A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 5 will be a hit soon!
Winters in the capital are quite cold.

However, in the capital's music scene that winter of 1995, as the twelfth lunar month approached, the atmosphere suddenly heated up. An impromptu concert in a small conference room at the New Grand Hotel spread throughout the entire circle in just a few days. Suddenly, almost everyone in the pop music scene knew that Zhang Peiren, the old master of Moyan, had recently signed a big shot!
He can write, sing, and compose.

She can handle both rock and pop, and even write love songs with a Hong Kong and Taiwan vibe.

The key point is that they sing incredibly well!
It is said that even experts cannot tell whether this guy is using head resonance or chest resonance. More likely, he is using both, but he mixes them together in a way that makes it impossible for you to hear the difference—it's simply amazing!

If you listen carefully, you'll find that some of the top singers in Europe and America have started to use this technique in recent years, but in the domestic music scene, almost no one has mastered or used this skill.

This should be the first one.

And this guy is fucking handsome!

How handsome is he? It's said he's even more handsome than Tang Guoqiang, Zhu Shimao, and Cai Guoqing all tied together!

What? The Four Heavenly Kings? Li Ming? Don't even bother comparing yourself to that trash. What aristocratic air? Hong Kong is just a place of exile, what aristocratic air could he possibly have? He's just a bit bookish, soft and weak, not tough enough!
In short, this young man is incredibly talented and will definitely become famous soon!
Naturally, when Zhang Peiren and Xue Zhongding made their invitation calls, almost everyone accepted immediately – "Recording? I'm free! Just say the word!"

In just two days, the recording studio was rented, and almost all of the top guitarists, bassists, drummers, pianists, and recording engineers in China were in place.

Because Lin Jianlu said that some mixing was needed, before the recording even started, Xue Zhongding made a phone call and summoned a mixing engineer from Taiwan who was said to be the top mixing engineer at Rock Records to intervene in the recording ahead of schedule.

On December 22, 1995, less than a month after Lin Jianlu traveled to this time and space, his first album, titled "Cold to the End," officially began recording.

The recording studio is always packed with people.

They're all friends, they all brought each other here, they're all here to worship the great master.

Moreover, those who come are often not ordinary people.

Once, when she couldn't get a good recording for an instrument—even experts sometimes struggle to find the right feel—a guy squatting by the wall suddenly stood up. He looked unassuming, but said, "How about I give it a try?" And don't be surprised, the moment he got the feel right, Lin Jianlu immediately decided, "That's the feeling!"

There are countless talented people.

During the recording, countless true experts also came to join in the fun.

Once, when Dou Wei and his wife came over, Lin Jianlu even had Wang Fei record a harmony track for them.

She wasn't the only one; Liu Huan, Tian Zhen, and Wang Banbi also recorded it.

Progress is rapid.

Even seasoned veterans like Chang Pei-jen and Hsueh Chung-ting couldn't help but feel a little nervous, repeatedly urging, "Don't rush, don't rush! Record a few more takes! Try a different style! Our total budget is 1 million NTD, which is more than 200,000 RMB in mainland China. You've only spent less than 50,000 RMB and you've already finished half of it!"

Thank goodness, the Rolling Stones in Taiwan are known for their meticulous approach to music production. From songwriters and producers to musicians and singers, they all take recording exceptionally seriously.

When Chang Pei-jen set up his Magic Rock Records in the capital, the Magic Rock Three he promoted were all exceptionally serious and focused on music. From arrangement and instruments to vocal style and emotion, they experimented with various techniques, even changing keys or lyrics mid-recording – that was commonplace. Let alone Rock Records and Magic Rock, even UFO Records, which rivaled Rock Records in the Chinese music scene and had once given Rock Records a hard time thanks to artists like Wang Jie, Chyi Chin, Chang Yu-sheng, and the Little Tigers, was known for its hype, promotion, and marketing. They were ridiculed within Rock Records as "handing out flyers" and "recording like a soda vendor's horn on Zhongyi Road," and their recording speed wasn't that fast!
Not to mention UFO Records, it's not uncommon for minor singers in Hong Kong to release three or four albums a year. They record a song repeatedly for many days!

