Chapter 425: Big Brother, You Play Rock, What's the Use of That? (4k)

Bizarre makeup, eerie music, and indescribable lighting made everything appear gloomy and supernatural.

If this place hadn't been chosen by Zhou Yi, Jay Chou would have suspected where on earth they were.

Many audience members below the stage were clearly frightened; some cursed, others booed, yet the long-haired, sinister cross-dressing performer on stage remained as steady as an old dog, singing without the slightest disturbance.

The strong Northeastern Errenzhuan style, however, exceeded the understanding of many in the audience—

Let alone them, even musicians Xiao Yaxuan and Zhang Shaohan found it somewhat incomprehensible.

In contrast, Sun Yanzi, who had been listening to all sorts of strange and unusual music, went from furrowing her brow at the start to nodding her head and tapping her foot involuntarily: "This really is... strange rock."

It just felt weird.

If you say it sounds good, it certainly isn't good in the mainstream sense; at its peak, it would only be a carnival within a niche circle.

But if you say it sounds bad... she actually heard something else in it.

"Of course it's strange; he deliberately took such an unconventional path."

Zhou Yi, who was reaching out to Sun Yanzi under that underworld lighting, nearly made her jump; only after realizing it was him did she sigh in relief, letting the man take a piece of melon from her hand—

"Back then, when he sang rock in this part of the capital, it was quite normal. But at the end of last century, he not only didn't make it, he was treated differently at a rock festival in Harbin. In a fit of anger, he put on women's makeup backstage and went on stage to perform.

"That move actually made his fame skyrocket, giving him more opportunities to perform and earn money.

"Compared to a rock attitude, this is more like a path dependency he accidentally discovered. Even if many people curse him, as long as he captures a segment of people who are willing to watch him go crazy and play the clown, at least the band can survive.

"Although the number of people willing to watch him might be a bit small."

The reason why the members of Second Hand Rose kept changing, coming and going over the years until 2009, was nothing more than the small share of profits.

"How do you know so much? Did you run into them when you were hanging out on the bar street back then?"

Sun Yanzi was somewhat curious.

"I haven't seen them; whether they've seen me, I don't know."

Zhou Yi shrugged with a smile: "I'm not bragging, but I was slightly famous in this area back then."

"They should have put the title 'Little Zhou Yi' on their banner; maybe they'd be even more popular."

Jay Chou, who had just arrived, happened to hear this boastful remark and laughed, adding: "Just like in Taiwan right now, where seven out of ten people want to debut under the name 'Little Zhou Yi'."

"Now that you mention it, it's true. That new artist from Universal Records named Wilber Pan became famous by riding on the name 'Little Zhou Yi'."

Zhang Shaohan, who was an old acquaintance, invited Jay Chou to take a seat; these two, once the most invisible people in Zhou Yi's "Love You" MV, had now progressed to the status of being able to sit at the table for a meal.

"I know that person; he's actually quite nice."

After more than two years of experience, Jay Chou, no longer shy, cheerfully chatted about some interesting stories in the industry: "I even learned English from him; he recommended an English teacher to me."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"What's wrong? Why are you all looking at me so strangely??"

Suddenly stared at by four people with strange expressions, Jay Chou might have felt his face burning: "I never went to university, so not knowing English is perfectly normal, right? You all know—"

At this point, Jay Chou suddenly choked.

Zhou Yi, a Peking University graduate, whose English was so good he could top the major;

Sun Yanzi, a Singaporean, for whom English was her native language;

Xiao Yaxuan, though not a foreigner, had gone to Canada to study at a young age, and her English was equally excellent.

Zhang Shaohan, a Chinese person and the only one of the four who hadn't attended university, shared these two prerequisites with him. But she had gone to Canada to live with her parents since childhood, forcing her to learn English...

Damn!!

So I'm the only one who doesn't know a single foreign language?!

Looking around, Jay Chou suddenly realized: "The illiterate one is actually me?"

"Forget it, let's skip this topic."

Feeling that continuing this topic might only bring him shame, Jay Chou bit into an apple and waved his hand: "I have a question for you all: Is anyone of you releasing an album in March?"

"March?"

The three women, hearing Jay Chou ask so clearly about album release plans for the first time, were all surprised; Sun Yanzi, who was just eating melon, even asked further: "No, not at all. But why do you ask? Are you afraid of a clash?"

"Speaking of that, when have I ever been afraid? I'd even dare to release my album on the same date as Zhou Yi's." When it came to music, even though his current achievements were clearly inferior to Zhou Yi's, Jay Chou was still not afraid, even showing a posture of fighting again and again, never giving up.

