǒ) is a single by Chopstick Brothers (筷子兄弟), a duo of Wang Taili (王太利) and Xiao Yang (肖央), released as a promotional song for the movie Old Boys: The Way of the Dragon (老男孩之猛龙过江). Since its release, it has quickly attained great popularity in Chinese cyberspace, making it a widespread internet meme.[2][3][4]

Music video

The music video of the song shows scenes of a square dance, interweaved with several short stories about love and romance resultant of a male partner's disapproval of his girlfriend's appearance, resulting in a failed attempt at plastic surgery. It contains elements from 1950s Korea and the legends of Adam and Eve and uses Chinglish in an expressive manner to portray the underlying tension of appearance. The square dance in the music video has also gained popularity in the public.[5] Bae Seul-ki also starred in the video.

Reception

The song became famous shortly after its release on 29 May 2014. Since release, its music video has been adapted into various parodies by the public.[2] However, some critics have criticized the song for its low artistic value.[6]

Chart performance

This song has also attained high positions in main online charts in China. It peaked at number one in the CCTV Global Chinese Music Chart (Chinese: 全球中文音乐榜) released every Saturday.[7]

This song, referred to be one commentator as a "brainwashing song", also brings up the psychological factors that contribute to its success—its simple rhythm and lyrics cause the "earworm effect", forcing people to listen to it over and over again, and another reason that lied underneath is the "snowball effect", which means that people tend to follow others in a trend, suggesting that some people may not actually like the song, but just blindly following others.[8]

Covers

Army recruitment video

China’s Ministry of National Defense released a video with the song on 27 July 2014, as a part of their recruitment campaign for the Army.[9] The video features footage of soldiers dancing the square dance in the original music video, plus some scenes from the Army's training sessions and some words of encouragement.

T-ara version

"Little Apple with Chopstick Brothers"
File:T-ara Little Apple.jpg
Single by T-ara featuring Chopstick Brothers
Released November 24, 2014 (2014-11-24)
Format Digital download
Length 03:32
Label Core Contents Media, KT Music
Writer(s) K-Smith, Wang Taili
Producer(s) Shinsadong Tiger
Music video
T-ara & Chopstick Brothers "Little Apple" on YouTube

South Korean girl band T-ara released a Korean/Chinese cover of "Little Apple", featuring Chopstick Brothers, on 24 November 2014.[10] The song was produced by Shinsadong Tiger and was released as a digital single by MBK Entertainment and distributed by KT Music.[11] Chopstick Brothers also featured in T-ara's music video.[12]

This is actually the first time that Kpop artists are releasing a cover version of a Cpop song.[13]

Other versions

Strawberry, May Ng and Stella Chen of RED People, otherwise known as Amoi-Amoi, released a cover version of the song, including various Malaysian fruits. The video includes scenes of Chopstick Brothers' original music video as well as T-ara's music video. Norwegian Power Metal artist PelleK uploaded a cover of this song on his YouTube channel Pellekofficial on January 14, 2015 in a metal style and has been both complimented and criticized for his pronunciation of Chinese words.

Awards

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2014-08/08/content_18274648.htm
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ http://tofupost.com/2014/10/t-ara-remake-chopstick-brothers-song-little-apple-november-comeback
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Little_Apple_(song)&oldid=709430342"