Chapter 56 Chapter 56 Music Stage "Music Billboard" (2...
[Chapter 56, Single Plan]
"Listening to the Snow", released by Fang Yinnian on Valentine's Day, surpassed "Love You Every Day" by senior singer Ji Xiaoran and "Thinking of You at Night" by Tang Liao, and successfully topped the major music platforms.
These two singers are quite famous in the circle, especially Tang Liao, a senior who debuted for ten years. In recent years, he has also been active in various music variety shows and has a stable fan base and audience.
Why is Fang Yinnian a little idol?
Not only Xu Baichuan was surprised, but other singers in the same field were also surprised.
Someone sneered: "This is definitely data that was inflated by the Internet trolls hired by Shengyao Media."
Some people are jealous: "It's good to be backed by a big company. They provide a one-stop marketing and hype service. A new song can be hyped to number one."
People who say this have actually never heard Fang Yinnian's songs.
Just based on the inherent prejudice that "idols' singing skills are definitely terrible", they easily defined the other person as a young person.
Most people who have actually listened to Fang Yinnian’s new songs would give positive comments - his voice is very special, his emotions are very sincere, and his gentle lyrical songs can easily touch people’s hearts.
On Valentine's Day night, Fang Yinnian's Weibo followers exceeded 5 million, and his personal super topic followers also exceeded 1 million.
On major music platforms, many fans and passers-by also followed the singer Fang Yinnian, and Fang Yinnian's name entered the top 100 of the "Chinese Popular Singer List".
With such achievements after only releasing one song, people in the industry not only felt ridicule and jealousy, but also had a strong sense of crisis.
The young are so promising! If Fang Yinnian develops into a solo artist in the future, will he achieve greater success?
The idol’s singing skills and voice have always been criticized by the public. Can Fang Yinnian transform himself into a singer? Many people have this question.
At the same time, a lot of messy sarcasm and black pictures appeared in the #方隐年# topic area on Weibo.
"Fyn is the legendary Prince Shengyao?"
"Fyn is rich and willful, and any song he releases can hit the top of the charts."
"With the company's support, even a dog can become famous"
"Who on earth would like someone who looks like this [Fang Yinnian's black picture.jpg]"
Xu Baichuan saw all kinds of ridicule on the Internet and couldn't help but sigh - whenever Fang Yinnian made any move, the discussion level would instantly reach maximum.
Praise, scolding, encouragement, ridicule, all came out, a group of demons and monsters kept grabbing him.
This is the physique that is born to be a superstar!
He has a great ability to attract fans, and his haters are all over the Internet. Wherever he goes, he attracts people's attention, so he doesn't have to worry about lack of popularity.
He is only 19 years old and his family has no background. It is not easy for him to stand out in this fiercely competitive circle.
The next day, Xu Baichuan called Fang Yinnian over alone and told him, "Yinnian, you are still young, so we are not in a hurry to release solo songs. Just treat "Listening to the Snow" as a test. I will not arrange any plans for you to release solo songs before Christmas this year, okay?"
Fang Yinnian nodded and said with a smile: "No problem, I will cooperate with the team activities."
He cannot affect the team because of personal interests. FTM currently has many new song recording plans, and he has to catch up with his teammates.
Xu Baichuan said: "Next, concentrate on practicing the harmony of "Secret Garden", and continue practicing "Fiery" after this song is released. In the future, when the position of the FTM group is stable, I will also support you if you want to develop independently after graduating from university."
Fang Yinnian said happily: "Thank you, Brother Xu. Actually, I wanted to be a solo singer at first, but after meeting them, I think it's also good to develop with a group."
Thinking of his teammates, Fang Yinnian couldn't help but curl his eyes: "They are all very good people. I am used to getting along with them now. I would be reluctant to part with them."
Xu Baichuan raised his eyes to look at him: "Is this a sign of love?"
Fang Yinnian said seriously: "Well, I'm an only child. I don't have any brothers or sisters, and I haven't made any close friends. They are like my family, and I really like being with them."
