Music Up

Chinese TV series or program

Jie Yan Yan
Ceng Wei
Lu Yingzhe

Screenplay by

Xiang Hua
Jie Yan Yan
Ceng Wei

Directed byHu YihongVoices of

Zhang Cheng
Ye Qishan
Li Ye
Shen Lei
Feng Junhua
Sun Ye
Tao Hai
Zhang Hui
Xu Huayan
Shen Dawei
Li Wei
Wu Xiaoyan

Theme music composerPeng ChengOpening theme"My Stage" by Tiger Hu and the Inspirational BandComposerPeng ChengCountry of originChinaOriginal languageMandarinNo. of episodes52ProductionEditorQiang XiaobaiRunning time22 minsProduction companies

Shanghai Animation Film Studio
Shanghai Television
Welkin-Animation

Original releaseNetwork

Shanghai Television
CCTV

ReleaseAugust 6 (2001-08-06) –
August 31, 2001 (2001-08-31) (first 26 episodes)
2002 (last 26 episodes)

Music Up (Chinese: 我为歌狂), also known as Crazy for the Song, is the first Chinese animated (alternatively known as a Donghua) idol series in China. It was distributed by Shanghai Animation Film Studio and produced by Welkin-Animation.

A sequel, Music Up: Reborn (我为歌狂第二季) is released in early October 2020.

Background

This is the first animation production from China with an emphasis on the life of singers, bands and pop stars. It is the first high budget domestic Chinese animation. Production investment is estimated to be 18 million RMB (about US $2.3 million).^[1] In 2001 66% of its profits came from selling merchandise related to the series.^[2]

Story

Four young teenage boys share a common vision and passion for music. They come together overlapping their own personalities and ideas. In the process, they encounter a lot of difficulties as any youth might have. The story is unfolded as the band grows up. Academic, personal conflicts, family, friendship and emotional problems are all intertwined. With the help of teachers, students, and friends they try to achieve their dreams.

Merchandise

The TV series was not as successful as expected, but the associated merchandise of books, cards, CDs were extremely popular among teenagers in China. The book series sold 350,000 copies in Shanghai alone. A video game was released in 2002 by UbiSoft China titled "Music Up - Summer Rainbow".^[3]

References

^ Eastday. "Eastday in English^{[permanent dead link]}." "Hit Cartoon to make profit." Retrieved on 2007-01-09.
^ China Today. "China Today Archived 2006-02-10 at the Wayback Machine." "Chinese Animation Market: Monkey King vs Mickey Mouse." Retrieved on 2007-01-09.
^ Gamasutra. "Gamasutra." "Postmortem: Ubi Soft China’s Music Up -- Summer Rainbow." Retrieved on 2007-01-09.
^ Shang, Xiaolan (2001-08-08). "《我为歌狂》"盗"《灌篮高手》". Beijing Youth Daily. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
^ "虽然《我为歌狂》要拍第二部了，但其实他们的故事早已有结局". Gamecores. 2017-11-19. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
^ Li, A-Bao (2019-05-12). "想当年｜《我为歌狂》的新潮，新新一代还能领会吗？". The Paper. Retrieved 2019-09-18.