Chapter 552: The Mandarin Music Scene of 2003

"Why don't you dare fight Zhou Yi?"

After losing face completely once again, Sun Yanzi, furious at the makeup artist for "refusing to save someone in danger" and "sitting on the sidelines," slapped her thigh and pointed angrily at the doorway where the man's figure had vanished.

"Your English name is Zhu Di, yet you're not even 'Jingnan Campaign' style! I, a Singaporean, know Chinese history better than you!"

Makeup artist Zhu Di: "..."

Is it possible she is named Zhu Di, not Zhu Di?

Besides, her original name was Wang Chunfang, which has even less to do with Zhu Di.

"Boss."

Seeing Sun Yanzi still rambling on, Zhu Di raised her hand to interrupt: "Why don't you accuse him to his face? You are an international friend."

"..."

Sun Yanzi's cheeks gradually puffed up, and her gaze toward the makeup artist grew increasingly dangerous.

"I'm firing you from my team! Take this!"

The two women tumbled and wrestled playfully in the dressing room.

Outside, after thoroughly teaching Sun Yanzi a lesson and making her clearly understand who was the boss, Zhou Yi stepped out of the press conference venue feeling refreshed and immediately encountered the reporters who had not left after the event ended.

The following time was for Sun Yanzi's new album performance; originally, some among them had wanted to leave early, but after Zhou Yi appeared on-site as a supporting guest, every single reporter stayed without exception.

"Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi! What is your estimate for the sales of Yanzi's new album?"

"Zhou Yi, what do you think of Xu Huixin?"

"Zhou Yi, Jay Chou's recent new album 'Ye Hui Mei' has seen extremely gratifying sales growth, and its lead single 'Qing Tian' is incredibly popular; do you think he will pose a threat to your status in the domestic music scene?"

"What is your opinion on Tao Zhe being booed off stage in the United States?"

"Zhou Yi, will you release a new Chinese album this year?"

"..."

Those who knew he was a guest today, and those who didn't, might have thought he was the main character of the day; there were so many microphones they almost formed a wreath around him.

"Yanzi's album will definitely be a huge success; is there really any need to estimate that?"

Zhou Yi raised his hand to take the microphones from reporters of several well-known media outlets including CCTV, Sohu, Sina, and Phoenix TV, smiling broadly: "Miss Xu is indeed a stunning newcomer, and she has won the Newcomer Award, but since Yanzi just won the Golden Melody Best Female Singer, I think this comparison is simply setting Miss Xu up for failure.

"Please be kind enough to leave some breathing room for the newcomers in the Mandarin music scene..."

"..."

Hiss...

That sounds a bit strange.

You seem to be helping Xu Huixin from Universal Music out of a tight spot, yet also not.

Are you causing trouble again?

"I also listened to Jay Chou's new album; it is very strong, without a doubt.

"As for my new album, it will definitely be released in the second half of this year. I am not yet clear on Tao Zhe's situation in the United States, as I just returned from Japan. However, he is an excellent musician, and I believe he will overcome this difficulty..."

One second he was subtly hinting at Universal Music to spark endless speculation, and the next he was making a standard, proper statement. Zhou Yi's behavior, jumping back and forth across the reporters' desperately eager threshold for causing trouble, made them feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Actually, regarding the part about Jay Chou, Zhou Yi was truly sincere.

Jay Chou, who was at the peak of his personal creative period, after having 'Dong Feng Po' taken away, directly used 'Xi Xiang Ji · Chang Ting Song Bie' as the theme and collaborated with Fang Wenshan to produce a song called 'Li Ren Lei'; the title adapted the line from 'Chang Ting Song Bie': 'Who dyes the frosty forest drunk at dawn? It is always the tears of parting lovers.'

And after 'Yi Fu Zhi Ming' was gone, the replacement new song 'New York Subway' was not unfamiliar to Zhou Yi.

However, compared to the demo he heard in his previous life, this brand new 'New York Subway' had higher maturity, a more complete musical structure, and the lyrics were revised more profoundly.

But, precisely because of this 'New York Subway', it triggered another 'war' between the fans of the two Zhus.

