Chapter 101 The second episode is broadcast
The moment they saw this word, the members breathed a sigh of relief.
Sure enough, Bai Li's luck was indeed good.
"Explosion," as the theme of the song and the stage, is straightforward and easy to understand, much better than the broad and confusing words they had expected.
At the same time, the dormitories of the remaining five groups were also holding a lottery activity for the theme of the second public performance of the new song.
The theme FOREVER drew was Chinese traditional style.
This was a style their team had never attempted before, so no one knew how the final result would turn out. However, music with traditional Chinese themes is common in the Chinese music scene, so coming up with something unique and original was definitely not easy.
Compared with the relatively common themes of FOREVER, the words drawn by the other four groups were quite varied. Some of the concepts were abstract and difficult to understand, while others did not match the group's style and were difficult to control.
For example, the theme drawn by Kansai Man this time was rainbow, the word drawn by SEXYcode was 2D, and Freez drew literature and art.
As for LEVELUP, they were very unlucky this time as the theme they drew was rock.
This type of music genre itself is niche. Even among professional bands, there are not many that play only rock music, and it is even rarer among idol groups.
For a moment, the members of LEVELUP fell silent.
Only Xu Tingchuan showed envy in his eyes after learning that LEVELUP had drawn the rock theme.
Although he works as a member of an idol boy band, he has always had a heart for rock music.
"Or maybe we should do some rock music. Death metal is so exciting!"
Xu Tingchuan, who is usually quiet, suddenly became talkative when talking about his favorite rock music.
"The theme we drew was 'Explosion,' and death metal performances are synonymous with explosion. This was tailor-made for this theme!"
The members who didn't know what death metal was searched online and then fell silent.
It's indeed explosive, but this style of music is indeed a bit niche. I'm afraid most people can't appreciate such loud music...
Sheng Yanyu coughed and said seriously, "This is a competition stage. It's best if we don't share the same theme as others."
Because this will inevitably make them compared with LEVELUP. Although the rock theme seems to be a disadvantage for the opponent, the vocal skills of LEVELUP members are very strong, and they may be able to master the rock music style.
On the other hand, they not only have a large number of people, but also have varying vocal abilities. Most of them don't even know how to play musical instruments, so it's easy for them to struggle to adapt to the local rock music scene.
In addition, Xu Tingchuan even plans to do death heavy metal, a more niche genre in rock music, which may be even more unacceptable to fans and audiences.
Other members held the same opinion.
The competition was no joke, and they couldn't just act recklessly without considering the actual situation. After all, the songs released in this round of performances would be included in Originore's new album in the future.
So under the strong opposition of the members, Xu Tingchuan had to give up.
The theme of the new song for the competition has been decided, and the performance order for the second round of performances was also quickly determined.
According to the votes from the first round of performances, the order of performance will be decided by the group members themselves, starting with Freez who has the highest number of votes.
In other words, the group with the highest number of votes will get priority selection, while the group ranked last can only choose the last remaining order to appear.
The importance of performance ranking is reflected at this moment.
For example, in the last round of performances, SEXYcode was the first to perform. From an objective point of view, their performance was very exciting, but because of the unfavorable order of performance, by the time all six groups had performed, the audience's impression of their performance had become much weaker.
The last group to appear, Freez, not only had an advantage in popularity but also in position. The audience was still immersed in the aftermath of their performance, so it was impossible for them to lose the vote.
This time, Freez, who got the priority choice, naturally chose to be the last one to appear.
LEVELUP, ranked second, still chose fourth. After all, choosing fifth would mean they'd be performing alongside senior Freez, and since the theme wasn't their forte, they'd likely be crushed. So, fourth seemed the safest bet.
Originore, who picked third, didn't think as much as the LEVELUP members did. They simply filled the gap between the two teams and picked the fifth place.
After all, the later the performer appears, the more impressive the audience will be.
As for whether they would be outmatched by the two teams, that was no longer a consideration for them. After all, if they were really afraid, they should have withdrawn from the competition when they learned that Freez was participating.
What they should do most is to face challenges head-on.
The remaining Kansai man chose third, SEXYcode chose second, and FOREVER had no choice but to choose first.
Just like the previous round, SEXYcode and Kansai Boys were once again placed next to each other, while Originore and FOREVER, who had originally been scheduled to perform later, were now placed before and after these two groups.
After finalizing the order of performance and the theme of the new song, each group of members immediately began to get busy.
Completing a new song in a style they were not familiar with was a big challenge in itself, not to mention the fact that the program team only gave them half a month.
It's fine if the topic is easy to understand, at least it gives us a specific direction to work towards. But if the topic is broad, members still need to understand the meaning before they can proceed.
