My daily life with the original diva

Even before her debut, Momoko Kikuchi frequently appeared in various entertainment media, especially due to her rumored relationship with Hiroshi Kimura, which greatly boosted her fame. Although this was not a good thing, it also made the public aware of her and made her fame surpass that of Yukiko Okada from the very beginning.

This surge in popularity was clearly reflected in the first week's record sales. Kikuchi Momoko's Graduation album sold over 50,000 copies in its first week, ranking sixth on the sales charts. This is definitely the peak for debuting idols this year.

In contrast, Yukiko Okada's debut song, "First Date," sold much worse, with only over 10,000 copies sold in its first week, ranking 23rd in sales.

It's a common understanding in the entertainment industry that the record market is currently in a slump. For a new female idol to achieve sales of over 50,000 copies in its first week using a song written by Hiroshi Kimura is nothing short of a miracle. Many currently popular female idols cannot achieve this.

This sparked a lot of discussion. Some people felt that the single written by Hiroshi Kimura was of high quality and very suitable for Momoko Kikuchi's voice. They felt that the song was well-made and that's why it achieved such sales.

Some people believe this is the result of the previous scandal hype. Although the media called it a clumsy publicity stunt, it objectively boosted Kikuchi Momoko's fame and also made people more interested in the songs that Kimura Hiroshi wrote for her, prompting them to listen to them and ultimately buy them.

However, regardless of the circumstances, the song that Hiroshi Kimura wrote for Momoko Kikuchi was a great success, which made other agencies start to have different ideas.

"Yukiko-chan's new single is a success. For a newcomer, achieving this level of sales in the first week is already very good, so our strategy is absolutely correct." In the conference room of Sun Music, the marketing department reported on the new idol's achievements.

Although he knew the results were good, Sun Music's president, Hideyoshi Aizawa, still expressed his opinion: "I listened to Yukiko's songs. Her voice is much better than Momoko Kikuchi's in VAP, and her image is not bad either. The same goes for her promotion. I really can't accept that the difference in record sales is so big just because of Hiroshi Kimura."

Everyone present was stunned, not knowing what to say. This Kimura Hiroshi was really strange, not only as an artist, but also in his ability to create hype. He was a genius. Almost every time something that looked like a scandal was turned into a publicity stunt to boost his fame. This time was no exception. It seemed that he had made a new female idol famous.

Everyone remained silent. Aizawa Hideyoshi continued, "You said you wanted to poach Kimura Hiroshi, but why hasn't anything happened yet? Is it because our offer wasn't good enough, or does he have some concerns?"

"Ah, no, we haven't had a chance to talk to him formally. This young man, how should I put it, has very few private activities. He's either at his agency or going on TV shows every day. He usually refuses invitations from others, and even if he does go, he brings his agent. This makes it very difficult for us to have a chance to talk to him face to face," said the head of the marketing department.

Such a popular male idol, at the age of teens, should be enjoying his time to play, yet he doesn't attend parties invited by others, and if he does, he brings his manager along. This seems even stranger to Aizawa Hideyoshi. He has managed countless young idols, both female and male, who doesn't love to play? Some of them are quite adventurous. Why does Kimura seem like an old man?

"Has Seiko-chan not broken through either?" Aizawa Hideyoshi asked.

"No, Seiko-chan invited him twice, but didn't get a reply either time."

It seems impossible to poach Kimura Hiroshi in the short term. Aizawa Hideyoshi sighed. How did such a talent end up in Ken-On's hands instead of his?

However, since they can't poach them in a short time, they should cooperate. He instructed, "Find an opportunity to communicate with Ken-On and ask Kimura Hiroshi to write a few songs for our idols. It would be best if they could also help with promotion. We can't afford to lose out on this."

"Okay, we understand, President."

Sun Music isn't the only agency thinking this way; other agencies with new female idols under their umbrella also do so. Since Hiroshi Kimura's songs can launch a newcomer, they might launch a second one. Wouldn't it be a huge loss if they didn't collaborate then? These things can only be done sooner rather than later.

As a result, a steady stream of collaboration invitations were sent to Ken-On these past few days, which made President Hanami Hyuk extremely happy. This was the first time he had ever received such a warm welcome. You have to know that Ken-On is just a small agency. Although it has a conglomerate behind it, it doesn't have much influence in the entertainment industry.

