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

Chapter 971 I Became a Leader

Even in Canada, Warner has coverage of all kinds of medium and large radio stations, which is what makes Warner so formidable, given its massive market resources from the very beginning.

Even the best wine needs advertising, let alone Sun Yanzi, who is essentially a complete newcomer in Europe and America.

Without Zhou Yi's repeated advertisements, she would at most have become a familiar face in the US states where she had performed, and Warner would have had to repackage her image if they wanted to continue promoting her.

But now it obviously saves a lot of effort.

Released amidst nationwide attention, "Call Me Maybe," despite its extensive promotional resources, generated a level of buzz that took the entire Western music scene by storm.

In just four days, the single entered the top ten on radio stations across various states. The upbeat melody and Zhou Yi's deliberately provocative music video exuded a hormonal beauty, while the refreshing vocals continued the style of his earlier hit "Good Time," giving the song a much-needed revival.

"Good Time is a really pleasant surprise."

As the producer, Zhou Yi, who had already made his bold claims, didn't accompany Sun Yanzi on roadshows, TV appearances, or radio appearances, but he was still quite concerned about the sales figures for this first single.

While "Call Me Maybe" was indeed very popular, it was by no means the kind of single that could achieve phenomenal sales through word-of-mouth in the early stages.

When Carly Flint first released her album, it sold less than a thousand physical CDs on its first day in Canada, and less than 3 in a month. Even if we only consider the Canadian music scene, this result can be described as complete obscurity.

The key to everything still lies with Justin Bieber.

At that time, Justin Bieber was already a global sensation and the undisputed king of Canadian pop. Although he had many haters, his popularity was undoubtedly among the top three in the world at that stage.

He heard his fellow countryman's song and publicly shared and recommended it on his social media, even though Carly was still relatively unknown at the time.

As a result, a surge of traffic flooded Carly's personal page, and "Call Me Maybe" entered the public eye for the first time. Justin Bieber's agent sensed an opportunity and immediately signed the previously unknown Canadian girl.

Carly left Canada and joined Justin Bieber's company. With the help of his manager Scooter Braun, she found a viable business model, reshot the music video, and propelled "Call Me Maybe" to global prominence.

It topped the Billboard charts for nine consecutive weeks, sold over 10 million copies in the US, and over 18 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles by a female artist in history.

This is Carlyle's debut with "Call Me Maybe" after leaving Canada and entering the American market. She is a representative of someone who reached her peak right from the start. The music video for this song was also the hottest single music video on YouTube in the summer of 2012.

However, Justin Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, is somewhat unethical—

Logically, the millions of dollars in revenue from YouTube views should have gone into the pocket of the MV's male lead, but he made excuses to avoid paying it all. Not only did he lose his financial freedom, but he also faced a lot of criticism and harassment because of the "gay" identity he portrayed in the MV.

This is why Zhou Yi deleted the twist that "the male lead is actually gay" when he starred in the music video.

The label of homosexuality is a stubborn ailment that is difficult to shake off once you're tainted with it, even in China. This is even more true in Europe and America, where the political correctness regarding sexual orientation is gradually gaining traction. In a few years, Europe and America will be evolving into Walmart shopping bags and armed helicopters.

And these bastards especially love to freeload—

First, they play the victim by claiming "we also want to have a normal life." If you back down, they'll push their luck and demand preferential treatment. Then, they'll start abusing their privileges and demanding that singers serve them.

Sun Yanzi once suffered harassment from the gay community in the Taiwanese music scene.

For no apparent reason, he was chosen as the dream girl by the gay community and the news was widely publicized. At first, Zhou Jianhui was happy, thinking that he had broken into the mainstream. Later, he found that these guys were acting strangely and started pointing fingers at Sun Yanzi.

This incident forced Sun Yanzi to explicitly state in a public interview that she genuinely likes men and is a woman in the traditional sense, thus cutting ties and preventing these unwanted advances from sticking to her.

Later, Chen Zeshan, who had previously managed Sun Yanzi, took over Cai Yilin after switching labels. When he wanted to promote her, he used the gay community, taking advantage of their small number but large voice, to elevate Cai Yilin to a new level and enable her to maintain her popularity in the declining music scene after 2010.

However, this also brought Tsai Yi-Lin a crazy group of gay fans who accompanied her throughout the second half of her life. Tsai Yi-Lin tried to cut ties several times but could not, and in the end, she could only helplessly run down this path.

There's no other reason than that there's no going back.

"The biggest surprise is yet to come. Your previous remarks have now had a deeper impact with the explosive popularity of this song. Several non-British and non-American singers have stated that discrimination in the music industry ecosystem is indeed very serious, and they regard you as a leader."

