Raising a Neglected Singer-Songwriter - Chapter 50



Only Krnovel

50. Doing pretty well

Right after the first episode of ‘Who’s the King’ aired.

Cha Seong-jun was dealing with a steady stream of calls.

First of all, the (former) general affairs team chat room.

– What the heck! Was this the reason for your resignation?! What are the glasses for? Could they be for camouflage?

– When you didn’t mention ‘Who’s the King’ at the last Healing Concert meeting, you didn’t say anything, Seongjun! That must have been painful.

– Yes, Seongjun. I was surprised when I saw it with my husband.

– Senior, then did you hear the evaluation from Monsta Z’s Jiwoong oppa too?!

Band friends Kang Seung-wook and Kim Ho-su.

– Hey, Cha Sung-jun! You, what are you doing auditioning for?! And why are you singing better than before?! Did you practice without us knowing?!

– I felt weird when my friend who I was in a band with appeared on TV. Oh, but my wife didn’t recognize you at first and she was most excited for you. Haha. And I’m due to give birth in two weeks.

And a call from Seol Hye-yoon, a former coworker and fellow YouTuber.

“Wow, the song is better than I expected. And if she appeared last and the stage was moved to the next episode, then she’s just a main contestant on the program!”

In addition, people around him who noticed him kept contacting him.

I’m taking a break for a while after responding to the calls from people I’m close with.

Brrrrrr-

The phone vibrates again.

And the three letters that appeared there.

[Chakon-dae]

Cha Seong-jun’s pupils shake as he confirms the sender.

Chakon-dae… So, Cha Seong-eun is the older sister of the 3-year-old.

I live in the US so we don’t usually have much contact or interaction.

It looks like he’s back in Korea since he called from a Korean number.

Now that I think about it, I think I posted in the family chatroom that I was planning to return home in early December.

Well, whatever.

‘But why are you calling me all of a sudden…? Did you also watch ‘Who’s the King’?’

That was the most likely reason for now.

Otherwise, there’s no particular reason to call.

If so, this is a call you shouldn’t answer.

Cha Seong-eun is someone who has been staunchly opposed to Cha Seong-jun singing since he was young.

– Rather than knocking on such a narrow door, study. Just do music as a hobby.

That was the belief of Cha Seong-eun, an elite who graduated from the best business school in Korea, completed a master’s degree in business administration at Yale University, an Ivy League school in the United States, and is now working at McKinsey, a management strategy consulting firm in the United States.

“Whew, I guess I was going to have to face this at least once anyways…”

Cha Seong-jun sighs.

Since I decided to become a singer, I couldn’t help but reveal that fact.

This is something that you need to be honest about, not only with your parents, but also with your car.

But to be honest, unlike my parents who always supported my dreams,

It would not be easy to persuade Cha Seong-eun, the witch of logic who has no blood or tears.

‘It’s clear that it will turn into a fight of logic, just like it has been since we were little…’

But there is one thing that is fortunate.

As the queen of logic, Cha Seong-in, if you just support her with proper logic, she is not like Byuk Chang-ho who is completely impossible to persuade.

‘Cha Seong’s personality is such that if I don’t answer his phone, he’ll definitely come to my studio.’

And the estimated expected visit date is within a week.

Surely you can come sooner than that?

Therefore, Cha Seong-jun also needed to be well prepared.

For the time being, I plan to avoid contact as I am doing now and collect weapons and evidence to use in the argument.

And that wouldn’t be particularly difficult.

‘I don’t know if it would have been different if I had been twenty.’

The current Cha Seong-jun has accumulated achievements.

It may sound like a grandiose statement, but he’s already doing pretty well in many ways!

First, episode 1 of ‘Who’s the King’ recorded a viewership rating of 7%.

An unusually high viewership rating for the first broadcast on a cable channel, not even a terrestrial one!

Experts were immediately predicting a 10% viewership rating for episode 2.

It was also ranked 7th among the top 10 popular contents in Korea today on Flexnet.

It was uploaded right after the broadcast on JBS, so it ranked 7th in just 2 hours!

Naturally, related articles poured out like a waterfall.

『’Who’s the King’ finally unveiled! A gathering of talented singer-songwriters!』

『First broadcast viewership ratings 7%! Cruising begins!』

『Ryu Young-seok is the leader! Legendary band Halla vocalist Choi Kang-san! The judges are also the strongest lineup!』

『The fun of finding familiar faces! The powerhouses of ‘Who’s the King’!』

The articles were mainly about the viewer ratings, the judges’ lineup, and the named contestants who appeared in Episode 1.

Among them, there were quite a few articles about Cha Seong-jun.

『The main character of the song in the teaser! Who is the last contestant number 49 in episode 1?!』

『Analyzing the final rankings of the last contestants in the first episode of the audition programs of all time!』

『”A weirdo who savors lunch boxes or a musical genius” Who is number 49? Trailer Ryu Young-seok’s spoiler! “Are you a genius?”』

Even though the actual stage has not been aired yet, viewers’ curiosity has exploded.

The media then made an issue out of it.

Thanks to this, there was an uproar in the community and YouTube comments.

Although the number of views for the other contestants’ stages was also impressive, Cha Sung-jun’s short clip in particular had an exceptionally high number of views and comments.

– No, is it true that you cut it off after 1 verse? What is that cutting technique!

– Times have changed, but you guys at the broadcasting stations are still doing this kind of editing!

– I was just checking out Coffee Man and not watching the broadcast, but I ended up being forced to watch episode 2ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– But it’s already over in verse 1. The tone is crazy.