It was only in the last two years that Ken-On's status improved somewhat, thanks to the emergence of Akina Nakamori and Hiroshi Kimura. He was no longer so lowly in the entertainment industry. Now, the presidents of these large agencies are all trying to negotiate with him in a very polite manner. You can imagine how satisfied he is.

But the thought that this change was brought about by Hiroshi Kimura made the sense of satisfaction mixed with something unpleasant. If the kid knew that he was feeling great because of the collaborations he brought about, he definitely wouldn't say anything nice.

"Ugh, really, why can't this kid just listen to me? If he were more obedient, I wouldn't be in this weird situation." Hanami Kagami couldn't help but feel resentful towards Kimura Hiroshi.

However, these are all minor matters. Whether or not to cooperate depends on Kimura Hiroshi's wishes. If he is unwilling, it's all just empty talk. So that evening, he even dragged Kimura Hiroshi, who had just finished participating in the program, to a meeting.

Seeing so many collaboration offers, Hiroshi Kimura had a headache. If he accepted them all, his workload would explode. But he couldn't say that out loud.

So he said, “President, there are so many collaboration offers. If we accept them all, wouldn’t that mean my collaboration value is worthless? I think we should use the same strategy, scarcity marketing, and select a few firms that can help us the most. As for how to choose, that’s up to you, President.”

These words pleased Hanami Kagami. Kimura Hiroshi seemed much more agreeable to him today. He nodded and said, "Kimura-san is right. If we cooperate with everyone, it will make us seem less valuable. Let's choose a few partners to maximize our benefits. But then, I'll have to choose carefully."

Seeing that Hana had agreed, Kimura Hiroshi breathed a sigh of relief. He had gotten through it. Even if the workload increased a bit, it shouldn't be too much. Although he loved money, he didn't want to become a tool for making money and work himself to death every day.

“I need to think about choosing a collaborator. Kimura-san, since you're such a good songwriter, could you write a few songs for Akina-san? I think your collaboration would generate more buzz and might even boost record sales.” Hanami Kaku suddenly spoke up excitedly.

Hiroshi Kimura had thought about this a long time ago, but ultimately rejected the idea himself because Akina Nakamori's singing career didn't need anyone else's interference. It was a perfect trajectory, with big awards and high sales. If someone were to interfere rashly, it might backfire. It was best not to make any moves.

Of course, because of his appearance, many things went astray, and Nakamori Akina's singing career may also go astray. At that time, he would have to step in to correct it and put it on the right track, so that it could follow its original path.

"The experiment didn't go very well when we first debuted, President. If we do it again now, it might have a bad result. Akina-san is already so popular, I can't afford the consequences of a sudden change." Kimura Hiroshi directly threw his reasons at him.

My memory was immediately pulled back to when Hiroshi Kimura debuted. Indeed, the joint promotion between the two of them was not very effective, especially for Akina Nakamori. However, their separate activities afterward made them both very popular and they became the top male and female idols they are today.

"Yes, in that case, let's not do that for now. Let's prioritize stability. The market is not good right now, and we can't afford any major losses." Hua Jianhe decided to abandon his sudden idea and prioritize stability for the time being.

Chapter 137 You've Got the Wrong Idea

In the second week, Kikuchi Momoko's debut song "Graduation" still sold over 50,000 copies, and even entered the top five on the Oricon chart. Everyone knows that Kikuchi Momoko is rapidly rising as a new female idol. As long as she can maintain this momentum, becoming a top-tier female idol is not a big deal.

Most people attribute Kikuchi Momoko's success to Kimura Hiroshi, believing that it was his songs and his rather crude hype strategy that enabled this new female idol to become popular so quickly.

The song's quality and this bizarre hype played a part, but the marketing strategy of Kikuchi Momoko's record company, VAP, also deserves credit. Because the song is about graduation, Kikuchi Momoko's performances were almost always arranged by the company at or near schools, attracting a large number of students.

In addition, Momoko Kikuchi had the kind of sweet and well-behaved image that students love. When she sang the farewell song of typhoid fever on stage, how could those students resist? Many of them fell for her and couldn't help but buy her records. These factors combined led to her rapid rise to fame, but this kind of success is hard to replicate.

However, the major agencies didn't think that way. They all believed that if Kimura Hiroshi's songs could create the first female idol to debut and become popular, then they could create the second one. As a result, more and more collaboration invitations were sent to Ken-On, which made things difficult for Hanami Hyuk, who had to select the partners who would be most beneficial to Ken-On.

