While Xu Wei was recording his album, Liang Liang was preparing songs for the Hanmei duo.
So far, they have four songs: "Help Help Help," "Shalala," "Child of the Forest" adapted from Tarzan and Jenny, and "The Future is Blooming Ahead" adapted from Ice Age.
Dance music is usually longer than regular songs. Each of these four pieces can be six or seven minutes long, but even so, the four pieces are only twenty-five or twenty-six minutes long, and the selection of the pieces is still necessary.
Since we're talking about the Ice Age, we can't leave out the famous song "La La La".
This resulted in five pieces of music.
Making a dance album with only five songs is a bit outrageous; it should have at least six to be acceptable.
Liang Liang racked his brains until he remembered that around 1998, a Nordic group called the Smiling Sisters sang a song called "Boys".
"Boys" means young men, similar to the Northeastern Chinese expression "小伙" (xiǎohuǒ).
There are quite a few songs called "Boys" by foreigners. Britney Spears even sang a song called "Boys," but it's not the same song by the Smiling Sisters that Liang Liang chose.
There's another song now.
It's just that the lyrics of foreign songs are often quite baffling.
If you can understand the lyrics of foreign songs, then nine out of ten of them have pretty silly lyrics.
In Liang Liang's opinion, it was at most the level of a junior high school student's composition.
More than a decade later, the term "pop songs" emerged in mainland China.
Let's talk about those songs with vulgar lyrics and no real substance.
In fact, if we extend this term back twenty years and apply it to popular songs from foreign countries, almost all of them would be considered "bubblegum pop" songs.
The reason why no one called foreign songs "bubblegum pop" was not only because of the prevailing Western-worshipping mentality at the time, but also because few people could understand them and didn't know what they were saying.
Take this song "Boys" as an example: Children, be my children.
I want to throw your body down.
Children, be my children
I'm ready tonight, darling.
Children, be my children
I want to be your lover.
Be my lover…
What is all this stuff?!
Liang Liang would absolutely not accept lyrics that sound like prostatitis. Even if his own lyrics weren't great, compared to these lyrics, he felt like a professor or mentor.
The melody is kept, but the lyrics are deleted and rewritten.
Since the goal was to create a groundbreaking dance music album, six tracks seemed too thin, so Liang Liang ultimately opted for a heavyweight track, "My Heart Will Go On".
That makes seven songs. If you then adapt two of your own songs into DJ versions, that's it!
Alright! Even if each of these nine pieces lasts five or six minutes, it will still take at least an hour.
It's considered a large disc on a cassette tape, and even on a VCD, sixty minutes isn't short.
After selecting the music, the next step is to revise and write the lyrics and arrange the music.
Finding the right melody wasn't difficult for him, but writing the lyrics was a real headache.
We should find two lyricists and have them write lyrics for these foreign songs from now on.
Although Liang Liang looked down on foreign lyrics, he still kept the lyrics to the song "My Heart Will Go On".
He wasn't entirely sure what the original lyrics of the song were like, but the translated version at least looked pretty good.
I see you and feel you every night in my dreams.
This is why I understand you.
Transcending the space and distance of our hearts
Show me your coming
Wherever you are, I firmly believe that our hearts are together.
Here in my heart
My heart will always be with you...
The lyrics may not make much sense, but at least they're presentable.
Liang Liang then didn't bother writing lyrics for the song.
When Liang Liang was choosing a song for the Hanmei duo, something quite interesting happened.
Two blonde, blue-eyed foreign women came to our door.
The two foreign girls introduced themselves as Hannah and Mia, and said they were German.
Liang Liang seemed to recall that there were many girls from the country named Na, but he didn't know if it was their surname or given name.
These two German girls are studying at Lianwan Foreign Language Institute. They love rock music and have their own little band.
The girl named Hannah told Liang Liang that they watched all the performances at the Haiyun Music Festival.
So that means they spent a lot of money on the music festival.
Now that it's summer vacation, they're going back to China for a holiday. Before leaving, they want to meet Liang Liang, who holds a prestigious position in the Lianwan rock scene.
Foreign women are incredibly bold; the implication is that, if possible, they might try to play some romantic games with Liang Liang.
Liang Liang naturally understood; even an idiot would understand if the two foreign women kept giving him the eye.
Although he doesn't object to riding foreign horses, it's definitely not allowed now.
When Hannah and Mia realized that Liang Liang wasn't interested in anything romantic, they changed the subject, saying that they would try to get the Blue Shark band to perform in Germany after they returned home.
Liang Liang didn't object to this idea.
As the two foreign women were leaving, they each bit one of Liang Liang's cheeks, then giggled and walked away.
Liang Liang shook his head. The foreigners' philosophy of life seemed to be in line with that of wild beasts.
Xu Wei's album recording is also coming to an end.
When Liang Liang went to the recording studio, he also participated in the harmony singing of the song "Too Softhearted" and listened to demos of some songs from the album.
"Xiao Liang! How's this album?" Xu Wei asked, somewhat unsure of himself.
After all, this album is the first work of Haiyun Audio Company since its establishment, so he is under a lot of pressure.
"Excellent! Absolutely excellent!"
"Then what's your estimate of how much he can sell for?"
How many do you think you can sell for?
Two hundred thousand?
"Two hundred thousand? Brother Xu, you're too timid. You need to be bolder and take bigger steps."
"How big of a step would that take?"
"I think a million is just passing, two or three million is good, five million is excellent, and ten million..."
"Forget it! I'm not going to listen to you anymore. You're always all talk and no action, and I don't have that kind of ambition."
"Hehe! Tell your sister-in-law to buy a safe and keep it at home."
"Buy a safe? What for?"
"To hold money! We need to buy a bigger one, otherwise it might not fit."
Xu Wei signed a 40/60 revenue split with Haiyun Records. If this album sells over five million copies, then we'll really be preparing a large safe.
Otherwise, there's a real possibility that it won't fit.
While Xu Wei was recording his album and Liang Liang was choosing dance tracks for the Hanmei group, Liu Wen began preparing for the album "Northeast Rock 2".
To be on the safe side, "Northeast Rock 2" will not be released in two parts like the previous book, but will only be released as one album with twelve songs.
Choose twelve bands, one song for each band.
This time, the scope of the song selection will truly expand to the entire Northeast region.
Bands from other provinces participating in the Haiyun Music Festival will also have tracks included in this album.
If the sales are similar, then they'll release Northeast Rock 3, 4, 5...
The workload is quite large.
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