Chapter 182 – The Start of Dominating the Chart!
China Original Music Chart, or Original Music Chart for short, was jointly established by the Chinese Musicians Association in conjunction with dozens of media, such as QQ Music, NetEase Music, Pop Radio and so on. It was the most authoritative pop music list in China.
The Original Music Chart was published every weekend, ranking the top 50 domestic pop songs according to the popularity index. The index was based on data provided by major music media, including the number of times it was broadcasted, downloaded, requested to be broadcasted, purchased and other values, which would be then converted according to a fixed formula.
In the domestic pop music circle, the Original Music Chart ranking represents the current trend to a large extent.
On September 27, the China Original Music Chart ranking in the 4th week of August[1] was released on time.
Thereupon, the people in the circle, who followed the list, discovered in amazement something extraordinary.
And that was Lu Chen’s name.
Lu Chen’s “The Brother Who Slept On My Upper Bunk” / popularity Index: 2135, ranked 49th this week!
Lu Chen’s “The Bright Times of Early Youth” / popularity Index: 3714, ranked 30th this week!
Lu Chen’s “Love in The Wind” / popularity Index: 4056, ranked 28th this week!
Lu Chen’s “Once You” / popularity Index: 4470, ranked 25th this week!
Lu Chen’s “You Who Sat Next To Me” / popularity Index: 5389, ranked 16th this week!
Lu Chen’s “Those Flowers” / popularity index: 5578, ranked 14th this week!
Lu Chen’s “The Brightest Star In The Night Sky” / popularity index: 7262, ranked 4th this week!
Seven songs. As a newcomer who has just made his debut, Lu Chen unexpectedly won seven important positions on the Original Music Chart with his debut album “You Who Sat Next To Me”.
This was simply a miracle!
In the history of the Original Music Chart, it was very common for many works on the same album to be on the chart, but it was mostly 2-3 songs. If it was an excellent work of a superstar, it wasn’t uncommon to have five or six songs on the chart.
However, it was really rare for an album to have 7 out of the 10 works be on the chart.
This required the average level of the entire album’s work to be extremely high and to be highly recognized by the public. If it was easy to achieve this before the Original Music Chart appeared in the 80s and 90s, but now, it was really too difficult to do.
The reason was very simple, the Original Music Chart was the original chart. And no matter how popular foreign cover works are, they couldn’t be on the chart.
With the strength of domestic original works declining, it was normal for an album to produce one or two excellent works. Basically, no company was willing to put seven or eight excellent works in one album.
Lu Chen’s “You Who Sat Next To Me” was undoubtedly an anomaly. It first sold well on QQ Music, and even caused the industry to think about domestic original music, and created campus folk song in the pop music world.
The quality of the works on his album was too high. The 10 songs were all excellent works and could even be called classics. They could be said to be masterpieces, fully demonstrating Lu Chen’s creative talent.
Therefore, in addition to feeling shocked, it was natural for people to think that it was a miracle.
In the third week of September, three works of Lu Chen have already appeared on the Original Music Chart. After a period of brewing and fermentation[2], this week’s soaring explosion wasn’t so hard to accept.
What really made people envious was that Lu Chen’s impact on the Original Music Chart was obviously just beginning. “The Brightest Star In The Night Sky” was likely to top the chart next week, and then all 10 songs would be on the list.
Having all 10 works of an album on the Original Music Chart, that was a real miracle that couldn’t be surpassed!
It seemed that Lu Chen was creating such a miracle.
The pop music world, which had been rather quiet, was stirred up by Lu Chen’s album!
More people focused their attention on this new generation of singer-songwriter.
His appeal has improved a lot in the circle.
On September 25, Lu Chen attended the formal rehearsal of Beijing Satellite TV’s National Day Party.
On September 29, Lu Chen completed the live recording.
In addition to singing “Life on A String” as part of the chorus of the top five contestants of “Singing China”, he also had a solo program singing “I Love you China”. His appearance time even exceeded that of many star artists.
He sang the second version of “I Love you China”, which has a genuine theme style. In order to get rid of the influence of Wang Bin scandal, Beijing Satellite TV shifted its focus on Inspur blog, using Lu Chen’s two works with the same song name.
Thiis also benefited Lu Chen.
His cooperation with Beijing Satellite TV was undoubtedly a win-win result!
The next morning after the recording of Beijing Satellite TV’s National Day Party, Lu Chen drove to Chen Fei’er’s studio.
After entering the new century, the domestic entertainment industry was growing and booming. With the emergence of new media and the influence of foreign trends, many big stars have left their original contract company and set up their own personal studios and companies.
There were undoubtedly many advantages of self-established studios or companies. First of all, artists could fully control their own destiny and wouldn’t be controlled and manipulated by the contracted company in their career. They would hold all aspects of interest in their hands.
But this kind of self-reliance model was usually only suitable for people who have already stood at the top of the circle. They have strength and connections. Having money and fame, they could make others choose to cooperate with them rather than to choose to suppress and exclude them. Naturally, they could mix very well.