Kimura Hiroshi had no intention of participating in this matter; the decision-making power rested entirely with Hanami Kagami. In other words, Hanami Kagami was finally able to perfectly enjoy the power of the company president.

As for Hiroshi Kimura himself, he was already very busy. The film editing was in the high-speed completion phase. Apart from participating in the program, almost all of his attention was drawn to the film. Although it was filmed according to the script, the camera arrangement might not be the same. Hiroshi Kimura was afraid that it would not have the flavor of the original work, so he tried his best to make it not too different from the movie in his memory.

This often leads to revisions and arguments between Takeshi Kitano and Kitano, as they frequently disagree on camera angles and can only decide who to listen to by arguing. If it weren't for the presence of other staff members, they might have had a real-life showdown to decide who to listen to.

While there were many things to do on the film side, the release plan for the new album was also put on the agenda. Learning from the previous situation where the work was too busy due to the rushed release, this time Tomioka Yukio asked Kimura Hiroshi to come up with the new single two months in advance and to start arranging it as soon as possible, requiring all the work to be completed one month before the release.

Fortunately, Hiroshi Kimura had prepared in advance, otherwise he would have been really busy. He delivered the two singles he had prepared to Yukio Tomioka, while he poured himself a glass of water to drink, because he had just had a fight with Takeshi Kitano not long ago and was so thirsty that he desperately needed to replenish his fluids.

Upon receiving the sheet music, Yukio Tomioka saw the names of two singles. The first one he saw was the A-side track, written and chosen by Hiroshi Kimura himself. The song was titled in English, "Eat You Up." Upon seeing this name, Yukio Tomioka frowned slightly and asked, "Eat you? Kimura-san, isn't this name a bit... perverted?"

Hiroshi Kimura, who was drinking water, spat out all the water he hadn't drunk yet when he heard Yukio Tomioka translate the English name like that. He couldn't help but cough twice. He couldn't help but tease him, saying, "Mr. Tomioka, this English song title is a colloquialism in English. You can't determine its meaning by a literal translation. You should translate it according to its colloquial meaning. It should mean 'I've got you cornered,' not 'I'll eat you up.' You've got the wrong idea. Don't have unhealthy thinking."

English also has many idioms that cannot be translated literally. If they were, many short phrases would indeed be quite bizarre.

This song, Eat You Up, is a Western song carefully selected by Hiroshi Kimura. It's a very hardcore disco dance track with a pure Western style.

This name is not familiar to most people in later generations, but it also has another name that is more familiar to everyone: "Dancing Hero".

After being covered by Yoko Ogino, the song became a huge hit in Japan. In 1986, a year when record sales were plummeting, it sold nearly 400,000 copies. Before covering this song, Yoko Ogino was considered a second-rate idol. With just this one song, she successfully rose to the top, which can be described as a miracle.

This song quickly became a must-sing song for Japanese people when they entered a nightclub. In the 21st century, it became popular again, and many people danced to its melody, which shows its incredible vitality.

Finally, there's another cover version of it, "Street Dance" by Cantonese pop diva Priscilla Chan, which is also the version most familiar to the Chinese-speaking world in later generations.

This is a song sung from a female perspective. Hiroshi Kimura changed the lyrics to a male perspective, which was not difficult because the lyrics are very simple. This kind of song mainly focuses on melody and rhythm, making people want to dance. The lyrics are not that important.

After hearing Kimura Hiroshi's explanation, Tomioka Yukio realized that he had misunderstood and looked a little embarrassed. But then he thought, if he could misunderstand, then other Japanese people who are worse at English than him would probably misunderstand even more easily.

"Kimura-san, you're really too cunning. Choosing a name like that will probably make a lot of people think the wrong thing. It will definitely arouse a lot of curiosity. This is really a very clever marketing tactic." Tomioka Yukio couldn't help but give Kimura Hiroshi a thumbs up. This young man's brain is really something else, he has so many clever ideas.

Kimura Hiroshi was completely dumbfounded. Holy crap, this name could have such an effect? ​​He hadn't expected it at all. He had just copied the original name. But obviously, he couldn't say that, so he could only let Tomioka Yukio continue to misunderstand.

Then Yukio Tomioka started looking at the sheet music. He quickly discovered that it was a song with a strong rhythm and a very lively melody. The lyrics were simple and straightforward, completely unlike Hiroshi Kimura's usual composing style. Instead, it sounded more like a Western style.

"Is this a Western song, Kimura-san?" Yukio Tomioka asked curiously.