It's like the Kansai man who drew the rainbow.
As we all know, the rainbow is a meteorological optical phenomenon. If you want to create a new song with this as the theme, you can either express it with imagery or work hard on the stage design.
Therefore, from the preparation stage, there were disagreements within the group on the positioning of the song concept.
Some people think the rainbow might represent the LGBT community and want to ask the composer to create a new song with this theme. Others think the rainbow is just a normal meteorological optical phenomenon and does not contain any metaphor.
Neither side could convince the other, and the production team didn't give any specific hints, so the subsequent progress was stuck.
However, SEXYcode and Freez encountered another problem:
The theme they drew didn't match the group's own style.
The theme that Freez drew was literature and art, but the songs their team created have always been cool and explosive dance music that express themselves and show off their personality.
To some people who don't like their songs, they sound a bit noisy.
Even in the album, they don't have any purely lyrical songs. Now they have drawn a literary theme, and they have to bring this literary theme song to the competition stage, which is definitely a big challenge for them.
If Freez only encountered challenges, then what SEXYcode encountered was not just a challenge but a subversion of the entire style.
Who would have thought that they would come up with the theme of the second dimension?
No matter how you look at it, this word doesn't fit in with their tough, hormone-filled image.
Do we have to ask them to imitate those guys in Akihabara and wear cosplay costumes on stage?
Thinking of this, a strange expression flashed across the members' faces.
In comparison, Originore and FOREVER are the ones that have made the most progress among the six groups.
The theme of the latter is very clear, it is traditional Chinese music. As for the former, if you want to perform explosively on stage, you can only rely on singing and dancing besides forming a band.
At this point, the directionality is already very clear.
Explosive dance music style.
Pineapple Entertainment, which had been prepared for a long time, selected several song demos that matched the theme from the company's music library for the members to choose from.
After discussion in the meeting, more than half of the members chose the song called "Fire".
As the only member of the team who is good at arranging music, Mo Bei optimized and adjusted the existing DEMO to make it more in line with the styles of the members.
Now that the song selection is done, all that remains is the choreography design.
First time is new, second time is familiar. This wasn't Zhong Gaoyi's first time choreographing, and this time, several other dance leaders from the team also joined in, significantly reducing the team's workload. It can be said that preparations for their new song's stage are proceeding in an orderly manner.
Unlike Originore's smooth progress, those groups that drew strange themes or were completely unfamiliar with themes had a difficult time.
However, no matter how difficult the idols' stage preparations are, the show will still be broadcast as scheduled.
Another week has passed, and the audience and fans who have been waiting for a long time have finally waited for the latest episode of "Battle of the Idols" to be broadcast.
After class, Cai Shumin returned to the dormitory and sat down at the desk. He opened the lunch he had packed from the cafeteria, propped his mobile phone on the table with a stand, and then happily clicked on this variety show to watch while eating.
After waiting for nearly a week, the new episode of "Idol Battle" is finally airing!
She couldn't wait to see the next round of performances. Of course, what she wanted to see even more was the daily interactions between the group members, both within and outside the group.
I inserted a straw into the kumquat lemon tea and took a big sip. The advertisement on the screen finally finished playing, and then the screen was filled with a barrage of comments.
[It’s finally airing! I’ve already rewatched the first episode and the first round of performances three times!]
[Hurry up, hurry up...]
[Jiang Mo Nan, Jiang Mo Nan, Jiang Mo Nan…]
[Facial genius Kwon Minwoo! Born idol Kwon Minwoo!]
Cai Shumin glanced at it and blocked out most of the meaningless love comments as usual, then began to watch it attentively.
The content of the second episode continues from the end of the previous round of performances, and the members soon face the challenge of a new round of performances.
Unlike the last time when each group performed their own representative work, this time the program team assigned them the task of preparing a brand new song and competing on stage within half a month.
[Oh, I thought there was going to be a group song swapping segment. I'm disappointed.]
[Even though we didn't exchange songs, it was fun preparing new songs. And fans can listen to our new songs again, isn't that a good thing?]
Cai Shumin agreed with this comment.
Although "Lemonade" is nice, she has been listening to it for more than a month.
As a newly debuted group, Originore still needs to release more songs and perform more performances to expand their circle and consolidate their popularity.
What's more, Originore has only released one song so far, so even if they were to swap songs, they don't have any other songs to swap with other groups. Some netizens also pointed this out in the comments section.
However, for those viewers who hope to have fun on this variety show, the lack of the song-swapping segment still feels like something is missing.
But in the end, they still underestimated the program team's ability to stir up trouble.
Because when the program staff took out the box for drawing lots and told them that they needed to draw lots to decide the theme of the new song for the next round of performances, the audience immediately became interested.
