Thinker in the entertainment industry

Chapter 190 190. Selling Songs

Zheng Zhiyong is not always guarding the music ranking of "Mediocre". After returning from mama, he did one more thing:

He sold "time".

The buyer is gfriend.

gfriend is a six-member girl group that debuted in early 2015. Since their debut, there has been a momentum of "this girl group has a strong background", and the company is very generous in spending resources on them.But gfriend really came out, but there was a bit of an unexpected factor.During a performance on a rainy day, due to the slippery stage, the members fell eight times in a row but finished the performance calmly. As a result, a lot of news came out, and it was reported by the American Times and the British "Daily Mail". Their songs Therefore, it has achieved a retrograde on the music chart.

It sounds a bit similar to exid's "Up and Down" retrograde a year ago because of the sexy anchor and fan shoot, but in terms of word of mouth, gfriend is still a lot worse than exid at present, and their pure route has always been said to imitate their predecessors Girls' Generation and apink's strength can only be said to be average, and they are incomparable to mamamoo and redvelvet who debuted in recent years and can be used as a comparison group.

But popularity is not all dependent on strength, gfriend has already gained enough attention, especially the second return of the main hit "Starting Us Today" on the music source list is very good, the next return will be stable. Status is perfectly fine.As for the coincidence of routes, purity and sexiness are the kingly way, failure is a futile imitation, success is a new generation to replace the old one, Girls’ Generation has transformed into Yujie very early, apink has debuted for four years, besides Well, even if the seniors are not down, as long as the younger generation can catch fire, someone will naturally make a more refined classification, for example, the purity of gfriend is a more powerful "vitality type pureness".

Zheng Zhiyong is not keen on distinguishing all kinds of innocence and sexiness, he just thinks to express his feelings with "I haven't had time to say it, only I like you, it's like a childhood dream, like a miracle", It's much more fluent than "totally caught up, fascinated, in that soft voice, fascinated, fascinated, trembling me" (aoa "Pounding Heart") or something.

Maybe it's because I've been a rapper for a long time, even when writing lyrics for idol songs, I have to pay attention to style.Originally, when Zheng Zhiyong wanted to debut as an idol, he was quite thick-skinned in this regard. If he really debuted in Shinee, he would be able to sing "My Sister is So Beautiful".

Now... that's a shameful word, over.

But there is a small problem-"time" is not a love song, and it slightly overlaps with gfriend's alternative title "rough (time passes)".

GFriend's management company, SourceMusic, was very conflicted about this.

"The main concept of the third comeback is graduation, so I think "time" is very suitable, but the composer who created "Glass Beads" and "Start Us Today" wrote "rough" again."

"I understand," Zheng Zhiyong said, "but this time gfriend's comeback, how far do you want to make the album?"

Of course Zheng Zhiyong can understand. When gfriend is not in transition, it is safest to continue to use a composer's works, not to mention that Zheng Zhiyong has not yet written for the female group's main hit experience, even if the boy group is taken into account, ledapple and mq are not the main hits and became popular It's because of the afterthought of "Infinite Challenge", not to mention beast's "Yey", Zheng Zhiyong can't bear to think about it now.There is a reason for being able to get online with gfriend. The voices of the members in this group are not very different, and there is no need to add rap specially. Write songs for girl groups.

But if "time" is included in a girl group, why not sing it by himself? The "Infinite Challenge" kind of Luoyang shovel that can make the song popular a year ago is enough to use it once. No one even listens to the included songs of Girls' Generation. What is the difference between being a included song for gfriend and being wasted?

"If this comeback goes well, a regular album will be released next year."

"When?"

"summer."

Returned in January 2016, released a regular special in summer, there is no problem in terms of time interval: "There are many teams returning in summer." Most of the groups that have entered the stage of returning once a year set their return time in summer.

"The prelude song will be released in May, and the time to play songs is relatively short."

……

"make a deal."

It probably means this.