Nodding, Hiroshi Kimura said, "It's a Western song, a disco song, with a great rhythm. I think a lot of people will like it."

Without any objection, Yukio Tomioka agreed with this statement, because there was a precedent for it. In 1979, Hideki Saijo covered a similar Western song, "Young Man," which achieved an extremely rare perfect score of 9999 points on The Best Ten, selling over 800,000 copies. He officially established his status as a top male idol with this song.

The main reason for this situation is the extreme foreign worship mentality of the Japanese. They can naturally accept Western popular culture and even think that it is much more sophisticated than their own. This is one of the reasons why Kimura Hiroshi chose this Western song.

Previously, everyone was covering Western songs. Now, I, Kimura Hiroshi, a native Japanese, have written and sung a Western song myself, and the quality is excellent. This will probably make many Japanese people very proud. We can write Western songs too! Hurry up and pay for it! That's all I have to say.

Chapter 138 It's All About Interests

After watching the A-side track, Yukio Tomioka started watching the second B-side track. The song's title finally returned to normal, in Japanese, "Silhouette as Money Cannot Dance." Looking at the sheet music, it also seemed normal, a very typical J-OP style, but it appeared to be another dance track.

This song wasn't particularly famous in Japan. It was a single released in 1986 by Toshihiko Tagen, the same Toshihiko Tagen who always puts his arm around everyone. Sales were only so-so. After all, at that time, besides the poor market, the idol singer scene was dominated by female idols, with Akina Nakamori reigning supreme and Onyanko Club following her. However, its Cantonese version was exceptionally famous, namely "Love, Love, Love!" by dance king Aaron Kwok. Toshihiko Tagen was also known as the dance king in Japan.

He decided to retaliate against Toshihiko Tagen by plagiarizing one of his songs, and he was determined to do it. Hiroshi Kimura directly used his single as the B-side, which was not even worthy of being the A-side. This was a double humiliation.

"Kimura-san, what's the style of your new single? Are you planning to go for dance music?" After watching the two singles, Yukio Tomioka figured out Kimura Hiroshi's new single plan.

“Yes, Mr. Tomioka, my plan for the new single is a dynamic dance track, but it’s not that simple,” Kimura Hiroshi said, explaining his ideas.

"I plan to shoot the music video for the single at the same time, and then release the single and the music video simultaneously. I think people who have listened to these two upbeat dance tracks will definitely want to see how the dance is performed to match the songs. What do you think, Mr. Tomioka?" Kimura Hiroshi asked.

This stumped Yukio Tomioka. No one had ever done this before, and he didn't know what the outcome would be. However, he did think of a possibility: "Kimura-san, is it possible that someone would only buy the music video tape and not the CD?"

"Well, that's quite possible." Kimura Hiroshi paused for a moment. It was indeed possible. After all, you could hear the song in the music video. Why buy an extra copy of the record? Wouldn't that be a waste of money? This made Kimura Hiroshi, who had made the suggestion, feel a little embarrassed. He seemed to have thought too simply.

“We could bundle some vinyl records with music videos, so that if you buy a music video, you’d have to buy a record. But that would make the price very high. So we’ll have to stick to the old approach: scarcity marketing.” Just then, Yukio Tomioka shared his idea.

As expected of someone who has been in the record industry for many years, he devised a seemingly feasible plan based on Kimura Hiroshi's previous record and music video sales, which alleviated Kimura Hiroshi's embarrassment.

"Ah, Mr. Tomioka is really shrewd. He's tied them up. If they want to buy the music video, they have to buy the record. They can't do it without spending money. Let's give it a try. Even if it doesn't work, I don't think it will affect the sales of other records." Kimura Hiroshi quickly expressed his support.

This was a completely new attempt, and Yukio Tomioka wasn't sure about it either. He said, "Let's decide on this for now. If any problems arise, we'll make adjustments."

Once the two of them reached a consensus, the plan was basically finalized. After all, since his debut, Kimura Hiroshi had almost always set his own record sales strategies and styles, and neither Warner Pioneer nor Ken-On had raised any objections.

With the record deal settled, Yukio Tomioka then inquired about the film. He was actually quite dissatisfied with Hiroshi Kimura devoting too much energy to the film, but he didn't express it, since the film's distribution wasn't really related to Huaxia Vanguard.

"Kimura-san, film editing is the director's job. You've invested too much in it, and you'll be busy promoting your record in the second half of May. Will the film editing be finished by then?" Yukio Tomioka expressed his dissatisfaction directly.

