China Entertainment 1997

In November, Japanese teacher C made his debut and officially started his career, becoming an inspiration for countless teenagers in East Asia.

In Taiwan, Xiao Zhou also officially released his new album "Fantasy" on Cao Xuan's birthday.

Many songs with strong fantasy characteristics quickly became popular in Taiwan Province as soon as they were released online, and their popularity was close to that of Cao Xuan's "Chinese Style".

Hit songs such as "Nunchaku" and "Love in BC" also directly entered the mainland market because of the foreshadowing of "Chrysanthemum Terrace" and attracted the attention of many people.

Especially "Nunchaku", with its rhythmic melody and lyrics, is quite viral and quickly became widely popular among young people, especially students.

"Hurry up and use the nunchucks, hehehehaxi

Use the nunchucks quickly, hehehehaxi

Those who practice martial arts must remember that the benevolent are invincible

Who is practicing Tai Chi? It’s booming

…”

For a time, the nunchaku became a must-have item in the school entrance store again after Bruce Lee became famous, and countless boys rushed to buy it.

"Nunchaku" made a large-scale appearance in the entertainment industry. Through the foreshadowing of this song and "Chrysanthemum Terrace", Jay Chou became famous in the mainland and became a true representative of the new generation of singers.

But behind the popularity comes widespread controversy.

The music style of the song "Nunchaku" is a combination of hard and soft rock and a super-fast rap song.

For many domestic fans, it is destined to be weird and unique.

The term "weird and unique" here is not a derogatory term, but an objectively neutral term. Because everyone has never seen this style of Chinese music before, many people instinctively resist and reject this style.

In fact, Chinese style had similar conceptual conflicts at the beginning, but Chinese style contained a large number of traditional elements, which greatly alleviated this conceptual conflict.

So when Cao Xuan promoted Chinese style before, although he encountered resistance, it was generally smooth.

"Nunchaku" also has a lot of Chinese elements, which is essentially a type of Chinese style, but its style is too avant-garde and novel.

Young people may still accept it well and even like it, but older people have fixed their own aesthetic style, and such songs are simply "deviant".

The biggest musical differences between Jay Chou and Cao Xuan.

Cao Xuan's creation is "reference-based" and he does not have his own creative style and ideas. He is essentially a "business singer".

He sang whatever the fans liked to listen to. It started with saliva songs, and later added a lot of high-quality songs, but the prerequisite was that they had a certain degree of popularity.

In short, Cao Xuan's songs have a strong commercial purpose.

Jay Chou, on the other hand, has his own creative ideas and musical pursuits. Even if some of them compromise for commercial reasons, his songs still maintain their own personality.

This also means that the birth of Jay Chou is often accompanied by greater controversy than that of Cao Xuan.

There are those who praise it, but there are also those who oppose it and even hate it!

But no matter what, Little Tuesday Special finally experienced what it means to be famous, and Taiwan Province also unceremoniously compared it to Cao Xuan, intending to create Taiwan's new pop king.

Not only Xiao Zhou, but also F4, Tao Zhe, and Wang Lihong are among the key promotion targets of Taiwan Province.

Nowadays, Ren Xianqi's decline has appeared, Xie Feng's career focus has gradually shifted to the film industry, and the Chinese pop music industry is almost dominated by Cao Xuan's family.

If Taiwan Province wants to compete for the right to speak in the Chinese music scene, it must promote newcomers to the top. If they can't defeat Cao Xuan in a single fight, they will form a group to attack him. Anyway, they can't let Cao Xuan show off his power alone.

………

The Taiwanese music scene is gearing up for Cao Xuan, but Cao Xuan himself doesn't pay much attention to them. They are either ineffective or have poor performance.

Except for Xiao Zhou, who also took a few more glances, Cao Xuan focused more on the Asian music scene.

There is no other way. He has basically conquered the domestic market now. If he wants to break through the shackles of Greater China with his next two albums, he can only work harder in other Asian countries.

Frankly speaking, Cao Xuan's previous songs were quite popular in Asia, and even topped the music charts in several countries.

For example, last year's "Bright Stars" ranked third on the Oricon weekly chart, eleventh on the monthly chart, and ranked in the top 50 on the annual chart.

The Oricon Chart is the most well-known music list in Japan. It counts the sales of albums or singles. It is divided into three levels: weekly, monthly and yearly, with gold content increasing in order.

The results of "Bright Stars" don't look very impressive, that's because the Oricon Chart only records album sales in Japan.

If other regions are included, "Bright Stars" is confident that it can compete with the top three in Japan's Oricon annual rankings.

