Chapter 569: Kill That Changshan Man (Part 1)

PS: The prototype for this variety show is the Bilibili show: "Do You Listen to My Music?"

It is currently airing; those interested can go and have a listen.

Main Text:

"Gather up!"

"Is it starting?"

"Finally going to meet the mentors."

"Do you guys know who the mentors are this time?"

"No idea, but I heard they're all big shots."

"I actually have some inside information; rumor has it there's a super big shot among the super big shots in there."

"That sounds like they must be quite old then."

……………………

In the corridor, the contestants chatted as they walked, their hearts a mix of excitement and nervousness.

On one hand, they were about to meet the mentors, and the show would begin recording shortly, making some feel anxious about the outcome.

On the other hand, after brief exchanges with everyone, being fellow music creators and so young, many harbored a competitive spirit.

Many couldn't wait to show their own work to the other contestants; they wanted recognition and craved praise.

Of course, the production team would definitely give them the opportunity to showcase themselves, but it had to be done one by one according to the process.

Led by actual staff members, the contestants arrived at a patch of grass on the west side of the Cross-Century Village.

There wasn't much decoration or equipment here, just three chairs and a table, clearly reserved for the mentors, while the contestants sat directly on the ground.

"Welcome everyone to Cross-Century Village. Here, you will begin three months of competition and learning. Three months later, only five of you will remain on this final stage.

By then, not only will you receive the generous creative fund provided by the production team, but there will also be special rewards waiting for you."

The explanation of the competition format came through the broadcast overhead, and the contestants felt a slight surge of tension upon hearing this.

5 out of 43 remaining—this competition was not just ordinarily intense.

Just as everyone was discussing what the specific format would be like, the broadcast voice sounded again: "Next, please welcome our three creative mentors."

Before the words had even faded, from behind a billboard not far away, two women and one man—the three mentors—walked out.

After seeing clearly who the mentors were, the contestants were dumbfounded.

"It's Xu Shan! All my classmates love listening to his songs!"

"This is the first time Xu Shan has been on a variety show in the ten-plus years since his debut, right?"

"This is absurd, they even invited Miss Luo Quan."

"As expected, a super big shot among super big shots."

"Welcome the winner of fifteen Grammy trophies—my idol!"

"Yang Li is also a top-tier powerhouse, a diva-level singer!"

"Is the investment this big this time? Impressive, my Bilibili."

………………

The appearance of the three mentors immediately ignited the emotions of the contestants.

It is no exaggeration to say that many of the contestants grew up listening to the songs of these mentors.

And although Miss Luo Quan was young, her songs were definitely the ones everyone had played the most in the last two years!

These three were all household names, top-tier stars in the Chinese music scene, and all of them possessed both strength and fame.

"Good afternoon, everyone." Miss Luo Quan was wearing a white T-shirt paired with sky-blue jeans today, looking fresh and beautiful. As the chief mentor, she naturally took charge of the scene.

And the moment she spoke, she immediately received a neat and loud response from the contestants: "Good afternoon, Mentor!"

"From today on, the three of us will be your mentors. In the coming time, we will grade your work, and at the same time, if you encounter any problems or feel lost in your creation or life path, you can ask us."

Although she was the same age as the contestants before her, Miss Luo Quan had experienced so much in the last two years that the confident and relaxed aura she exuded when speaking made the contestants very convinced.

"Before the competition officially begins, we still need to perform a small ceremony." After Miss Luo Quan finished speaking, she took a slight step back, handing the camera over to Xu Shan.

After all, with three mentors, she certainly couldn't take up all the screen time.

When it was Xu Shan's turn, he took a cassette tape from a staff member, held it up, and said to the contestants: "Our show will have a total of ten episodes. Each episode will select a 'Popularity King' song based on votes, which will be included in our show's original soundtrack.

After the show ends, this soundtrack will be released in the form of an album. At the same time, the three of us mentors will each produce a song to be included in it, and they will be released at different times during the show."

