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

Chapter 992: The First Compilation of My Career
It's not that people in the industry want to mythologize him, but Zhou Yi's record is just too frightening.

Logically speaking, even the most talented songwriters cannot guarantee that a song they write for someone else will become a hit. This applies to artists like Lo Ta-yu, Lee Chung-sheng, Wu Bai, Tao Zhe, Jay Chou, and Wang Leehom.

They've written countless songs for others since their debut, but have all of them become hits?
Obviously not.

People only remember the hit songs, and companies only market those hit songs; songs written for others but not hits are all selectively forgotten.

Even if we broaden the scope to the international level and trace the history of the world music scene, there is no pop musician who can guarantee a hit simply by writing songs for others to sing.

The only exception is Zhou Yi, who is someone completely beyond the comprehension of common sense, and has directly overturned the industry's previous understanding of facts—

His own albums sometimes include more pop songs that can't be commercially viable in order to maintain the integrity of the concept, but every song he writes for other people becomes a hit.

From his early days in 2000 to 2007, Zhou Yi's compositions for others have been nothing short of hits, even the theme song "Super Star" for the China Mobile mobile network's customized advertising campaign became an absolute sensation.

Another song, "My Territory," while not as wildly popular, still enjoys considerable popularity among young people in No. 1 Middle School and can be considered quite a hit.

Even now, many Zhou Yi fans still believe that Jay Chou ruined Zhou Yi's song, preventing it from achieving the same explosive effect as "Super Star," and this opinion is quite prevalent on the internet.

It's the controlled variable method.

But no matter what, Zhou Yi's achievements are undeniable. There are indeed a lot of people willing to wait for his discarded music to buy, recycle, and reuse it. They could line up all the way from Hong Kong and Taiwan to Paris.

However, the efficiency of the I Ching is so frighteningly high that it has never produced a single useless piece of music to date.

It's worth noting that even great artists like The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson reused a lot of their old songs, whether to increase album count, sell them to others, or even just modify old songs to make do with advertising offers.

Anyway, with that reputation, even if it's a terrible piece, as long as it's passable, there will be fans to debate it for you. Just make sure it sounds good.

A simple example is Lin Junjie's 10th anniversary theme song for Honor of Kings, "Tomorrow's Coordinates".

Just by listening to this song, you can tell it's 100% something he just randomly picked from his own collection of discarded songs and modified it. It only got accepted because of Lin Junjie's name.

If another composer wrote this melody, it would be nothing special, and the King of Glory project team wouldn't even give it a second glance.

Therefore, upon learning that Zhou Yi might be adding some unwanted tracks to Warner Music's library to enrich the company's repertoire, Zhou Jianhui, who was only halfway through breakfast, was quite surprised. He rushed to Zhou Yi's office, eager to find out what was going on.

"It's hard to say, it's not decided yet. Don't listen to Lao Qian's nonsense, he believes everything he hears."

Zhou Yi, who was also eating breakfast, pointed to the remaining steamed buns: "Want some?"

"Isn't this involving you?"

Zhou Jianhui, who pulled out a chair and sat down, didn't stand on ceremony. While eating, he said, "Especially this year, your task may be quite heavy. The people from the Organizing Committee just talked to me a couple of days ago and plan to entrust us with the task of publishing the '2008 Olympic Games Special'."

An Olympic Games album refers to a collection of public service songs released by the organizing committee of the host country's Olympic Games.

This year it's China's turn, and this tradition will naturally be no exception.

Before the rise of the I Ching, Sony (China) was actually the best choice for the Olympic Organizing Committee—it was strong, the leader in the domestic record industry, and the first international record company branch to form a joint venture with the mainland.

But now that the I Ching has risen to prominence, Sony naturally has to take a backseat.

Of course, the sales volume of this kind of purely charitable song compilation is really up to fate, since all the proceeds are donated in the end. The main focus is actually on an intangible honor and benefit that cannot be quantified.

Lee Chung-Sung, now Warner Music's music director, was directly chosen by Zhou Jianhui as the producer of this Olympic compilation album. After all, this is essentially a compilation album, so Zhou Yi didn't need to put in much effort.

"I've already had Zongsheng include your theme song 'Stand Up' for the movie 'One Man's Olympics' in their catalog. If you write any other Olympics-related songs later, you can include them as well."

Zhou Jianhui was well aware that there would definitely be Olympic-related songs after the Zhou Yi, so he directly gave them special treatment.

The reason why the Olympic-related songs are related to Zhou Yi is that although he wrote "Stand Up," he didn't actually sing it.

"Does this break my rule that I never release a compilation album?"

Zhou Yi smiled and took the folder, glancing at it with his lowered eyes: "Cheng Long, Han Hong, Yan Zi, Wang Lihong?"

Is it still the original four-person group?