So the deal was finalized, Zheng Zhiyong was under a lot of pressure to make the song the main title, and it was a pity to do the recording, but the prelude song was actually just right.As for the five months left, will SourceMusic change their mind midway... If they are willing to offend cje;&m for this matter, they can change their mind as much as they want.

It feels good to have a big company as the backing, although the style of this company is "I'll get you whatever resources you want", but when it comes to "how to make people popular?", it withers.

The sale of the right to use the song was mainly discussed between Jung Jiyong and Bang Kihyuk representing CJ, and SourceMusic, but Jung Jiyong also met GFriend, who is preparing for the stage of various song competitions at the end of the year.

His heart is very calm, without any waves.

gfriend and him are not completely inseparable. Yu Zhou, a member of this girl group, once collaborated with loco on the ost "Accidental Spring" of the TV series "The Girl Who Sees Smells". This song is not always on the sound source The top of the chart, so it doesn't sound like a popular song, but in fact it is an evergreen tree on the music chart.The time has come to December, and the annual rankings of various music source charts are about to come out. Taking the most authoritative melon as an example, "Accidental Spring" ranks No.12, and the tenth place is "Yang Hua" by zion.t Bridge", No.11 is Jung Jiyong's "richman", followed by Im Changjung's "Love Again", and iu and Park Myungsoo's "leon". It is unexpected that "Accidental Spring" can achieve such a good result. Loco has made a lot of money because of this, and for gfriend, this makes their popularity this year more "destined".

But these did not make Zheng Zhiyong interested in gfriend as an artist. In his eyes, the popularity of this group is a victory for the project. If another group of people fit within this framework, the result would not be much different. If he is interested, he is more interested in people who write songs for gfriend.It is obviously a bit silly and sweet, but it is not embarrassing at all. Now kpop is constantly innovating on the route taken by the predecessors. In this regard, the team behind gfriend has done a very good job.

To talk about the characteristics of people themselves... or exid is more typical.

—I thought of them again.

Zheng Zhiyong’s several collaborations with exid before he became famous are really good memories, but exid took Zheng Zhiyong as a normal friend and a good partner, but Zheng Zhiyong was moved by An Xiyan, and now he is so embarrassing that he often thinks about it There is a sense of heartache.

It will be half a year, and I don't know how An Xiyan and Jin Junsu's relationship is going.

Zheng Zhiyong sighed, there were not many people who he knew before the fire, but there were not many people left who could get along naturally. Exid is because he is tempted by An Xiyan, the Cube group is also quite depressing, he knows that leaving Cube and signing with CJ will have an impact, but he did not expect such a big impact, Cube artists always When you go abroad, you don’t necessarily have to be in the same country if you want to meet up.

Take beast for example. In 2014, they were relatively concentrated in Korean activities, so Jung Jiyong was able to get acquainted with Yong Junhyung and Yoon Doojoon. In 2015, these guys went abroad more frequently. It is not so easy to meet.

After several twists and turns, Zheng Zhiyong only met Zhang Xiansheng who could only be described as "half dead".

"I've been running around during this period, concerts, fanmeeting, concerts, fanmeeting, I'm very busy, and I don't know what I'm busy with." Maybe it's because of the deep resentment, Zhang Xiansheng, who usually speaks very sparingly, also became verbose when complaining .Artists need to show their fans a good state when running the schedule, but Zhang Xiansheng really has an uncontrollable sense of boredom for the endless and repeated "xx friends, I love you" and the stage where he has performed countless times.

"Isn't there anything new?" Zheng Zhiyong said, "At the "Beautiful Show" in Shanghai, didn't you finish "The First Love of the Twenty Generations" by yourself?"

"Well, it felt okay that time."

"If I know about the solo stage with brother, I can go to feat." Anyway, there is no public schedule in early December.

"Forget it, it's inconvenient to go abroad."

"Didn't you forget?"

"……Yes."

Zheng Zhiyong showed a "really helpless" expression, and fell silently on the sofa at Zhang Xiansheng's house.