Zhou Yi's crystal fans fired the first shot, claiming Jay Chou was imitating Zhou Yi by writing Western gangster crime themes, except Zhou Yi wrote about the Mafia Godfather, while Jay Chou wrote about New York's underclass gang thugs.

Jay Chou's crystal fans refuted this claim, stating that Jay Chou, unlike Zhou Yi who only saw upper-class figures like the Godfather, wrote about the real struggles of underclass Chinese-Americans in New York.

"Zhou Yi's focus has gradually detached from the underclass, while Jay Chou has not!"

"You're talking absolute nonsense!"

Both sides stuck to their own arguments, arguing from Taiwan to the mainland, fighting fiercely on the internet.

Especially those responsible for evaluating musical aesthetics, like cats smelling fishy scent, gathered around, constantly interpreting everything the two songs aimed to express.

"If Zhou Yi's 'Yi Fu Zhi Ming' is about revenge, repentance, doing what one has no choice but to do, the alienation of humans by social and family environments, and the lonely path of the Godfather;

"Then Jay Chou's 'New York Subway' is the unique suppression, violence, and vigorous vitality growing stubbornly in the cracks of stone possessed by underclass Chinese-American gang thugs in America..."

The new episode of 'Contemporary Music World' naturally would not miss this hot topic; while hastening to write a review of Sun Yanzi's new album, it also did not forget to publish the comparative evaluation of Jay Chou's 'Ye Hui Mei'.

"When many singers' understanding of songs still remains stuck in love and romance, the author is gratified that the new generation of leaders in the Mandarin music scene have not been satisfied with the comfort zone of love; it is rumored that Zhou Yi's new album 'Gui Cang' will even film on war zones, and the author looks forward to this..."

As for the two hottest songs in this album, 'Qing Tian' and 'Li Ren Lei', both entered the territory previously dominated by Zhou Yi's songs—the top five of music charts in various regions.

Especially 'Qing Tian', which was extremely popular among student groups.

Of course, this was before today.

After Sun Yanzi's new album 'Wei Wan Cheng' was released, five songs—'Yu Jian', 'Yi Ge Xiang Xia Tian Yi Ge Xiang Qiu Tian', 'Sha Po Lang', 'Shen Qi', and 'Wo Bu Nan Guo'—directly broke into the top twenty of radio stations across the country.

The momentum of sweeping the charts made people unable to help but exclaim: "Terrifying!"

Among these, 'Yu Jian', 'Wo Bu Nan Guo', and 'Yi Ge Xiang Xia Tian Yi Ge Xiang Qiu Tian' all entered the top ten of the radio charts.

'Yu Jian' ranked the highest, basically securing a spot in the top five, fighting fiercely with 'Qing Tian' and the hit song 'Chun Ni' from Yu Chengqing's new album 'Ha Lin Tian Tang'.

"There are quite a few good songs in the music scene this year."

Qian Jiang looked at Chen Ze Shan's market research report, which he had made himself, and handed it to Zhou Yi who had just entered: "It's a bit ridiculous; Yanzi's album might not necessarily be able to suppress it."

"This year should be the final explosive period for entering the music scene, but saying it can't suppress it is an overstatement; Yanzi's album this year can probably only be matched by Watching Xiao Yaxuan's album."

'Yu Jian' was too powerful; the two songs he gave Watching Xiao Yaxuan might not necessarily beat it, after all, these two are currently the top-tier solo female singers in the same league.

Her popularity was too high.

Facts proved that Qian Jiang was not the only one who saw this.

August 23, three days after Sun Yanzi's album release, people suddenly realized that the good songs up to this point in the year... seemed a bit too many?

Yu Chengqing, who went wild in 2001 with "Qing Fei De Yi", has made a comeback this year; since releasing his album in June, his song "Chun Ni" has been sung in every street and alley, with popularity showing strong signs of returning to its peak;

Wang Xinling, who went wild in Taiwan with "Dang Ni", also entered the mainland in August; as soon as her album was released, it quickly captured the hearts of many young boys and girls.

