1928: The rise of giant merchants

"Miss Wang Ji, you're here, come in quickly, you're the only one missing." Ye Luo waved to him in the lobby on the first floor.

"Second Young Master, are these equipment moved to the third floor?"

"Wei Sheng, help me get those power strips!"

"Second Young Master, the lighting seems a bit unclear. Can I send someone to the warehouse to get a new one?"

The hall was filled with employees wearing Yip Film Company uniforms.

They worked in an orderly manner. When they encountered some problems that they could not solve, they directly asked Ye Luo, who was in command in the hall, for instructions and received a reply soon.

Before going out, Wang Ji deliberately put on light makeup and sexy but not revealing clothes, and came to see the second young master with uneasiness.

However, in fact, the second young master seemed to have no time to pay attention to her at all!

"Quick, quick, quick, Miss Wang Ji, do you want to drink some water to moisten your throat first?" A female assistant walked towards her quickly, "The other ladies are already in place."

"Ah? Okay, okay." Wang Ji became more and more confused. What was he doing?

Seeing that she was completely confused, the female assistant quickly held the water glass and continued to explain: "The second young master specially sent people abroad to purchase a batch of recording equipment and wants to help you record a record."

"Records?" Wang Ji never dreamed that one day he would be able to release records by himself like a singer!

It turned out that the second young master asked her to sing a song that day, not for fun or for other reasons, but because he really wanted her to sing!

"Wang Ji, this is a song written for you. Look at the lyrics. I'll ask Boss Li to play the soundtrack later. You can try singing along." Ye Luo walked over quickly and handed the document in his hand to Wang Ji. Then he pointed at a middle-aged man who was debugging equipment.

Hearing Ye Luo's call, the middle-aged man immediately looked over and smiled.

He is Li Jinhui, the father of modern Chinese singing and dancing, a writer of children's singing and dancing music, and the founder of Chinese pop music. He is also the father of contemporary singer and popular movie star Liming Hui.

Liming Hui is only 19 years old this year and is already very popular in the entertainment industry. She was once a contracted movie star of Tianyi Film Company, but she couldn't stand Tianyi's exploitation and forced sexual entertainment of female stars, so she resigned angrily at the beginning of this year. He followed his father's Chinese Song and Dance Troupe to perform in Southeast Asia.

Ye Luo originally wanted to ask Li Minghui to sing with her, but unfortunately she is in Nanyang now, and only Li Jinhui came back.

The current situation of the Chinese Song and Dance Troupe is not good.

Li Jinhui took a group of young actors to perform in Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaya, Singapore and other places. With 5,000 Ocean Tolls funded by a Nanyang businessman, the performance received a good response and was very successful, but he did not make any money. money!

Due to financial difficulties, the daily life of the Chinese Song and Dance Troupe had problems. Li Jinhui returned to Shanghai and asked for help, but no one was willing to lend a helping hand. It was not until he met Zhang Shichuan, the manager of Yip's Film Company, through various channels that he finally He was introduced to the famous second young master.

Ye Luo proudly wrote him a check of 50,000 yuan, which was regarded as a support for the Chinese Song and Dance Troupe, and also a disguised buyout of the Mingyue Song and Dance Troupe to be founded next year!

This is the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the entertainment industry that will cultivate countless film and television stars and singers in the country in the future!

For example, Nie Er, a well-known composer at home and abroad, was a student recruited by the Mingyue Song and Dance Troupe after an open recruitment examination in Shanghai in 1931.

After Ye Luo sang the song he remembered to Li Jinhui, he was shocked and praised him constantly. He took the initiative to compose the song and was willing to join Ye's Dance Company to pioneer popular music for Ye Luo.

Now Li Jinhui has written many popular pop songs, but the current song and dance industry is really sluggish. As the daughter of a popular singer, Liming Hui, her status is similar to that of Hu Die and Ruan Lingyu, but her income is one day at a time, and she has enough food and clothing. difficulty.

After successfully getting the two of them online, Ye Luo finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He remembered that after the Mingyue Song and Dance Troupe was founded in 1929, one of the first batch of students included "golden voice" Zhou Xuan. The girl was only nine years old at the time, but she had already shown amazing talent.

