Raising a Neglected Singer-Songwriter - Chapter 65



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Raising a Neglected Singer-Songwriter Episode 65

65. Arrival

Ryu Young-seok, who started out as a one-man band and is now the number one composer respected by his juniors, said this in an interview with a media outlet.

“The public no longer ‘owns’ music. They simply ‘consume’ it.”

As Ryu Young-seok said, as times change, the way the public enjoys music has also constantly changed.

The advent of the vinyl record called LP (Long Play Record) made it possible for the first time to ‘own’ popular music that had been passed down by word of mouth.

This was followed by cassette tapes and CDs, and the music market grew rapidly as music that had previously only been available at home became available outside the home.

During this time, it was common for listeners to buy physical copies of their favorite singer’s albums and listen to the entire album over and over again until the tape wore out.

Then, with the advent of MP3 audio sources and streaming services, the way we enjoy music changed 180 degrees.

By being able to search for and listen to any music you want, anytime, anywhere, through Kiwi, YouTube, etc., we have gained vast freedom in choosing music.

As a result, listeners would only listen to the introduction, and if they didn’t like it, they would leave at any time and look for another song to listen to.

In other words, selective consumption according to taste has become possible.

This meant that music had changed from being something to be ‘collected’ and kept like in the past LP or CD era to something to be ‘consumed’ once.

Meanwhile, there was another phenomenon that arose due to this changing climate.

This is the phenomenon of concentrated consumption of the ‘title song’.

For modern people who are flooded with content to enjoy, such as music, TV dramas, YouTube, and Flexnet, the value of ‘time’ has become even more precious.

In this situation, let’s assume that a singer releases an album.

Modern people don’t have ‘time’ to find and listen to all the songs on an album.

So I compromise and am satisfied with just listening to the one song that the album puts out front, the ‘title song’.

Because I have learned through experience that it is the most useful choice.

Even if you release an album that is packed to the brim like this, the public is already used to only listening to the title songs.

The included songs have long since been relegated to being ‘extras’ that only fans who truly love the singer would listen to.

This was also the reason why the A&R team insisted on Cha Sung-jun’s EP as a ‘quadruple title’, that is, ‘all song titles’.

“It’s a shame for songs of this quality to be relegated to the album.”

If the four songs were on different albums, they would have been title tracks each, as they were so well-made and popular.

At the time, Cha Sung-jun also thought it was a shame for the songs he had worked so hard to create to just be buried.

But I couldn’t help but be thankful that the A&R team suggested all the song titles first.

“I’d like to have all the song titles too.”

All songs are titles by a new artist.

And she’s a solo singer-songwriter, not a member of an idol group.

It is sensational in itself.

Anyone in the industry who doesn’t know who Sungjun is would naturally react by saying, “Is he crazy?”

However, MXM Entertainment knows that he is Sungjun, ‘D.Voice’, and ‘Number 49’ at the same time.

Even when I coldly calculated the odds, it was worth a bet.

“Then… let’s go hot. All the songs on the first EP by a rookie are title tracks. Let’s create a legend in the music industry!”

“I’ll just trust the A&R team.”

Cha Sung-jun and the A&R team have made up their minds.

Now that the title song has been decided as a full song, we also talked about the related music video.

The conclusion was simple.

As I said last time, first of all, only the music video for ‘DMLC’ will be released.

For the remaining three songs, we plan to decide whether to produce additional music videos after looking at the music chart performance and fan reactions.

The expected initial sales figures were also mentioned.

“Conservatively speaking, we estimate around 50,000 copies.”

Coincidentally, the sales volume bet between older sister Cha Seong-eun and MXM Entertainment’s expected sales volume are the same.

From MMX Entertainment’s perspective, the number was determined by taking into account several factors.

If it were the first album by a new singer-songwriter soloist, it would be hard to sell even 10,000 copies, let alone 50,000.

But as mentioned before, Sungjun was an artist under a large entertainment agency called MXM Entertainment, and was also ‘D.Voice’ and ‘number 49’.

Therefore, the A&R team explained that they took both label power and manpower into consideration.

