A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 76 Fatty
The wind and rain continued all night.

When I woke up the next morning and checked the news, the typhoon had passed, but the wind and rain that followed were still quite strong.

Old Duan arrived early in the morning, almost right after Zhang Aijia.

This time they didn't bring any newspapers, so it seems there's no new gossip.

The workload is so immense that it would make anyone gasp in shock just by looking at it.

As for Rock Records, they plan to hold three autograph sessions for the "Million Celebration Edition" album. As soon as Lin Jianlu arrives, they will immediately confirm the dates and scale with the retailers. Chen Shuhua has eight new songs to record. This is not in such a hurry, but it will definitely be done. Her album "Shuhua in Full Bloom" last year was a bit of a flop. If she doesn't release an album or make any noise for a long time, it will easily become even less popular. Now, she also has a duet with Su Huilun called "What's Left".

As for Lin Jianlu personally, if he is willing to accept, he will receive more than 25 commercial performance invitations in Taiwan alone in the next month. The price per performance is roughly between NT$2 million and NT$2.4 million. Some require two songs, while others require three songs. In US dollars, that would be about 60,000 to 80,000 dollars.

Sylvia Chang suggests that you should only accept five or eight shows at a time, as taking on all of them at once can lower your value – if you can easily get people to come, they will ask for a price reduction later.

Of course, exhausting all resources isn't necessarily a bad thing. If we take on 50 to 60 million NT dollars in one go, we can simply stop taking on more projects for the next year and nurture the market for another year—that's about 2 million US dollars. It seems worthwhile to do it!
Then, sure enough, in November, Rock Records planned to hold a series of large-scale all-star concerts in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. There were a total of eight shows, featuring Lee Tsung-sheng, Lin Yi-lien, Chou Hua-chien, Zhao Chuan, Chen Shu-hua, Su Hui-lun, Wu Po, plus Lin Chien-lu. The lineup was fixed, with each person performing three songs per show.

In addition, second-tier artists such as Chang Chen-yue, Richie Jen, Rene Liu, Alex To, and Takeshi Kaneshiro were basically just guest performers, appearing in various venues. For example, Alex To's records are divided between two companies: Cantonese with Warner Music in Hong Kong and Mandarin with Rock Records, so he only appeared in the Hong Kong show. Other Hong Kong singers such as Leslie Cheung and Aaron Kwok also only made guest appearances, appearing in Hong Kong and Singapore, singing a couple of songs each.

As for Luo Dayou, Xin Xiaoqi, and the others, we'll have to see their individual schedules later—it mainly depends on whether they're willing to go. However, whether they go or not isn't a big deal; we won't be focusing on selling them!

A group's money-making scheme.

Lin Jianlu's status is undeniable. If tickets were to be sold, his name would definitely be listed first, and his photo would be prominently displayed. Therefore, Lao Duan was too embarrassed to suggest a low price and offered $5 per show. He asked if that was acceptable.
It's lower than Lin Jianlu's normal single-show commercial performance fee, but it's still quite reasonable.

It will likely be between 150 million and 160 million NTD.

After eight performances, the revenue was 40 US dollars.

Of course, one doesn't have to follow the team activities all the time, but that would inevitably mean flying twice a week—but Lin Jianlu neither bargained nor asked to reduce the number of flights.

He knew that he was in charge of selling tickets, and if he wasn't there for any show, the ticket sales would be another matter entirely, and the local fans would probably be resentful.

Agree immediately.

Ah, when it comes to human relationships, it's always best to have mutual benefits!

The general situation was quickly discussed and resolved. Old Duan breathed a sigh of relief, and Zhang Aijia was also very happy about Lin Jianlu's return to his post and resumption of work.

I plan to stay for about a month this time, which is enough time to do a lot of things.

There may be times when I go out, but as long as I come back quickly, there shouldn't be any major problems.

They were having a pleasant chat and agreed to go to Rolling Stone Studio to start work once the wind and rain subsided in the afternoon when someone suddenly knocked on the door. Assistant Lin Xilei quickly went to open the door, and then Chen Shuhua and Su Huilun came in hand in hand.

Lin Xilei kept stealing glances at the two of them.

Lao Duan and Zhang Aijia both seemed to vaguely sense that something was wrong, mainly because their emotions were somewhat off, but they probably didn't think too deeply about it. After chatting for a while, Lao Duan generously offered to treat everyone to lunch.

Hey... such a big boss, he actually took everyone out to eat smoked meat pancakes.

The two men ate with their mouths full of oil, looking very satisfied, while the four girls only took a small bite.

It's so damn oily!
It's much oilier than fried dough sticks!
After dinner, back at Rolling Stone Records, many people cheered and applauded to welcome the King of Pop's return. Lin Jianlu gave a thank-you gift in response. After a noisy and cheerful atmosphere, nine new songs were laid out on the coffee table.

Work first.

Work and love must be kept separate.

So, no matter how I coaxed you yesterday, or how attentive I was to you, and no matter how much you ignored me yesterday, now that I'm in the company and officially become your producer, you all have to listen to my instructions.