Then, Yang Li took over the conversation and continued: "So, everyone needs to rest and work hard starting now. Because it's an original soundtrack, your performances on stage will be the songs to be recorded. Perform well."

On-site performance has always been a difficult problem that plagues singer-songwriters.

The contestants before them were all very young, and it was hard to say what level their singing skills could reach.

However, at least when the camera turned to the contestants, not a single one showed a bitter expression; they all seemed full of confidence.

After the matter of the original soundtrack was explained, Yang Li took out a bottle, and staff members walked up to distribute paper and pens to the contestants.

"Now, please write down your hopes on the path of music. What you think about the future, what you want—you can all write it down."

People always need to have a wish, whether it's realistic or not doesn't matter, even if it's whimsical, because what if it actually comes true one day?

In short, the contestants' ideas were all imaginative.

Some wanted to be like Miss Luo Quan and win fifteen Grammy trophies.

Some wanted to become world-renowned singing kings.

Some wanted to form a band, get all the young people in the country moving, and play music together.

……………………

Dreams, they always sound so beautiful.

But soon, one must face reality.

After the outdoor activities ended, the group relocated to the indoor stage on the north side of the village, where most of the show's competitions would take place.

The stage was equipped with a massive number of LED screens; one could imagine how dazzling the stage effects would be once they lit up later.

The contestants and mentors took their respective seats, and soon a group of public judges entered from outside the room; half were Bilibili music creators who possessed some musical literacy, while the other half were pure young passersby, invited solely because they were interested.

As for the mentors, two more arrived.

One was Miss Luo Quan's senior fellow student from Shangyi and an old acquaintance—Kong Yue; the two hadn't seen each other since the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala ended last year.

The other was the well-known domestic music producer Jing Liang, the oldest and most experienced mentor present.

Of course, because he had always worked behind the scenes, his fame wasn't necessarily as loud as the other mentors, but the contestants basically all recognized him.

Before the competition began, the production team read out the rules: contestants would take the stage to perform by pressing the buzzers in their hands, and the first person to perform could choose another contestant to face off against.

After both performed, the mentors and public judges would score them, and then the scores previously given by the off-site music critic panel would be added; the higher scorer would enter the A-side, and the lower scorer would enter the B-side.

The competition format was very simple, but for the person who went on stage first, choosing an opponent was a technical skill.

Because if one didn't choose well, it was very easy to end up choosing oneself into the B-side.

However, everyone was still keeping a low profile, so they were all very confident, until the first contestant took the stage.

Whether it was a coincidence or intentionally arranged by the production team, Hao Shuai, who had had a lot of screen time previously, actually grabbed the first spot and was the first to take the stage to perform.

His music critic score was 45 out of a possible 60, ranking seventh among the contestants.

A quite good ranking, and the time he had spent learning music was also significant; he had formed a band.

"Not very old, but the resume is quite rich." Xu Shan praised him slightly.

Hao Shuai nodded and thanked him; off-stage he was cheerful and talkative, but after getting on stage, he became much quieter.

The performance began, the song title "Sleepless Tonight."

Hao Shuai held a cool-looking electric guitar, but the music he played sounded so gentle, and his singing voice was like a low murmur when a mother coaxes a baby to sleep.

In the first half of the song, the melody was soft and pleasant, and Hao Shuai's performance was quite steady.

But such a level, for the mentors, obviously could not satisfy their expectations.

Miss Luo Quan always felt that Hao Shuai's strength shouldn't be limited to this; there should be more surprises!

Sure enough, as soon as the second part of the song began, the surprise arrived.

The lyrics were still the same as before, but the singing style had undergone a earth-shattering change.

The soft pop voice immediately turned into a raspy and highly metallic rock voice; the texture of this voice was even more outstanding than Yun Jingxiao's.

In other words, this was a rock genius with even better talent than Yun Jingxiao!

Once the rock voice came out, the sound of the electric guitar also immediately began to explode on stage; the change in style happened in an instant.

If the front was gentle, then the back could only be described as brutal; not only was it cool and passionate, but the volume of the singing was also ridiculously high.

