HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 113 [113] The scene of fans queuing up to buy records
Of Qi Yuan's debut album, only "The First Time," "I Thought," and "You'll Be With Me All My Life" can be considered to have a wide audience reach.

Most of the songs on their debut album were aimed at young people and students.

The second album was different. The first two songs to chart on the radio were universally appealing, covering young people, middle-aged people, and the elderly.

"Twilight" has been released on mainland radio stations.

"After the whole summer, the sadness hasn't gotten any better. Driving on the endless highway, I feel like I'm leaving myself behind. I can't even finish a song. All that's left is fatigue and dark circles under my eyes. In the world of relationships, hurt is inevitable."

The poignant lyrics resonated deeply with many middle-aged people, and countless middle-aged individuals became loyal fans of the song.

The majority of people who like "Jiangnan" are young people, but some older people also think the song is quite nice.

"Twilight" is more popular in mainland China than "Jiangnan".

In Hong Kong and Taiwan, the situation is reversed.

Especially in Taiwan, the radio airplay for "Twilight" wasn't particularly good for Qi Yuan.

On the other hand, "Jiangnan" has been soaring on the radio, breaking into the top ten after just a few days of airing, and still has a lot of staying power.

This is a very normal phenomenon.

Listeners in different regions have very different tastes.

For example, the most popular songs from Qi Yuan's debut album in mainland China are "Because of Love, So I Love" and "The First Time".

The most popular songs in Hong Kong and Taiwan were "Small Town Girl", "Everyday", "Starry Night" and "Love at the Corner".

Listeners in Hong Kong and Taiwan don't particularly like songs with melancholic melodies like "Twilight".

In his previous life, Zhou Chuanxiong's "Twilight" was a complete flop in Taiwan, a flop that was so bad it was hard to find its way back.

Pirated copies of the song spread to mainland China and became incredibly popular, instantly becoming a hit across the country.

Later, Anhui TV contacted the record company to which Zhou Chuanxiong belonged.

Zhou Chuanxiong was dumbfounded; he couldn't understand why a mainland TV station would invite him to participate in an event.

The person in charge of contacting him was very polite, saying how popular and famous his songs were in mainland China, which he initially thought was just flattery.

When he arrived in mainland China, he found that "Twilight" had swept through the streets and alleys of the mainland.

In every city he visited, he could hear the song "Twilight" playing on a loop in the music stores on the street.

Standing in front of a music store by the Suzhou River, he listened to his own songs and wept with joy. His music had finally gained recognition from everyone.

"Twilight" did not perform well on Hong Kong and Taiwan radio stations, and surprisingly, some people in the public opinion said that "Qi Yuan has run out of ideas".

Some music critics came out to angrily criticize Qi Yuan for writing such a terrible song as "Twilight," saying that Qi Yuan had lost his talent.

This is certainly not the voice of an ordinary fan.

These days, the internet isn't as developed, and ordinary people can only listen to music quietly; they don't have many channels to voice their opinions.

Those who criticize Qi Yuan for losing his creative spark must be powerful individuals or organizations.

Warner Music, being a large and well-established company, quickly found out who was behind the stunt, pointing to the record company behind it.

The reason for criticizing Qi Yuan is simple: Qi Yuan first suppressed the market with a high-quality Cantonese EP, and then won several awards including the Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs and the Taiwan Gold Songs.

How can we allow Hong Kong's young generation of superstars to be forever trampled underfoot by Qi Yuan, a mainland superstar? We must smear Qi Yuan and pull him off his throne. The record companies behind the three superstars follow the same logic.

The market is only so big. If Qi Yuan's pie gets bigger, their pie gets smaller.

Li Ming himself has no intention of competing with Qi Yuan, and his newly signed Sony Music is still fueling the flames.

This is business, the open and covert competition between record companies.

A few days ago, Sony's general manager Yao Qian carefully included a booklet in the box to help Wang Lihong attract Qi Yuan's fans.

At that time, they were people who praised Qi Yuan because it was beneficial to them.

Now they have become the masterminds behind the attacks on Qi Yuan, also because there are benefits to attacking Qi Yuan.

Children only talk about right and wrong, adults only talk about interests, and large companies value interests even more.

Qi Yuan wasn't the only one criticized; Ren Xianqi, a Taiwanese, was also heavily criticized by the Hong Kong media.

Hong Kong media said that Richie Jen's portrayal of Yang Guo was like a pile of dung, not even worthy of carrying Koo Tien's shoes.

Richie Jen's version of "The Return of the Condor Heroes" is indeed terrible, but such comments are still too harsh and jarring.

"These people are truly despicable and shameless. If they can't beat us openly, they resort to underhanded tactics. They deliberately hired so-called music critics to criticize your 'Twilight' just to influence the general public's opinion of your new album." Zhou Jianhui was furious.

It would be a lie to say Qi Yuan wasn't angry about what happened, but he could understand the motives of these people.

Jay Chou is from Taiwan. Since 2002, he has been criticized almost every year for having lost his creative talent.

From 03 to 06, even if you pulled out a top-tier album every year, you couldn't escape the overwhelming criticism.

If you keep suppressing other singers, how can they not criticize you?

Qi Yuan is from mainland China, so he will only be criticized even more harshly than Zhou Jielun!
The reason is obvious to everyone: mainland stars are considered inferior to Hong Kong and Taiwan stars; this is an unspoken rule in the industry.

This rule is also currently being followed in the mainland entertainment industry, where Hong Kong and Taiwanese actors can only play supporting roles when they come to the mainland to film.

Qi Yuan said calmly, "It doesn't matter, let them talk. A singer can never fade away. As long as I can produce good works, people from Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as the mainland will support me."

Qi Yuan is very confident in her second major.

They couldn't help but jump up and down after I only released two songs as a warm-up. On the 16th, my album officially went on sale, and all 12 songs were released. Let's see how they deal with that.

Warner and he are in a community of shared interests. Warner is big enough that it won't betray him. No evil winds or evil practices outside can bring him down.

Zhou Jianhui greatly admired Qi Yuan. It was truly remarkable that a young man who had become famous with just one album could maintain such restraint. Qi Yuan deserved to be so popular.

Finally, on September 16, 1998, Qi Yuan's second album, "Qi Yuan," officially went on sale in record stores across the country.

In major cities like Taipei, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, record stores have seen long queues of fans waiting to buy records.

Some scalpers sensed a business opportunity, buying up large quantities of genuine records and then reselling them at inflated prices from outside record stores.

The fans' enthusiasm for buying the album exceeded Warner Music's and its peers' expectations.

As Qi Yuan said, one person's singing can never be forgotten.

(End of this chapter)