Chapter 275 274. The first person in the history of European and American pop music! (Please subscribe!)
European and American pop music has become extremely homogenized in the past decade!
Individuality is gradually being lost.
Most pop songs are very similar, and you can find many of the same elements and characteristics in them.
This is because the pop music scene, like Hollywood movies, is transforming into an industrialized, professional assembly-line production model.
Someone has done statistics specifically!
In the past ten years, more than 90% of the songs that have entered the top ten of the North American Billboard were the works of studio teams. Among the remaining 10%, most of them were completed by two or three people or more, and only a very small number were completed by individuals. Among this very small number of individual works, almost all of them were written by Kristen.
In other words, today's European and American pop songs are basically industrial products produced on assembly lines!
These pop music factories are the world-renowned top professional production teams composed of many professional musicians.
They will customize the creation according to the characteristics of a big star. Every melody, every lyric, every chorus, and even the words "oh", "yeah", "baby" that the singer shouts out in the song that are irrelevant to the lyrics are all completed by a dedicated person. Each section needs to be reviewed by the singer and his producer to meet the requirements before it can be passed. Then, the top producers will combine them to complete a pop song! Such a song has almost most of the characteristics of pop songs that most ordinary people like.
Catchy melodies, catchy words, simple and direct lyrics, and electronic soundtracks that fit the fast-paced era, combined with the singing characteristics of professional singers, can basically all become popular.
However, such songs can only be popular for a while and cannot last long. After a while, they will be forgotten by everyone and replaced by other songs with similar popular elements and characteristics. They may even be too similar to each other and people may not be able to tell which song they have heard after a while.
So! In the past ten years...
Many European and American music fans have discovered that they haven't heard any memorable songs in the past decade. The only things worth remembering seem to be some of Kristen's works and one or two songs by a few singers.
They couldn't remember the other songs at all.
Even when some songs become popular, they listen to them on repeat all day long.
However, after ten days or half a month, they forgot about it.
This is the direct reason why Kristen is called the No. 1 singer in the European and American music scene.
Because other singers are not worthy of comparison with her, and she is the only one who insists on composing songs by herself. Each album has a distinct personal style, and there are one or two songs in each album that are enough for many fans to listen to for years without getting tired of them, and they can still recall them in their memories after a few years and will not forget them. Most of these songs will become timeless classics.
Of course, this is also the phenomenon happening in the Chinese pop music scene.
However, when the Chinese pop music scene has not yet become successful, it has already begun to copy the European and American models, so it is not as good as the European and American pop music scene. In the past ten years, there have been almost no popular works. On the contrary, those independent online singers occasionally have one or two popular songs, but those serious singers have not released any popular works.
Until Liu Shengnan and Wang Qian appeared.
This is also the reason why Wang Qian became so popular in China. His songs are nice to listen to, have a unique style, and even contain profound humanistic thinking. In this era, these are absolutely rare good works, which distinguish them from those other slutty and cheap ones.
Now……
The song Its My Life sung by Wang Qian at the opening performance of The Voice of China was just like the song Shame he sang on the stage of The Voice of China. The song was like thunder that shocked the entire European and American pop music scene and amazed many fans.
Especially many young people in their teens and twenties were the most amazed! They were used to listening to all kinds of industrial assembly line songs in the past decade, and suddenly heard Wang Qian's retro hard rock songs with unique style, which made them extremely amazed and amazed - it turns out that there are such good songs? So! Wang Qian's Its My Life became an overnight hit in Europe and the United States.
The download data shocked the entire European and American pop music scene, and the data and rankings even made many people feel terrified! Is this the result of a new player's first official release in Europe and the United States?
No one can believe it! No doubt about it.
Among the ten contestants, Wang Qian still firmly sits in the first place! Its my life, the download data has reached 12380660.
In one night, 12.38 million downloads were received.