If it was a newcomer or a somewhat famous and not infamous second or third-tier star to open a studio, it would be too difficult. Without the support and resource input of a contracted company, everything would depend on their own hard work. 99% of them would be doomed.
In the circle, there was no shortage of proud artists but didn’t have enough strength[3] who choose to start their own business. As a result, they lost their original capital, and have since disappeared from the scene and have been forgotten.
If Lu Chen wasn’t supported by the huge wealth from the dream world, the best he could do was to sign a contract with an ordinary company as a small artist, and then work hard running notices to make a living.
He directly set up his own studio, which was tantamount to taking a big step ahead of time.
And for most artists, they might not be able to take this step in their lifetime!
Chen Fei’er’s studio was established 7 years ago.
At that time, she was already the famous Queen of Sweet Songs in the pop music industry, and countless people supported her after she became independent.
As a result, Chen Fei’er’s studio was very famous in the circle, and it was unknown how many newcomers wanted to sign under its name.
Studios of stars could also sign people.
When he got to the place, Lu Chen wanted to wait downstairs, but Chen Fei’er insisted that he come up.
According to Sister Fei, since he has already come, why not come up and have a cup of tea?
Not gave her face?
Lu Chen could only obey.
Chen Fei’er’s studio was on the 38th floor of a luxury business building in the central business district of Beijing. Its scale was comparable to that of a small-to-medium-sized company. The employees who serve her were not small.
“Sister Fei!”
What Lu Chen didn’t expect was that as soon as he walked out of the elevator, he saw Chen Feier standing at the door.
Chen Feier was wearing a set of Chanel dress. She, with her long hair shawl, was as beautiful as jade.
“Lu Chen…”
She opened her arms with a smile and gave Lu Chen a nice hug: “Welcome!”
Lu Chen smiled and said, “Thank you, Sister Fei!”
He believed that not many people can enjoy such treatment.
This could be judged from the look of the assistants behind Chen Fei’er.
Chen Fei’er loosen both of her hands, took half a step back and said earnestly, “it’s me who wants to thank you!”
“The two songs you wrote for me are very good. I like them very much. They’re wonderful!”
Lu Chen said with a smile, “I’m glad you like them.”
He promised to write two songs for Chen Fei’er, and after completing the songs the day before yesterday, he sent the score and sample directly to the latter.
And that was why they were having this scheduled meeting.
“Do you know?”
The Queen of Sweet Song’s eyes flashed with a moving look: “I have listened to both songs dozens of times and tried to sing them more than a dozen times. The more I sing, the better I feel about them. I have decided that they will be the first and second title songs for my new album!”
For any songwriter, it was undoubtedly a great honor and glory for their work to become the title song of an album of a Heavenly Queen. Once the album sells well, it will definitely a good way to gain both fame and fortune.
Generally speaking, those who were qualified to write the title song of Chen Fei’er album were the top songwriters in the circle.
In addition, for a Heaven Queen like Chen Fei’er, producing an album was a serious or even a grand matter. The title song must be the best of the best, and it takes a long time and a lot of effort to determine it.
Within just a short 1 or 2 days when the two songs written by Lu Chen was in Chen Fei’er’s hand, she decided to make them the first and second title songs of her new album. This showed that in addition to her great trust in Lu Chen, she sincerely liked the two songs.
In particular, Chen Feier was facing a transition stage. She has great expectations for this new album, and it was really not easy to make such a decision.
It was also because of this decision that Chen Feier invited Lu Chen over.
Lu Chen smiled: “I feel so much pressure.”
Chen Feier smiled and said, “I believe in your strength. My album will be built around your two works. First, we’ll visit my studio, and then we will go to Flying Stone Records together.”
Chen Fei’er and Flying Stone Records have always maintained a very good cooperative relationship. Most of her albums were produced through Flying Stone Records, and this new album was no exception.
Chen Fei’er invited Lu Chen to go to Flying Stone Records because she was going to determine the main style of her album. In addition, there were also arrangements and the overall style of the album that needed to be discussed.
As a songwriter, Chen Fei’er hoped that Lu Chen would be involved and give advice and suggestions for her new album!
For Lu Chen, being able to get involved in the production of a Heavenly Queen’s new album and include his name in the playlist was also an excellent opportunity to improve his reputation and career.
Therefore, for the two songs, Lu Chen only asked Chen Fei’er for a friendship price of 500,000.
Of course, Chen Fei’er didn’t care about the more than 100,000 yuan a song price, not to mention 200,000 or 300,000 yuan for a song, even if it was 1 million yuan a song, she could afford it, but this represented the good friendship and contractual relationship established between the two sides.
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[1] I’m not sure if it’s a typo or what. I think this should be September
[2] 酝酿发酵 – translated as brewing and fermentation. This is what I understand from this: After people analyzed and breakdown Lu Chen works/songs for some time, and find out that these works were excellent in quality and with 3 of his works already been on the chart in the previous week, people didn’t have a hard time accepting that these 7 works were in the chart.
[3] Strength here could mean talent, fame, money, connection, etc.
TN: If you like my translations support me in ko-fi: Here.
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