[666 The production team really knows how to have fun!]
[Speaking of which, this lottery box shouldn't have some random themes, right? Like women's clothing or something.]
[(Laughing sideways) The idea above is very dangerous.]
[To be honest, if it's women's clothing, I'd really like to see it.]
[Me too (doge)]
[+1]
[+10086]
[If nothing else, Bai Li is definitely suitable for women's clothing.]
[I clicked. This face is stunning on both men and women!]
[But he's too tall. The average height in mine is 180cm+.]
[It’s okay, there are tall beauties out there.]
[Speaking of women's clothing, I think our Song Keyu is also suitable. The child is still young and hasn't grown to 1.8 meters yet. He looks cute and wearing women's clothing is not out of place.]
[If you put it that way, I think our little iron can do it too.]
[Is it that we, Kwon Min-woo, are not standing high enough? (Picture) (Picture)]
[Holy crap! She's actually wearing women's clothing?]
[Has Kwon Minwoo ever filmed something this good?]
[I’ve played a cross-dressing role in TV dramas before, but that was when I first debuted.]
Just when the barrage and comment area were discussing which store was more suitable for women's clothing, a dramatic scene appeared in the show -
SEXYcode drew the 2D theme.
Holding the pulled-out note, Soichiro Yamada showed an indescribable expression.
"Do you want us to cosplay? Or sing the anime theme song?"
Shuichi Kazama shook his head. "The production team said we were going to perform a new song, not an anime theme song. But the new song had to be a two-dimensional theme."
"So you still want to do cosplay?"
Okayama Naoto scratched his head. "Like the maid outfits in Akihabara?"
He is not into the two-dimensional world, so his understanding of the two-dimensional world is still limited to the simple Akihabara maid cafe.
“…”
For a moment, silence spread.
Yamashita Takashi couldn't help but ask, "Wouldn't it be weird if we wore maid outfits?"
For a moment, the barrage of comments was so funny that it stopped working.
[Hahahaha, what a magical maid outfit!]
[I dared to imagine what they would look like in maid outfits, and the image was quite scary...]
[They probably have some serious misunderstanding about the 2D world.]
[Old fans, let me say this with all my heart: we uncles are all real-life characters, so we don't understand the meaning of the second dimension.]
The scene changed and the camera came to the LEVELUP dormitory again.
They drew the rock theme, and for a moment the five of them had complicated expressions.
In comparison, Originore exudes a casual and cheerful atmosphere from the moment the lottery draw begins.
When the fans saw the members collectively nominate Bai Li to draw lots, they laughed and said -
[To be honest, Bai Li is indeed lucky.]
And when Bai Li brought out an extremely normal topic "explosion", the discussion in the barrage increased instantly.
[Holy crap! So mysterious? Could this be arranged by the production team?]
[That shouldn't be the case. Didn't the production team say there were 50 lots in total? Whichever one you draw counts. Besides, the same box is used for drawing lots.]
[It is confirmed that Bai Li is the lucky star of the team.]
After drawing lots, Jiang Mo Nan asked the staff, "Have the other groups finished drawing? What are their themes?"
The theme of the new song that each group needs to perform has already been decided, so the program team did not deliberately conceal it.
After learning that LEVELUP had drawn the rock theme, Xu Tingchuan, who usually had a cold face, showed a touch of emotion, and his eyes were full of envy.
Seeing this, the mining fans seemed to realize something.
Sure enough, the next second, Xu Tingchuan began to suggest to his teammates that their new performance song could also be made in the style of death heavy metal.
For a moment, the barrage burst into laughter——
[I knew that Xu Tingchuan's rock 'n' roll heart would never die.]
[Xu Tingchuan: Rock and Roll! (Raises middle fingers with both hands)]
[Rock is fine, but death metal is better left out. Personally, I just can't appreciate it.]
[I didn't know what death metal was, but I just listened to it out of curiosity and almost died.]
[Yes, but are you sure this music is for people? I think it could be used for exorcism.]
[Don't be so harsh. What do you mean by "music that is definitely for people to listen to"? Have you considered the thoughts of us death metal fans?]
[However, not all death metal is so bad, some of it is quite exciting.]
When talking about death heavy metal, the topic in the barrage unknowingly went off track.
On the other hand, after a series of discussions and ideas, members of each group finally found a way to deal with the problem and began to gradually prepare new songs.
Originore's new song, titled "Fire," is a fiery dance track featuring a powerful wobble bass and bold synth highlights. True to the song's luminous flame theme, the song boasts a high-pitched melody and includes extended rap sections, a stark departure from their debut single, "Lemonade."