In particular, the song "The Wind Rises" has attracted a lot of attention in Japan.

"Stubborn", "Gangnam", "Blue Lotus" and the previous "Light Chaser" and "First Dream" are also liked by many Japanese fans.

This year Sun Yanzi's "Little Luck" and Cao Xuan's "Blue and White Porcelain" and "East Wind Break" also caused a certain amount of disturbance in Japan.

Therefore, Cao Xuan's style is quite similar to that of the Japanese music scene. Although his performance is not as good as those of top local singers, he can still be regarded as a first- or second-tier singer.

In comparison, the influence of Cao Xuan's songs in South Korea is somewhat inferior to that in Japan.

It’s not that it’s not popular, but it’s not as popular as the dance music that Korean fans love most.

The most popular songs in South Korea today are songs with strong rhythm and dynamic movements. Most of the more popular singers Lee Jung-hyun, Yoo Seung-jun, Ko Yota and various boy groups and girl groups follow this model.

As if you can’t sing without dancing...

Later, the Korean Wave invaded, and so-called singing and dancing singers began to emerge in China. The more famous ones are Cai Yilin, Master Luo, and Han Geng.

Even those singers who have not transformed can basically dance twice. [Singing, dancing, and rap] have become the basic skills of young singers.

In such an environment, it is not that Cao Xuan's songs have no market, but it will be difficult to surpass the mainstream.

Cao Xuan didn't care that he had to compete with these singing and dancing singers.

To be honest, when looking at Japan in the Asian music scene, whether it is sales or influence, Japanese singers are currently taking the lead. Hallyu still has to rank behind Japan.

Even if these Korean singers become popular, they all go to Japan, proud of their success in Japan.

The promotion focus of Cao Xuan's two albums this time is also mainly Japan, and South Korea is only a supporting role.

Girls' Generation hadn't even debuted yet, so there was no point in going to Korea. Cao Xuan didn't even recognize those Korean singers except for one Lee Jung Hyun.

Japan is different. Hikaru Utada, Ayumi Hamasaki, Mai Kuraki, Izumi Sakai, Namie Amuro, there are so many young ladies and older sisters. You can exchange music.

What? Japanese male singer?

Who the hell cares about male singers when listening to music...

………

In early December, Baihua Recording Studio

Cao Xuan picked up his headphones and listened to the song he sang. He nodded with satisfaction and looked at Wei Xixi next to him.

"I think it's okay, where are you, Lao Wei."

"no problem."

"Then get ready and go out to compete."

Wei Xixi nodded, put the master tape into his carry-on bag and put it away.

After the last "Bright Stars", he was recruited by Cao Xuan and became Fanxing's royal music producer.

He is responsible for the production of Cao Xuan's album. He also produced Hu Jing's "Providence of Love" before. He also took the lead in completing most of the opening and ending credits of "Swallows and Eagles".

Lao Wei's bar is also closed, and he gives Boss Cao 996 every day.

There is no way, Cao Daguan is too generous. If he does a good job, he will almost have a bar every year.

Even Lao Wei, who has decided to withdraw from the world, has to bow his head to the capitalists despite the huge sum of money.

Of course, he has recently met a girlfriend and is planning to get married, so saving money for milk powder for his children is also an important reason...

"I'll leave this to you. I'll withdraw first. I still have an appointment."

Cao Xuan said hello, turned around and left the recording studio. When he went out, he saw two paparazzi who were ambushing them and said hello cheerfully.

The paparazzi smiled politely in return, but when they saw Cao Xuan driving away, they immediately followed him and called for support at the same time.

Among the paparazzi circles in the capital, Cao Xuan was already notoriously difficult to deal with. One or two groups of paparazzi could not keep an eye on him easily.

Everyone in the industry joked that Cao Xuan's anti-reconnaissance capabilities would give ordinary plainclothes a headache. If he were a criminal, his guarantee would be at the level of a gangster.

However, Cao Xuan didn't play hide and seek with them today and drove normally all the way, but the paparazzi behind him felt cold.

Cao Xuan is so famous that many media or paparazzi teams directly send people to guard him for a long time. Over time, they basically have a grasp of Cao Xuan's behavioral patterns.

In most cases, he would throw away the paparazzi, change cars, take detours, and escape from his shell. He was so unpredictable that most people couldn't catch him.

Even if the paparazzi was not thrown away, as long as he realized that someone was chasing him, Cao Xuan would not make any move, and his efforts would be in vain.

Cao Xuan's own anti-reconnaissance capabilities are already very good, not to mention that he has Zhu Jiang, who is a professional reconnaissance force, and the other bodyguards also have relevant experience.

