HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 389 [389] Qi Yuan: Loyalty and filial piety, choose one!

Qi Yuan's name and photo were featured in domestic news outlets for several days.

His success has instilled confidence in the entire Chinese music scene.

Back in the day, many superstars competed against Qi Yuan on the same stage.

For example, Tao Ze, along with Qi Yuan, was hailed as one of the two driving forces of Chinese R&B in early 98.

Also in 98, Nicholas Tse claimed in Hong Kong that he would rival Qi Yuan, while Wang Lihong successfully transformed his image by bearing the title of "Little Qi Yuan".

In 99, Taiwanese media promoted Jay Chou, creating the impression of a showdown between two superstars.

Although they were all defeated by Qi Yuan, and the gap between them and Qi Yuan was widening, Qi Yuan's success in Europe and America still gave them a lot of confidence.

Their ability to compete with Qi Yuan in the Chinese music scene is itself proof of their strength.

Is it shameful to lose to Qi Yuan? Not at all, okay?

In the past three years, who in China has been able to defeat Qi Yuan?

To put it another way, the fact that they had the ability to compete with Qi Yuan back then suggests that they also had the potential to succeed in the Western music scene.
They don't expect to be as successful as Qi Yuan, but it's always possible to achieve half, a third, or a quarter of Qi Yuan's success, right?
……

On May 3, Qi Yuan gave an exclusive interview to an authoritative state media outlet in Beijing.

The official media's original intention was to have Qi Yuan, a musician who has achieved great success in the European and American music scene, say a few words to boost the confidence of the mainland music scene and the Chinese people, and remove some of the filters people have on the European and American music scene.

Qi Yuan smiled brightly and said casually, "I've always felt that we have too much of a filter on the Western music scene, thinking that everything produced by the Western music scene is a masterpiece."

The reason for this stereotype is that the English songs that can be circulated in China have been screened by the global market and are all popular songs around the world, giving us the illusion that all English songs are good.

In fact, 99% of the songs there are utterly trashy and offensive.

Qi Yuanxian used his words to break the stereotype that all English songs are good songs.

With a smile, the reporter asked again, "In your opinion, which is better, Chinese songs or English songs?"

"Popular music is an art form, and there is no inherent superiority or inferiority among its elements. I have never believed that Chinese songs are inferior to English songs, nor do I believe that English songs are superior to Chinese songs."

People focus on different things. Chinese songs tend to emphasize lyrics. No matter how good the melody is, if the lyrics are bad, people won't consider it a good song.

In contrast, English songs emphasize melody and arrangement, with lyrics that are mostly simple and straightforward. Many globally popular English songs have incredibly bad lyrics!

……

After the interview, Zhang Hao glanced at Qi Yuan and asked, "Aren't you afraid of causing controversy by saying that?"

It was perfect for the official media to hire Qi Yuan to break down the filters on the Western music scene. The problem is that Qi Yuan has gone a little too far.

It's 2001 now. The moon is rounder abroad than in China, and everything abroad is better.

Qi Yuan was surprisingly blunt, saying that the lyrics of most foreign songs are terrible.

Fortunately, Qi Yuan achieved success in the European and American music scene.

Otherwise, even if Luo Dayou were the one who said these things, he would be torn apart by the media and public intellectuals who had been paid by his cronies.

Qi Yuan said nonchalantly, "What am I afraid of? Am I not telling the truth? The lyrics of the English song are terrible, I would say they are a complete mess. I'm already being very polite by not directly calling it low."

Take Britney Spears' globally viral debut hit "Baby One More Time" as an example.

The lyrics are as follows.

'Oh! Baby, baby! How could I have known something was wrong? Oh! Baby, baby! I shouldn't have let you go, now you're gone, tell me what you want. Tell me, baby…'

Everyone says the lyrics to "Love for Sale" and "Can't Afford to Get Hurt" are incredibly lowbrow. But if you remove the English filter, and both are about love, the lyrics are at least at a middle school level.

"Baby One More Time" isn't even at a junior high school level; it's more like elementary school. It has absolutely no substance.

Their advantage lies in their well-written melodies, sophisticated arrangements, and innovative ideas.

We should acknowledge someone's strengths, but we can't force Qi Yuan to lick his wounds, can we? He's not Gao Xiaosong.

No, that's putting Gao Xiaosong in a bad light. Gao Xiaosong is a songwriter himself, and he later said that many English songs have good melodies but bad lyrics.

In the environment of India, Gao Xiaosong can find an angle to exaggerate the peace and tranquility, but he's too embarrassed to exaggerate the lyrics of English songs, which shows just how bad it is.

The lyrics of "Baby One More Time" are already above average, but the lyrics of those R&B and rap songs are even more appalling.

Qi Yuan continued, "Right now, my songs and my albums are both number one on Billboard's singles and album sales charts. Anyone who disagrees, show them the results. Let's see how they choose between loyalty to the country and filial piety."

"..."

Zhang Hao was speechless.

Once you've achieved results, you can be this tough.

Criticizing Qi Yuan for not understanding music, how do you explain the Billboard charts and music charts in dozens of countries?

If someone who doesn't understand music beats you, wouldn't that make the Western music scene look even worse?

As Qi Yuan had predicted, some media outlets from the Southern Media Group and Hong Kong and Taiwan did not criticize Qi Yuan's remarks.

They shifted their perspective, subtly suggesting that one album doesn't make someone a superstar. They pointed out that Sakamoto Kyuu was a legend in the Japanese music scene back then, but nothing came of it. A true superstar is someone who can consistently produce great work.

No one is paying attention to these sarcastic remarks from the media anymore, because people's attention has been drawn to the Taiwan Golden Melody Awards on May 5th.

Qi Yuan first went to Hong Kong to receive the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor from Jackie Chan, and then planned to transfer in Hong Kong to go to Taiwan.

"Ah Yuan, you're progressing so fast! You're earning more than me in America. Have you finished writing the song yet? Our movie will be released in the US at the end of July."

Cheng Long patted Qi Yuan on the shoulder, feeling a little envious.

Making money as a singer! Selling $60 million a week.

Of course, that was the sales in the first week; sales would gradually decrease thereafter.

Regardless, this achievement is truly remarkable. Cheng Long even suspects that Qi Yuan earned more money from this album than from his film salary plus box office revenue.

Furthermore, New Line Cinema knows how to capitalize on trends. They previously invited Qi Yuan to write the end credits song, and now that it's been upgraded to the theme song, the price has increased to one million US dollars.

This price is comparable to that of top American pop stars.

As long as Qi Yuan's songs reach a score of 60-70, which isn't too perfunctory, New Line Cinema will use Qi Yuan's songs as movie theme songs.

Utada Hikaru from Japan originally wanted to compete for the theme song, but found out that Kien had already been chosen, so she could only compete for the ending song, which infuriated the Japanese media.

It's a cover-up! There's something fishy going on!

So what if Qi Yuan is famous in America? Our Utada Hikaru will also be making a splash in the American music scene.

In Asia, Utada Hikaru's single albums sold more than Qi Yuan's; in the United States, she would definitely easily surpass Qi Yuan's.

Utada Hikaru's fans and many Japanese people think so, after all, they consider themselves the number one music scene in Asia.

Qi Yuan didn't know what the Japanese and Utada Hikaru were thinking; he only knew that he had decided which song he wanted to write, and it would definitely be explosive!
(End of this chapter)