HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 428 [428] Master Hua and Master Qi gave too much!

Reporters surrounded Qi Yuan, and dozens of microphones bearing the logos of various media outlets were handed to him.

"Qi Yuan, a lead singer with considerable fame in the rock scene said that your rock music doesn't deserve to be called rock music, and that the rock music of Wang Feng, a traitor to rock music, is a hundred times purer than yours. What's your opinion?"

"Qi Yuan, do you agree that your rock music is fake rock?"

"Qi Yuan, the rock scene doesn't like you much. They think your rock songs are popular because there are too many trashy listeners in China."

……

Upon hearing the last sentence, Qi Yuan stopped, brought the microphone to her lips, and asked with a serious expression.

"who am I?"

The reporter was a little numb.

Dude, you've been playing Nameless for months, you haven't actually forgotten your own name, have you?
Before anyone could react, Qi Yuan continued, "I have 19 Taiwan Golden Melody Awards trophies. I've also won dozens of domestic awards, such as the Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards and the Hong Kong Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards."

I have nearly two hundred music awards worldwide, covering music awards from various Asian countries and some European and American countries.

My Chinese albums have sold over 2700 million copies worldwide, my English EPs have sold 1000 million copies worldwide, and my first English album sold nearly 1700 million copies.

I want to ask those who judge my music: how many copies of your albums have you sold, and how many awards have you won? Do they even reach one percent, or one-thousandth, of mine?

The reporters' hands were trembling as they held up their microphones.

Hey!
They knew Qi Yuan wouldn't let them down; look at this firepower, it's as fierce as ever!
We crush those who disagree with us using our strength and past record. Who has any objections?
Not to mention the rock scene, you can't find anyone in the entire Chinese music scene who can match Qi Yuan in terms of achievements.

A reporter from Sohu asked, "Qi Yuan, are you trying to say that you don't care about their opinions and evaluations at all?"

"Why should we care about the opinions of a group of losers? Apart from a few truly talented and respectable veterans in the rock scene, the rest, to put it bluntly, have neither talent nor passion, and simply cannot produce good works to win over the audience."

The reporter from Sohu knows how to stir things up: "Is it possible that he is indifferent to fame and fortune? He only plays pure rock and roll and considers himself aloof?"

Qi Yuan laughed directly: "If someone in the rock scene really said that, I would say, you can fool your fans and your buddies, but don't fool yourself."

Is it that they can't create good music that the masses like, or that they're forced into a 'niche' or 'high-end' situation due to a lack of ability?

Whether they simply can't make money or genuinely disregard fame and fortune, they know the answer in their hearts.

The reporters were all excited. "You're ruthless, kid. Every cut you make hits right in the heart. Don't they have any pride?"

Qi Yuan didn't just express his emotions; he also shared some of his views on domestic rock music.

"I don't think rock and commercial music are incompatible. Rock music is a niche genre in China and has been declining in recent years."

To save rock music, it must be commercialized to allow a wider audience to embrace it.

Only with an audience and a market can more musicians be encouraged to try this category, and only then will more excellent works be born.

I can reveal in advance that my second English album will also feature half an album dedicated to rock.

Time will tell. Five or ten years from now, let's see who truly holds up half of the rock scene.

Qi Yuan's remarks caused a huge uproar in the rock music scene and the media!
People in the rock music scene are not convinced! That bastard Qi Yuan actually said they don't have the ability to create rock music that the masses like.

Do they not want to? No, they are unwilling. In their view, if the public likes it, it becomes commercialized and it loses its rock and roll element. That's what they think, anyway.

These people are very stubborn. They banded together to express their firm opposition to Qi Yuan's rock music, saying they would never accept Qi Yuan's music as rock.

Then Warner Music stepped up its efforts, launching a massive spending spree in bars frequented by rock bands in major cities across mainland China.

You're a rock band, right? If you sing other songs for two hours, you might only get a thousand dollars. But Warner Music has plenty of money. We'll give you two thousand dollars, on the condition that you sing "Blue Lotus" and "Chasing Dreams with a Pure Heart" for me.

Most of the underground rock bands directly defected, and they didn't say that Qi Yuan's songs weren't rock enough; they sang more energetically on stage than anyone else.

The few remaining die-hard rock fans are cursing like crazy!
Damn you, Warner Bros.! Just because you have money doesn't mean you're all that! You actually resorted to such despicable sweet-talking tactics to undermine our alliance.

And what's wrong with my fellow rock musicians? We always agreed that there's no rock without criticism, but for a few coins from Warner Music, you betrayed your ideals? Don't you have any backbone?
A fellow musician said, "What can we do? Even rock musicians need to eat. Mr. Hua and Mr. Qi are giving us way too much!"

With the help of Warner's PR team, countless rock bands covered "Blue Lotus" and "Chasing Dreams with a Pure Heart" in bars.

Warner also got major media outlets to report on these things.

The rock scene, which was just a few days ago denouncing Qi Yuan's fake rock, has suddenly become a laughing stock.

This surge in popularity has brought even more attention to Qi Yuan's fifth Chinese album, "Wish for Rain in the Empty Mountains".

Zhang Hao found it somewhat amusing: "Those people in the rock scene seem to have a lot of influence, but I didn't expect them to be so easily defeated. They just threw some money at them and it crumbled. But isn't what we're doing a bit too much of a blow to them?"

Qi Yuan didn't care at all: "What the hell is this?"

It's already a big favor that Warner Music is giving them some money to make a fool of themselves; they haven't even dug up all the dirty secrets of the rock scene yet.

It's not that Qi Yuan looks down on the rock music scene; he just looks down on those envious and jealous people.

There are definitely big names in the rock scene, such as Cui Jian, who pioneered the genre, as well as Dou Wei, Xu Wei, Wang Feng, and a few others.

Most of them are really hard to describe; there are no good works, and they've picked up all the bad habits and vices of foreign rock bands.

"By the way, is your second English album really going to be about rock? The rock scene there is more exaggerated than in China, with quite a few conservative fans. Linkin Park's first album sold incredibly well, but they also received a lot of criticism from the rock scene."

Zhang Hao wondered if the risk was too great.

To the conservative rock fans abroad, Linkin Park was equivalent to the domestic Big Swing Band.

Qi Yuan didn't care at all. As he said before, he never thought about gaining the approval of the rock conservatism faction. These people were very difficult to please.

After 2000, the most influential rock bands, such as Linkin Park, Coldplay, Republic, Imagine Dragons, and Maroon 5, all followed a pop + rock approach.

Even if it started as indie rock, it later turned into pop because it was profitable, and nobody would turn down money.

……

On November 11, three days after Qi Yuan finished filming, his fifth Chinese album was officially released.

(End of this chapter)