Wang Qian himself was relatively calm when he saw this, because he was used to more exaggerated data on Huaxia's own Qianqian Jingting platform, and had experienced more than 30 million downloads in one night! Therefore, the song "Its My Life" only received more than 12 million downloads on the North American music platform in one night, and Wang Qian was very calm!
But!
People like Adam, Jonathan, Sophie, Elizabeth, Miyuki Nakamori and others were shocked when they saw it.
Other professional musicians and singers in the entire North American pop music scene were also shocked when they saw this and said they could not accept it!
Adam simply whispered, "God, this can't be true?"
Adam opened his eyes wide and looked carefully, and found that he was not mistaken. He did not look at the number twice. It was indeed more than 12 million downloads, ranking firmly first!
But……
Adam still didn't quite believe it.
He clearly remembered that when Kristen created a single-day download record of over 10 million, it shocked the entire European and American pop music scene.
Of course, he felt that Kristen was too low-key when she released the song and did not invest too much in publicity, so the early publicity was insufficient, and the data explosion was not high enough in a short period of time.
But, Wang Qian had over 12 million downloads in just one night. What the hell is going on?
Is this Chinese contestant going to set the North American single-day record for the highest paid downloads when he officially releases a song in North America for the first time?
Who can accept this? Anyway, Adam said he couldn't accept it.
But what if he couldn't accept it? Adam looked at it uncomfortably for a few seconds, then took a deep breath to calm himself down, and then continued to look at the second one.
As expected.
It is still Wang Qian’s work, the piano piece, Magic City Rhapsody, which had a cumulative download data of over 6 million in one night. After all, it is just a piano piece, and it seems that its successors are beginning to lose momentum!
However, Adam thought about it -
Over 6 million downloads in one night, far more than myself, and I still have no energy to do anything...
Feeling depressed, Adam looked at the third place, which was still Sophie's work, with a cumulative download of more than 5 million in one night. The gap with the second place, Magic City Rhapsody, was less than 500,000. It seemed that there was a possibility of catching up at any time, but after one night, it did not surpass it!
fourth……
Still Adam.
For some reason, Adam felt inexplicably relieved.
It seemed that he was relieved to have secured fourth place. Adam felt upset and wanted to cry...
He is the North American champion, and was touted by many to have already secured the championship spot in the Voice of China finals.
Now you are feeling relieved that you have secured the fourth place? Shame on you!
Adam didn't want to continue watching, so he closed the list. He was extremely depressed and picked up the phone to call Winston.
The call was connected quickly.
The first thing Winston said when he got on the phone was, "Did you see the list?"
Adam said in a low voice: "Well, I just watched it, and I can't believe it. How could Wang Qian do it? You know, he got 12 million downloads in one night, and today he might surpass the 17 million downloads in a single day created by Christine."
"Why?"
Adam asked the biggest question in his mind!
Why? On what basis? A Chinese new artist can do this when he officially releases a song in North America for the first time? Is he God? Winston was in his apartment at the moment, holding the phone while staring at the computer screen, his brows furrowed, looking at the charts and data on the computer screen, thinking carefully, listening to Adam's soul-searching question, and whispered, "Adam, I've been thinking about this question too, and I've figured out a little bit of it, which may answer your question."
Adam showed no sign of happiness, and said in a low voice, "What answer did you come up with?"
Winston's voice was still gentle as before, "The style is unique and inspiring! There are two more points. One is that Christine's last album was released more than a year ago! The second is that in recent years, apart from Christine's works, there have been no other works that are too attentive and amazing!"
"So, when Wang Qian's work came out, it amazed the entire European and American music scene. Everyone liked it very much, so they naturally downloaded it."
"According to statistics, more than one billion people around the world watched his performance last night, so it's not impossible that there were tens of millions of downloads in one night! You know, when Christine released a song last time, there was no such large-scale promotion. She didn't even promote it at the time, she just announced it on her Weibo, and the company started promoting it a week in advance, but it still set a record of more than 10 million downloads in a single day."