As a talent show group, Originore differs from other idol groups that debut through talent agencies. They don't need a fixed group concept. Because their contract is only two years long, they have a limited time to try out various musical styles and broaden their audience.
The song "Fire" was their first change in musical style after their debut.
The moment they heard the DEMO, the miners watching the show became excited.
[Oh my god, this song sounds so cool!]
[It feels great to have big things happen!]
[I can’t wait to see the performance of this song, it’s bound to be amazing!]
[gkd! gkd! I want to hear the full song!]
Meanwhile, SEXYcode, who had long been troubled by the theme of the anime, finally found a way out. They hired a renowned music producer from Japan, known for writing opening and EP titles for numerous anime, to create a song for them.
The moment they heard the song DEMO, the comments were all saying——
[This song sounds too much like the theme song of a passionate anime!]
[It has the feel of the OP of "One Piece".]
LEVELUP, who were assigned the rock theme, focused on intensive training in bass, guitar, drums, and keyboards. As for song selection, the company had already hand-picked the most suitable songs from their library. All that remained was for the members to practice and perform as a band.
This was their first time performing on stage as a band. The production team only gave them less than half a month to prepare, and they had no idea how the final performance would turn out.
In order to express the theme of Chinese traditional style, FOREVER has been practicing martial arts intensively recently. I don’t know what kind of performance they will present in the end.
On the other hand, the Kansai man who drew the rainbow theme decided to go for an inspirational lyrical song after a heated discussion.
Only Freez didn't make any big moves.
The theme they drew was literature and art, which didn't fit their group's musical style. To express this theme well and integrate it into their group's music in the most appropriate way, without any awkwardness, team leader Song Kanghe put a lot of thought into it.
He called members to meetings to discuss matters, and then wrote songs until midnight.
Finally, on the fifth day after the second round of performance tasks were released, Song Kanghe finally wrote a satisfactory product.
Because the progress is far behind other groups, the members need to make up for the progress lost in a more compact and efficient way.
Fortunately, the song they performed this time was purely standing still, so there was no need to choreograph a new dance, which saved some trouble.
However, standing-still lyrical songs are not their strongest point, so in order to make up for this weakness, they also added a lot of ideas to the visual aspects of the stage.
This time, LEVELUP, which also required a pure vocal performance, was also accompanied by a band performance, so the stage didn't seem monotonous. The only concern was whether they could master the unfamiliar instrument in a short period of time and present a perfect performance.
As for other groups that need to balance singing and dancing performances, after getting and becoming familiar with the new songs, they have also begun the second stage of dance preparations.
Everything is proceeding in an orderly manner.
Three days before the second round of performances, Mo Bei, who had just finished his evening practice and returned to the dormitory to prepare to wash up, suddenly heard a burst of intermittent guitar sounds coming from next door.
When I opened the window, I saw LEVELUP's captain Min Zhengyu sitting in the yard, holding a guitar and playing it seriously.
As if hearing the sound of the window opening, the boy below paused, raised his head in surprise, and then smiled at Mo Bei.
"Brother Mo Nan."
After spending nearly 20 days together, Min Zhengyu's Chinese has improved significantly. He can no longer hear the obvious K-country accent in simple words and sentences.
During this time, each group was busy preparing for their performances. Often, everyone was busy from morning till night. Therefore, even though they lived in the same area, they didn't have much time to chat.
Mo Bei noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the obvious fatigue on his face. It was obvious that he had suffered a lot from practicing guitar during this period.
The rehearsal and performance will be started in two days, but he is still staying up late to practice. It is obvious that things are not going well for him.
Although he was one of the opponents in the stage competition, Mo Bei was not the kind of person who would be happy when he saw his opponent in trouble.
He would rather have a fair and honest competition with his opponent on the stage. Therefore, he couldn't bear to watch Min Zhengyu go on stage in such a state.
Thinking about it, Mo Bei asked: "Do you need help?"
Worried that he might not understand, he repeated it in English.
Min Zhengyu was a little surprised to hear Mo Bei's question out of the blue.
"Brother Mo Nan knows...this?"
Seeing Mo Bei nod, Min Zhengyu's eyes suddenly lit up. Feeling a little embarrassed, he put down his guitar, stood up, and bowed slightly towards the window opposite.
"Then I'll leave it to you."
Mo Bei nodded slightly, "Then wait a moment, I'll be down soon."
Seeing Min Zhengyu's puzzled expression across from him, he realized that he had just spoken in Chinese.
Seeing that there was no one around, he quickly repeated it in Korean and disappeared through the window, leaving Min Zhengyu outside the window with a dazed look on his face.
"...Brother Mo Nan just spoke Korean?"
Wait, Brother Mo Nan actually knows Korean?
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