Huayu: Starting from Fahrenheit

Chapter 429 New Era Superstar

On the Chinese internet, news about Wu Zhuo's new album remains incredibly popular, having become one of the hottest news topics in recent years.

Wu Zhuo himself has already embarked on the journey of promoting his album.

Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore... North America...

Sony has arranged promotional plans for every region and country where he has influence.

The continuous promotion led to a surge in pre-sales for his new album.

Starting from number three.

Over the course of a week.

This album achieved a global pre-sale record of seven million copies, making it the best-selling album in pre-sales in the past two years.

The hot pre-sale data has made this album increasingly popular.

Whenever Wu Zhuo holds a fan meeting in a country, the venue is packed with people.

Time magazine made this assessment directly.

"Following Michael Jackson, another superstar has risen on a global scale."

Furthermore, leveraging the power of the internet, Abel Wu has even surpassed Michael Jackson in some aspects.

Time magazine went even further, titling the article "[Superstars of the New Era]".

Every superstar represents a trend.

And Abel Wu Zhuo is clearly the same.

As Wu Zhuo's influence expands further globally, a "Wu Zhuo craze" is officially sweeping the world.

Wu Zhuo's outfits have become the latest fashion trend.

His music and songs began to appear in people's sight in various ways.

Among them, "Ip Man 2," whose copyright had just been acquired by Warner Bros., took advantage of this momentum and chose to release it ahead of schedule.

In its opening week, thanks to the popularity of Wu Zhuofeng, the film grossed $1300 million, and its total box office is expected to reach $1 million in North America.

At the same time, the various endorsements behind Wu Zhuo also began to exert their efforts.

The advertisements appeared on television in various countries.

Wu Zhuo's posters can be seen everywhere in shopping malls and on the streets.

One North American netizen commented directly on YouTube:
"Did I recently stir up trouble with Abel Wu? Why is he everywhere?"

His commercials are on TV, his songs are on the radio, his movies are in theaters, and even on random billboards on the street, there are still his posters.

This world has gone mad; I feel like I'm seeing another Jack Slim rising up.

But Wu Zhuo's influence extends far beyond that.

At the end of March, ten days after Wu Zhuo's new album was released.

His album sales officially reached 1500 million, creating another miracle and ranking first on this year's sales chart.

At the same time, his various merchandise sales surpassed those of European and American stars for the first time, reaching the top spot on the global charts.

On the same day, Sony Music launched a new singer, Justin Bieber.

Yes, it's the Justin Bieber from his past life.

In this life, he became famous earlier than in his previous life by covering Wu Zhuo's "Baby" online.

Then he was noticed by both Sony and Puff Daddy.

After some back and forth, the two sides decided to jointly promote and operate the little boy.

While Puff Daddy's company was creating new songs for Bieber, Sony Music also acquired the rights to Wu Zhuo's "Baby," as well as songs like "The Wind Rises" and "Blue and White Porcelain."

The English songs were directly re-sung by Bieber, while the original Chinese songs such as "The Wind Rises" had English lyrics written by a specialist, creating an album for Bieber that included both covers and new songs.

It's worth mentioning that Wu Zhuo's influence extends far beyond just his English songs.

Thanks to his continuous output, his Chinese songs have also gained a considerable audience overseas.

And the melodies of his Chinese songs are also very good.

Therefore, many companies have their eyes on his Chinese songs, hoping to obtain the rights to cover them.

This is actually a normal phenomenon.

Just like how Hong Kong in the 1990s would acquire the copyrights of popular overseas songs and rewrite the lyrics to create covers.

Wu Zhuo's Chinese songs are also in high demand now.

Currently, many of his Chinese songs without English lyrics have been licensed to foreign companies.

Several songs have already been adapted.

Among them, the most successful adaptation was of the song "Warm".

Taylor Swift took a liking to this song, obtained authorization from Wu Zhuo, and then wrote the lyrics herself.

After its release, the song briefly reached number three on the Billboard charts.

Then "Rice Fragrance" was also good. Eminem got the rights and added a really nice English rap to Wu Zhuo's version. At its peak, it reached number sixteen on Billboard.

And this is only in Europe and America.

