Chapter 316: The Setting Sun and the Morning Sun

For the Mandarin music scene, Luo Dayou and Li Zongsheng are undoubtedly two peaks that ordinary people find hard to scale, and they are also figures that many young creators bring up for comparison once they make a name for themselves.

Between the two, Luo Dayou, who is more versatile and covers a wider range of themes and music genres, basically sits firmly in the top chair as the godfather of the Mandarin music scene.

As a singer in the field of pop music, Luo Dayou reached this status with his broken gong-like voice, relying entirely on his pioneering contributions to the development of Mandarin pop. The Mandarin pop before him and after him, though from the same year, can exaggeratingly be said to belong to two completely different eras.

A one-sentence evaluation: He redefined the Mandarin music scene.

He plays rock, he plays punk, he plays Lei Gui, he plays soul, he plays jazz, he plays R&B, he plays folk songs, and even the so-called Chinese style—he plays that too.

Almost all the music styles that prevailed in the Mandarin music scene after the millennium had already been played by Luo Dayou.

Moreover, the content he sings is not just about romance and fleeting beauty, but also intense social and humanistic care, as well as ethereal yet realistic poetry and distant horizons.

Due to the times, some people might listen back after the millennium and feel that Luo Dayou's songs or albums have a somewhat rough production quality in comparison.

But apart from that, whether in melody, arrangement, or instrumentation, Luo Dayou's songs would not be outdated even in the internet traffic era where temperaments are increasingly irritable and rhythms are increasingly fast; they remain fresh with every listen.

This is why among music scene creators, some are called "Little Li Zongsheng," some are called "Little So-and-So," but no singer has ever been given the title "Little Luo Dayou" since their debut.

The Apple Daily is equally cunning in this regard.

If you single out Li Zongsheng, the topic is hard to ferment because, strictly speaking, he and Zhou Yi are not in the same track.

But adding Luo Dayou makes it different.

As a rare—no, one should say a rare native all-rounder capable of spanning multiple music genres in the Mandarin music scene, Luo Dayou is a benchmark—

A benchmark with extremely high influence and status; his core support base is mostly the middle-aged people who have now become the backbone of society.

And the core fan base of Zhou Yi, who is similarly labeled as an all-rounder, happens to be teenagers and young adults.

One is an old god who has sat in the top chair for nearly twenty years, representing exactly the memories and the past of an era. Though the peak has passed, the lingering power remains;

The other is a new god who rose after the new century, representing exactly the arrival of a new era. Roaming with dominance, full of high spirits.

Past and future: a natural point of opposition, a news-making machine.

More importantly, Luo Dayou is the face of Rock Records, and Rock Records itself is continuing to decline due to investment losses and a sluggish record market—

The once supremely prosperous Rock Dynasty is like a doomed empire in history, with problems emerging one after another; even with two true gods, Luo Dayou and Li Zongsheng, stationed there, it cannot be alleviated.

In contrast, under the leadership of the new god Zhou Yi, Warner Records, whose domestic market share had basically fallen to the bottom, rose against the trend in the new century, becoming the leader in one fell swoop, thriving day by day.

Along the way, it also nurtured Sun Yanzi, who, together with Zhou Yi, forms a twin star in the domestic market; the two helped Warner nibble away at the market share of male and female singers.

Elva Hsiao of Virgin Records also benefited from Zhou Yi, as did Angela Chang of Foom Records, who benefited from Zhou Yi right from her debut.

Taken together, the current Zhou Yi is no different from Luo Dayou back in the day; not only can he produce records himself, but he can also nurture others.

The only shortcoming is that Luo Dayou's debut album, "Zhi Hu Zhe Ye," is clearly superior to Zhou Yi's first album "Zhou Yi," which integrated Hiphop elements, in terms of importance to the music scene—

The former directly changed the Mandarin pop scene, while the latter merely pushed Hiphop elements into the mainstream commercial market of the music scene, becoming a benchmark for market maturity.

"Comparing them like this is actually unfair to Zhou Yi, because our music scene has developed for so long that all the music genres we should have are already very mature."

July 28th, Sunday.

After the Apple Daily published this article intended to stir up trouble and provoke conflict, fearing nothing but chaos in the music scene, the usually low-profile Luo Dayou, for the first time, actively solicited a local Taiwanese media reporter to personally refute this news from the Apple Daily, which might be beneficial to Rock Records in terms of sales.

"Before Zhou Yi, there were people who played Hiphop, and even more overseas Chinese played Hiphop. But whether it was us or them, our commercialization and localization of Hiphop have always been insufficient."

"We can play it, but we can't sell it; we have no way to make record companies, relevant channels, and domestic audiences accept this music on a large scale. They will only think the songs are noisy, even the young people."

