Chapter 429: The Perspective is Too Small, It Needs to Be Opened Up

For the Italian fans in Taiwan, what they boast about most isn't the chart performance of idol English albums, but the overseas explosion of "In the Name of the Father."

In this era where domestic and international channels communicate poorly, even in Taiwan, such rumors, being too absurd, actually led many fans to believe them, even fooling quite a few casual listeners who only listen to songs and don't chase stars.

Over time, with Warner pretending not to see it, Zhou Yi's two rumors basically transformed into orthodoxy in Taiwan, even vaguely trending to go from Taiwan to Hong Kong.

When this marketing first started, many in the industry actually held a contemptuous attitude toward Warner; originally, marketing Zhou Yi to death at least had actual achievements as a foundation, capital to boast about, but now conjuring up "Eight Billion People" and "Ten Great Geniuses" is truly absurd.

The so-called "Ten Great Geniuses" is just taking the photo of Zhou Yi on the cover of Time Magazine back then and cropping it randomly, isn't it?

And "Eight Billion People," do you really think this group of fans has no brains?

In the past year of 2002, the total population of the European Union in Europe was about 431 million; in the Americas, the US was about 288 million, and Brazil about 180 million.

This press release basically amounts to saying that on the lands of Europe and America, Zhou Yi's name is known to everyone, from eighty-year-old grandmas down to three-year-old toddlers, all having heard of a Chinese song called "In the Name of the Father."

Who the hell could believe this?

And the crowd of Italian fans in Taiwan actually believed it, truly letting many industry company executives broaden their horizons—shocking my mom series.

Because Warner's European and American channels for selling discs were indeed a bit awesome, when someone raised doubts, many Italian fans would directly swap the disc channel achievements of "In the Name of the Father" for radio achievements, actually bluffing quite a few people and making many opposing fans on the internet scatter in panic.

What?

You ask about Billboard rankings?

Don't you know Billboard doesn't let Chinese songs chart?

Don't ask; if you ask again, it's foreigners suppressing our geigei.

Radio achievements?

If you haven't heard of it, you are ignorant.

I can fabricate a radio station; what can you do to me?

"First People's Radio of the 13th District, Queen Street, New York City? FM989? What the hell is this stuff?"

As the initiator of this marketing campaign, feeling the direction seemed to have gone astray, Qian Jiang dragged Zhou Yi out of his home early in the morning and laid out some opinions that had already taken shape in Taiwan before him.

Zhou Yi himself found it amusing.

"Don't just laugh for now; the problem is we need to start controlling it, otherwise it's hard to say how much the public opinion will be amplified. The paparazzi in Hong Kong have already sniffed out the wind; you know their ability to expand things."

Qian Jiang was obviously still somewhat worried.

For him, hype is fine, but this hype must be based on an unbreakable foundation, just like Zhou Yi's various news in the past, so there won't be a risk of being exposed.

"Small, the perspective is small."

Zhou Yi shook his head, denying Qian Jiang's worry: "The times have changed; my biggest basic support now isn't those old hands who have struggled in society for many years, but young people who are inexperienced in the world, young people who crave collective identity and hope to achieve merit and establish themselves.

"Their ability to actively check data is much worse compared to the previous generation, especially in terms of media channels, so you can blow it up even bigger; they will only passively receive this information and won't do, nor know how to, verify it."

Don't think that netizens in this era with high average education levels won't fall for rumors; on the contrary, the birth and vigorous development of the mainland internet have made many baseless rumors grow worse and worse, many of which were spread from so-called elite forums like Tianya and Mop.

There even appeared such absurd situations where Tianya rumors were output to Hong Kong, polished and processed by Hong Kong media acting as marketing accounts, and then reprinted back by mainland media.

"So, instead of letting those unscrupulous people spread rumors later, we might as well do it ourselves. Isn't Hong Kong media good at exaggeration? Let them create news about a Zhou Yi Day."

"...???"

