Respawn Entertainment: Days of Glory

Chapter 1001 There's no such thing as "woman" or "female"; rock and roll has always been about skill.
The opening song, "I Love Rock 'n Roll," brought the show to a close with the audience still wanting more. Guo Sichu hugged Strauss, clearly celebrating the success of their first collaboration.

Then she picked up the microphone and began to speak: "Are you guys satisfied? Is it rock enough?"

Her response was naturally a barrage of metal salutes and shouts of "Rock 'n Roll!"

After taking a sip of beer, Olaf, the general manager, shook his head and said with a wry smile, "I don't think it's an exaggeration how much DGM will have to pay to sign the new Rolling Stones, especially after she and Bian Lang officially reunite overseas..."

Liu Ziyang laughed heartily after hearing this: "This is the issue you need to discuss with your boss!"

Although the contract signed with Rock Records at the time included supplementary clauses addressing personnel changes and additions, the addition of Guo Sichu as a lead singer weakened the contract's binding force.

For example, if another company were to sign Guo Sichu's overseas management contract for a high price, it might restrict her performances at Rolling Stones. Therefore, the safest approach is for DGM to sign Guo Sichu personally as well, and then discuss the overall situation of the Rolling Stones band.

When Guo Sichu appeared in Europe, DGM had already been discussing this matter internally, but no decision had been made. The main reason was their confidence in Liang Kuan's abilities as a manager, so they were reluctant to offer him a contract easily.

Liang Kuan is not Chen Shuting. With her shrewdness, even if Guo Sichu only wanted to sign with DGM, she would still cause a lot of other trouble.

Returning our focus to the Rolling Stones concert, after a brief interaction, Guo Sichu began introducing the next song: "We rehearsed this song secretly, not even Teacher Bian knew, so are you looking forward to it?"

This completely baffled Bian Lang. He had attended the entire final rehearsal with Rolling Stones, but hadn't noticed anything amiss about them changing the song. According to the original plan, after the opening song, they were supposed to sing one of Rolling Stones' signature songs, "Goodbye Jack," to warm up the crowd. Now, hearing that Guo Sichu had conspired with the rest of Rolling Stones to change the song without his knowledge was... well, that was a bit...

Just as Bian Lang was trying to guess what song it was, Liu Ziyang's voice came from the speakers: "Could you please give Bian Lang a microphone? I'd like to interview him."

Seeing this, several leaders from the relevant departments laughed: "Rolling Stone is really good at skirting the law. Although Bian Lang hasn't taken the stage, he's always inextricably linked to Bian Lang!"

"Yeah, even if the higher-ups hold you accountable, you can just say Bian Lang didn't even perform and that'll be it. But for these audience members here, I feel like they're all enjoying it more than Bian Lang is on stage."

"It's close by! Those in the front row can just reach out and touch him. Isn't that better than watching from afar on stage? Besides, those guys right next to Bian Lang get to hear his original voice. Isn't that amazing? I bet some people will thank the higher-ups and say, 'Just keep Bian Lang banned. He's not going to be mentally broken!'"

In fact, there were quite a few such voices after the music festival...

Bian Lang, who took the microphone, didn't give Liu Ziyang much of a chance to speak. He went straight to the point and said, "You want me to guess what song Teacher Guo will sing, right? How would I know? Rock Records' music library is open to all the company's musicians. There are hundreds of new songs released every time. How am I supposed to guess them all?"

Liu Ziyang just wanted to liven things up, but he didn't expect Bian Lang to go straight to Versailles.

Faced with a Versailles of this caliber, the reactions of the audience varied considerably. Most rock fans reacted with a provocative tone: "Bian Erlang, will you die if you don't brag?"

A small number of rock music fans cursed and yelled: "You write so many songs but you don't record them, are you even human?"

As for the Chu soldiers, they were almost unanimously exclaiming in surprise!

Even those in the industry closest to the stage, though somewhat prepared, were still speechless with shock when they heard Bian Lang reveal this information.