At the peak of his personal creativity, his energy was overflowing every day; especially with such a powerful rival as Zhou Yi, sparks of inspiration were constantly flashing in his mind, although many of them were drawn from the songs on Zhou Yi's albums.

This was one thing he truly admired about Zhou Yi.

To achieve massive album sales while balancing artistry and commercial appeal was simply a miracle.

"Then why do you ask about March?" Xiao Yaxuan was somewhat curious.

"It's Cai Yilin's album; she is making a comeback. She plans to release her comeback album in March. This album is very important to her, so she specifically chose the off-season in March to release it, aiming to make a huge splash and return to the mainstream music market."

Talking about his girlfriend, whom he had turned a fake relationship into a real one, Jay Chou's smile on his face was somewhat brilliant: "She isn't familiar with you all. Knowing that I was coming to the mainland this time, she asked me to inquire about your album dates; if there's a possibility of a clash, she'll change the date."

To be honest, at first he really just found the company's hype about the "Double J Romance" annoying.

But he had to admit, Cai Yilin, who had adjusted back from Japan, had really hooked his emotional value; in their daily interactions, she even showed some of the charm of his ideal goddess, Xu Ruoxuan, and the two of them eventually turned the fake relationship into a real one.

"I don't have one."

Hearing him say this, Sun Yanzi was the first to raise her hand, stating she had no such plan.

Her new album had only been released last November; the next one would have to wait at least half a year to allow the market to fully digest it, not wasting her high popularity.

Xiao Yaxuan, who had released an album in July last year, shrugged: "I don't either. After renewing with Virgin, my terms aren't so urgent. Having worked so hard for so long, I plan to rest for a few more months."

Zhang Shaohan didn't even need to be mentioned; benefiting from the declining overall performance of the record market, Formosa currently still planned to let her, who had unexpectedly become popular in the idol drama field, continue to shine there, accumulating more popularity through idol drama OSTs before releasing her second album.

"Alright, then I'll inform her later that it's okay."

Having received a definite answer in person, Jay Chou was very excited, which made Zhou Yi want to laugh.

The so-called "Double J romance" was actually a romantic relationship with unequal status in reality—Cai Yilin, having hit rock bottom, tried to lean toward the direction Jay Chou liked in order to capture his heart.

During this period, the idol she chose to imitate privately was Jay Chou's unattainable goddess, Xu Ruoxuan.

The most typical representative should be their early collaboration, "Say You Love Me."

This type of song was what Cai Yilin hated the most, and also the type of song her company forced her to sing the most before the lawsuit; otherwise, she, the so-called "boy killer," would not have jumped to Sony.

But after Cai Yilin rose to prominence, the relationship between the two gradually became equal. At this time, the private Cai Yilin was no longer the Cai Yilin Jay Chou expected or liked—

She wanted to go for an independent female style; having crossed the river by feeling the stones along the way with Namie Amuro and Ayumi Hamasaki, she saw this trend and wanted to eat this fresh big cake. She wanted to focus on her career; the lyrics she wrote herself for "Knight Spirit" were the path she wanted to take.

When the paths conflicted, a breakup was inevitable.

This was also one of the reasons Jay Chou would be deeply struck by the Chen Ze Shan buying chart votes incident in the future—

In front of the media, Cai Yilin wasn't even willing to say a single "haha," but firmly and publicly stood with Chen Ze Shan.

It was all simply because Jay Chou couldn't help her climb to the next level, while Chen Ze Shan could.

The extreme fan group of Cai Yilin that shortly thereafter tore apart every peer singer in the domestic music scene was built under Chen Ze Shan's sole orchestration.

After learning this, she could even update her tactics herself, so that by the internet era, even Jay Chou's fan count, which was said to be leading domestic singers by a cliff-like margin, could not win the tearing or the scolding battles against Cai Yilin's fans online.

The "Four Big and Three Small" of the same period were torn apart by her side, displaying an air of supreme arrogance. After Zhang Shaohan unexpectedly made a comeback, black nicknames like "Filial Daughter" were sent to her head immediately;

After Ai Sun Yanzi's explosion in popularity brought Sun Yanzi herself back, they kept watching her for dirt, even asking about her younger sister Sun Yanmei and stating support for her to cut off the sisterly relationship, so could you give your sister some support for the stone-hard evidence? One sentence would do it.

The result was that she was instead singled out and posted by Sun Yanmei, stating that even if we cut off the sisterly relationship, you Cai Yilin fans better not get involved and twist right into wrong.

