Perfect Superstar

Chapter 182 - The Start of Dominating the Chart!

ChinaOriginal Music Chart, or Original Music Chart for short, was jointly establishedby the Chinese Musicians Association in conjunction with dozens of media, suchas QQ Music, NetEase Music, Pop Radio and so on. It was the most authoritativepop music list in China.

The OriginalMusic Chart was published every weekend, ranking the top 50 domestic pop songsaccording to the popularity index. The index was based on data provided bymajor music media, including the number of times it was broadcasted, downloaded,requested to be broadcasted, purchased and other values, which would be then convertedaccording to a fixed formula.

In thedomestic pop music circle, the Original Music Chart ranking represents thecurrent trend to a large extent.

On September27, the China Original Music Chart ranking in the 4th week of August^[1]was released on time.

Thereupon, thepeople in the circle, who followed the list, discovered in amazement something extraordinary.

And that wasLu Chen’s name.

Lu Chen’s“The Brother Who Slept On My Upper Bunk” / popularity Index: 2135,ranked 49th this week!

Lu Chen’s“The Bright Times of Early Youth” / popularity Index: 3714, ranked 30ththis week!

Lu Chen’s“Love in The Wind” / popularity Index: 4056, ranked 28th this week!

Lu Chen’s“Once You” / popularity Index: 4470, ranked 25th this week!

Lu Chen’s“You Who Sat Next To Me” / popularity Index: 5389, ranked 16th thisweek!

Lu Chen’s“Those Flowers” / popularity index: 5578, ranked 14th this week!

Lu Chen’s“The Brightest Star In The Night Sky” / popularity index: 7262,ranked 4th this week!

Seven songs.As a newcomer who has just made his debut, Lu Chen unexpectedly won sevenimportant positions on the Original Music Chart with his debut album “YouWho Sat Next To Me”.

This wassimply a miracle!

In thehistory of the Original Music Chart, it was very common for many works on thesame album to be on the chart, but it was mostly 2-3 songs. If it was an excellentwork of a superstar, it wasn’t uncommon to have five or six songs on the chart.

However, it wasreally rare for an album to have 7 out of the 10 works be on the chart.

This requiredthe average level of the entire album’s work to be extremely high and to behighly recognized by the public. If it was easy to achieve this before the OriginalMusic Chart appeared in the 80s and 90s, but now, it was really too difficult todo.

The reason wasvery simple, the Original Music Chart was the original chart. And no matter howpopular foreign cover works are, they couldn’t be on the chart.

With thestrength of domestic original works declining, it was normal for an album toproduce one or two excellent works. Basically, no company was willing to putseven or eight excellent works in one album.

Lu Chen’s“You Who Sat Next To Me” was undoubtedly an anomaly. It first sold wellon QQ Music, and even caused the industry to think about domestic originalmusic, and created campus folk song in the pop music world.

The qualityof the works on his album was too high. The 10 songs were all excellent worksand could even be called classics. They could be said to be masterpieces, fullydemonstrating Lu Chen’s creative talent.

Therefore,in addition to feeling shocked, it was natural for people to think that it wasa miracle.

In the thirdweek of September, three works of Lu Chen have already appeared on the OriginalMusic Chart. After a period of brewing and fermentation^[2], thisweek’s soaring explosion wasn’t so hard to accept.

What really madepeople envious was that Lu Chen’s impact on the Original Music Chart wasobviously just beginning. “The Brightest Star In The Night Sky” waslikely to top the chart next week, and then all 10 songs would be on the list.

Having all10 works of an album on the Original Music Chart, that was a real miracle that couldn’tbe surpassed!

It seemedthat Lu Chen was creating such a miracle.

The popmusic world, which had been rather quiet, was stirred up by Lu Chen’s album!

More peoplefocused their attention on this new generation of singer-songwriter.

His appealhas improved a lot in the circle.

On September25, Lu Chen attended the formal rehearsal of Beijing Satellite TV’s NationalDay Party.

On September29, Lu Chen completed the live recording.

In additionto singing “Life on A String” as part of the chorus of the top fivecontestants of “Singing China”, he also had a solo program singing “ILove you China”. His appearance time even exceeded that of many starartists.

He sang thesecond version of “I Love you China”, which has a genuine theme style.In order to get rid of the influence of Wang Bin scandal, Beijing Satellite TVshifted its focus on Inspur blog, using Lu Chen’s two works with the same songname.

Thiis alsobenefited Lu Chen.

Hiscooperation with Beijing Satellite TV was undoubtedly a win-win result!

The nextmorning after the recording of Beijing Satellite TV’s National Day Party, LuChen drove to Chen Fei’er’s studio.

Afterentering the new century, the domestic entertainment industry was growing andbooming. With the emergence of new media and the influence of foreign trends, manybig stars have left their original contract company and set up their ownpersonal studios and companies.

There wereundoubtedly many advantages of self-established studios or companies. First ofall, artists could fully control their own destiny and wouldn’t be controlledand manipulated by the contracted company in their career. They would held allaspects of interests in their hands.

But this kindof self-reliance model was usually only suitable for people who have already stoodat the top of the circle. They have the strength and connections. Having moneyand fame, they could make others choose to cooperate with them rather than tochoose to suppress and exclude them. Naturally, they could mixed very well.

