Chapter 76: The Concept of the Second Album

"Pepsi Strikes Again, Xie Tingfeng Joins Forces with Full Force!"

"Coca-Cola Finally Awakens, Can Tian Shi Zhou Yi Hold the Line Alone?"

"..."

As two truly internationalized major corporations, the issue of Pepsi and Coca-Cola's spokespersons has always been a focal point for entertainment media and even economic media every year.

Benefiting from the sweet taste of the superstar policy tasted on Michael Jackson, Pepsi has always followed the superstar route.

Since entering the Chinese market, whoever has high fame in the music scene gets signed, be it Leslie Cheung, Andy Lau, Guo Fucheng, or Wang Fei. The main strategy is a superstar bombardment to maximize buzz, earning it the title of the Real Madrid of the beverage world.

And as Pepsi's old rival, Coca-Cola, which focuses on family, care, and warmth in its marketing, has been left far behind by Pepsi in terms of spokespersons.

The continuous decline in data forced Coca-Cola China to seek innovation and change after entering the new century, attempting to sign young and popular superstars to expand brand influence and prevent Pepsi from hogging the spotlight.

"Originally, Coca-Cola wanted to sign Xie Tingfeng; they had even reached the point of being about to finalize the deal. As long as Xie Tingfeng signed, he would become the first spokesperson signed by Coca-Cola since the new millennium."

"But the hype and heat between you and Xie Tingfeng were a bit too high, so seeing Xie Tingfeng's popularity, Pepsi directly stepped in and interfered."

Seeing Zhou Yi frowning while staring at the report titled "Tian Shi Zhou Yi Holds the Line Alone," Qian Jiang finally revealed the inside story of how he snatched the Coca-Cola endorsement: "You know how many people from Xiangjiang Pepsi signed before. Pepsi not only offered the same endorsement fee but also provided a better endorsement environment than Coca-Cola."

"Coca-Cola, worried that we might also be poached by Pepsi, immediately contacted me, stating that the treatment could be flexible and that we could sign the contract if there were no issues."

"But they had one requirement: as the only singer spokesperson they have signed domestically so far, you need to create an advertising promotion song for Coca-Cola that fits their new promotional theme."

"This is the theme of their new project plan; you can take a look and see if you can write it."

Facing the onslaught of work, Zhou Yi finally put down the gossip magazine he had been reading with great interest and reached out to take the documents Qian Jiang handed over—

"A feeling of youth, freedom, happiness, and recklessness?"

Seeing the requirements, Zhou Yi couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and asked in surprise, "Is Coca-Cola giving up on its family-friendly route?"

"Not at all. If you agree to sign, Coca-Cola will also film a family-friendly route advertisement for you; they want everything."

Qian Jiang shook his head and then spoke: "How about it? Writing an advertising song should be no problem, right? They don't require any depth in the lyrics, nor do they demand any singing technique."

"As long as the melody is cheerful, has a strong rhythm, is catchy enough, and can attract domestic young people of your age, that's all that's needed."

"No problem. When is it needed?"

Zhou Yi, feeling absolutely no pressure about delivering a song, nodded without hesitation and agreed.

This was ten million in the millennium year; even if the company that helped him secure this top-tier endorsement took 40% after he got it, and even after paying taxes, it would still be more money than he had earned from starting investments from scratch over the past few years.

Making money in the entertainment industry is truly damn fast.

"The time given by Coca-Cola is after the New Year, which is February. After filming the commercial, combined with your promotional song, it will be ready to launch in March alongside the new promotional theme."

Qian Jiang counted on his fingers, calculating Zhou Yi's schedule after the New Year: "So, in March, as the spokesperson, you will need to appear at several major domestic events for Coca-Cola."

"By the end of March, I suggest you can start preparing for your second album."

"This way, once your second album recording is finished and all MVs are filmed, it can be released to the market by June at the latest."

"Coincidentally, every summer is the hottest time for the music market. As long as your album quality is high, leveraging Coca-Cola's advertising marketing advantages, you should be able to capture the largest market share of the year."

"Oh, right."

Qian Jiang, planning the schedule for the coming year, slapped his forehead and looked up to ask: "Do you want to include your advertising song in the album? Or wait until you release a greatest hits collection later? An EP?"

"I have no interest in releasing a greatest hits collection."

Hearing this, Zhou Yi immediately put down the documents in hand and shook his head, refusing: "As for the EP, we'll see the situation then. Whenever I have free time, I can include some songs I've sung before but haven't officially released; at that time, the advertising song can be squeezed in. After all, an EP album doesn't care about having a theme or not."

The songs in his mind suitable as Coca-Cola advertising songs were basically unrelated to the R&B, hip-hop, drama, or Chinese style he currently sang; forcing them into an album would create a huge sense of disconnection.

"Then have you thought about the theme of your second album? Will it continue with R&B and hip-hop, or do you want to transform?"

Talking about the serious matter of the album, Qian Jiang's expression also became serious; this was key to Zhou Yi's future popularity: "I know that creative singers always like to challenge themselves and transform, but my suggestion is that the second album should prioritize stability."

"Why can't we have both?"

Zhou Yi blinked and asked in return.

"?"

"Do you know why I wrote 'Hua Tian Cuo'? It was just to lay the groundwork for the second album."

Hip-hop rap works are now something he personally brought into the mainstream Mandarin music market; naturally, he couldn't throw away his title of "Godfather."

The first album laid the foundation and brought out 'Hua Tian Cuo', so the second album should use that song, 'Zai Mei Bian', which perfectly combines hip-hop and Chinese style elements.

With the foundation of 'Hua Tian Cuo' and the connecting role of 'Zai Mei Bian', he can naturally introduce the concept of Chinese style in the second album, and the song 'Dong Feng Po', which is pure Chinese style, is also time to make its appearance.

This way, with the first album already having the R&B drama Chinese style 'Hua Tian Cuo' as a foundation;

the second album features the Hiphop drama Chinese style 'Zai Mei Bian' and the most complete pure Chinese style 'Dong Feng Po'. In this way, the singer's first creative theme and concept are directly continued and developed across two albums, which is perfect enough.

The problem now lies in hip-hop.

As the song genre that launched his previous album, 'Kuai Le Chong Bai' was so popular not only because of its melody but mainly because it took advantage of a new genre; the lyrics actually had nothing particularly praiseworthy, only fitting the background of the times.

If we want to reflect the growth and development of the album's music, then the hip-hop song in this second album must at least have one with a breakthrough in the conception of the lyrics, preferably one that fits the times to serve as the grand finale.

Pondering, twirling his pen and falling into deep thought, Zhou Yi's expression suddenly paused as he suddenly thought of a song—

'Piao Xiang Bei Fang'.

As one of the few breakout works by Wang Lihong after the arrival of the traffic era, 'Piao Xiang Bei Fang' was undoubtedly extremely successful in both lyrics and conception.

Most importantly, Zhou Yi himself has been "forced to drift north" for several years. Before debuting, he had witnessed many musicians and small actors drifting north hoping to become famous, so writing it would be completely without pressure.

With the song serving as the thematic foundation of the album clarified, the rest was simple; he just needed to handle the popularity within the corresponding theme.

An album concept with both height and breadth gradually took shape in Zhou Yi's mind.

(End of Chapter)