But Lin Jianlu, after deciding on the style and direction and recording the accompaniment track he wanted, would go into the recording studio and, after taking five or three takes, leave the studio without even trying any other ideas or making any minor adjustments. He would simply announce that the song was finished!

This recording method is simply unheard of!

There are exceptions, but they are just occasional bursts of inspiration. For example, in Hong Kong, James Wong, Lo Ta-yu, and Tsui Hark went into the studio to record "A Laugh in the Vast Sea" after having a few drinks. After only the second take, James Wong made the decision, regardless of any flaws, and used this version!
When it was released, the song seemed to carry the sounds of wind, alcohol, and swords. The drunken madness sung by three raspy voices was full of chivalry and heroism, and it became a legend in the music scene.

But that's really just an isolated case...

I've never seen an entire album done like this before!

However, if you listen carefully, you can't seem to find anything wrong with it!

The recording was excellent, and the singing was almost flawless. The only difference was the individual's understanding of style and direction—and he was also the producer!
There are eleven songs in total, ranging from popular love songs like "Twilight," "Fairy Tale," "Love is Just One Word," and "Ten Years," to love songs that fall between pop and rock like "Cold to the End" and "The First Tear," to rock songs like "The You of the Past" and "Brave Heart," as well as R&B love songs that are the first of their kind in mainland China, such as "Xiaoxiang Rain" and "Huatian Mistake," and "Super Cool," which mixes electronic dance music, pop, and North American hip-hop, and even left everyone a little confused at first. The recording took a total of 24 and a half days!

It felt like they had just started recording, and it was only the beginning of 1996, just halfway through January. They packed up their things and told you that recording was finished...

The recording cost only 86,000 yuan!

Oh, he said he wanted to use the remaining money to shoot a music video...

But bro, you're not even famous yet, is it really necessary to start filming a music video before the official release?

Okay, okay, pre-promotion, let's take pictures, take pictures...

It doesn't matter anyway. How the money is spent is ultimately up to the producer.

Moreover, by this time, perhaps because Lin Jianlu particularly liked to use production funds to treat people, his connections in the capital's music scene were actually not much worse than those of Zhang Peiren, the CEO of Moyan!

With just a word, in the dead of winter with its biting winds, a small music video shooting crew was actually set up—his music video was simple, all he needed was to rent a small photo studio and decorate it to look festive! He choreographed the video himself, hired a few dancers, and led them in rehearsals for two days. After getting a little used to the studio, they set up the camera and started shooting.

The entire music video for "Bei'er Shuang" didn't even need to be filmed on location!
"Cold to the End" did film a lot of outdoor scenes, but they were just random shots taken on the streets of the capital during the days when the snow was falling and melting. The camera didn't even leave the street!
The only extravagance was that he used a camera, burned film, and hired a cinematographer named Gu Changwei, who was said to be a top-tier cinematographer in Europe, and his fees were very high.

They charged 30,000 yuan just for shooting two music videos!
However, he does handle the post-production editing!
Film was too expensive, so we didn't shoot much footage. We borrowed it from the editing room at Beijing Film Studio, and they edited it for us in just two days without even paying extra.

Just import the audio track, and you're all set!
You know what, with film stock, award-winning cinematographers, and post-production color grading and lighting techniques at the level of art films, the resulting effect is indeed different from the effect of shooting with a video camera, which is common in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In "Cold to the End," the icicles hanging from the eaves, the wispy sunset clouds in the west after a snowfall, and of course, Lin Jianlu's handsome yet melancholic profile and his incredibly sharp eyes...

Lin Jianlu's tall and slender figure and dynamic dance in "Super Cool"...

Ah, the catchy rhythm and melody of "Bei'er Shuang" (Super Cool), coupled with his avant-garde dance in the music video that has a very Western metal vibe, is really... quite addictive!
(End of this chapter)