Especially the singers, when they heard about this stock, their eyes blazed with the kind of wicked fire that humans have when faced with their most primal desires!
"No way, we have to get Bian Lang drunk tonight and pry a few songs out of him."

"Once I'm done, I'll go find Sister Kuan and ask her to help me get a number and cut in line!"

"He used to always say he was too busy with performances, but now he shouldn't have any more excuses, right?"

Some singers focused on the statement that "the music library is open to all company musicians," especially those who were once successful but are now just resting on their laurels and still want to achieve something!
"If I switched to Rolling Stones, I'd be able to produce one or two more classic songs in my lifetime!"

Although Bian Lang seemed to have blocked all the avenues for Liu Ziyang to ask his questions, Liu Ziyang deliberately steered the conversation towards a new topic: "Were you satisfied with Teacher Chu's performance just now? What are your thoughts on female rock lead singers?"

Although it's long past the era when men completely dominated rock music, and it's now commonplace for rock bands to have mixed-gender members, there are still relatively few women playing rock.

However, this was not the case a few decades ago. Every type of music had its corresponding gender, skin color, and region. If someone tried to break down the barriers between different genres, it would attract criticism from the general public.

However, Bian Lang had no tolerance for these "dregs": "What does it matter if you're a woman or not? Rock and roll has always been about strength! I believe everyone has heard Teacher Chu's strength today. If I ever lose my job as the lead singer of the Rolling Stones, every single one of you here today will be the culprit!"

Why did Liu Ziyang ask such an unnecessary question? In fact, he foresaw the possible public opinion against Guo Sichu after today and made some preparations in advance.

Even though Bianlang is starting to gain some traction overseas, the overall environment for rock music is still not good, and it remains one of the less popular genres compared to the rest of the music market.

Guo Sichu, the former pop diva, has now officially switched to playing rock music. Wings, her backing, will certainly be present, and there will definitely be no shortage of villains who will take advantage of this opportunity.

So Bian Lang's words clearly and directly state his stance on gender discrimination. This might even be used by some feminists to try and win over female music fans to his side.

As for Bian Lang, after saying those words, he had a better grasp of the song-guessing matter.

Although, as he himself said, the hundreds of songs in the music library are impossible to guess, Bian Lang actually has the ability to narrow down the selection. The simplest way is to delete those songs that haven't been fully written, composed, and arranged, which greatly reduces the remaining options.

The band members have basically reached a consensus that all the arrangements they put on stage must be approved by Bian Lang. This is because countless times, it has been proven that no matter how hard they rack their brains and pour all their talent into it, the final result is still not as good as Bian Lang's version.

So, without Bian Lang's knowledge, the only songs they would choose were those where Bian Lang had written the lyrics, composed the music, and arranged them all himself.

Combining the style of the first song with the original singer, Bian Lang's answer was already obvious.

Guo Sichu's subsequent words proved this point: "I hate myself for loving you!" In China, even if people hadn't heard the original version of this song, they would at least have heard Andy Lau's cover of "I Hate My Devotion".

That's right! "I Hate My Devotion" is not Andy Lau's original song; it's actually a cover. The 80s and 90s were the golden age of the Hong Kong music scene. To make up for their lack of songwriting, they often bought the copyrights to foreign songs and then rewrote the lyrics.

At the time, Andy Lau, who was at the height of his fame, covered Joan Jett's song, which was also an affirmation of her talent.

There was a very popular movie on Earth called *Ready Player One*. When the Cyclops protagonist entered the first racing level of the game, it was accompanied by the song "I Hate Myself for Loving You," which was incredibly exciting. The singer of this song is Joan Jett.

The movie "Ready Player One," which is full of references and memes, chose this song because it is a classic song that evokes memories for most people.

The song was originally titled "I Hate Myself because I can't get laid." Joan Jett took the song to renowned record producer and songwriter Desmond Child for advice.

Child told her the song wouldn't be a hit, so she changed the title to "LOVE" and suggested changes to the lyrics. After these changes, the song became a popular hit. "I Hate Myself for Loving You" is a famous song by Joan Jett from the late 80s, but her passion for music began much earlier.

