The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 947 The Confused Adam Lambert
When discussing American holiday songs from the 1990s to the mobile internet era, one name cannot be overlooked—Maria Kelly, who was later jokingly referred to as having "cow hooves trampled all over the world."

The Christmas hit "All I Want for Christmas Is You" makes it back into the top 100 singles chart every year before Christmas, and even takes the number one spot.

Due to its festive atmosphere and its high popularity that keeps coming back every year, it has been jokingly referred to by Chinese fans as the American version of "Gong Xi Fa Cai" (Wishing You Prosperity).

In reality, when this song was first released in 1994, it was unable to enter the Billboard chart points selection due to Billboard rules, because at that time, all of the Billboard Top 100 singles had to be released as physical singles to be eligible for selection.

It was Mariah Carey's first time charting after releasing a physical single in 2000, but unfortunately, it coincided with a low point in her career, resulting in a mere 83rd place. In 2005, Mariah Carey's career rebounded, but chart rules prevented her older songs from returning to the charts.

It wasn't until 2012, when Billboard added a clause allowing holiday classics to return to the charts, that this song was able to make its comeback. Thanks to its consistent chart performance, consistently rising upon returning to the charts (17-9-6), it finally became Mariah Carey's nineteenth Billboard number-one single in 2019.

It has become a Billboard concept icon at the end of the year, automatically returning to the list by Christmas.

Now, this re-chart rule, which Billboard should have used in 2012 to stimulate the music market, was introduced as early as 2006 to deliberately target Zhou Yi's high ranking.

This has truly turned what was once "internal love" into "internal hatred."

"I tried to contact the Billboard official team, but their stance was firm and there was no way to change it."

"It doesn't matter whether I change it or not, anyway, I don't have more than two years left in the music industry."

In a good mood, Zhou Yi didn't take the matter to heart after a brief moment of surprise. His bubbly humming made Qian Jiang, who was about to launch into a long speech about how to get revenge on the billboard, hesitate and swallow his words.

But his indifference doesn't mean there won't be a reaction from public opinion.

Fueled by an angry Warner Bros., Billboard's new rules were "accidentally" leaked to a friend by an anonymous insider at Billboard magazine before they were even officially disclosed to the public, causing a huge uproar!
End of the Hegemonic Era? Spike Suspected of Facing the Biggest Scandal in American Music History!

Targeting or coincidence? Are Billboard's new rules tailor-made for Spike?

Billboard: The Chameleon of Rules?

Spike: Innocent Victim or Beneficiary?

Billboard's new rules are aggressively targeting Warner executives, who are furious!

Billboard becomes a laughing stock, and the American music scene becomes a joke!

"..."

Warner Music's moves are always impressive.

News reports manipulated by a powerful, visible force have been breaking out one after another, shocking onlookers, fans, and even most industry insiders.

Dude, you guys really dare to do this?
"Shit! Disgrace! This is utterly disgraceful!"

"It's not shameful to lose to Spike; there are plenty of people in this world who can't beat him. But what's with changing the rules to target him?!"

"What do you mean by changing rules to add streaming services? That's just an excuse!"

"Is this a conspiracy orchestrated by Sony and Universal to target Spike???"

As the commercial center of the world's popular music scene, the American music industry has never had such an embarrassing moment, and even some industry insiders are blushing and embarrassed to refute it.

Everyone could see that Spike being targeted was the popular demand, because he had genuinely blocked too many people's path to wealth, especially this year—

The amount of hot money in the market is limited. The unprecedented popularity of "25" has drawn away a large portion of the hot money from both the incremental and existing markets, which can be seen from the sales distribution.

Zhou Yi's daily sales are far ahead of everyone else, and the gap between him and the second place and the rest is enormous.

Many people who buy pirated copies to buy new ones may only spend real money to support an album a few times in their lives, but Zhou Yi priced it so high that he reaped all the benefits and pocketed the entire profit.

The competitors who suffered losses in this market are naturally seething with resentment. As the saying goes, seeing a competitor make money is more painful than seeing yourself lose money, so it's not impossible that Sony Universal would lead a coalition of other mid-to-lower-tier American companies to besiege Spike.

"If you ask me, Spike is too kind."

Inside The Cat Club, a music club.

After the performance, Montpellman shook the tickets in his hand, his words full of arrogance: "They should be thoroughly humiliated, don't you think, Adam?"

Not far away, a young man with dark hair was still tuning his guitar. Hearing this, he looked up and smiled, "I don't know."

"Adam, seriously, remember to take lots of pictures of Spike at the event. We're waiting for you to send them back as soon as possible." Another band member with a name tag around his neck walked over with a grin.

They are a band called The Citizen Vein. The lead singer is this dark-haired, young man named Adam Lambert.

As one of the millions of music dreamers in the United States, Adam Lambert gave up his stable job as a makeup artist in 03 and devoted himself to the music industry, honing his skills in musical theater.

Unfortunately, all this effort did not yield the desired results.

In the musical, Adam, who thought he had mastered his craft, formed a band with his friends to officially pursue his dream, but harsh reality brought the band to the brink of disbandment.

Or rather, it has already disbanded.

Adam Lambert has received a renewed invitation from the musical theatre company and is expected to begin officially touring the world with the company early next year. If the lead singer is already planning to give up, what's the point of the others persisting?

After this final farewell dinner, everyone can go home and find their own mothers.

"I'm just a spectator, and cameras aren't allowed on site," Adam Lambert chuckled, not taking his teammate's teasing seriously.

A regular customer at the club, knowing he was a Spike fan, got him a ticket to a promotional event three days later, the kind that would allow him to interact with Spike and ask him questions.

These are purely internally withheld tickets.

However, he does have some questions for Spike now – he wants to know how Spike lived before he became famous.

As far as he knew, someone had translated Spike's experiences before he became famous, and he also mingled in the bar scene in China.

Thinking this, after his teammates left one after another, he found himself alone, and his hands unconsciously began strumming the guitar strings again.

Now the day bleeds into nightfall.
"And you're not here to get me through it all."

Adam Lambert's impeccable a cappella singing, as steady as a CD, echoed through the deserted club, drawing the audience deeper and deeper into the performance.

This is his favorite song on Spike's album "25": "Someone You Loved".

Although this song isn't a love song in Spike's music video, that doesn't stop Adam, who has just ended his first love, from singing it as his own feelings.

I need somebody to heal me, someone to know me.
"Somebody to have. Somebody to hold."

"It's easy to say, but it's never the same..."

He was in great pain and felt very confused.

With setbacks in both love and career, he even considered simply staying in the theater and performing musicals for the rest of his life, giving up his dream of becoming a singer.

He never imagined he would one day meet a superstar like Spike. His sensitivity and vulnerability made him start to overthink—what if Spike rejected his questions after reviewing his profile…

It wasn't until three days later that he saw the spirited man sitting at the event.

(End of this chapter)