Despite the overwhelming buzz surrounding "25," the data for Sun Yanzi's song failed to stir Qian Jiang's interest; his focus remained on the power struggle behind the song.

As a representative of a one-man army in the music industry, Zhou Yi can be said to be an idol and learning goal for countless producers and musicians.

Before him, no one who had ever reached the top of the world music scene had ever openly laid out the racial discrimination hierarchy in the Western music scene—the US was king, the UK was passable, and everyone else was trash.

Countries like Canada and Australia, even though they all speak English, if you want to get into this circle, you'll have to lick the boots of us, the American and British father and son.

The most famous example from the 1990s to the present is Celine Dion.

This Canadian pop star started out singing in French, and after entering the American market, she switched back to singing in English and quickly became a world-class pop star. However, she has faced continuous neglect and discrimination because of her Canadian origins.

Kylie Minogue, the "Pea Princess" from Australia, had a similar experience.

Avril Lavigne took a different approach, but ultimately couldn't escape malicious slander and defamation, and the cycle of not being able to find good songs or songwriters to exchange ideas and brainstorm. After falling ill, she was even falsely rumored to have died—

The kind that keeps dying.

There are even more outrageous claims about clones, such as "the real Avril Lavigne is dead, and this one is actually a replacement," and there are quite a few believers.

Later, although most of Justin Bieber's haters and controversies were self-inflicted, when he first became famous as a child singing "Baby," the malice he suffered also came from his nationality, which did not belong to the American circle.

This is just within the singer circle.

In the music industry, the ability to write one's own songs is a powerful weapon, allowing singers to occasionally break through the hierarchy and challenge the status quo. However, the film and television industry is truly a one-man show – the Italian, French, and Spanish cliques have all been swept into Hollywood's open-air prison since the turn of the century.

After all, if singers can write and produce their own songs, the costs can be minimized, but this is not the case for film and television productions.

Therefore, after so many years of accumulated resentment, they were overjoyed when someone who seemed willing to confront the unfairness of the I Ching finally emerged, instead of Michael Jackson, who tried to smooth things over.

Although Zhou Yi was speaking out for Asian singers who were treated unfairly in the US, everyone is an outsider in the American entertainment industry, so by that logic, they are all one of us!
"One of our own? An opinion leader?"

Zhou Yi couldn't help but burst out laughing: "Have I become an American public intellectual?"

"Theoretically speaking, yes. And the term 'public intellectual' should be a compliment, at least until you criticize them."

Qian Jiang laughed as well: "Now, because of you, the reputation of public intellectuals in China is no longer overwhelmingly positive."

"Tsk, I can't publish 'Yilin,' 'Reader,' or 'Youth Digest' in the US, so being a public intellectual is useless."

"Not really. If you keep it up, you might be able to attract a lot of creators with your reputation, especially young, fledgling creators who often submit their work based on personal impressions."

Qian Jiang disagreed with Zhou Yi's dismissive attitude: "Sony Universal is increasing its efforts to stockpile creators to counter us, and becoming an opinion leader in this area is quite important for the company to attract talent."

Not everyone in the Western music scene is willing or talented enough to appear on screen as a singer. Producers are also a profession that allows them to make a fortune quietly. After becoming famous, they can earn just as much as top-tier singers, and their royalties are equally substantial.

As one of only three remaining players in the international market, competing for songwriters and emerging songwriters is of paramount importance to the company's future business. In this regard, Sony is undoubtedly Warner Music's biggest rival at present—

Although Zhou Yi's gaze was always fixed on the world.

Sony has its own unique circumstances, and its future decline will likely be due to internal strife. Without Zhou Yi's influence, Warner would have been crippled and sold off by Edgar Allan Powell. Universal, on the other hand, later surged ahead, securing the world's largest market share.

"The momentum is very good now. We'll just have to wait and see how many copies of Yanzi's EP will sell after it's released in December."

Unlike Xiao Yaxuan's EP, Qian Jiang is quite concerned about Sun Yanzi's EP, even though he is not her manager.

"Global sales of four to five million, Ayi, do you think that's possible?"

"In terms of the quality of the songs on the EP alone, I feel there are too few."

Zhou Yi shook his head: "But she doesn't have the right timing, location, and people that I had back then."

If it weren't for the unprecedented exposure he gained during the 02 World Cup, his journey to the US wouldn't have been so smooth, even with Cheng Long paving the way.

It's worth noting that his debut single, "Lazy Man's Song," didn't even sell five million copies worldwide, and only reached a little over three million copies during the promotional period.

(End of this chapter)