– Ryu Young-seok’s lines in the trailer are sooooo typical lol but I’m curious lol

– The Drink Me Like Coffee soundtrack will be released next week, right?

In this way, the first episode of ‘Who’s the King’ was explosive,

The stock price of the [Reincarnation of Heavenly Demon] OST, which was released last Wednesday, was also hitting the upper limit.

The Kiwi chart music ranking, which started at 99th place, is already at 22nd place.

They say that there is no other OST song that was not sung by an idol group that has risen to such a high rank so quickly.

It is not simply because of the musicality of ‘Aengyeonmu’, but also because [Hwansaengcheonma] is the number one popular webtoon on Wednesday.

So, at the very moment when I was trying to express my gratitude, I received a call from the writer Bihyung first.

– Thank you for making such a great song! Thanks to you, the response is amazing!

“I think it’s because [Reincarnation of Heavenly Demon] is fun. I’m the one who needs to thank you.”

While they were praising each other, Bihyung also delivered some new news.

– Oh, composer, and there’s another offer from ‘Wishes’.

The response to this OST was so good that they decided to produce a music video.

A way to make short animations out of webtoons.

“Wow, it’s a music video?”

Cha Seong-jun let out an exclamation.

If a music video is released, it may be able to maintain its current popularity for a little longer.

Then the copyright revenue will increase too!

– Regarding this, ‘Wishes’ will contact you again. Aside from that, there are rumors going around among the writers······.

He said he would look into it a bit more later and give me a heads up.

When I asked for just one hint, he said ‘W’… I can’t get a feel for it with just one alphabet.

Anyway, these are the two major achievements that Cha Seong-jun can bring up when facing Cha Seong-eun.

In addition, the fact that she participated in Yuna’s cover song project and the Ye-seon-ha OST cover song, and the record of the chart reverse run as a result.

I also plan to mention the number of subscribers and views on YouTube and SoundSky.

However, no matter how much you prepare, it is not enough when facing Cha Seong-eun.

This is not the time to rest on your laurels.

I need to create at least one more piece of work.

Rather than just because of the silkiness, the more work you do with DeVoice now, the more you will benefit when your identity is revealed later on ‘Who’s the King’.

So the next day, Sunday, I headed to the studio in Yeokchon-dong.

To record [SURF], a cover song of Mocha Sweat PPL.

At the advertiser’s request, I wore a white shirt, placed the product name and brand clearly visible, and placed a Durahan helmet next to it.

This is because when filming content with the couple Seol Hye-yoon and Durahan, we agreed to put up helmets to make it more fun for subscribers.

“Ahhhhh.”

After lightly clearing my throat, I took a sip of Mocha Sweat from the beginning.

Some fans are drawn to the sexy movements of the owl.

Advertisers will probably like this too.

If you show this kind of proactive attitude, you will receive love calls from other companies as well.

After that, we started full-scale recording.

Recording proceeded quickly amidst the enthusiastic work of [Emotion Buff] and [Vitality Buff] that were activated simultaneously.

*

And then Monday came.

Today is finally the day of the official contract signing ceremony with MXM Entertainment.

I headed to MXM Entertainment with an excited heart.

As we entered the 11th floor meeting room,

Phuong-

The first thing that greets you is the sound of firecrackers.

I looked around in surprise and saw a large banner hanging with balloons in the conference room.

[Sungjun (D.Voice) X MXM ent.

Congratulations on the contract! MXM ent everyone]

“Welcome to the MXM Entertainment family!”

Then, MXM Entertainment staff members including Choi Max-heon, Baek Seok, and Team Leader Kim Seong-su, whom he was seeing for the first time in a long time, welcomed Cha Seong-jun with applause.

“Go, thank you.”

Cha Seong-jun is a little embarrassed and expresses his thanks.

Because it was a congratulatory message full of humanity that somehow didn’t seem to fit with a large corporation.

It is said that this practice has continued because MXM Entertainment aims to have a closer, family-like relationship than just a partnership between a company and its artists.

Then I sat down and signed the contract.

Now officially under MXM Entertainment.

Some of the staff who had come to congratulate him immediately left.

What remains are the core personnel of the public relations, marketing, and A&R teams.

As the beam projector turned on, Cha Sung-jun’s briefing on his schedule for December began.

“First of all, as you mentioned before, the press release regarding today’s contract will be distributed right after the ‘Who’s the King’ identity reveal broadcast. Therefore, we are planning to conduct profile shooting tomorrow morning-”

The staff in charge of the briefing continued their explanation one by one.

Cha Seong-jun felt as if he was dreaming while concentrating on this.

‘I never thought I would receive a briefing like this.’

As a member of the general affairs team, I used to just take care of others, but now I am the recipient of care from so many people.

It was so strange and amazing.

After a while, MXM finished sharing their planned December schedule.

And at the same time that the projector screen changed, the presenter also changed.

He is the head of the A&R team.

The A&R (Artists & Repertoire) team, often referred to as the ‘flower of the entertainment company’, is a department that participates in all aspects of production, including song collection, composer management, album planning, recording, mixing, and mastering.

In short, the role is to coordinate the entire album production process by taking into account the music market trends and singer characteristics.

What does it mean to be on the mic in a team like that?

“Then, we will now begin the concept meeting for Sungjun’s debut album.”

The blueprint for Sungjun’s debut album, which will soon be evaluated as ‘the greatest rookie ever’ and change the landscape of the music market, was set to be born at this venue today.

Raising a Neglected Singer-Songwriter Episode 51