Qian Jiang thought he had heard wrong, suddenly widening his eyes: "What the hell?"

"A day specifically to commemorate my old song 'In the Name of the Father' and my new song 'Enemy', Zhou Yi Day; just expand it to death, what's there to fear. Remember to start spreading it through mainland internet channels first; don't expose it now, but in a few years it won't matter."

Zhou Yi was not worried at all about being exposed later.

After all, the future great internet flood will directly wash all traces of his hype regarding this matter completely clean; by then, even people in the mobile internet era wanting to do archaeological research on the origin will have nothing to excavate, and in the end, it will just be shelved like that so-called Jay Chou Day, eventually ignored by all.

Maybe later on Bilibili, fans still in the dark and marketing accounts wanting to ride the heat will use it to brag, just like this "Eight Billion People listened to In the Name of the Father."

And since we are going to play the expansion game, what is better to utilize than Hong Kong media?

Nothing.

"By the way, I not only want to play the concept of Zhou Yi Day domestically, but also abroad, and market it even harder."

With a clear target to aim at, a wicked smile curled Zhou Yi's lips: "When the new song 'Enemy' is released, start marketing by stepping on him; also, the Godfather image of 'In the Name of the Father', link it with Western Godfather culture commemorations, create a so-called Zhou Yi Godfather Commemoration Day..."

After Zhou Yi's explanation that was deep yet simple, Qian Jiang understood.

On January 13th, after making a brief cameo appearance in the MV of "Superstar," the next day Zhou Yi set off for the CCTV building to participate in the first rehearsal of his "Ode to Young China."

And it was on this very day that Warner, having warmed up Zhou Yi for a long time, officially announced the official launch time of Zhou Yi's first English single of the year, "Enemy," in the North American market: January 15th.

Because Zhou Yi himself was busy with the Spring Festival Gala and couldn't leave, Warner specifically chose to release it while Eminem's current popularity was high in the US—

"The New Godfather Descends on New York! A Day Destined to be Recorded in History!"

"Elegant Godfather VS Street Thug, Spike's Birthday!"

"Tremble, North American Music Scene! Your Godfather is Back!"

"A Day Worth Commemorating, The Godfather's Nemesis?"

"..."

Relying on the heat of the "In the Name of the Father" video tape and Warner's carpet-style layout promotion as if scattering money, the heat of Zhou Yi's new song, which had been warmed up for quite a while, directly exploded the entire North American music scene—

Especially after seeing the song title released by Warner—"Enemy," Nemesis.

As everyone knows, Tom Eminem, who was once driven to a breakdown by Zhou Yi on social media websites, rarely fell behind in verbal sparring; the fun Zhou Yi created with his relatively extremely interesting way of cursing was much more entertaining than Eminem's daily "F*** your mom," "You b***h," "You Bai Chi."

Anyone can swear; making cursing into a meme known to all the people is what counts as skill.

Now even people in the American underground hip-hop scene who diss Eminem have started mocking him as Tom Cat; this lethality and influence are far greater than the empty b***h, idiot, and Bai Chi, unique in the entire Western music scene.

Even some bold individual merchants launched Tom Cat baseball cap merchandise for Eminem, rode the heat hard to make a quick buck, and then ran away.

Therefore, ever since Eminem specifically released a song in November to sarcastically mock Zhou Yi, many people have been expecting what song Zhou Yi would bring out to respond.

Especially, because the quality of the song Eminem wrote to diss Zhou Yi wasn't very good, after entering the charts at a low position due to initial heat, it didn't even last two weeks before falling out of the chart statistics range.

Although part of this was because Eminem's focus on charting wasn't on this song, for a song of mockery expected by everyone, this was undoubtedly a failure.

And Zhou Yi's song title, Nemesis, easily makes people associate it with his "love-hate" relationship with Eminem from last year to this year.

January 15th, Zhou Yi's lunar birthday. After hooking appetites for two days in advance, Zhou Yi's "Enemy" officially went online at 10:08 AM US time...

(Chapter End)