Yu Quan and Huang Zheng's "Ben Pao", Sha Baoliang's "An Xiang", Zhou Yi's "Li Bai";

Zhang Shaohan's "Yi Shi De Mei Hao", Cai Yilin's "Shuo Ai Ni", "Kan Wo Qi Shi Er Bian";

Joey Yung's "Hui Zhuo Chi Bang De Nu Hai", Twins' "Xia Yi Zhan Tian Hou", Leung Hon Man's "Qi You";

Lin Junjie's "Dong Jie", Shin Band's "Li Ge", Chen Yixun's "Shi Nian";

Xu Huixin's "Qi Yue Qi Ri Qing", and the new song "Ji Mo De Ji Jie" from Tao Zhe's greatest hits collection;

Of course, there is also Jay Chou's "Qing Tian".

Add to that Sun Yanzi's album released just three days ago, and SHE's new album's lead single "Ban Tang Zhu Yi", which became a hit the day it was released...

Chen Xiaochun's new album's pre-release chart-topping song "Suan Ni Hen", although embroiled in a plagiarism controversy, has equally become a hit in KTVs.

And this is merely the songs that have become popular up to August 23, 2003.

"Why does it feel like the competition this year is even fiercer than in previous years?"

"Yes, there weren't this many songs one could hum casually in 2000, 2001, or 2002."

"Is this the catfish effect brought about by Zhou Yi?"

"Don't forget, Zhou Yi himself hasn't released an album yet, and Wang Lihong hasn't released an album either..."

"Holy crap!"

Facing the explosion of good songs, the music industry's audience is the most sensitive.

Just among the singers currently fighting for rankings on the charts, apart from Yu Chengqing, they are all uniformly from the younger generation; this is enough to show that the Mandarin music scene has already completed its generational turnover—competition is even fiercer than before.

In past years, so many songs with high popularity would have been the output of a year, or even a year and a half to two years, but now only a little over half a year has passed.

The "Underground Car God" Ah Du was like a meteor streaking across the sky; by August this year, his popularity had already declined significantly...

This would have been unimaginable in the past.

The endless stream of good songs directly knocked this "Underground Car God", who dared to compete with Zhou Yi last year, off his challenger's position—replacing him in charging at Zhou Yi is Jay Chou, who arrived with "Qing Tian".

Over one million copies sold nationwide in 25 days; this is the substance of Jay Chou's new album "Ye Hui Mei".

"The throne for male singers is firmly held by Zhou Yi; what about female singers? Sun Yanzi? Or Watching Xiao Yaxuan?"

"Why can't it be Cai Yilin? Is the heat of the 'Double J' romance inferior to that of the 'Twins'?"

"See if Sun Yanzi can fight her way onto the throne with this album; apparently, the lead single wasn't written by Zhou Yi. If she can make it up there, then she truly is one level above Cai Yilin. Cai Yilin's blockbusters are all custom-made for her by Jay Chou; the fact that she hasn't become famous singing others' songs to the same extent shows her singing quotient is insufficient."

"Nonsense! Was 'Kan Wo Qi Shi Er Bian' written by Jay Chou?"

"You Cai Yilin fan, get the hell out of here! 'Qi Shi Er Bian' wasn't a foreign song bought and filled with lyrics by herself? Do you really think we don't know that?"

"Exactly, exactly. If you want to bring in English songs, then 'Good Time', the duet with Yanzi, has to be included too, let me tell you..."

"..."

Since exploding in popularity, because Cai Yilin's crystallized fans had already been battered by her experiences wave after wave, they were always invincible when arguing online; unfortunately, this time they met even more crystallized Zhou Yi fans and Twins fans, and were rarely beaten into a state of disarray...

And just as the curtain rose on this chaotic battle of the gods' twilight, "Yu Jian" soared straight to the clouds with unmatched momentum; in just a week, it spread through every street and alley, with a popularity even far exceeding any of Sun Yanzi's previous representative works...

"If Zhou Yi is the Emperor, then Sun Yanzi is the Empress; this result is very reasonable!"

The Twins fans, who never expected to find something to ship even at this critical juncture, were all seeing stars—

Don't talk about relying on Zhou Yi; "Yu Jian" was specifically sung for Sun Yanzi by Warner; this belongs to the Empress's natal family giving it!