"The global publicity resources Wang Qian has enjoyed from The Voice of China are definitely the highest standards ever seen in the world of pop music."
Winston's voice paused, but Adam on the other end of the phone did not speak and remained silent.
Because Winston said that Wang Qian enjoyed the highest level of publicity resources in the history of the world pop music scene. But Adam knew clearly that it was not only Wang Qian who enjoyed such resources, but he and other contestants also enjoyed them. As the top-ranked contestant, he even enjoyed resources two levels higher than Wang Qian!
So, actually, Adam was the singer who enjoyed the best publicity resources in the history of pop music!
but……
His results are far worse than Wang Qian's.
This shows that the gap between him and Wang Qian is even greater! The truth is really too heartbreaking...
Adam didn't want to talk for a moment.
Winston continued, "Adam, today's fans' desire for good works is beyond our imagination. This can be seen in Wang Qian's song. Everyone is very eager for such excellent works with personal style. It seems that everyone is tired of listening to the studio's highly homogenized pop works."
"In the past year or so, many new works created by big-name singers have achieved mediocre results! This has led to a sluggish market performance for the entire European and American pop music industry."
"I used to think that it was because there were so many natural disasters and man-made calamities in the past year or so that people were not in the mood to listen to music, which led to the poor market response. Now it seems that it may not be the case... It's not because of external factors, it's because our works are not good enough, it's our own fault."
Adam's voice gradually calmed down and he asked, "So, Winston, what should we do?"
Winston sighed and said, "I don't know what to do for a moment! Wang Qian seems to have figured out the direction of the market. However, it is difficult for us to adjust our style to cope with market changes in such a short period of time! Because the time is too short."
"We have to create a pop song for you in such a short time that fits your unique style and is different from the many previous group works. It is very difficult. If we don't do it well, the finished work may not be as popular as the previous works, which would be terrible."
Adam was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Winston, what if I create my own music? If I create music with my own ideas, wouldn't it be my own unique style of music?"
Winston smiled bitterly and said, "Adam, you have only participated in creation before and made some suggestions. You have never really participated in creation, let alone created a complete song. Are you sure you can do it?"
The previous announcement that Adam had a high level of creative talent and was deeply involved in music creation and adaptation was actually publicity by the team in order to establish a talented personality for Ye Dang.
In fact, Adam had very little involvement in its creation.
Adam fell silent again, took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, and said in a difficult tone: "Then, can I participate deeply in the team's creation? I want to put forward my opinions, and I want the work to truly have my own style!"
Winston thought about it and agreed: "Of course!"
Although, he is a world-class producer with a weird temper.
But, after all, he was paid to do things.
Adam was his client after all!
If he was not confident in himself and Adam had his own requests, then he could only agree!
Looking at the terrifying download data of Wang Qian's song on the computer screen, Winston had no confidence in competing with the assembly-line work created by his own team without any characteristics.
Perhaps, the assembly line works created by him and his team conform to the advantages and characteristics of pop songs, and can also be successful and get good results. Even if it can be used as the title song of some first-line singers' albums, it will basically be no problem for it to enter the top ten of the Billboard. If you're lucky, it may even enter the top three or even top the list!
But……
That's all.
The works of him and his team will never be able to shock or even amaze the world like this one by Kristen and Wang Qian, and break records in the European and American music scene!
He is even worried about the future of himself, his team, and other similar pop music production teams! Because, if Wang Qian can continue to release good songs like this and still achieve great success in the European and American music scene, and Christine will release another album this year, then the two of them may change the aesthetics and trend of the European and American pop music market in one fell swoop! The market may no longer accept and like those assembly-line works with serious homogeneity, but will only like good works with deep thinking and personal style like Christine and Wang Qian! By then...
Independent singers and creators with unique styles may become popular.
Their team-based creative studios without any characteristics may gradually be eliminated! Pop music may gradually return to the style of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, an era when many personal styles were prevalent.