In Japan and South Korea, where Wu Zhuo has a greater influence, almost all of his Chinese songs have been covered.

I won't even mention well-known ones like "Rice Fragrance".

Almost every song that gets adapted becomes a hit.

Even Wu Zhuo's lesser-known songs, such as "After Tomorrow," have become sought-after by overseas companies.

However, Wu Zhuo's authorization was not granted casually.

First, he will assess whether the other party has the necessary abilities.

He would refuse to grant authorization to a small, incapable company.

Then there's whether his own song cycle has passed or not.

Generally speaking, a song usually has a peak listening period.

This process usually takes about two years.

After two years, the song's popularity will decline. Although a large number of people will still listen to and play it, the numbers will definitely not be as high as they were in the first year or two after its release.

Wu Zhuo's songs are generally not authorized for cover versions within two years.

Of course, some people may think that licensing a song to someone else to sing another version will affect the playback data of their own version.

In fact, this impact is almost negligible.

After all, a singer of Wu Zhuo's caliber already has a large number of loyal fans.

These fans would listen to his songs from time to time.

Even if someone releases a different version of the song, it might initially gain popularity.

However, it will not affect Wu Zhuo's version.

Moreover, sometimes his version might become popular again because of the other party's version.

Of course, Wu Zhuo granted the rights because he could earn royalties from licensing other people's versions of the songs.

His copyright fees are calculated on an annual basis.

Just like Taylor Swift's song "Warm," as long as Taylor Swift's version isn't taken down, she has to pay Wu Zhuo $180 million in copyright licensing fees every year.

Back to the topic.

When news of Wu Zhuo's new album's global success reached China, it undoubtedly sparked another round of heated discussion.

Netizens are discussing where Wu Zhuo ranks among global superstars.

Some say he can be considered the world's number one superstar right now.

Some people also feel that he cannot be called the number one superstar yet.

After all, he's only been popular for five or six years, which is quite different from those superstars who have been popular for over a decade.

However, regardless of the discussion, everyone has reached a consensus: Wu Zhuo is indeed a global superstar.

There's even a saying circulating online: "Wu Zhuo is a scholar, Cheng Long is a warrior."

It means that the two are the most famous superstars in China worldwide.

Of course, some people say that Hong Kong became Taiwan and Wu, but this is mostly said by netizens from Taiwan.

Meanwhile, while Wu Zhuo's album was selling well globally, there were still many people on the Chinese internet discussing his digital album.

They say he's gone crazy for money, making it impossible for people to ever go back to the days of free music. Well, that's certainly true.

Since the release of Wu Zhuo's digital album, a total of 360 million copies have been sold in China so far, and the total sales are predicted to be around 500 million.

This data is somewhat different from Wu Zhuo's previous album sales.

But the emergence of this data directly shocked the entire music industry.

This data has already sufficiently demonstrated the feasibility of digital albums.

As a result, many singers, including Jay Chou and Wang Leehom, announced that their new albums for the second half of the year will be released as digital albums.

Undoubtedly, Jay Chou and others' actions have once again drawn criticism for Wu Zhuo.

Everyone said he set a bad precedent.

If it weren't for him, Jay Chou and others would definitely still have chosen to release albums in physical form.

Then it was still free online, at most requiring a membership, but now they're charging for it.

However, there is a very interesting phenomenon.

That is, despite the many criticisms online, Wu Zhuo's digital album sales were not only unaffected, but actually increased faster and faster.

Many people were criticizing it while simultaneously clicking to buy the album.

There is nothing they can do.

Originally, many people planned to listen to pirated versions of Wu Zhuo's album online after its release.

But they soon discovered a problem.

That means there are basically no pirated copies of Wu Zhuo's album online.

Even if they exist, they won't last more than a few days before being taken off the shelves.

The reason, of course, is that Wu Zhuo's legal team is actively cracking down on online piracy.

Another point is that Baidu has completely banned the circulation of pirated content on its platform.

Due to various factors, in order to listen to the songs on Wu Zhuo's new album, in addition to one trial listening opportunity, you must purchase the album to listen to them again.

As for offline piracy...

Honestly, Wu Zhuo doesn't care anymore.

With the rise of the internet age, traditional records are destined to be eliminated.

