Tokyo: The evil god doesn't want to be the top star

"Based on the performance rankings, trainees from different groups will share 30 million, 20 million, and 10 million popularity points in turn. The group ranked last will not receive any popularity points reward..."

"Of course, for the sake of fairness, mentors cannot vote for the shows they participate in."

After Goro Kimura read out the rules of the finals, the recording of this round's "Survival Battle Ranking Announcement" was completed.

"So, they took great pains to assign Xia Fan to my group. Besides thinking that my singing ability has declined and that he is not good at rapping, they also wanted to invalidate my 'mentor ticket'..."

"You look down on me in every sense of the word. If I were to let you have your way, I wouldn't be called Yayoi anymore."

Yayoi Tsuki silently glanced at Akimoto Manjiro on the sidelines and pursed her thin lips in defiance.

"It seems that we won't be able to fight on the same stage this time..."

"Everyone, come on, perform well, and don't embarrass the international trainees."

"I finally made it to the finals. I won't go easy on you just because you're my opponent!"

After the recording in the studio was finished, Xia Fan and his roommates encouraged each other, split up, and immediately started the rehearsal session.

……

Rehearsal room for "Villain".

"Hey, what should I do? Looking at the arrangement, Teacher Yayoi will definitely be responsible for singing the chorus, but I'm not very good at rapping..."

"There's still dancing, why don't you be the dance leader?"

"Can I apply to sing the chorus?"

"The chorus is sung by a female singer. Why don't you go to Thailand first?"

Several trainees who had changed into their sportswear first were already sitting on the wooden floor, watching the original stage version of "Villain" that was about to be rehearsed.

"Oh, everyone is so quick."

Xia Fan, who had also changed clothes and removed her makeup, walked in with a relaxed look.

"..."

"Xia Jun..."

"Looks like you're in a good mood."

When their eyes fell on Xia Fan, their expressions became somewhat complicated, as if they wanted to say something but hesitated.

"What's wrong? Although rehearsing for the show is difficult, you still have to maintain a good attitude."

Xia Fan sat down casually and started watching with them.

"It's not about rehearsal..."

“If it were us, and we suddenly had four million fewer votes, it would be ridiculous.”

Those people were silent for a while, but still couldn't help but complain.

All of them are ranked outside the top 20, so their chances of debuting as a group are very slim, but they don't have such a strong sense of competition.

Although they belong to different companies from Xia Fan, after several recording sessions, most people know that Xia Fan is easy to get along with. They are all young people of similar age, so naturally there is no need to be so shy when talking to each other in private.

"Xia Jun, didn't you check your phone?"

"The production team just released an announcement, updating the 'corrected' vote rankings, and now the internet is in an uproar."

One of the trainees, with his back to the camera, whispered a reminder.

After the program team issued a notice to invalidate the "software tickets", Xia Fan's ranking suddenly dropped out of the top three.

This drastic change in rankings caused a huge heated discussion among the audience of the "Idol Birth Festival".

Led by some people with ulterior motives, fans of the top-ranked trainees collectively began to attack Xia Fan for "rigging votes" and even demanded that the program production team cancel Xia Fan's qualification for the audition.

Almost at the same time, Xia Fan’s core support station "Midsummer Shrine" issued an apology statement, stating that the software's participation in the support activities was a spontaneous act of fans and had nothing to do with Xia Fan himself. It also expressed support for the program team's operation of invalidating votes, and would stop the server operation of the "one-click support software", and called on fans to manually vote for Xia Fan.

Chapter 321 Teacher Yayoi

2024-07-13

Even the originator of "software support" website "Midsummer Shrine" said so. Although Xia Fan's fans are numerous and powerful, they can only stop and turn their anger into motivation to vote manually for support.

"It's okay, it's okay. We have finally made it to the finals. We just need to try our best to show our best side in this final performance..."

"The ranking, number of votes and so on should be decided by the market."

Taking out his cell phone and checking the real-time discussion topics, Xia Fan shrugged nonchalantly.

"You're right. You still have a long way to go in the entertainment industry. This talent show can only determine your starting point, but it can't determine your end point..."

"Many of those who successfully debuted through talent shows in the past few years have become immoral artists or even ended up in brothels due to reasons such as gathering in large crowds, getting divorced before marriage, time management, and using steel wool to burn out."

“On the contrary, some of those who were eliminated are doing quite well now.”

The door of the practice room opened, and Yayoi Tsuki, dressed in sportswear, walked in swiftly.

"Teacher Yayoi, you are really direct..."

"Hello, Teacher Yayoi!"

The trainees who were originally discussing leisurely suddenly stood up straight in silence and bowed to greet each other.

Although some of them are actually older than Yayoi Tsuki, she debuted a few years earlier and is a top female singer as well as a mentor on the show, so she naturally deserves to be called "teacher".

"Hello, teacher... Yayoi..."

In order to avoid exposing his relationship with Yayoi Tsuki, Xia Fan stood up with the crowd and greeted them in the same way.

"Hmm...very good, you all look very energetic..."

Yayoi Tsuki, who had been calmly accepting everyone's greetings, couldn't help but curl up the corners of her mouth when she heard him call her "Yayoi Teacher".

"Then let's get started. The program discussion meeting..."

"This time, the track "Villain" was created by me and OG Kato. Its main features are the ethereal female chorus and the high-speed male rap, which form a strong auditory contrast..."

"The core emotion of the song is the most common rebellion, darkness and self-interpretation in rap works..."

As the program mentor and the creator of the song, Yayoi Tsuki took out a notebook and concisely analyzed the structure, creative process and performance key points of the entire song for everyone.

