Chapter 641: The Bizarre New Year Battle of 2004

As for Universal's grandstanding over wanting to spend 2 million...

Actually, it's normal; this company is desperate to find a big shot who can write his own songs. Their currently promoted top young star, Will Pan, is publicly touted as a creator, but in reality, his hit songs are all covers with rewritten lyrics.

The listening public doesn't know this, but Universal, as the provider of the music library, knows it all too well.

This is also why, after Dao Lang rose to fame by releasing albums through pirated channels and was subsequently shunned by the mainland music circle, Universal Records signed him despite the controversy, even sending their veteran top star Tan Yonglin to endorse him.

Because Dao Lang is a big shot who can write his own songs, while Tan Yonglin operates in the Hong Kong music scene.

However...

Come to think of it, since "Rat Loves Rice" has started to get hot, shouldn't "The First Snow of 2002" be coming soon too?

Rubbing his chin, Zhou Yi began to recall the music scene of '04.

If memory serves, the album "The First Snow of 2002" was released two days later?

Because he didn't want to sign with a traditional record company while having no fame, Dao Lang directly chose the risky strategy of debuting through pirate channels—

Many people in later generations, due to their dislike of Na Ying, have developed a special filter for Dao Lang, almost elevating him to sainthood, with all sorts of nonsense about him being collectively suppressed by the mainland music circle led by Na Ying.

But in reality, the mainland music awards were quite generous to Dao Lang, who immediately put on the skin of a regular army soldier as soon as he became famous; he won plenty of major awards. Regardless of their substance, at the very least, they never shortchanged him.

At that time, it was at most that almost all mainland musicians who were creators themselves didn't want to cooperate with Dao Lang, who was at the height of his fame, on any level, forcing him to lean towards the Hong Kong circle—

For instance, Dao Lang fans love to brag about Tan Yonglin asking him for songs and Li Zongsheng producing for him. One was from the Hong Kong circle, one from Taiwan, but none from the mainland.

There was no way; you have to know that back then, Song Ke had even tried to help introduce Dao Lang, but in the end, only the Taiwanese Li Zongsheng was willing to help, while Tan Yonglin was found with Universal's assistance.

Even Da Zhang Wei, who was exposed for blatant plagiarism, had many mainland creators willing to lend a hand; Dao Lang alone had not a single one.

Because his method of debuting through pirate channels was, in effect, digging graves for the already crumbling mainland music scene; this could be seen from the legitimate sales of his album.

Released in early January '04, by July he had become a sensation, yet in those six months, legitimate sales were only 200,000 copies; this was used to build his reputation, while the rest was eaten up by other pirate channels.

With such a successfully manufactured experience, the pirates, who felt singers were just so-so, became even more brazen.

Dao Lang himself wasn't unaware that he would be shunned; therefore, after gambling on success and getting hot, he quickly signed with Universal Records, which had actively approached him in September '04, transforming himself into a regular army soldier in an attempt to re-enter the mainland music scene under this identity.

The result was that he offended the pirate channels again; they considered Dao Lang's move a betrayal, a mid-journey escape.

Didn't we agree: we give you fame, you give us profit?

You son of a bitch, playing "Infernal Affairs" with us? Jumping back and forth?

Thus, he ended up pleasing neither side.

On this side, the singers of the mainland music circle were lucky if they didn't kick him while he was down; on that side, the vast pirate channel network kept relentlessly blackening Dao Lang for his mid-journey escape.

Na Ying, who has always been criticized for bullying the weak and fawning on the strong, actually never said the words "Only farmers listen to Dao Lang's songs"; this rumor was actually spread publicly by Da Peng on his own show and then grafted onto Na Ying's head.

Yes, that's right, the Da Peng who acted in "Brokeback Men."

Dao Lang's decline wasn't due to the so-called suppression or rejection by the mainland music circle; it was purely because his style could only be trendy for a short time.