So, the question arises: how did Sun Yanmei know the other party was definitely a Cai Yilin fan?

Obviously, it was because her sister Sun Yanzi had once been a good best friend with Cai Yilin.

Unfortunately, while Sun Yanzi treated Cai Yilin as a best friend, the latter treated her as marketing material—after attending Sun Yanzi's wedding, she marketed herself as the only person from the industry invited by Sun Yanzi, with a huge amount of propaganda about deep sisterly love.

But in reality, Sun Yanzi's wedding at that time invited only that few people; among the celebrity friends in the industry, besides Cai Yilin, Zhang Huimei and Tsai Chin-yi were also invited. The former couldn't make it due to a schedule conflict, and the latter unfortunately had her father pass away and was busy with the funeral, so she didn't make it either.

Not to mention some other musician friends in the industry also attended.

Unable to accept her sister using her wedding for marketing, Sun Yanzi gradually drifted apart from Cai Yilin from then on.

Later, Cai Yilin also became one of the few female singers whose number of photos with male singers exceeded that with female singers.

The others in the "Four Big and Three Small" all had photos together later, in various combinations. Only Cai Yilin had no photos with anyone, even when attending the same event.

Being able to ruin relationships with everyone is also a kind of skill.

"Zhou Yi, what are you laughing at? Could it be you are releasing an album in March?" Jay Chou asked, somewhat puzzled.

Zhou Yi nodded: "Yes, a new English album; barring unexpected events, it should be released in March, because the Grammys are at the end of February."

"Then it's no problem."

Thinking it was a Chinese album, Jay Chou waved his hand dismissively, then asked curiously: "You've finalized your second English album? What is the album name?"

"It's finalized, it's called 'Forever Young'."

Zhou Yi smiled and said the album name.

"'Forever Young'? What does that mean? What style?"

Jay Chou was stunned.

He understood this bit of English; after all, he was someone currently learning English.

"Big brother, you play rock; what's the use of playing this~~"

Just as Zhou Yi was about to speak, the opening line of the lead single "Tricks" by Second Hand Rose's lead singer Liang Long happened to come from downstairs. He then smiled freely, turned not to look back, raised his right thumb, and pointed down to the stage: "Probably a bit more rock elements."

…………………………………………

"Rock?"

New York, USA.

The headquarters director responsible for liaising with Zhou Jianhui, upon hearing the introduction of Zhou Yi's new song, frowned slightly: "Isn't this too risky?"

"It won't be; trust me."

Zhou Jianhui expressed his trust in Zhou Yi openly: "For our upcoming public relations, we will shape Spike as an image of not fearing the dark forces oppressing the music industry; after all, Eminem is just a bad boy.

"Depending on the situation, we can slope it towards racial discrimination, but this move cannot be too fast; it depends on the trend at the Grammys."

"... OK, fine."

After thinking for a while, considering the huge commercial value and market Zhou Yi possessed, the person still nodded, then ended the conversation and walked out of the meeting room.

Having wasted a lot of words, Zhou Jianhui could only curse silently in his heart.

Damn it, at this point they are still thinking about internal strife; you American headquarters are truly a bunch of geniuses.

It was only because he argued based on reason, slammed the table, and was just short of a full-scale brawl with those idiots that he successfully got the established plan approved.

Fuming, Zhou Jianhui even refused the evening invitation, preparing to calm his anger alone in the hotel suite.

But just at this moment, he unexpectedly received a call from another big shot—

Edgar Bronfman Jr.

Former president of the Universal Group.

Of course, he had another identity—chairman of the Bronfman Investment Group, which was attempting to acquire Warner Music separately.

Because of the traditional skill of constant internal strife within the Time Warner Group and the value of the singers and records possessed by Warner Music, Edgar Bronfman Jr. set his sights on Warner Music, a piece of meat that Time Warner had not yet decided whether to cut off to save itself.

"I have heard your name, Zhou Jianhui."

To show sincerity, Edgar Bronfman Jr. even recited Zhou Jianhui's Chinese name: "I like Spike's music very much, and I know you were the one who discovered him. I am also a person who loves music very much; if you have time, I think we should sit down and have a drink?"

"Mr. Bronfman, you should know that we cannot meet privately for the time being." Zhou Jianhui narrowed his eyes slightly and said calmly.

"Nonono, we are not meeting privately; we are meeting by chance, by chance."

Edgar Bronfman Jr. emphasized.

(End of this chapter)