Xu Baichuan smiled with relief: "You guys are getting along better and better, this is a good thing. Don't worry, you are only a sophomore now, how to develop in the future, we can talk about it after you graduate from your senior year. If you want to go solo or continue to join the group, we can discuss it in detail later."
Fang Yinnian nodded: "Yes!"
He was glad that his agent respected their opinions.
Although he released a solo single, he did not want to rush into going solo and breaking into the music industry. After all, FTM had not yet established a firm foothold, and he could not abandon his teammates at this time.
***
In the following time, the five people from FTM attended classes every day.
The second single "Secret Garden" was practiced quickly, and everyone recorded the final version in the studio and handed it over to the publicity department to decide the release date.
At the same time, the group dance for the third single "Hot" is also being practiced intensively.
The tempo of this song was twice as fast as "for the music". Mo Xun danced to it with ease, but Fang Yinnian and Tang Che were obviously struggling.
They practiced the group dance for the first song for a long time. This time the dance was more difficult and the tempo faster, so they had to spend more time learning each move.
Fortunately, Mo Xun has been teaching them patiently.
During the month of winter vacation, they spent every day in the practice room. Maybe because they danced so much, their bodies gradually adapted to the rhythm of the dance.
Fang Yinnian worked out with Mo Xun every day and developed a thin layer of abdominal muscles. With some muscles, the core strength for dancing would be more stable.
In the blink of an eye, it was the end of February, and FTM's second single "Secret Garden" was officially released on a weekend at the end of February.
This is a very gentle ballad. The music written by Teacher Yu can perfectly showcase the voices of the five people.
There are a large number of harmonies in the song, including double, triple and quintet harmonies, which bring out the advantages of the "harmony group" to the fullest!
What surprised netizens was that in addition to releasing the normal version of the song, they also released the separate track accompaniment on the K song platform.
Same as last time "for the music".
There was no cover contest this time, only the separate track accompaniment audio was released for netizens to cover freely.
The cover contest was very popular at the time, and the participating contestants and netizens all had a deep impression of the group FTM.
Maybe you can’t remember the names of these five people, but you will definitely remember their voices, which are very recognizable.
When they heard that the music group had released a new song, these fans came out and said, "I want to sing it!"
Many entertainment forums are also discussing this issue.
“The music group released a new song!”
"The karaoke platform released the separate tracks of the accompaniment. The pitch of this song is not that high, so I can sing along."
“I’ll record one and try it out.”
"I went to listen to it. The singing was very good and the harmony was a surprise!"
"The only song worth listening to from a Chinese male entertainment group is FTM, go listen to it now"
A large number of messages forwarding and promoting the content appeared online.
On the day of FTM's "Secret Garden" being released, it topped the new song charts on all major music platforms.
At the same time, the song also appeared on the "7-Day Cover Song Ranking" of the K song cover platform and rushed into the top three at an extremely fast speed.
More and more people know that the music group has released a new song, and more folk masters have spontaneously joined the "cover army".
Love songs have a slow tempo and are easier to cover than songs that require singing and dancing.
What's more, their harmony tracks are ready-made, so netizens can just sing a few lines and add their harmony to the mix, and it will sound great!
Covers of "Secret Garden" kept popping up on the homepage.
Some people even post their recorded songs on WeChat Moments, TikTok and other platforms as a display, attracting praise from a large number of relatives and friends.
"Did you listen to the new song of the music group today?"
“I found a bunch of cover songs!”
"Many of the big names from the last cover contest are out again, right?"
"The kids who won the championship also recorded a version, the children's voices are nice"
“There is also a female version, I recommend everyone to listen to this [link]”
“…”
Colleagues saw FTM's new song becoming so popular that they all had expressions like "old people on the subway looking at their phones."
They don't understand.
Why would a new song released by an idol boy group be so popular?
Aren’t idol boy band’s songs all “fan circle limited” works just to please their fans? Why can FTM break out into another track? !
Why are FTM's songs so popular?
Is it just because of the cover contest?
Many music companies and singers' management teams in the industry have started a round of "seminars" all centered around FTM's marketing strategy.