Although I don't know where Zhou Xuan is, as long as I win the Mingyue Song and Dance Troupe, I will win her and the huge record market of the 1930s.

On the other side, Wang Ji carefully savored the lyrics of the song. When the second young master said that this was a song written for herself, she couldn't help but think a little and her heart was pounding.

".I sing for you/I think for you"

Second Young Master, what does this mean?

Just as she was thinking about it, the staff had already arranged the venue.

Ye Luo decided to make the opening day of the Black Cat Ballroom a hit, so not only did the company's Black Cat dancers shock the people of Shanghai, but the soundtrack also impressed them deeply.

What better way to do that than to make your own soundtrack?

The first thing he thought of was the song "Shanghai at Night" which was popular all over the country.

But Zhou Xuan's girlish voice is too difficult to reproduce. If she sings it just average, this famous song will be ruined.

So he settled for the next best thing and chose another equally popular song, "Tuberose", and decided to let the Black Cat Dance Queen, Gone with the Wind Wang Jilai, sing the lead vocals himself.

At first, he said that he would record a record and play it publicly on the opening day. Many people were skeptical and did not understand. They always felt that the second young master was having a whim.

Since we have all chosen ballroom dancing, why not choose a familiar piece of music as the soundtrack?

A new song can easily make guests feel strange and alienated, which is very detrimental to the first day of business.

But in fact, "Tuberose" is a typical "medium four" song, faster than "slow four" and slower than "fast four". It is a very famous rumba song.

It's just that everyone's understanding of dance is still very shallow. They think that dance is matched with songs, but in fact it is matched with rhythm. As long as the rhythm is suitable, the music can be used as dance music for ballroom dancing!

Ye Luo insists on doing it, who dares to object?

After everything was ready, Wang Ji was called to the front desk and listened to the band's performance first to familiarize himself with the tunes.

This time when recording a record, Ye Luo specially invited journalist friends to take photos and promote Ye's Dance Company.

After the band started playing, the sound in the hall suddenly disappeared.

Everyone held their breath and watched from a distance, and were soon attracted by the melodious and moving tunes.

Wang Ji held the lyrics book and sang in a low voice. Her voice was so low that she could barely hear it, but she seemed to have learned it quickly.

"Second Young Master, once this song "Tuberose" comes out, I bet it will set off a record craze in Shanghai and even the whole country! That's it." After the band finished playing, Li Jinhui approached Ye Luo and whispered.

Ye Luo looked down at him: "What?"

"These lyrics," Li Jinhui hesitated, thought for a while, and said in a lower voice, "it is easy to get the reputation of being 'pornographic'."

He said this based on the current cultural world's requirements for song lyrics.

Liming Hui's "Drizzle" became popular all over the country, but it also attracted numerous criticisms.

Is it appropriate for a seventeen-year-old girl to sing such a melodious sound?

Is it too presumptuous to put a pornographic accent into a song and let the public listen?

Criticisms like this were heard endlessly, which also caused Liminghui to be under great pressure and traveled to Southeast Asia and left Shanghai.

One of the most controversial songs is "Peach Blossom River" written by Li Jinhui for his wife Xu Lai. One of the lyrics: "(Those fatter ones) That fatter one/so fat/so well-proportioned/so handsome /How moist" was severely criticized as "completely yellow", "unpalatable", etc.

In fact, there were many such criticisms at this time. He was extremely sensitive to this, so he couldn't help but remind Ye Luo that although the lyrics of "Tuberose" are subtle, they still cannot escape the color of love between men and women, and it can easily be misinterpreted by interested people.

Ye Luo waved his hand: "The lyricist just writes my name. If they want to criticize the song, just let them come to me."

"The second young master is very righteous." Li Jinhui was moved.

Even though he knew that someone might use this to attack him, Ye Luo still dared to face the enemy, which made him particularly admired.

Li Jinhui always thought that Ye Luo would find someone to replace him, or simply use a pseudonym to disguise himself, but he did not expect that he would be willing to sign directly.

This also allowed him to truly see the hope for the future of domestic pop music.

You can’t go wrong by following this second young master!