“The album is scheduled to be released at noon next Monday.”

After announcing the exclusive contract on Saturday, they plan to gather attention by doing a lot of unfollowing on Sunday.

So, unintentionally, it was released on January 1st.

Thanks to this, the PR/Marketing team plans to take Yama with the phrase, ‘A super special rookie who appeared on the first day of the new year!’

“Oh, I also need to open a TokTok account. I need to do a challenge.”

“Yes? If it’s a challenge, is it a cover song challenge like senior Yuna’s ’26’?”

The A&R team leader chuckled when Cha Sung-jun asked.

“No, this time it’s dance.”

“Hey, dance?!”

No, how can you do a dance challenge with a song that doesn’t even have a simple rhythm!

In the midst of confusion,

Seeing is believing! The A&R team pointed to the screen.

There stood a famous female choreography dancer, ‘Likee’, who was quite familiar to him, with two crew members.

Soon, the chorus ‘Drink me like coffee~’ started to flow,

Doom doom doom doom-

The dancers present easy-to-follow and fun point choreography.

Ah, so this is what the dance challenge was like…

“Sungjun, you are also planning to set a date next week to learn the choreography and then film the challenge video right away.”

Idol group Monsta Z, which includes MXM division member Yuna and ‘Who’s the King’ judge Jiwoong, also plans to willingly participate in the challenge for their junior Sungjun.

“I think it would be good to ask people you know personally to participate in the challenge. For example, Mr. Yeseon Ha. Is there anyone else that comes to mind?”

“hmm···.”

I thought about it carefully, but there was no suitable person.

Well, he’s a rookie who hasn’t even debuted yet, so how could he have any connections?

The only people in the industry he knows are the judges on ‘Who’s the King’.

Seniors Ryu Young-seok, Choi Kang-san, etc.

‘Asking those people to do a dance challenge… I guess it’d be difficult.’

Still, if they participate in the challenge, the buzz will be unprecedented.

It’s interesting to imagine the ridiculous things that Ryu Young-seok and Choi Kang-san do.

Anyway, I finished the long meeting with the A&R team.

Next, it’s time to meet the management team.

With only a week left until their debut, a manager and stylist have been officially appointed.

Manager ‘Oh Hae-soo’.

Cody ‘Weuri.’

These are the friends who have been my temporary manager and coordinator for the past few weeks.

“Please take good care of me, Seongjun hyung!”

“Me too, brother.

We talked about the schedule after debut with the newly formed Sungjun team.

“First of all, Seongjun hyung, what’s your schedule for the first week of January-”

Oh Hae-soo begins to list the errors.

From music broadcasts to radio, music talk concerts, entertainment, fan signing events, etc…

Well, they haven’t even debuted yet and it’s already incredibly packed.

Among them, what caught my ear was attending the live broadcast of ‘Who’s the King’.

As with any survival show, some of the most popular contestants among those eliminated will perform a special stage.

PD Park Yong-oh strongly requested that he appear.

“Does Seongjun hyung have any personal schedules?”

In response to Oh Hae-soo’s question, Cha Seong-jun shared three things.

First up is Changhyuk’s New Year’s Street Karaoke King of Kings Tournament.

Next is the demo of the opening song for the 3rd season of [Nahonbul].

Lastly, the healing concert of my former colleague, ‘Sae-hyang’.

In the case of the healing concert, it was not confirmed yet, but the purpose was to prepare a room in advance in case a request came in.

“Yes, I checked. I’ll report it to the team leader.”

Oh Hae-soo made a salute motion.

After that, the three of them finished all their schedules by shouting “fighting” together.

*

The next day, Monday.

When I opened my eyes in the morning, the world outside the window was pure white.

It was a work of art created by the sleet that fell all night.

“It’s pretty, but······.”

Going to work must be hell.

On days like this, I think it’s a good thing I quit my job.

“Let it snow~ Let it snow~”

While humming the theme song of a super popular winter anime and enjoying a subtle sense of victory,

– Oppa Seongjun! I’ll send you the Jinnungkaebi demo ver.2!