Su Huilun only got the song a day ago, no rush, get rid of her. Keep Chen Shuhua.

Sing a song, let me hear how well you've practiced.

Before she could even finish a single song, "Stop!" It was an expected problem. In fact, Lin Jianlu was already well aware of this when she recorded those three songs for her. The reason she chose those three songs was to temporarily avoid these problems—but that wouldn't work now.

Now it's a whole album, a twelve-song college album, with more modern rhythms and tighter vocal requirements. Her problem is immediately and completely exposed—if she is to get out of the mire and become popular in the next generation, this problem must be solved. "You're used to singing slow songs, so you're used to clear pronunciation, every note is so standard, every word is so smooth, but I'm sorry, it won't work."

"I'm not going to teach you slowly anymore, nor am I going to correct your singing style little by little. From today onwards, I'll sing, you listen, and you learn from me. Once I feel you've reached a certain standard, we'll go into the recording studio!"

Chen Shuhua nodded obediently after each sentence.

Then let's teach her. Lin Jianlu had already made a plan when he gave her the next few songs. As he said, Chen Shuhua sang from the 1960s. Her singing style and pronunciation are certainly not bad, but she can't adapt to the new rhythm and atmosphere. She has to change.

Learn to sing like a primary school student! Learn one song and then teach the next. Once you've learned the whole album, go back and listen to it slowly, sing it slowly, and savor it slowly!
I'm holding a guitar.

"At four in the morning, I saw that the crabapple blossoms were still awake... Pronounce each word carefully, don't pronounce it too fully, just let the dental consonant come out... At four in the morning, I saw that the crabapple blossoms were still awake, come on!"

"Stop! Don't sing so smoothly and deliberately, otherwise you won't be able to express the emotion. It's four in the morning, I saw... You need to be more dramatic, understand? Let's do it again!"

"Okay, this is much better!"

It's easy to teach her, because you're facing almost the best singer in the Chinese music scene today. Although she has sung ballads for many years, she has listened to a lot of fast songs from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Europe and the United States. She's not completely without a foundation. The real problem is, who is qualified to make Chen Shuhua abandon the singing style she has been singing for thirty years and has always been very popular, and turn to learn from you and listen to your teaching?

Luo Dayou and Li Zongsheng may be qualified, but they are both old-fashioned!

You can only teach someone who sings in a new style, who is as famous as Lin Jianlu, and who you have actually interacted with and who she genuinely admires.

However, if you say they are difficult to teach, then they are extremely difficult to teach!

Her personal singing habits, after thirty years, have long since become ingrained in her very being. She is used to pronouncing each word clearly and precisely, ensuring that the lip and dental sounds and the final sounds are complete and smooth.

This makes her songs sound exceptionally expansive, which is the origin of the later saying that "you don't need to look at the lyrics when listening to those old singers' songs." But a new generation and a new trend are already in sight. Slow songs are not without a future, but if you want to become more popular, you at least need to be able to sing some things with more novel rhythms and melodies.

The new generation of young people is starting to prefer less formal pronunciation.

It's all about style!

Take this song "The Begonia at Four O'Clock Is Still Sleeping" for example. It's not exactly an outstanding classic, but as a love song, it's definitely acceptable. The lyrics are good, and the melody is catchy. To be honest, if you put it in the 1990s, Lin Jianlu would also think it would be popular. However, if you let Chen Shuhua sing it directly without any correction or requirements, it would definitely be an old-fashioned style!
That would not only be unoriginal, but it would also sound rather boring—a bit like something an old-fashioned artist would say!
It sounds nice, and I admit you're an artist, but I'm sorry, we young people don't like that.

Teach me!

Fortunately, she's very willing to learn!

Actually, she was very willing to learn from the time she recorded "Summer Wind".

Lin Jianlu felt that her vocal transitions were stiff and not lively enough, so she taught her how to sing them step by step, which finally helped her complete the recording. Now it's just a repeat of the past, but the workload has increased many times over.

During this time, Su Huilun ran over and quietly opened a crack in the practice room to peek inside.

Lin Jianlu caught a glimpse of her, and she immediately tiptoed out, closed the door, and ran away.

But as evening approached, she took the initiative to come and knock on the door, "Knock knock knock! Dinner's ready!" Then she put down a lunchbox for five people, said she had to go home early today, and ran away.

The two ate in silence.

Suddenly, she put a piece of fatty meat from her bento box into Lin Jianlu's bowl.

Lin Jianlu raised an eyebrow at her, "What did you two talk about yesterday?"

She smiled shyly, glanced up at Lin Jianlu, and said, "We didn't talk about anything, just... casual conversation."

"Hmm," he nodded, and continued to eat heartily.

But suddenly, she said, "Huilun told me that you helped me make this album because you were afraid I would starve to death in the future. You wanted me to earn more money to protect myself and support myself in my old age."

He looked up, their eyes met, and he said while chewing, "Nonsense! I just think you're still young and beautiful, so I'm having you sing to help me make money!"

Upon hearing this, she smiled slowly and picked up another piece of fatty meat.

(End of this chapter)