Street Dance of China Season 3 is on the air, why is it still popular?

This article was originally writen by the Chinese media Entertainment hard candy (娱乐硬糖) and translated by PandaYoo.com after it was licensed. Copyright belongs to the original author and it is forbidden to reprint without permission.

After the world stood still for six months, even those otaku are willing to make some changes. The launch of the Street Dance of China season 3 comes at a time when it seems to benefit from the economic restart of post-epidemic era.

More than half a year after the end of last season, hip-hop enthusiasts have been waiting for a long time. However in the domain of the reality show, there is a curse of “rising fast and falling quickly”. Despite the season 2 has a good result in audience rating and word-of-mouth, the new season is still questioned: “Can it be same popular?””Do they still have enough good competitors?”

On July 18, the Street Dance of China season 3 officially launched in Youku, starting with a fantastic experience that “you can’t even see it with money”. How good could it be? We can have a glance by reviewing the feedback from Chinese netizens:

Of course every show wants to be popular forever, yet very few can achieve that. By what method does the Street Dance of China make every season better than the last one?

After following all three seasons, we feel that every season is new program. Indeed the spiritual core of the show doesn`t change, yet the content, the competition, the style and the arrangement of the show are progressing – highlight of each season is unique.

In fact, in addition to the upgrading of program itself, the key to its success is the show constructs a whole set of worldview, gradually establishing a new community of street culture.

Dancers, captains and audiences, they all take roots in the community and celebrate the carnival by acting,competing and watching, attracting more audiences to “immigrate” to this culture community. With more industries and brands access to the market, this diversified structure is becoming more stable and flourishing.

The show is a kind of collective performance art.

After watching the first episode of the season 3, all the old fans put together a thousand words into three: it has changed! It is much more like a musical film rather than a reality show!

Hip-hop pays attention to the atmosphere. In the previous two seasons, we have already witness the program`s capacity of mobilizing the audiences. The choreography of Cyber malfunction style can always bring strong visual impact to the audience and accurately feel the cultural tension of hip-hop dance.

The new season is still the same, only with stronger sense of ceremony.

The street is no longer a simple scene, but a story stage with a mission. Street dancers with completely different styles and advantages are gathered on the four streets of east, west, north and south. The choice of the captain represents the overall style of their team and which star dancers they may find.

However, it is just a possibility. After all, the game system of the Street Dance of China season 3 has been completely updated, and the rights of the captain and the players have been redistributed.

After selecting one street, the captain can make a preliminary assessment of the corresponding players and take the lead in picking their favored teammates. However, whether the captain can really have the dancers will be determined by the result of the vote of the contestants in the later stage.

The captain’s judgment, standard, character and so on will also influence the dancer’s decision. In this way, both sides have to find ways to show their charm and hold on to each other.

Under such an exciting system, the captain needs to rally the hearts of the people internally and try his best to avoid the loss of good players, while externally, they have to poach from other teams and get as many master players as possible. For example, after the stunning showing up of the top floor dancer Yang Kai, Wang Jiaer and Wang Yibo scrambled to provide “massage” service, putting on a play of “fighting for favor” in place.

The first episode is enough splendid, making audience be eager for the following stories. 

Since the audiences began to advise captains on the internet, it is enough to show that they have changed from a bystander to a participant. They spontaneously integrate into this cultural community through comments, bullet-screen, promotion and so on.

Benefited from the early exploration, the Street Dance of China season 3’s grasp of rhythm has also become more handy.

After captains` assessment for a certain period, the program group will set up an impromptu competition of “snatching towels”.

This task can not only adjust the assessment quota of captains, but also give audiences an initial sense of the capacity of the dancers in the halftime competition. Driven by freshness and suspense, the atmosphere of the scene was heated step by step, and the mood of the audience was ignited.

It is no doubt that the dancing, competition and playing methods of the show in the first two seasons have been mature and classic enough, but the production team did not stop there. They constantly surpassing themselves and providing audiences more better content. There is no doubt that getting rid of path dependence is the secret to the growth of this IP.