At that time, for every song, even if you were hearing it for the first time, you could tell who wrote it just by listening to the prelude and two lines of lyrics. Even if it was not sung by the original creator, you could still determine who wrote it based on the musical style.
This is fundamentally different from the current assembly-line pop music. Most of the popular pop songs nowadays will make no difference if someone else sings them, because the songs themselves do not have a very unique style and can suit the singing style of most singers.
This may also prove that popularity itself is a circle and will eventually return to the starting point!
This is not only applicable in the field of fashion design, but also in the field of pop music?
so……
Winston felt a sense of existential crisis.
He chose to compromise.
Trying to make new changes and incorporating some unique personal style into the music might be successful? Adam continued: "Shall we start now? Winston, I can't wait."
He couldn't wait to make changes and improve himself, otherwise he would collapse under the tremendous pressure of Wang Qian's horrific data.
While Winston was thinking about how to cooperate with Adam, he said, "Of course, come to the studio after breakfast."
Adam: "Okay, I'll have breakfast and be right there! Actually, I have a lot of ideas that I want to incorporate into my music..."
Winston looked at another page and whispered, "By the way, Adam, have you checked the Billboard charts?"
Adam was stunned! Billboard chart?
What's the meaning……
Adam thought about it for a moment, then his expression suddenly skipped a beat, his fingers quickly moved to the page and entered the Billboard chart.
It’s the total sales chart of popular songs!
A chart of all songs currently on sale in the European and American music scene, no matter whether they are new songs or old songs, as long as the sales data can enter the top 200, they will be included in the chart ranking!
However, almost everyone is paying attention to the top ten, but in fact, being able to enter the top two hundred is a good result.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
This time, while the Voice of China officials cooperated with Billboard, they did not prevent the contestants' works from impacting the Billboard's overall chart based on their own performance.
Adam was only paying attention to the rankings and data of the contestants, and didn't think of this for a moment! Now, after Winston reminded him, he immediately opened the Billboard chart with trembling fingers! He saw the name of the song and the singer who ranked first.
Adam felt his mind go blank.
One night!
Just one night!
First on the Billboard chart...
How did this guy do it? Why was he able to do it?
Why should he? Adam once again had this question from the bottom of his heart.
At the same time, Winston's voice rang in his ears: "Do you know? Adam, according to statistics, in the past ten years, there are no more than twenty songs that have been able to top the Billboard charts on the first day of release, and Kristen has three of them. The rest of the people have only seventeen works that can do this. However, only Kristen's three songs have been able to stay stable after landing at the top of the charts! And there are tens of thousands of pop songs released in the past ten years, and there are hundreds of songs that have topped the Billboard charts!"
"He is the first person to have his first song released in North America go straight to number one! In the history of European and American pop music, no singer has ever been able to have his first song released go straight to number one on the first day. No one, not even Kristen, has ever done it. So many talented singers 20 or 30 years ago couldn't do it."
“Now, he’s here to do it.”
In Winston's opinion, the two singles Wang Qian released in China before were officially released in North America by The Voice of China, not released by him, so they are not considered his publicly released works. This song, Its My Life, is Wang Qian's first publicly released work in North America! And the first work released publicly, it directly topped the Billboard chart. Wang Qian is really the first in the history of European and American pop music! For decades, no matter how talented or awesome the kings and queens were, they did not achieve this when they debuted. Some people have achieved the top spot with their first song, but it was not on the first day, but it took many days of accumulation to achieve it.
Adam's head was still buzzing, and his eyes were slightly dull as he looked at the name at the top of the list on the computer screen.
How can he do that?
Adam still didn't understand.
…
Sophie used to study piano and was a piano genius, so when she saw the data, although she also thought Wang Qian was very impressive, she was not as shocked as Adam.
Because she is not focused on the pop music scene, she doesn't have any deep feelings about this.
However, she also probably knew that Wang Qian might be remembered in the history of the European and American pop music scene just with this song.