After a long analysis, everyone came to the conclusion: "Their manager is pretty good. He brought out Xie Shiqi in the past and has a lot of ideas for managing singers."
"Xu Baichuan is still quite capable. The millions he spent on the cover contest last time was totally worth it. He has cultivated a large number of fans on various platforms. From now on, whenever FTM releases a song, the cover circle will be the first to become popular."
"The unique promotional method has really helped the band gain popularity. FTM now has a very good public reputation, and when it releases new songs, many passers-by will be willing to listen to them."
"Fuck, why didn't I think boy bands could play like this."
"They are called Yintuan, and it seems that they are on the music track, which is different from the traditional idol track."
“…”
After much research in the industry, the credit was ultimately attributed to agent Xu Baichuan, who was said to be good at operations, marketing, and had a lot of ideas.
Xu Baichuan heard about this from a friend.
"Old Xu, everyone in the industry is praising you as a god. They say you have a lot of ideas and are good at marketing and hype. We want to learn from you."
"They were still holding a seminar there, discussing why FTM's songs became popular. They studied it for several days. It made me laugh to death."
"There are even singers' teams that have collaborated with Kugou and offered higher prize money to hold a cover contest. Let's learn from you, hahaha."
Xu Baichuan: “…”
She's just imitating others.
The key to the success of the FTM cover competition lies in the rich harmonies. The DIY method of dividing the music into several different tracks can inspire folk singers' creative desire.
In addition, the five of them have good images, good temperaments, and nice voices, so even if they are idols, they will not be offensive.
Xu Baichuan sighed and replied: "Some people in the industry still can't see through the phenomenon to the essence."
An old friend asked: "Then what is the essence of your FTM's popularity? Isn't it because of your powerful marketing?"
Xu Baichuan smiled and said, "The key to their popularity is because of themselves. If you ask me to start a group like this again, I can't do it myself because these five are irreplaceable."
There is no other group in the entire domestic entertainment industry that has such perfect and harmonious combination of voice and image.
It can be said that FTM will be a boy band that is unprecedented and will never be seen again, and it will also be a unique existence that will be hard to find a substitute for in the domestic entertainment industry for many years to come.
This is the real source of Xu Baichuan’s confidence.
Publicity and marketing are just icing on the cake.
The key is that they are gold themselves, which is why they can shine so quickly.
***
In March, a bunch of "cover competitions" suddenly appeared on K-song platforms, and many veteran singers released their own song accompaniments and paid to participate in the competitions.
The five FTM members were collectively shocked after seeing this.
Fu Fei complained: "Fuck, the industry is learning from us!"
Tan Junwen chuckled and said, "Just follow the trend."
Mo Xun analyzed: "Capital is best at copying and imitating. They think FTM's songs became popular because the cover competition attracted a large number of fans, so they followed suit."
Tang Che said coldly: "Then wish them success."
Fang Yinnian smiled but said nothing—he felt that the cover singing contest he held later wouldn’t make much of a splash.
Because the first person to eat the cake can get the most bonus.
Sure enough, although a few singers who later followed FTM's example and held cover competitions also gained popularity through marketing, they were far less popular than FTM's initial nationwide cover success.
Netizens have been complaining: "Why are everyone imitating FTM to hold a cover competition?" "FTM's track separation is still more fun."
Therefore, every time a singer holds a cover contest, FTM’s original cover works will be found and revisited by netizens.
This is actually a disguised way of helping FTM to get free publicity.
***
April soon arrived. Apart from going to school every day, the five of them spent the rest of their time singing and dancing in the company.
Fang Yinnian's number of fans has increased at an alarming rate in recent times, and he has also gained a high reputation in school.
Although Jiangzhou Conservatory of Music has produced many singers, among the younger generation, especially the students still in school, there is only one person, Fang Yinnian, who has made a name for himself.
The teachers were particularly nice to him. When he wanted to ask for leave for something, it was approved very quickly. After all, "star students" are helpful for art schools to recruit students.
