Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 102 Concubine Liu Yi records a song

July 2002, 7, Hong Kong Mui-Music Music Company.

"Mui" means "Mei", which is Mei Yanfang's own music company, which has a series of businesses including record production and distribution, agency business, singer packaging and promotion.

This company, founded in 99, has produced well-known singers such as Grasshopper, Andy Hui, Patrick Tam, Denise Ho, and Pang King Chi.

After Mei Yanfang passed away in 2003, she transferred 0.01% of her shares to her agent Wang Minhui in her will, and instructed her to be fully responsible for the company's affairs.

As a result, her mother and brother seized power and filed a malicious lawsuit, which eventually forced Wang Minhui to give up her shares.

Mei Yin was then transferred to a trust company and disappeared from the world.

Today, Mei Yin welcomed the youngest client in the company's history, Liu Yifei.

"Little brother, are you really interested in this girl?"

Lu Kuan grinned and said, "She is my cash cow. I have to make her famous to make money."

Mei Yanfang saw through it but didn't say anything, but at this time she felt a little sympathy for the employees in her studio.

Both the recording engineer and the accompanying singer felt helpless towards the pretty girl from mainland China in the recording studio...

Xiao Liu, Xiao Liu, it’s not just that you’re good-looking, it’s also that you’re good at singing.

"Yi Fei, don't rush this part. Wait until the major triad at the beginning of the song is almost finished before you start."

"Oh, good!"

The girl gritted her teeth, thought about the training she had received from Zhang Yadong over the past half month, and started over again.

Mei Yanfang looked at her as if she saw herself as a child. Of course, they were incomparable in terms of talent, but they did have the same level of hard work.

"Ah Kuan, these songs of yours are really suitable for her."

Boss Lu smiled bitterly to himself. He used all his life's memories to search his mind for the scenes from KTV in his previous life.

In addition to the white thighs and the incest in the bathroom, I cobbled together four or five girlish songs for Liu Yifei.

Whether it's movies or TV series, he has a good grasp of all the film and television projects, but he is not good at music. It is difficult for him to recall and reproduce songs that are not particularly popular.

This is when professional record companies come into play. He simply hums the songs to form a prototype, and then they are processed by professionals before they are released.

This EP contains a total of 5 songs.

"Nuan Nuan", "Sakura Grass", "Ai Ya Ai Ya", "BIG BIG World", and "The First Dream".

They are all warm, healing, and girly, and there are also positive ones like "The First Dream".

The reason for adding an English song is mainly due to the consideration of the Southeast Asian market.

After all, through the packaging and distribution of Mei Yanfang's company in Hong Kong, the target audience is not limited to the mainland. This is also the reason why Mei Yanfang was chosen instead of Zhang Yadong's studio.

And Concubine Liu Yi's English level is also sufficient to handle it.

After a day of recording, Xiao Liu, whose throat was dry as a thread, sat on the second-floor terrace of Mei Yanfang's house, his hands folded on the coffee table, his chin resting weakly on it.

Weak and helpless...

Liu Xiaoli was busy preparing a dress for her daughter in Peking and would not be able to join them for two days. Yang Siwei had to return to Communication University of China to take her final exams, so only Lu Kuan accompanied her on this trip.

Boss Lu did not tease her anymore. He felt very sympathetic towards the girl's current mental state.

Recording an album is not like what is written in entertainment novels, where you just copy a few songs and sing them randomly.

For non-professional singers like Liu Yifei, or even music novices, this is very difficult.

We often hear about grassroots actors and grassroots singers.

There are indeed some talented actors and singers who can demonstrate excellent professional abilities without any professional skills training or formal studies.

But being a singer is still more difficult than being an actor.

Take recording an album for example. If a singer wants to record an album with a professional record company, he or she must at least have basic music theory knowledge of the twelve-tone equal temperament.

Just like what Mei Yanfang said to Lu Kuan in the studio today, without this professional knowledge, singers cannot establish the most basic understanding of tonal patterns. What is tonal pattern understanding?

A singer must know how to read the music score to adjust his or her ups and downs, pitches and lows, and cooperate with the band and backing vocals to complete the work.

On a deeper level, she needs to have an emotional understanding of chords, some knowledge of harmony theory and rhythmic tension of types.

Because each chord is given a certain emotional tendency by the composer, for example, the first chord requires the singer to sustain, sing softly or process it softly;
The fourth-level chords need to be explosive and powerful, and combined with the band's strong mixing, they can only produce the effect and become the content that enters the ears of the listeners in the album.

It is obvious that Liu Yifei, who changed her career late, has been lost in these professional pits and cannot extricate herself.

Even the songs I chose are relatively simple.

Lu Kuan had no way to deal with this. He could provide guidance on the performance, but his singing was worse than Liu Yifei's.

"Don't be so depressed. Come take a walk with me."

As the sun sets, the luxury residential area where Heng'an Pavilion is located has a high safety factor, so Boss Lu decides to take his young employees there to relax.

Concubine Liu Yi raised her eyelids and glanced at him, then reluctantly went down the stairs first.

"Keep left, crazy line."

Lu Kuan saw the cute little girl go out and keep to the right side of the road, so he quickly pulled her to his left.

"Oh... I forgot."

The two of them walked forward in silence.

A wet and salty sea breeze blew from the hillside, and there were very few vehicles and pedestrians passing by, which somewhat eased Concubine Liu Yi's depression.

"Xiaolu, do you think I'm too stupid, that I can't act well, and that I can't sing well?"

Boss Lu didn't hit him: "Are you comparing yourself to Sister Mei and thinking she can do everything?"

"Ah."

"In fact, you only lack one thing compared to her."

"what?"

"Life experience."

Young men and women leaned on the railings halfway up the mountain under the setting sun. The faint afterglow of the setting sun shone on Concubine Liu Yi's delicate profile. The road was so wide that even the fine hairs on her face could be seen.

But the owner of this pretty face still had a frown on her face.

"Life experience?"

Lu Kuan patiently said, "Sister Mei started singing on stage and working at the docks at the age of 4. Her experiences and training are perfectly presented on stage and on the big screen."

"How old are you? There's a long road ahead. There's no need to rush."

Liu Xiaoli was not around, but Lu Kuan seemed to give her a strong sense of security, and Liu Yifei also confided her innermost thoughts.

"Sister Mei had a very hard life when she was little, and I was very miserable when I was little."

"My parents divorced a long time ago. At that time, we were still living in Wuhan. I was throwing a tantrum and didn't want Jiajia (my grandmother) to take care of me, so I kept pestering my mother."

"She was still dancing at that time. My favorite performance was 'The Dying Swan'. She would dance on the stage and I would watch from below with my chin propped up."

"That's when I fell in love with acting. My mother gave up dancing for me, and I wanted to fulfill her wish."

"Then I moved abroad again. I wasn't very happy there either. I was always bullied by American kids and couldn't fit in with them."

The little girl turned around and asked, "Do you think this counts as life experience?"

Lu Kuan sighed inwardly, different stages of life bring different kinds of suffering.

For 4-year-old Mei Yanfang, being beaten with a wooden stick by her mother and forced to go to the docks and sing was certainly an extremely painful memory.

But for the 10-year-old Liu Yifei, her parents' divorce and the breakup of the little princess' happy family were already a huge mountain that made her breathless.

(End of this chapter)