For the sake of his father’s third anniversary, he was absent from the fanmeeting, and when he met his sister outside but was photographed and received a lot of scolding, Zhang Xiansheng didn’t seem to care much about it as the person involved, and even had a bit of “a dead pig is not afraid of boiling water” Zheng Zhiyong was arrogant, but Zheng Zhiyong couldn't take the risk.He now lives in Mapo District, some distance away from the cube, so he ran a few more steps and arrived at Zhang Xiansheng's residence.At that time, Zhang Xiansheng was silent for a few seconds: "It's okay if I go to see your new home."

Zheng Zhiyong: "Do you have enough time?"

Zhang Xiansheng gave up being polite with Zheng Zhiyong.

"If there is a chance to sing in Korea, I will try to invite you." Zhang Xiansheng hesitated to speak, "I thought about asking you for a song like "The Era of Tolerance"——"

"now what?"

Why, didn't you just say this when we met last time?

Zheng Zhiyong felt that Zhang Xiansheng's state was very wrong, not just irritability.

The answer was Zhang Xiansheng's silence. It was not until the very patient Zheng Zhiyong couldn't sit still that Zhang Xiansheng opened his mouth: "Now... the will to be an artist has begun to fade, and the management of his own image and so on, It’s hard to continue. I just want to be a singer, a dancer, and I don’t have the identity of an idol, it seems a bit wishful thinking.”

Zhang Xiansheng's speech is not particularly logical, Zheng Zhiyong can understand the general meaning, but he still needs to confirm the specific situation: "The will to be an artist fades...what is it?"

"For example, if I open Instagram, I don't pay attention to my teammates, and I don't congratulate my teammates on their birthdays." Zhang Xiansheng's mouth moved, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. "You said that when Long Junheng's birthday, I post other things. How will those people scold me?"

Zhang Xiansheng’s ins has antis that started when he was solo. Of course Zheng Zhiyong knew about it, and after he was absent from fanmeeting, the antis became more active. There is also a group of self-proclaimed fans who say that Zhang Xiansheng has a bad attitude. Zhang Xiansheng was still the same when he posted on ins, he neither explained nor planned to correct his painting style.

Even Zhang Xiansheng, who follows his own sister and then unfollows it, and doesn’t chat on ins, it’s not surprising that he doesn’t interact with beast members online, but it’s weird and uncomfortable to fans.Reason is one thing, emotion is another.Regarding Zhang Xiansheng's stubbornness, Zheng Zhiyong was helpless and didn't know what to say.

"Does it have to be like this?"

"In that case, no matter what the result is, I should get it," Zhang Xiansheng said. , As if nothing happened, when the time comes to wake up from the dream, it will be more painful than being awake all the time."

If you can't maintain the illusion to the end, don't let fans go through the process of "from illusion to truth".

"...How did it become like this? What happened again?"

Zheng Zhiyong asked.

It's only been a few months, how did things get to this point?Although he knew that the situation there was gradually getting worse after he left Cube, Zheng Zhiyong did not expect it to become like this.

"Don't worry, this is my problem. The conflict with those people in the company is not a day or two, and I have endured it. It is my problem. My enthusiasm for the identity of 'idol' is fading."

"Isn't it because of the fan meeting?"

"External factors are not the most important—don't be like this, Zheng Zhiyong." Zhang Xiansheng insisted on his own opinion, seeing Zheng Zhiyong's face getting more and more wrong, he smiled and comforted, "Not everyone's later thoughts will deviate from the beginning It's so far away, it's just... I can't turn around, and you certainly won't."

Zhang Xiansheng rarely even used self-deprecation, but Zheng Zhiyong couldn't laugh: "Do you think I'm worried about this?"

But your brain circuit is really worrying...

"Can I change my wish?"

Zheng Zhiyong's rhetorical question made Zhang Xiansheng's pupils shake for a while, but he suddenly thought of something, and there was a faint light in his eyes.

Zheng Zhiyong had no idea: "Say."

"If you need a stage in the future, or if you need to express something in the form of a stage, bring me one." I don't know if it's an illusion. At this time, Zhang Xiansheng's appearance seems to be the most sincere since I met him today, "Ordinary The backup dancer is also available."