Yuna sent me the melody she had sent last time after modifying it.

I played the demo while admiring the piled up snow.

“Oh, good.”

Compared to demo ver.1, the level of completion has definitely increased.

There was no further feedback to be provided.

– I don’t think demo version 3 will be born.

Let’s send a thumbs up emoticon together,

The response was a giggling squirrel emoticon rolling around on the floor, along with the words, “Thanks.”

And then he said,

– I’m looking at the release date of ‘Jinnungkaebi’ to be around the end of January.

This schedule was designed to avoid overlapping with Sungjun’s EP activities.

We ended the conversation with another expression of gratitude.

From now on, what Cha Sung-jun has to do is none other than work on a song.

[I’m Alone] It was the opening song for season 3.

Since I thought I would be extremely busy after my debut, my plan was to quickly finish the work now.

I heard from Jo Jae-joong about the episode that would be covered in season 3 of [Nahonbul], and started working on the song and lyrics based on that content.

“If it’s a Japanese anime opening, it has to be band music.”

As a result of listening to various animation opening songs whenever I had time.

It was common for band songs to present extreme excitement and thrills along with gorgeous artwork.

Structurally, the story has a clear rise and fall, and in the chorus, the guitar and vocals reach a powerful climax.

And the lyrics are full of second-year middle school syndrome and are full of metaphors and analogies.

“I’m confident about that too.”

[Imagination] comes into play, and scenes from Season 3 of [I Live Alone] unfold in the cinema of your head.

The main character burns to death, gets struck by lightning, gets stabbed in the heart, gets hit and dies······.

Even among the countless deaths, he is resurrected with the power of [immortality] and ultimately defeats the villains.

And the famous line he spits out.

“Let’s kill each other until we die.”

The sight of the protagonist with his ghostly eyes and the terrified villain is so confusing that it’s hard to tell which one is the villain.

“Okay. Let’s use this line as a highlight lyric.”

The rough idea is finished.

Now that he’s a high school student, he can awaken the Black Flame Dragon that was sealed deep inside him and have him participate in composing songs.

And this is the catalyst for the revival of the Black Flame Dragon.

[Henna Sticker – Black]

“Kekekekeke. Then shall we create it? A dance song of chaos and destruction that will shake up the anime world.”

Cha Seong-jun let out a low laugh and began to fill in the midi.

And that evening.

[Nahonbul] An email was delivered to writer Jo Jae-jung.

[I Alone Immortal OP Demo – Life and Death]

*

Time is truly capricious.

If you want it to go quickly, stop it.

If you want it to be even a little slower, accelerate it.

Time passed quickly for Cha Sung-jun, a week before his debut.

tuesday.

I learned the DMLC Challenge dance from a choreographer and completed the content after a dozen attempts.

On this day, Cha Seong-jun was able to personally confirm that he was a bodybuilder.

Also, I promised myself that if the [Dance] stat ever appears, I will level it up appropriately.

wednesday.

In just four days, a rough edit of the ‘DMLC’ music video arrived from director Choi Seok-yong.

Indeed, Choi Seok-yong was a world champion.

The music video has both gorgeous visuals and a rich narrative, and the female protagonist, Ye-seon, is so lovely.

one side,

“Wow, Seongjun-nim’s visuals are amazing. To be honest, he stands out more than the male actors.”

Contrary to my expectations that he would appear briefly here and there to change the mood, I was surprised to find that he had more screen time than I thought.

Almost on par with the lead male actor.

But somehow, all the impactful scenes were taken by Cha Seong-jun.

Of course, the highlight of the music video, the ‘Kkakji Shin’, was also included.

“The music video is amazing. The only thing I’m worried about is that Ye-seon Ha’s fans will hate her.”

Afterwards, I compiled some feedback and relayed it to Director Choi Seok-yong.

On Thursday and Friday, I took care of everything that was left for the debut.

I also received the final version of the MV from Choi Seok-yong, and confirmed it immediately.

And finally, the long-awaited Saturday has arrived.

‘Who’s the King’ episode 6 air date.

In other words, the day has come for Sungjun to reveal himself to the world.