It is worth mentioning that today’s Chinese TV dramas and reality shows compete not only with the content itself, but also with the entire ecosystem of viewers and programs. The fine operation before and after the broadcasting can vastly enhance the sense of companionship and expectation of audiences. Before the official launch of the Street Dance of China season 3, it already gathered a large number of fans by virtue of micro-movies. This appetizer set off a heated discussion about the program’s “background” and “setting”, helping it to take the lead in warming the market.

The success of the Street Dance of China season 3 fully proves that reality shows with several seasons can avoid the embarrassment of fading freshness only when they are constantly broken and rebuilt and injected with vitality under the a certain and persistent core.

If you want to do such a variety show, the right time, the right place and the right people are indispensable.

The basic method of making Stars in Street Dance

Celebrities are the key to how long a variety show can be popular. There are many guests with the name of “variety superstar”, but very few of them can really satisfy the audiences.

Looking at the whole market, there are no fixed criteria for the selection of guests. For the original popularity of the show, producers often first consider the stars who already have enough popularity. In fact, this operation tend to cause atmosphere issues, guests and programs need to fit the show for a long time (and may not be grounded successfully).

As a dance show, the Street Dance of China obviously has mature ideas for selecting people. Whether it is the captain or the contestant, the most important element is to have something to do with street dance.

First of all, the Captain. the Street Dance of China has never selected wrong person in three seasons. Last year, when the new captain Wu Jianhao joined, there were young netizens worried that he were “a little immaturity”. As a result, as soon as he went online, he wandered between the straight man and the king of meme, making the audience unable to stop. Wu Jianhao’s arrival attracted the attention of a large number of audiences between the ages of 29 and 34, according to the program team.

In this year`s season 3, the new captain lineup is eye-catching. Zhang Yixing, Wang Jiaer and Wang Yibo are all idols of strength, the effect of heating up the stage atmosphere is excellent, and they have been sincerely recognized by many good dancers.

Although Wallace Chung is an idol drama star, he first made his debut as a dancer. He knows a lot about ballet, rumba and hip-hop, and he is very studious.

It is rare for the whole family to watch the same variety show in China, yet the diverse captain lineup undoubtedly brings opportunities for the program to cover users of all ages.

To be honest, the most difficult thing compared to choosing captain, is to find dancers. The total amount of vertical variety talent resources in dance, hip-hop, skateboarding and other fields is limited. After several seasons, it is difficult to send fresh people to the program, and the audience is also prone to aesthetic fatigue.

The popularity of the Street Dance of China season 3 proves once again that we unnecessarily worry about the lack of masters in the street dance world.

The first two seasons of the Street Dance of China are doing a groundbreaking vertical variety show. At this stage, the priority is how to build a bridge between the sub-culture and dominant culture.

Hip-hop masters such as He Zhancheng, Feng Zheng and Han Yu, who already have a certain appeal and popularity, can undoubtedly attract potential audiences to the greatest extent and undertake the important task of cultivating the aesthetic appreciation of the original audiences.

At present, the show has accumulated a large number of core fans through its excellent word-of-mouth, hence the criteria for selecting dancers have changed. The season 3 choose a different upgrade route.

Here, the new generation of dancer, Xiao Chao, can quickly conquer the picky captain and become the new favorite of fans by virtue of his personalized performance; Gai, who tempers force with grace, perfectly combines the Chinese style and the international style to present the new stage presence; while overseas dancers such as Klash and Bouboo show their unique skills, achieving the cross-international communication of dance.

In fact, as the success of the first season, the Street Dance of China has already broken the cultural boundary. This time, the participation of several international dancers tend to help the new season sweep overseas markets again. After all, dance is a universal language, audiences from anywhere could feel the buring enthusiasm.

As the show consumes the resources of the industry, it is also setting off a vigorous street dance star-making movement. In the past two years, Wang Ziqi, AC Lei Xi, Sun Wukong and other rising stars have stepped out of the hip-hop circle and become well-known dancers.