"What a detailed explanation! This song is like this..."

"Teacher Yayoi, you seem to be more professional than I remembered?"

The trainees who collaborated with Yayoi Tsuki for the first time were all just like "chickens pecking at rice".

"Time is limited, so this is the end of the preliminary explanation of the song. Just understand as much as you can. For more details, you can perfect them through practice."

"The next thing to decide is the lyrics and the placement."

Pushing her bangs behind her ears, Yayoi Tsuki mentioned the topic that the trainees were most concerned about...

After all, whether the position is eye-catching and whether the dance moves and songs can be presented well will determine the number of votes a person gets in the final round of performances.

"Originally there was no dance for this song, but I will choreograph a group dance today based on the number of people and the dance foundation..."

"At that time, we will just need to move and perform actions according to the lyrics of the song."

Yayoi Tsuki quickly flipped through a few pages of her notebook, and many hand-drawn choreography sketches flashed before the trainees' eyes.

When preparing for the stage performance, this top actress in front of us was completely different from her sharp-tongued and self-willed self in front of the camera, and she displayed a very high level of professionalism and dedication.

"Teacher Yayoi, this is too exaggerated..."

"Not only is he so familiar with the song, but he also personally choreographed for us?"

This left all the trainees stunned.

"So surprised... You must have heard a lot of things from the company like 'Yayoi Tsuki is hyped up', 'her singing is all backing vocals', 'her dancing is all backed up by backup dancers', 'there are no active fans, only statistics'?"

With a slight smile, Yayoi Tsuki made fun of herself without any hesitation.

"This one……"

"No, nothing."

"Teacher Yayoi is a real talent!"

Faced with this "sensitive topic", several trainees lowered their heads in shyness.

"It doesn't matter. I've gotten used to it..."

“Because this song was created when I was being attacked the most.”

"I can't really call it a work. At the time, I was in a desperate mood to fight back against the whole world. I was no different from a villain who wanted to destroy the world. I simply vented all my feelings in the lyrics..."

"The reason I'm talking to you about this is that I hope you can bring out your worst and most rebellious emotions when you perform this song, and use your own attitude to fight back against external pressure."

But Yayoi Tsuki was not shy about the camera and sound in the rehearsal room, and shared her thoughts directly.

She signed with Bethesda, and after her song became popular, she was naturally suppressed by many entertainment groups. There were countless rumors that belittled her talent, questioned her lip-syncing, and slandered her character...

After all, in the entertainment industry where people's words are feared, spreading rumors and slandering others is the lowest-cost but most effective form of vicious competition.

"The first thing we need to decide now is the lyrics of the song."

"The female chorus doesn't have many words to begin with, and it's not suitable for a man and a woman to sing separately, so I'll be responsible for it all, just like the original version."

"The overall structure of the song is not complicated, but that doesn't mean it's simple. Because, the seven of you are responsible for OG Kato's rap..."

"His rap, regardless of rhythm, pronunciation, or emotion, represents the highest level of the entertainment industry in District 11..."

"Kato's signature 'sonic tongue burning' is also fully reflected in this song. The rap speed of several sections has reached 16SPS..."

Just as Yayoi Tsuki was explaining, the "teaching assistant" assigned by the program team had already sent the printed lyrics to the trainees.

"What, 16SPS speaking speed..."

"This part, I heard Kato sing it very easily, how could it be so fast?"

"Looking closely, the lyrics are indeed very long... Fortunately, there are seven of us sharing the lyrics, but he sang the whole thing by himself."

Flipping through the three pages of lyrics, the trainees' expressions became serious.

Among all music genres, rap has a “low threshold and high ceiling”, and there is also a large cultural gap between the audience and the singers.

A good rap performance can be interpreted from multiple angles such as lyrics, rhythm, rhyme, emotion, voice control, body language, etc. There is no fixed routine. It can be said that after practice, everyone can find their own comfortable rap style.

But in rap, the only hard indicator that cannot be avoided is speaking speed.

Without the support of talent, even after a long period of training, it is difficult to complete "machine gun rap" with a large vocabulary in a short period of time with clear pronunciation, appropriate emotions and precise rhythm.

In this song, OG Kato's speaking speed is 16SPS, which is sixteen syllables per second. Although it is not his limit, it is enough to drive these trainees crazy.

Chapter 322: Consecrated Mouth

2024-07-13

"I don't expect you to be able to rap as fast as Kato, just do your best to stick to the original version..."

“The most important thing is to fully integrate your attitude and emotions into the lyrics and ensure the overall effect of the stage show.”

"The speed of this song's rapping is from slow to fast. Everyone should rap a part first, and then sort by speed to confirm their respective parts..."

Yayoi Tsuki clapped her hands, and the teaching assistant next to her understood and started playing the melody of the song.

"By the way, the one with the best rap performance will get the center position to sing and dance with me."

The stopwatch on her phone was activated, and Yayoi Tsuki glanced at Xia Fan vaguely, adding playfully.

"W-what..."

"With Teacher Yayoi..."

“…A singing and dancing duo?!”

As soon as she said this, several trainees became excited.

In today's entertainment industry, those who are qualified to work with national top-tier actresses like Yayoi Tsuki are all industry leaders.

They originally thought that they would just dance and sing with her, not much different from being a background board, but they didn't expect that they would even have the opportunity to sing and dance together!

Originally, except for Xia Fan, the others were at the bottom of the list. The gap between their popularity and those at the top was too big, and they seemed to lack motivation...

But when they thought about being able to have a shot of dancing with a female artist of Yayoi Tsuki's level, they suddenly felt that it didn't matter whether they made their debut or not.

"Let's get started, I'll be the first one!"