"If I had to say, it would indeed be your first compilation album, though it's a medley." Zhou Jianhui was amused by this remark.

As we all know, compilations are also divided into five parts.

In theory, compilation albums are the lowest level of production; only pirated cassette tapes or CDs would do that.

Now that it's associated with the Olympics, it immediately becomes a source of honor.

"Although it sounds a bit odd for four people to sing one song, there's no other way; it's all for the sake of publicity."

Wang Lihong has already secured a spot on the Olympic tribute song "Stand Up" through the Zhou Yi Awards. Furthermore, his debut in Taiwan was due to a family visit, so he has always been considered a representative of Taiwan. Therefore, the remaining slots naturally need to be filled by other regions – Cheng Long represents Hong Kong and Macau (Cantonese), Han Hong represents mainland China, and Sun Yanzi represents overseas Chinese.

After all, Sun Yanzi has no relatives in Taiwan, so it wouldn't be fair to classify her as a Singaporean, which would make her part of the overseas Chinese community.

Judging from the scheduled release date, this song will definitely be the first one in the Olympic series of songs, and this arrangement takes into account all groups.

A symmetrical design with two men and two women – catering to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, mainland China, and overseas Chinese communities.

"Of course, if you think this selection is not good, you can go and talk to Zongsheng directly..."

..............................

"There's not much to talk about. Although I'm the producer, there are some things I can't make decisions about."

At home, Li Zongsheng wiped his face and sighed after hanging up the phone.

Since he was appointed as the producer of the "2008 Olympic Games Album" by the Organizing Committee and Zhou Jianhui a few days ago, the number of people trying to get on the list through his connections has increased significantly. Some people even come directly to find out the standards so that they can write songs that meet the standards on the spot.

The saying "Man dies for wealth, birds die for food" perfectly illustrates this point.

Getting on this compilation album won't guarantee huge sales, but it will definitely enhance your resume. When you go out to write songs for others, show off this resume, and you can charge more than others of the same caliber.

Fortunately, he was just a producer, so he could use Zhou Jianhui, who was only nominally involved, as a scapegoat to take the blame.

Thinking this, Li Zongsheng, who was about to go to work, made another call: "Ayi, will you be at the company at three o'clock this afternoon?"

"Three o'clock in the afternoon? He shouldn't be here. What's wrong?"

"I'd like to talk to you about the Olympic album. When would you be available?"

"Right now, I'm at the company."

?

The sun comes out in the west?

Why is Zhou Yi at the company at this hour?

"Okay, I'll head over now."

After a quick bite of breakfast, Li Zongsheng hurriedly left home, drove to Warner, and then headed straight to Zhou Yi's office with his briefcase.

As the producer, he had to clearly convey the requirements and concepts from the Organizing Committee.

The official date for the 2008 Olympics is August 8, 2008. Therefore, with 100 days to go, the Organizing Committee is expected to join hands with CCTV to hold a grand 100-day countdown celebration at the Temple of Heaven. At that time, all the songs selected for the "2008 Olympics Album" will have the opportunity to be performed on stage.

Because this is a grand event, and it's also the 100-day countdown day, the organizing committee wanted a 100-day countdown theme song that could be sung by 100 singers—Lee Jong Sung was the organizer of this.

His producer instincts led him to think of Xiao Ke, Lin Xi, and other creators he had worked with in the past, but in the end, Li Zongsheng focused his attention on Zhou Yi.

As I said before, the achievements of the I Ching are truly dazzling.

"In addition, the Organizing Committee means that at the Temple of Heaven commemorative event marking the 100-day countdown, you, as the representative of mainland China, will be able to sing a song solo."

The song sung by a group of stars was obviously not suitable for Zhou Yi to sing solo again, and singing old songs would not fit the Olympic atmosphere, so it could only be a new song.

In this arena where all the stars are vying for attention, being able to sing a solo song is indeed rare, but it's not the only one.

Yes, at the 100-day countdown concert at the Temple of Heaven, the solo performance was not, as Jay Chou's fans in the internet and mobile internet era have been spreading and brainwashing the general public, a privilege exclusively enjoyed by Jay Chou alone.

Cheng Lung, Andy Lau, Emil Chau, and Jay Chou all had the privilege of performing solo, with Cheng Lung being the last to appear.

"The Olympics have five rings, and with those four people plus you, it's exactly five people singing solo."

"Okay, I'll give you the song after the New Year."

The Book of Changes also set a time.

The song "Welcome" is definitely going to be taken, and it will also prevent that brat Lin Xi from complaining later about how taking on this task and writing this song is the biggest stain on his life.

As for the new song he sang solo on stage during the 100-day countdown at the Imperial Ancestral Temple...

As song titles flashed through his mind, Zhou Yi pondered, finally settling his thoughts on four large characters—

"Heaven and Earth Dragon Scales"

(End of this chapter)