In the interview, Luo Dayou did not hold back because Zhou Yi was the Crown Prince of a rival company; instead, he openly expressed his admiration: "But Zhou Yi achieved it; this is his remarkable place."

"He is at the forefront of world music in this regard. His English album 'The Attitude Show' actually better reflects his understanding of the market and his balance in playing music, and it is also the place that best reflects his music's ability to lead world trends."

"Among Chinese and Chinese-language pop singers, he is the first person to reach this level. I can even guess that in the future, many singers will use Zhou Yi's songs as a template for commercial production right from their debut."

"This is also the reason why Zongsheng previously said that Zhou Yi promoted and enriched the popular commercialization of Hiphop elements in Mandarin pop."

"At the same time, he did not forget to reasonably adapt his understanding of world music into our unique Chinese linguistic context. This is also why Zhou Yi's Chinese and English albums are both so popular."

While the boss of Rock Records was eager to start a fight with Zhou Yi to facilitate hyping up the new album "Jian Chixin" by the company's singer Li Shengjie, Luo Dayou firmly chose to stand out and defend Zhou Yi, praising him highly.

This is the first time since Luo Dayou ascended the Wang Zuo in the eyes of the media and the public that he has expressed such high praise for a junior singer—

A bucket of cold water was directly poured onto the head of Li Zhiying, the boss of the Apple Daily, who wanted to sell records by hyping up this great war.

"Is Zhou Yi young and impetuous? I think it's fine. Who hasn't been young? The things I did when I was young are just unknown to many of you now. I also curse, and I curse much more fiercely than Zhou Yi."

Luo Dayou, who abandoned medicine for music, was smiling as he said this: "You, including people like Zongsheng, did many absurd things when you were young."

"If the media, my fans, or others insist on comparing me and Zhou Yi, then I think perhaps the setting sun and the morning sun are the best portrayal."

"I am the setting sun about to fall, while he is the sun of seven or eight o'clock in the morning."

On the 29th, Monday, Sanli News Weekly directly released Luo Dayou's full exclusive interview—

Because of the "great war" between these two generations of kings, the heat was so high that it sold out on the island within a single day!

On the mainland, thanks to Luo Dayou's reputation and status, this evaluation directly transformed the scorching atmosphere of the fight into a baton handover between two generations of music scene kings—

Among them, the Zhiyu Zhile News Media Company, led by Wang Xiaoyu, exerted considerable effort.

"I really like Mr. Luo Dayou's songs. Whether it is 'Story of Time,' 'Childhood,' or even 'Oriental Pearl,' these are classic songs I encountered during my schooling."

"Not exaggerating, these songs were one of the guides for me to embark on the path of music when I was young, so I never took those outside criticisms to heart."

Zhou Yi, who genuinely respects this person, was truly impressed by this person's magnanimity after reading this exclusive interview.

If he were at Rock and Luo Dayou were at Warner, they would definitely try to fake a conflict for hype.

After all, Rock currently lacks record sales. And just so happens, a new album with extremely wide circulation has recently emerged from Rock—

The album "Jian Chixin" released by singer Li Shengjie at the end of June.

After a month of fermentation, whether in radio charts or KTV popularity, the title track "Jian Chixin" from the album "Jian Chixin" became wildly popular, exploding across both sides of the strait and Hong Kong and Macau—

Its momentum was so strong that it directly chased after the chariot-under-the-car god A Do.

In terms of mainland popularity, KTV commercial licensing results, he even stepped on Jay Chou, who had just released his new album "Eight Degrees Space" not long ago; his commercial performance prices and advertising endorsement prices all soared significantly, and the entire money-hungry Rock staff was overjoyed.

"So you mean you are ready to become king?"

"It is 2002 now, not 1802."

On July 30th, at the Anta event venue, Zhou Yi glanced disdainfully at this fast-running Hong Kong reporter: "I said I am the Sales King. Do you have any objections? Does Li Zhiying have any objections? Even his master has no objections and is still contributing album sales to me."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"What the hell!"

In Hong Kong, Li Zhiying nearly choked to death from anger at Zhou Yi's words.

That damn dog is truly as arrogant and reckless as they come.

"Find it for me! Check the overseas performance of Zhou Yi's latest English album this week! If there's any drop, mock it to death!"

"Uh, boss, there isn't any."

"None? Really none?"

Li Zhiying gritted his teeth: "Look in those small countries, the ones where his results are poor! Where's your brain?!"

"Boss, this... really doesn't exist." The subordinate, embarrassed, looked uncomfortable: "We can't just make things up, or you'll have to find someone else to take your place in prison again."

"..."

(End of this chapter)