When class was over that day, two female juniors came to him boldly and asked for his autograph: "Brother Yinnian, we are freshmen from the vocal music department. We like you very much. Can you sign for us?"
Fang Yinnian was stunned for a moment, then said with a smile, "Of course."
It's actually quite embarrassing to meet fans at school. Just now when he was signing autographs, all the classmates were looking at him.
Fang Yinnian walked to the subway station in a troubled mood. When he saw Mo Xun waiting for him from afar, he suddenly felt much more at ease.
He relaxed his brows and walked over quickly: "Mo Xun."
Mo Xun smiled and nodded at Fang Yinnian: "Let's go."
The two were about to turn around and enter the subway station when suddenly, a dozen girls rushed over and surrounded them.
"Ahhhh Mo, it's really you guys!"
"Yinnian Yinnian, can you sign an autograph for us?"
"Ahhh so handsome!"
Fang Yinnian and Mo Xun looked at each other in surprise.
The fans were so crowded and the screams were deafening.
Mo Xun calmly extended his hand to protect Fang Yinnian and said with a smile, "Everyone line up and we will give you autographs, okay? Don't crowd."
Several fans lined up immediately after hearing this.
Fortunately, there were not many people, so Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian signed quickly. As Fang Yinnian signed, he asked the girl with braids in front of him, "How did you know that Mo Xun and I would be at this subway station?"
The girl was questioned by her idol, her voice trembling with excitement: "It was said on the Internet that your classes and course schedules have been exposed..."
A girl next to them was relatively calm and said, "We saw the news and tried our luck, but we didn't expect to actually see you two."
"Come on, many people in our class like FTM!"
"Thank you." Fang Yinnian handed them the autograph book, "Everyone go back first, we have to go back to the company."
"Goodbye every year!" "Brother Mo is so handsome, come on!"
Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian walked quickly into the subway station.
After the subway started moving, Mo Xun frowned and whispered in Fang Yinnian's ear, "Fortunately, it was just fans who came to ask for autographs, not stalkers, so they didn't chase us."
Fang Yinnian's heartbeat is still disordered. Before, he had only met fans at public events such as airports and evening parties.
Today was the first time that fans broke into his daily life. He was very uncomfortable and felt that his privacy was violated.
Fortunately, he is not a sasaeng fan.
If they encounter a sasaeng fan who keeps following them on the subway, they will probably have to call the police and go to the police station to give a statement.
Fang Yinnian took a deep breath and asked in a low voice: "That girl just said that our class schedule was exposed on the Internet?"
Mo Xun's eyes darkened: "Well, it seems that someone wants to disgust us deliberately and cause trouble for us."
Fang Yinnian became more and more upset the more he thought about it: "This will affect our normal classes. What should we do?"
Mo Xun said, "We will drive to school starting tomorrow. If we leave early, there will be no traffic jams. No one should recognize my car."
Fang Yinnian nodded helplessly: "It's just what I have to do for now."
After returning to the dormitory, Fang Yinnian asked the other teammates.
Everyone actually met fans.
Mo Xun called his agent to report the incident, and Xu Baichuan said, "I have already contacted them to delete the post that exposed your class schedule online, but it has already been downloaded and circulated among fans, so it cannot be completely deleted."
Mo Xun frowned. "Can you restrain them? I'm afraid if too many people gather and something goes wrong, we FTM will be on the headlines."
Xu Baichuan said: "The large number of offline fans shows that your popularity has risen. Don't worry, I will ask the fan club to issue a statement tomorrow, hoping that fans will keep their distance and not disturb your normal study and life."
With the agent's words, everyone felt relieved.
The next day, FTM's official studio and fan club jointly issued a statement, hoping that everyone would "chase stars" rather than "pick stars." In addition to being artists, the five members of FTM are also students. Don't go to schools or subway stations to block them, which will affect their normal study and life.
Most fans are relatively rational and listen to advice.
A small number of radical fans who could not be controlled were still waiting at the subway station - from that day on, the five people dared not take the subway anymore.
Xiaofei's school is very close, and Tang Che and Junwen go the same way, so Xu Baichuan arranged for Master Jiang to pick them up and drop them off at school every day.
Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian drove to school by themselves. After a few days, the fans who were waiting there failed to block them and gradually dispersed.
This matter was suppressed by the economic team.
But Fang Yinnian still felt uneasy about the person behind the leak of the five-person course schedule - their FTM became popular too quickly, and there were many people in the circle watching them, hoping that they would make mistakes, right?
Even if they don't make mistakes themselves, there will be people who maliciously set traps and lead them to make mistakes. In this circle, every step they take is like walking on thin ice.
The more this happened, the harder the five people worked.
They must become extremely popular and make those who are pulling their strings behind their backs jealous!
***
It is the end of April.
Everyone finally mastered the dance for the song "Hot" and the audio source for the studio version was also completed.
Fu Fei curiously asked his agent: "Brother Xu, when will our third single be released? Will it be released in time for the May Day holiday?"
The first song "for the music" and the second song "Secret Garden" are both directly released on the music platform.
Everyone naturally thought that the third song would also be put on the shelves directly.
Unexpectedly, Xu Baichuan kept it a secret: "We want to come up with something new in the release format of the third single."
Fang Yinnian noticed that his agent was very busy recently.
In the past, when they were practicing in the company, Xu Baichuan would often come over to inspect, but in the past month, he has rarely been seen.
Could what you are busy with be related to the new song?
Fang Yinnian smiled and said, "Brother Xu, what's new? Can't you tell us?"
Facing Fang Yinnian's curious eyes, Xu Baichuan's heart softened, and he said helplessly: "Okay, okay, I wanted to talk about it after signing the contract, but I'll tell you first, it's almost settled anyway."
What does it mean to sign a contract? Everyone pricked up their ears immediately.
Xu Baichuan cleared his throat and explained, "Yuntu TV and Taohe Platform are going to jointly create a program called "Music Billboard". This will be the first official music promotion stage in the domestic entertainment industry."
Mo Xun's eyes lit up—a singing stage? !
There are many music promotion stages in Japan and South Korea, especially in South Korea. The competition in their music promotion method is quite cruel. Solo singers and idol groups releasing new songs have to compete on the same stage, and their rankings are determined on the spot.
Such a singing stage is also the best way for singers to promote themselves.
There is currently no official live broadcast stage for singing performances in the domestic entertainment industry, and most music variety shows are recorded and edited before being broadcast.
Yuntu TV is one of the three highest-rated TV stations in China, and Taohe platform is an ultra-large video platform with over 100 million users. This music show created by a powerful collaboration will surely trigger a new craze, right? !
Mo Xun likes dancing and also loves the stage very much. He was very excited after hearing the news and couldn't help asking, "Is it a live show with live performances and rankings on the spot?"
"That's right." Xu Baichuan said with a smile, "The first episode will be officially aired in May. Singers who release new songs this year can bring their works to this stage to perform, and the public jury will vote on it on the spot."
The five of them looked at each other, excited and nervous at the same time.
Live performance, live voting, all with the microphone on, the pressure is huge. What if the performance goes wrong, the number of votes will be terrible, right?
"Where does the jury come from?" Fang Yinnian asked curiously.
"Yuntu TV has recruited 1,000 people from all over the country, including music critics, music producers, and media reporters," Xu Baichuan revealed. "They will listen to the songs live and vote for them. A weekly champion will be selected and a prize of 50,000 yuan will be awarded."
"There's actually a bonus?" Fu Fei scratched his head, "Isn't this a little too little?"
"The prize money is just a gimmick. The key is that this is the first live broadcast of singing in the domestic entertainment industry, which will definitely attract a lot of attention."
Xu Baichuan smiled and said, "Do you want to be the first to try this?"
"Yes!" the five people said without hesitation.
"Very good. I will go sign the contract tomorrow. You will be on the first week's show. You can sing our third single "Burning Heat"."
"FTM will release the first single on Billboard Music, and the program team will also cooperate in the promotion. I hope that this novel way of releasing songs can bring some surprises to your fans and the entire domestic entertainment industry."