If it was anewcomer or a somewhat famous and not infamous second or third-tier star toopen a studio, it would be too difficult. Without the support and resourceinput of a contracted company, everything would depend on their own hard work.99% of them would be doomed.

In thecircle, there were no shortage of proud artists but didn’t have enough strength^[3]who choose to start their own business. As a result, they lost their originalcapital, and have since disappeared from the scene and have been forgotten.

If Lu Chen wasn’tsupported by the huge wealth from the dream world, the best he could do was tosign a contract with an ordinary company as a small artist, and then work hardrunning notices to make a living.

He directlyset up his own studio, which was tantamount to taking a big step ahead of time.

And for mostartists, they might not be able to take this step in their lifetime!

Chen Fei’er’sstudio was established 7 years ago.

At thattime, she was already the famous Queen of Sweet Songs in the pop music industry,and countless people supported her after she became independent.

As a result,Chen Fei’er’s studio was very famous in the circle, and it was unknown how manynewcomers wanted to sign under its name.

Studios ofstars could also sign people.

When he gotto the place, Lu Chen wanted to wait downstairs, but Chen Fei’er insisted thathe come up.

According to Sister Fei, since he has already come, why not come up and have a cup of tea?

Not gave herface?

Lu Chen couldonly obey.

Chen Fei’er’sstudio was on the 38th floor of a luxury business building in the centralbusiness district of Beijing. Its scale was comparable to that of a small-to-medium-sizedcompany. The employees who serve her were not small.

“SisterFei!”

What Lu Chendidn’t expect was that as soon as he walked out of the elevator, he saw ChenFeier standing at the door.

Chen Feier waswearing a set of Chanel dress. She, with her long hair shawl, was as beautifulas jade.

“LuChen...”

She openedher arms with a smile and gave Lu Chen a nice hug: “Welcome!”

Lu Chensmiled and said, “Thank you, Sister Fei!”

He believed thatnot many people can enjoy such treatment.

This could bejudged from the look of the assistants behind Chen Fei’er.

Chen Fei’er loosenboth of her hands, took half a step back and said earnestly, “it’s me whowants to thank you!”

“Thetwo songs you wrote for me are very good. I like them very much. They’re wonderful!”

Lu Chen saidwith a smile, “I’m glad you like them.”

He promisedto write two songs for Chen Fei’er, and after completing the songs the daybefore yesterday, he sent the score and sample directly to the latter.

And that waswhy they were having this scheduled meeting.

“Do youknow?”

The Queen ofSweet Song’s eyes flashed with a moving look: “I have listened to bothsongs dozens of times and tried to sing them more than a dozen times. The moreI sing, the better I feel about them. I have decided that they will be thefirst and second title songs for my new album!”

For anysongwriter, it was undoubtedly a great honor and glory for their work to becomethe title song of an album of a Heavenly Queen. Once the album sells well, it willdefinitely a good way to gain both fame and fortune.

Generallyspeaking, those who were qualified to write the title song of Chen Fei’er albumwere the top songwriters in the circle.

In addition,for a Heaven Queen like Chen Fei’er, producing an album was a serious or even agrand matter. The title song must be the best of the best, and it takes a longtime and a lot of effort to determine it.

Within justa short 1 or 2 days when the two songs written by Lu Chen was in Chen Fei’er’shand, she decided to make them the first and second title songs of her new album.This showed that in addition to her great trust in Lu Chen, she sincerely likedthe two songs.

Inparticular, Chen Feier was facing a transition stage. She has greatexpectations for this new album, and it was really not easy to make such adecision.

It was alsobecause of this decision that Chen Feier invited Lu Chen over.

Lu Chensmiled: “I feel so much pressure.”

Chen Feiersmiled and said, “I believe in your strength. My album will be builtaround your two works. First, we’ll visit my studio, and then we will go toFlying Stone Records together.”

Chen Fei’erand Flying Stone Records have always maintained a very good cooperativerelationship. Most of her albums were produced through Flying Stone Records,and this new album was no exception.

Chen Fei’erinvited Lu Chen to go to Flying Stone Records because she was going todetermine the main style of her album. In addition, there were alsoarrangements and the overall style of the album that needed to be discussed.

As asongwriter, Chen Fei’er hoped that Lu Chen would be involved and give adviceand suggestions for her new album!

For Lu Chen,being able to get involved in the production of a Heavenly Queen’s new albumand include his name in the playlist was also an excellent opportunity to improvehis reputation and career.

Therefore,for the two songs, Lu Chen only asked Chen Fei’er for a friendship price of 500,000.

Of course, ChenFei’er didn’t care about the more than 100,000 yuan a song price, not tomention 200,000 or 300,000 yuan for a song, even if it was 1 million yuan asong, she could afford it, but this represented the good friendship andcontractual relationship established between the two sides.

____________

[1] I’m not sureif it’s a typo or what. I think this should be September

[2] 酝酿发酵 - translated as brewing and fermentation. Thisis what I understand from this: After people analyzed and breakdown Lu Chenworks/songs for some time, and find out that these works were excellent inquality and with 3 of his works already been on the chart in the previous week,people didn’t have a hard time accepting that these 7 works were in the chart.

[3] Strengthhere could mean talent, fame, money, connection, etc.

TN: If youlike my translations support me in ko-fi: .