The current situation is that not only are genuine traditional CDs difficult to sell, but even pirated copies are not selling well.

With the advent of mobile phones, most people now listen to music on their phones.

Very few people still use VCD players to listen to music these days.

Therefore, he simply ignored offline piracy.

And that's the reality. Even though piracy is rampant offline, listening to music on VCDs is just too inconvenient, so most people, even if they don't want to pay for it, ultimately choose to buy albums online.

Of course, this is only part of the story.

Most people who are used to listening to music for free still can't accept paying for it.

So they chose to wait.

Because Wu Zhuo's album only has a five-month protection period.

Five months later, the album's songs will be available for free to listen to with a membership.

Five months is a time many people can afford to wait.

……

After returning to China, Wu Zhuo ignored the online comments.

He met with JJ Lin first.

He wrote a song called "Say Goodbye When You Want" in collaboration with JJ Lin.

Part of the song was recorded some time ago, and it's almost finished now.

After spending two days recording the song, Wu Zhuo finally finished his music-related tasks.

He can finally join the cast of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons".

After only one day of rest, he rushed to the film crew on April 20th.

The crew knew he was coming back today several days in advance, and the other actors arrived a day earlier.

"Abel, congratulations! Your record is a huge success!"

As soon as he arrived at the film set, Show Lo greeted him.

Just like in his previous life, Stephen Chow chose Show Lo to play the role of the Empty Prince.

In fact, Wu Zhuo's version of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" has basically the same cast as the previous version.

The only difference is that the male lead has been changed to Wu Zhuo, and the female lead has become Liu Shishi.

The other characters remain largely unchanged.

There won't be any filming today; we'll mainly be familiarizing ourselves with the script.

While familiarizing himself with the script, Wu Zhuo also got to know the crew members.

Huang Bo was also in this film crew.

He has been collaborating quite frequently with Wu Zhuo's legendary film company recently.

He has already filmed for "Lost in Thailand," which is scheduled for release during this year's Lunar New Year holiday.

He was in the movie "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons," and he also signed a two-movie contract with Legendary Pictures.

Upon seeing that the boss, Wu Zhuo, had arrived, he immediately came over to greet him.

"Mr. Wu, your character is a bit of a jerk!"

He and Wu Zhuo have known each other for a long time.

Back when he had just become famous through Crazy Stone, he had met Wu Zhuo at an event and they exchanged contact information. During holidays, Huang Bo would call or send Wu Zhuo small gifts.

Therefore, after the preparation of Lost in Thailand, Wu Zhuo recommended him to play Gao Bo in the film.

Then, after the "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" project was approved, it was Wu Zhuo who suggested that he interview Stephen Chow.

However, although Wu Zhuo is the boss, Huang Bo did not belittle himself too much when interacting with him.

This guy respected Wu Zhuo while preserving his dignity.

Unlike some of the actors Wu Zhuo has encountered in the past two years.

A typical sycophant.

"I'd like to ask you for advice on this."

Wu Zhuo spoke with a smile.

Wu Zhuo's character does indeed have a somewhat cheeky feel to him.

This was specially designed by Stephen Chow for comedic effect.

Wu Zhuo also chose to take on the role because it was challenging.

Huang Bo, on the other hand, happens to have experience in this area. He just starred in a movie called "Crazy Dinner Party," in which he played a somewhat effeminate celebrity character.

"Actually, there are no special techniques, you just have to be able to let go. You should be able to let go! You can't have any idol baggage for this role."

Huang Bo sat down and discussed with Wu Zhuo.

"That is indeed a problem, but we can only work it out slowly. How do you think I should act this scene?"

Wu Zhuo is considered a talented actor by the general public.

He has excellent acting skills in the movies he stars in.

But he never thought he was awesome because of that.

For every film or television production, he would discuss with the talented actors in the crew how to portray the character.

When he was working on "Connected," he sought advice from Nick Cheung.

In "Ip Man," the person he sought advice from was Simon Yam.

In "Ip Man 2", he consulted Sammo Hung again on how to fight.

As for "Fleet of Time," I didn't consult anyone about that film.

But the role in that play was very simple, and I didn't need to ask for advice.

(End of this chapter)