Rock must be intense, and after injecting true feelings, the scene would become somewhat exaggerated or noisy.

And this singing style of Hao Shuai's was undoubtedly bringing the passion belonging to rock to the extreme; the singing voice not only had technique but was also full of emotion.

And in the final stage of the song, he used his true voice to raise the key 9 times in a row, clearly enunciating the words while hitting A5, which truly shocked a group of contestants and mentors.

This vocal range, let alone domestically, was rare even on a global scale.

There were nearly a hundred people on site, and the strongest in singing skills were the pair of senior and junior sisters, Miss Luo Quan and Kong Yue.

The former was the genius singer who sang "The Phantom of the Opera" and hit the e6 long vibrato, jokingly called a human whistle by foreign netizens.

And the latter was a judge for the Youth Singer Competition, the number one person of the young generation in folk singing, and also a top-tier existence in the national team.

Even these two industry giants, after hearing Hao Shuai's interpretation, showed shocked expressions, which showed how ridiculous his vocal function and singing skills were.

After the performance ended, Miss Luo Quan, having received a system prompt, was the first to speak: "Hao Shuai, aren't you afraid of hurting your throat by using your true voice?"

"Uh... it's alright, actually I could go higher, but if I blindly pursue height, it might affect the listening experience; actually, my vocal range is quite good." Hao Shuai smiled, his voice not having changed much due to the performance.

Miss Luo Quan nodded: "I heard it, the quality from low to high is very good.

However, this is a stage for creators, and everything must be based on the quality of the song.

Your song is very good; the melody, accompaniment, and other aspects are very mature, but you need to polish the lyrics well.

You sing rock; being too negative is not a good thing. Maintaining passion and hope can allow you to bloom with surging vitality in rock.

Even those who sing death metal have lyrics full of rebellion and criticism; simply put, it means having substance and reason. Your lyrics are a bit hollow."

As a mentor, Miss Luo Quan would not ignore a singer's shortcomings because of their excellent aspects; she would directly point out which areas needed improvement.

Perhaps she might hurt the contestant because the way she said it was too direct, but she couldn't play dumb; saying it early now was better than letting him suffer later.

And Hao Shuai, after listening to Miss Luo Quan's critique, was generally more happy than worried; at least there were no big problems with his song, and his live performance this time was also completed quite well, with almost no flaws.

Now, it was his turn to choose an opponent.

Looking up, many contestants showed smiles uglier than crying, obviously shocked by his strength and not wanting to face off against him.

Hao Shuai didn't torture them either; he quickly chose the one with the longest learning time, a talented creator with eight years of experience.

This fat girl named Jin Ya also had two years of professional producer experience and had sung promotional songs for some well-known games; the music critic score was 51, ranking fifth.

And the song she brought was indeed of quite good quality.

Of course, that was by the standards of ordinary people.

The melody wasn't particularly catchy, but the production, memory points, and singing skills were all excellent and mature, belonging to a song above the standard level.

But in Miss Luo Quan's view, this was just an ordinary European and American assembly-line love song.

A typical representative that was neither good nor bad, but in the big environment of China, it was a good song above excellent; if released immediately, it would very likely be popular for a while.

But from the perspective of the viewing experience, this song was far inferior to Hao Shuai's song, and the lyrics were even more pretentious than Hao Shuai's.

However, the public review panel was already high from listening, rocking along with Jin Ya and the stage lights.

The song ended, and Jin Ya, after some singing and dancing, was panting heavily; mentor Xu Shan gave some encouraging comments, while mentor Yang Li asked her to further strengthen the production of the melody and lyrics.

In short, this evaluation had already euphemistically expressed that she was not as good as Hao Shuai.

Judging from everyone's expressions in the contestant seats, the evaluation of the mentors was also...

However, when the final scores of the two came out, it shocked everyone.

Hao Shuai: Music critic score 45 (out of 60), mentor score 26 (out of 30), public score 97 (out of 150), total 168.

And Jin Ya's scores were 51, 18, and 130 respectively, totaling 199.

Jin Ya won by a large margin!