The five people looked at each other, all of them were extremely excited.
The agent is still very thoughtful and let them go on music shows instead of continuing to take on those funny variety shows.
Music shows test their professional qualities. Participating in more such shows can hone their singing skills and allow them to improve faster.
That night, everyone practiced dancing until very late before going home.
Fu Fei said happily: "Our sword dance this time is even more handsome than last time. I am very confident about the stage performance!"
Mo Xun said calmly: "It also depends on who the opponent is. In the first episode, we should invite some influential singers to stabilize the scene."
Fang Yinnian echoed, "That's right. With this method of live broadcasting and live PK, if the opponent is very strong, we may not be able to win."
Fu Fei scratched his head: "Will I be scolded if I lose?"
Mo Xun said: "It doesn't matter, we just need to do our best and treat it as a publicity platform. There is no need to have too much pressure."
Although they say this, everyone still feels very stressed.
After all, it’s a live voting PK. How embarrassing it would be if they made mistakes in their performance and came last?
Mo Xun was very calm and said, "The stage for the song promotion will not be as complicated and large as the New Year's Eve and Spring Festival Galas we participated in, and the singers will not design particularly cool entrances. The stage space is limited, so we can just dance in the practice room, and everyone should relax."
After hearing the captain's words, the others also breathed a sigh of relief.
In any case, as the first music program in the domestic entertainment industry, it is bound to cause various controversies when it is broadcast. The result doesn’t matter. Just because they dare to go on stage, they have already defeated a group of “studio singers” who dare not use the microphone.
***
On May 1, the five FTM members flew to Cloud City together.
At the same time, the official Weibo account named "Music Billboard" finally released the official news:
"The first issue of Music Billboard, jointly created by Yuntu TV and Taohe Platform, will be broadcast simultaneously on Yuntu TV and Taohe Video APP at 8 pm on Saturday, May 3!"
"The rules for the song competition are: a judging panel consisting of 1,000 volunteers will score the singers based on their performance on the day and rank them."
"The first round of contestants are as follows, in alphabetical order—"
"FTM boy band "Fire"
"He Yan's "Chasing Light"
"Ji Ying's The Thorn Birds"
"Tang Liao's "Night Thinking of You""
"Zhong Xiulin's "Going Against the Wind""
The entire domestic entertainment industry was stunned when seeing this list and publicity.
Live broadcast of singing with microphone on? ! You guys are so brave!
And how come these FTM idols are also in it? They are so brave.
The online public opinion exploded completely, and #MusicBillboard# became a hot topic discussed by netizens.
"Is there finally a stage for singing in the domestic entertainment industry?"
"It's going to be fun!"
“Whether it’s a mule or a horse, bring it out for a walk. All the big singers should come and see their strength~”
“I guess some people don’t dare to come, especially those who like lip-syncing.”
"There are also the half-open mic group and the 20% open mic group. Are you here to embarrass yourself?"
"All those who have released songs recently should go. It's such a great promotional opportunity. Come and sing live!"
"This show must be a lot of fun, I must try it out."
Meanwhile, in the FTM dormitory, Mo Xun had a complicated look on his face, because he received a message from He Yan: "Fuck, you guys are going to the music billboard too? We bumped into each other!"
Mo Xun sent a smiling face over: "Brother Yan, what a coincidence."
He Yan sent an emoji of someone sharpening a knife: "I won't be polite to you."
Mo Xun: “…”
Xiao Fei was already howling nearby: "Oh my god, the first episode is full of seniors! Our company's Brother Yan is considered a junior in this lineup, right? Teacher Ji Ying is actually here!"
Ji Ying is already 50 years old. During the New Year's Eve party, she sang four songs in a row with the microphone on, which made Fang Yinnian admire her very much.
I didn't expect that she would also come to the stage to promote her song.
Isn’t this guest of honor a little too awesome?
Fang Yinnian took a deep breath and said with a smile: "Our singing skills cannot compare with those of our predecessors. Come on, everyone. No matter what the final result is, we will go all out!"
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