Among them, the song “Like the Birds & the Bees” performed by Wang Ziqi and Shi tou was adapted into “school version” and “hospital version” by netizens. Online hip-hop training classes also benefit from the show – future dancing stars may born from this. Han Yu served as a dance instructor in the popular variety show the Name of Youth and start a new career. Yang Wenhao, Asuan and many other contestants put L’Or é al, Tmall and other big-name endorsements into the bag.

Now, the season 3 just showed its first episode, yet the short video of the hand-shaking dance has widely spread, attracting a large number of netizens to follow. The spread of short video and the rising good word-of-mouth will undeniably attract more audiences to watch the program and learn about hip-hop culture.

Variety show series and IP

Almost every variety show with multiple seasons mentions the concept of IP, but not all of them can be recognized as one. The term “IP” should establish and output a whole set of worldview, providing content with strong development potential.

In other word, based on narrative pattern, rational design and imagination, the series could maintain energetic through sustainable innovation. In Street Dance of China series, the most valuable part is not a specific dancer or one episode, but all the elements integrates into the “street culture”.

So speaking of the program, you will think of those gorgeous streets, the props ratings, the promotions towels and the floating dancers. Streets contain a worldview, within which are ever-changing systems, contents and stories.

The best part of the Street Dance of China season 3 is the worldview.

At the beginning of a micro movie, the dancer Ye Yin ran hard on the street and then the word “restart” gradually appears. Cities, streets and ruins flash across the screen. The voice-over whisper the background of the story: this city is waiting for the sun to rise again, to restore the prosperity and vitality it should have. This is the moment when the reality and the film converge. It reminds us those days shrouded by virus. Cities were under lockdown, people lived in isolation, fear spread pitilessly. Everyone were waiting for the arrival of light.

The narrative pattern of heroism, the spirit of hip-hop, dancers with no fear, all these elements converging with each other, help audience understand the theme of “restart” of season 3. Hip-hop participants in the micro films fear no challenge, keep fight by surrounding the theme of “fighting for Love”.

the Street Dance of China season 3 not only aims to promote the spirit of youth and freedom of the hip-hop culture, but also seeks for assertive competitors among Chinese dancers all over the world, allowing them to express love and faith through hip-hop performance. Their enthusiasm will also infect audiences, guiding them to cheer up and back to live, completing reconstruction tasks in post-epidemic era and moving towards a better future.

Another aspect of the worldview is the value. Each season of the show targets some social emotions, thereby stimulating passionate discussion and resonance among audiences.

Last year, the season 2 was questioned due to Jackson Yee eliminated dancers as “he didn’t impress me”. When challenged, he listened carefully and responded peacefully: “I think hip-hop is art. So I believe the most important thing to me is the feeling. The most sincere, the most real and the most essential part is to feel it.” 

The response of Jackson Yee brings him a lot of fans. Audiences now understand how to enjoy the street dance, even learn from his philosophy of life.

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This year, competition for the season 3 remains fierce. However, dancers fight not only for themselves, but also for love and life. Through competition and cooperation, we see players` tension, anxiety, desire of winning, yet they are still willing to encourage, appreciate and accept their opponents.

Therefore, after robbing towels between north and south streets, despite Wallace Chung didn’t concede defeat, he did not forgot to show his respect and then prepare himself for coming competition. His kindness also brought him Su Lianya`s firmly promise: “I may not be strong enough to help you win the game, but I will always stand by your side.”

In some sense, the judges, the dancers and the audiences of the Street Dance of China constitute an imaginary community. We are no longer isolated individuals, but growing together in each other’s companionship, aiming to find self-value. Dancers fight for love, we fight for life, and everyone finally has a bright future.

This is how the Street Dance of China series successfully come into audiences daily lives.

When a variety show successfully becomes an IP, the establishment of the subsequent industrial chain will just be a matter of time. Audiences of this “street community” talk about who will be the dark horse of this year, which team is strongest, how to buy competitors` cloth. the Street Dance of China is constantly affecting users’ way of entertainment, lifestyle, even their career orientations.

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