Therefore, even though Cao Xuan was acting alone on the surface, he was actually accompanied by bodyguards secretly. The purpose was to clearly target Cao Xuan and capture him accurately.

Under the double insurance, the paparazzi's tracking and sneak shots were basically useless to Cao Xuan, unless it was an encounter or an accidental encounter.

It's not like Cao Xuan has never been tricked. He and Hu Jing were photographed eating together, and Cao Xuan served Hu Jing some food, but as long as it wasn't something sensitive like a kiss or a hug, it didn't matter.

We are in the same company and we are friends. What does it mean to have a meal together and help pick up a dish?

If that doesn't work, Cao Xuan still has a trump card - spending money to keep him quiet.

No one can get along with money these days. As long as the money is in place, everything else can be discussed. Even if he is someone who doesn't care about money and just wants to become famous, it's not like Cao Xuan doesn't have other hot news to trade for.

However, Cao Xuan, who was as open and aboveboard as he was today, was obviously on official business, and there was no revelation at all.

The two paparazzi were in a depressed mood, but they still followed. At least they had news to share.

Arriving at a restaurant in XC District, Cao Xuan got off the car and was greeted by several people, led by a woman in her thirties. The two talked for a while at the door and then entered the restaurant together.

When the two parties met, the paparazzi acted professionally and took the photos.

The younger one looked at the camera and his eyes lit up: "Brother, we have big news. This is Chen Yulu, the chief director of this year's Spring Festival Gala."

The old paparazzi sighed: "Let me ask you, considering Cao Xuan's current popularity and his performance in the past two years, do you think it is big news that he will attend the Spring Festival Gala?"

The young paparazzi thought for a moment and shook his head honestly: "No, it's big news that he won't go to the Spring Festival Gala this year."

"Isn't that great? Before the chief director has been chosen, everyone knows that Zhao Benshan, Feng Gong, and Cao Xuan will definitely attend the Spring Festival Gala. There is no suspense at all."

The old paparazzi chattered a few words and looked at the photos in the camera: "But it's better than nothing. It's still news. I just don't know if the higher-ups will let it be published."

When the paparazzi were discouraged, Cao Xuan and Chen Yulu finished their greetings and got down to business.

"This year, according to the intention of the program team, we still hope that you will release a new song. This is also the characteristic of you and the Spring Festival Gala. However, in terms of the theme of the new song, we still hope to have some final themes."

Chen Yulu spoke in a general way, and Cao Xuan understood it immediately, writing a proposition.

In fact, he had already prepared for this, especially since Chinese style was popular this year. He had already expected that the Spring Festival Gala might allow Chinese style singing.

But unexpectedly, what Chen Yulu said was completely opposite to what he thought.

"This year is the 80th anniversary. See if you can write a new song based on this theme."

Cao Xuan frowned: "Isn't this the 2002 Spring Festival Gala? Isn't it too late to use the 80th anniversary as the title?"

"not late."

The assistant director next to him opened the door: "The 80th anniversary has passed, but we can imagine the 90th and even the 100th anniversary in the future, not necessarily in the past and present, but also in the future."

"Yes, we successfully applied for the Olympics this year, entered the World Cup again, and just announced that we will join the WTO. The situation is very good, and it is just right for us to have a song to encourage people."

Cao Xuan knew in his mind that there were songs like this in the Spring Festival Gala in the past, but they were less popular in comparison. This time the director team came to him, hoping to come up with a song that would not only fit the main melody but also attract public attention.

Seeing Cao Xuan frowning and thinking, Chen Yulu thought that he was under great pressure, so she expressed relief.

"We also know that this is difficult, otherwise we wouldn't be looking for a creative talent like you. If it doesn't work, we can change other themes. We won't force others to do it."

"The tasks handed over by the organization must be completed no matter how difficult they are."

Cao Xuan spoke loudly, then pondered for a moment, and replied: "I happen to have a song on the new album in hand, and the tune is quite suitable. If possible, changing the lyrics of the song should meet your requirements.

In this way, I will make a demo first and you can listen to it. If it doesn’t work, I will think of other songs. "

Cao Xuan is very ambitious. This kind of task is pressure, but it is also motivation.

The fact that the higher-ups can find Cao Xuan to write this kind of song means that they are very optimistic about Comrade Xiao Cao's position. This song must be written well, and it must have positive energy and be recognized and liked by the public.

"What's the name of the new song on your album?"

""Sea of ​​Stars"."

Cao Xuan said the name and added in his mind that it would be one of the propaganda songs for the centenary of the founding of the Party twenty years later...