Hiroshi Kimura wasn't too concerned about Yukio Tomioka's dissatisfaction. After all, everyone was acting in their own self-interest. Tomioka's income was tied to record sales, while he himself needed to quickly open up channels other than record sales to generate income and maintain his income level when the record market shrank.

However, since he is too focused on movies, he inevitably cannot concentrate on records. After all, people's energy and time are limited. To improve the conflict of interest between them, the interests of both sides can be combined, and Kimura Hiroshi already has an idea.

He said, "The film will be edited in the first half of May, which will not delay the promotion of the new album. In addition, I plan to give the album distribution rights of the film's theme song to Warner Pioneer."

Upon hearing this, Yukio Tomioka immediately perked up. This was another record! If the movie was a big hit, the record sales would definitely be good too.

"Oh, Warner Music? That's perfect. So, Kimura-san, do you have any plans? Who's going to sing the movie theme song? Are you planning to use a singer signed with Warner Music?" Yukio Tomioka asked a few very important questions.

Once there's a conflict of interest, the other party immediately stops telling him to quickly end his involvement in the film editing and starts focusing on things related to the film and their own interests.

Even though he had a good relationship with Yukio Tomioka, such a relationship couldn't withstand the enormous profits involved. Hiroshi Kimura had always seen through this. He replied, "I wrote the theme song, so naturally I'll sing it. There's also an insert song, sung by Akina-san. The two main characters of the movie will each sing two songs. As long as the movie is popular enough, I think the sales should be pretty good."

Knowing that he couldn't disrupt Akina Nakamori's singing career, he could still insert some subplots to boost her career. A movie theme song like this wouldn't be a problem, since she had sung it before, although it was just a promotional song and not very famous.

Upon hearing this plan, Yukio Tomioka's eyes lit up even more. Hiroshi Kimura, a top male idol, and Akina Nakamori, a top female idol, were collaborating on a record. If the movie was a hit, the record would definitely sell like hotcakes, possibly even more so than Hiroko Yakushimaru's "Beautiful Girl and Machine Gun".

Now the success or failure of the movie will have a lot to do with Warner Music, since the movie is the biggest promotion for the album. Yukio Tomioka said, "That would be great. In that case, I need to talk to the people at Warner Music to see if we can coordinate the promotion of Kimura-san's movie and the album."

From initially not wanting Kimura Hiroshi to focus too much on his films to actually helping promote them, all because of a single record, it was all so quick and direct. Kimura Hiroshi didn't seem to dislike Tomioka Yukio for his rapid change; after all, personal relationships are personal relationships, and Tomioka Yukio had helped him a lot. However, Tomioka Yukio still needed to consider Warner Music's and his own interests most of the time.

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Mr. Tomioka. Cooperating with the publicity is beneficial for everyone," Kimura Hiroshi said very politely.

Chapter 139 You'll Pay Tomorrow

Warner Pioneer was delighted to learn that Hiroshi Kimura was going to entrust them with the release of the movie's theme song and incidental music. They not only stopped objecting to Kimura's dedication to the film, but also expressed their willingness to cooperate with the film's promotion. However, they also requested that Kimura write the theme song and incidental music as soon as possible and that the release of the new album not be delayed.

With several tasks running almost simultaneously, Kimura Hiroshi was busy every day. He had little time to relax, let alone be a couch potato, which left him exhausted. After all, he wasn't a workaholic. He could handle a normal workday, but too much work was unbearable. He started looking for an opportunity to lie down for a while.

Opportunities are easy to find if you look for them. That evening, he used the excuse that the office environment was too noisy and he couldn't concentrate on creating the theme song and incidental music for the movie. He wanted to go back to his apartment to think about it because it was quiet and he was alone, which was suitable for creating. So, around 7 p.m., while everyone else was still working overtime, his assistant, Ms. Michiko, took him back to his apartment.

After having dinner downstairs, Kimura Hiroshi returned to his apartment and collapsed onto the sofa. He then turned on the TV and let it sit on its own while he picked up a magazine and began flipping through the short stories.

As for the movie's theme song, he had already thought of it and could just bring it out when the time came. As for the insert songs, since it was confirmed that Akina Nakamori would sing them, he would have to wait for her to come back and choose them herself. His girlfriend has always been very opinionated about the songs she sings. If you choose them for her yourself, she might not sing them if she doesn't think they are suitable, and then it would be a waste of time to choose.