She received her first guitar when she was 14, which officially launched her musical journey.

While others were still being good students in school, the maverick Joan Jett had already formed his own band: The Runaways.

The band's legend lies in the fact that it was the world's first all-female rock band.

Joan Jett's story with The Runaways was made into the movie "The Runaways," starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett.

At the beginning of the movie, Joan goes to a clothing store to buy clothes. When the sales clerk, who is being flirted with by a boy, sees Joan walking towards the men's clothing section, she says, "There are no clothes you want there."

"Men's and women's clothing are different" seemed to be a stereotype at the time. The domineering Joan took out a bag of coins, pointed to the boy's clothes, and said, "I want to buy what he's wearing." This was the first time Joan had ever worn a leather jacket.

Joan not only wanted to be different in her clothing, but also in her choice of musical instruments. She wanted to learn electric guitar in her guitar lessons, but her teacher replied, "Girls don't play electric guitar."

This annoyed Joan, so she plugged in her guitar and started playing by herself, which eventually led to her being kicked out by her guitar teacher.

Joan has encountered similar situations countless times, and she never compromises on her pursuit of "coolness." The birth of The Runaways brought this spirit of hers to the world's attention.

The Runaways became an unexpected hit, especially in Japan, where they had the opportunity to tour early on. A female rock band was a novelty at the time, but because they were all women, they also faced attacks from some conservative individuals.

But one popular song after another quickly silenced these critics.

Following The Runaways, more and more all-female rock bands emerged. However, with the departure of core members one by one, The Runaways also struggled to continue. In 1979, Joan decided to go solo.

In 1981, Joan formed another band, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, and released his second album. His songwriting style became more diverse, and he created many classic hard rock works.

For example, for Chinese music fans, Avril Lavigne's version of "Bad Reputation" might be more familiar. Avril Lavigne played this song during her "Beautiful Bad Things" tour in 2008, and it was included in her new album in 2011.

The two rock queens had a dialogue across time, as if two different time periods had been connected.

Joan's hit songs are certainly not limited to this one. The Rolling Stones' opening song today was covered by Britney Spears, and of course, there's also Ms. Deng from China.

Bian Lang didn't believe it at first either, but after searching for the video, he found that Ms. Deng didn't sing "No Place to Hide" at her concert like Jeff Chang did, but instead recorded a music video specifically for her!

I wonder if anyone still remembers Ms. Deng and Britney Spears, two divas of a bygone era. The fact that these two divas chose to cover Joan's song also reflects her status in the rock world.

Of course, Joan Jett is much more "manly" than Avril Lavigne or Britney Spears.

Joan's androgynous style also started a trend: jet-black hair, heavy smoky makeup, tight leather pants and jackets, various studded metal accessories... all the outfits are standard punk attire.

Don't tell them this isn't how women dress; they'll just give you a sharp eye roll.

Although Joan passed her peak in the 90s, she's still jumping around on stage all these years. After all these years, you might notice she hasn't changed much; she continues to relentlessly pursue her "cool" style.

Joan Jett is an indispensable star in rock history. She pioneered the path of women's rock, making rock more peaceful and loving.

Joan taught the entire history of rock music a lesson: when it comes to being "cool," it has nothing to do with gender!

In this respect, Guo Sichu did not do badly today either. If we compare her to Joan, the biggest difference might be her electric guitar.

However, Bian Lang didn't think it mattered. With Rolling Stones and his own three guitarists, there were several more world-class guitarists ready to fill in at any time, so Guo Sichu only needed to focus on singing.

As the powerful hard rock drumbeats sounded, Guo Sichu returned to the same state as before, adding a strange "Waaah!" with the overdrive tones of the two guitarists to the performance.

Then, under the cover of this strong rhythm, Guo Sichu began to toss her long hair.

The Chu soldiers below the stage had never seen Guo Sichu like this before, and they all shouted excitedly, "Queen Chu is so cool! She's no less impressive than Bian Lang!"

(End of this chapter)