Once the novelty wore off, many listeners felt his album songs were too homogeneous with no breakthroughs and naturally chose to abandon him, making him nothing more than a shooting star.

However, a shooting star is a shooting star; its brilliance was indeed brilliant.

If he hadn't brought out "Blue and White Porcelain" and the New Year limited track "Happy New Year" this year, he really might not have been able to suppress "Rat Loves Rice" and "The First Snow of 2002."

In fact, just as Zhou Yi had predicted—

One week later, under the stunned gaze of countless industry insiders, "Rat Loves Rice" surged into the top ten of several authoritative mainland charts with unstoppable momentum.

On the Guangxi Media Music Wind and Cloud Weekly Chart, "Rat Loves Rice" not only completely crushed A-Do, who had just released a new album, but also kicked out Watching Xiao Yaxuan's "Compromise."

Sun Yanzi's album song "I'm Not Sad" was about to enter the top ten, but now was forced to drop one spot.

Most importantly, the top ten songs were basically names familiar to fans—

Zhou Yi: "Blue and White Porcelain" at number one, "Qi Li Xiang" at number two, "Writing Poems for You" at number seven;

Sun Yanzi: "Meeting" at number three.

Jay Chou: "Sunny Day" at number five;

Watching Xiao Yaxuan: "Rewind" at number eight.

Chen Yixun: "Ten Years" at number four;

Pu Shu: "Life is Like a Summer Flower" at number six.

Cai Yilin: "Watch Me Do 72 Changes" at number nine.

Yang Chenggang (Wang Qiwen): "Rat Loves Rice" at number ten.

And besides "Rat Loves Rice," another song titled "Lonely Northern Hemisphere" was also rapidly climbing the ranks through internet dissemination, currently entering the top twenty directly, with momentum identical to "Love Rice," truly the twin internet kings of the start of 2004—

Both were cutting through melons and vegetables all the way.

"Damn! Wait a minute! What the hell is this 'Rat Loves Rice'? I didn't notice the chart ranking for a moment, how is the increase so terrifying?"

"Sigh, my Jiu Lin's 'Watch Me Do 72 Changes' has already been knocked down."

"This song is very good; I'm listening to it too. You can sing it after hearing it once; it's not surprising the ranking is high."

On the 13th, "Rat Loves Rice" defeated Cai Yilin and Watching Xiao Yaxuan, and was only one step away from exploding the sixth-place Pu Shu.

On the 15th, "Rat Loves Rice" officially surpassed "Life is Like a Summer Flower" on the Wind and Cloud Chart, constantly approaching Jay Chou's "Sunny Day"...

Judging by the growth rate, Jay Chou being surpassed was merely a matter of time.

Never having seen such a scene, everyone in the domestic record industry was shocked and hurriedly began studying how this model worked, how internet songs had turned the tables to defeat so many meticulously produced album songs.

At the same time, in many local audio-video stores, a batch of pirated discs had quietly appeared on the shelves at some point; the covers of the discs clearly bore titles such as "Liu Huan New Songs · The First Snow of 2002" and "Dao Lang New Songs · The First Snow of 2002";

In Jincheng, Shanxi, a director, screenwriter, and musician named Niu Chaoyang had just returned to his hometown to prepare for the New Year when he saw this bizarre chart situation; rubbing his chin, he fell into deep thought, then made a phone call—

"Old Zhou, I think I have an idea for the insert song for our TV drama after the New Year this year."

As a multi-talented creator, he had many composed but unpublished songs in his possession.

Some were ones he felt were too vulgar and didn't want to release, but looking at the current situation, it seemed being vulgar wasn't necessarily a bad thing—could anything be more vulgar or worse than the wildly popular "Rat Loves Rice"?

"You thought of a new song?" Zhou Yaping, founder of the Beijing Birdman Art Promotion Co., Ltd., asked in confusion.

"No, no, no, use an old song, one that hasn't been released yet."

Niu Chaoyang shook his head: "The song is called 'Two Butterflies'. Find me a singer with a memorable voice."