After thinking about it, Sophie posted a message on her Facebook account: "Maybe, we are participating in history!"
A simple sentence.
She performed and competed with Wang Qian on the same stage, which gave her a sense of honor and weight of participating in history and a more direct and profound understanding of Wang Qian's musical talent.
After all, the market is the ultimate test of everything.
Now, the market has given the answer.
The answer proves that Wang Qian’s musical talent is so powerful that it is beyond description.
Sophie's news was quickly forwarded and liked by fans in Europe and the United States.
Although no one knows what she meant by this sentence, many fans still liked and forwarded it. After all, it was posted by the goddess, so they just followed it.
Sophie looked at her data again and found that it was not even half of Wang Qian's song "Its My Life". She then thought carefully about the music.
She is not a person who sticks to the old ways. She tries to find some popular characteristics in Wang Qian's works and then incorporate them into her own songs! It is not to change her style, but to incorporate more things that people like.
Now, as a pop musician, adapting to the market and the masses is her only criterion for success! So, that’s what she did.
Wang Qian has now become the weather vane of the pop music market in her eyes.
…
Early in the morning.
The entire North American pop music market was shaken as if by a magnitude 10 earthquake, and many musicians even stayed up all night! In the private discussion groups among many musicians, everyone was frantically discussing Wang Qian, the data of Wang Qian's two works, and the possibility of breaking the single-day download record previously held by Christine!
The most important thing is...
The historical significance of Wang Qian’s song topping the Billboard chart on the first day of its release!
Every single thing is of great importance to their pop music scene.
And Wang Qian was the focus of their discussion.
Their discussions were private.
However, those music critics, media people, and self-media people publicly made crazy speeches and discussions.
Likewise! Many people still stubbornly say they cannot accept it.
A certain self-media person said: "I don't believe this is true. This Chinese contestant must have inflated his data. This is the favorite practice of the Chinese people. In many talent shows in China, contestants will pay to inflate their data. Wang Qian must have paid someone to inflate his sales data. Tomorrow, his sales data will definitely plummet!"
This self-deceptive statement still has considerable support in North America.
A lot of people still can't stand the fact that a Chinese player can create miraculous results on their turf. If it really happens, it must be fake, cheating, and not real.
There are also some music critics who criticized Wang Qian's two works and even forcibly found some unknown old works in Europe and the United States, and compared some clips of them with Wang Qian's two works to prove that Wang Qian's works were plagiarized. However, anyone with a little common sense would think this so-called analysis is nonsense.
In addition to these malicious remarks, there are also many people expressing support!
After all, most people have sharp eyes and sharp ears!
Whether the song is good or not, whether the live performance is good or not, everyone knows it clearly in their hearts after listening to it! A music critic analyzed: "Wang Qian's song "Its my life!" represents an extremely unique personal style. Coupled with the powerful aura of the live performance, Wang Qian's world-class performance attracted more than one billion viewers around the world. It is understandable that he can achieve such a result. If Christine's work could have such a strong publicity force, the single-day download record created at that time would definitely not be so low."
"We should not just slander Wang Qian and his works. We should see that so many people around the world like his works. We should learn from his works and create more good works to improve ourselves!"
The music critic's rational analysis received the most support, with over a million likes and reposts on Facebook, becoming a hot topic.
The official of the Voice of China World Championship said: "The data of all contestants is absolutely true. We have dedicated personnel to cooperate with the platform to check the data of ten contestants in real time. If anyone suspects that a contestant has faked the data, please provide solid evidence. If the evidence is true and passes our inspection, we will directly disqualify the contestant from participating in the World Championship, and will also punish the program production team of the contestant's region."
"If there is no evidence, please do not make random nonsense, otherwise we will hold the rumor mongers accountable!"
The Voice of China officials must stand up to protect Wang Qian’s reputation.
This is because Wang Qian’s current popularity is so high and the data of his works are so good.
Even if representatives from some North American and European regions don't want to stop it, they can't stop it.
In a sense, Wang Qian now represents the interests of most of the program team! If Wang Qian's reputation is damaged, it also means that the reputation of the program team is damaged, and the subsequent losses will be greater! Therefore, they must stand up as soon as possible and defend Wang Qian's reputation with righteous words! If Wang Qian is just a contestant ranked last.
Well, now that some media people are openly slandering Wang Qian, the program crew may not speak out but remain silent as most of the European and American regions have stopped it!
Now, in order to protect everyone's interests, no one can stop the production team from speaking up for Wang Qian! So! Not long after the official statement of The Voice of China was issued, those North American commentators and self-media who made up rumors to slander Wang Qian quickly deleted their previous statements and remained silent, as if nothing had happened.
Only some netizens are still dominated by their own discriminatory emotions and are still making some nonsense and rumors. However, their voices cannot become mainstream and cannot influence more public opinion, so no one pays attention to them.
…
Christine received a call from her good friend, Garbo, early in the morning.
Garbo was a little-known actress. Because she refused to accept the unspoken rules and was unwilling to make any efforts, she had no fame and could only play small roles in the television circle and barely make ends meet.
In order to make a living, Garbo often played small roles while working part-time in a restaurant!
I met Christine by chance. Christine liked and admired Garbo's courage and acting skills, so we became friends!
This time, Kristen came to Los Angeles.
Of course Jiabao had to entertain us. We made arrangements last night to have dinner together tonight, and Jiabao would treat us.
but!
The early morning call was not just about hospitality!
Christine answered the phone: "Garbo, what's wrong?"
Garbo said quickly, "Chris, you know, the song you recommended to me last night was really great. It's definitely the best rock song I've heard in the past ten years."
Kristen: "So, Garbo, you didn't watch TV last night? Didn't you know about The Voice last night?"
Garbo smiled and said, "Chris, I'm not a big star, I'm not qualified to go to the scene. In order to pay the rent, I have to go out to work part-time. Last night I worked overtime in a Chinese restaurant. This is the price I paid for having a day off tonight, just because I want to accompany you and treat you to dinner!"
Kristen: "Well, sorry, Garbo, I didn't know you were so busy."
Garbo: "It's okay, we are friends!"
Kristen: "Look at the official rankings of The Voice and the Billboard rankings, and you'll know what's going on! He is creating miracles."
Garbo casually said, "Okay, I'll pay attention!"
Christine moved her fingers and opened Facebook. Suddenly, she saw a message that Curtis Institute of Music had just published. She frowned and said to the phone, "Garbo, I'm sorry! I may not have time to have dinner with you tonight."
Garbo: "God, Chris, are you kidding me?"
Christine: "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! How about I treat you? I'll take you to Philadelphia and pay for your food and accommodation. How about that?"
Garbo refused immediately: "I don't want it! You treated me last time, this time it's my turn to treat me. Since you have something important to do, then go ahead, and we'll find another opportunity next time you come to Los Angeles!"
Christine: "I'm so sorry, Garbo! There's an open class at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and I don't want to miss it. I have to get there as soon as possible!"
Garbo smiled generously and said, "Okay, go ahead. In addition to acting, I also like music. It's a pity that I don't have time to go. Goodbye, Chris!"
Christine still said apologetically: "Okay, Garbo, I'm so sorry, goodbye! I'll call you as soon as I get back to Los Angeles!"
Garbo smiled and said, "That's for sure, Chris, bye!"
Hang up the phone!
Christine stared at the news about Curtis Institute of Music on Facebook, not knowing what to think.
And the other side.
Garbo quickly opened her phone and searched for the song "Its my life"! At the same time...
The official account of the Curtis Institute of Music announced a piece of news on several major North American social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, causing even more shock to the already shaken European and American pop music scene!
"Our school has invited Mr. Wang Qian from China to come to our school tomorrow for a music exchange..."
(End of this chapter)