Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

New Year, new atmosphere. As time entered 1996, Hengdong Records also formulated a new company plan for this year.

First of all, there are two of the company’s more famous singers in the country, Xu Wei and He Jin.

Xu Wei does not have any new plans for the time being. He has just released "You Once", and the popularity of this album has not yet passed, so it is not appropriate for him to release a new Mandarin album right away.

He Jin has prepared a new album, and Zhou Ziheng personally copied Sun Nan's album "The Sky of Fate" for him.

Among them, the title song of this album, "Rescue", was also used in the movie "The Conjuring" which is still being released in Hong Kong. It is the promotional song for this movie.

Currently, this song has received considerable attention due to the huge box office success of "The Conjuring" in Hong Kong.

This is an attempt by Hengdong to push the company's singers into other Chinese-speaking markets such as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The release date of He Jin's album is scheduled for April. Some songs have been recorded and there is not much follow-up work to be done.

The most important thing for Hengdong at the moment is another thing.

Last year, many major events took place in the music industry. Among them, the change of ownership of Huaxing Records, once the dominant company in Hong Kong music scene, was an event of considerable impact.

It's really sad to talk about it.

Hong Kong and Taiwan pop music is one of the most important representatives of popular culture in the past twenty years. The production of these popular music songs and the launch of singers who are famous in Asia and even the global Chinese community naturally rely on the record companies behind them.

However, the characteristic of popularity is that it is ever-changing. There are very few companies that are truly enduring, especially since the era of a hit album is only 20 to 30 years. Therefore, most record companies only have a lifespan of a few years or more than a decade, like a shooting star, which is indeed very consistent with the characteristic of "popularity".

With the changes in Chinese pop music today, many of the once prosperous record companies have also fallen on hard times.

The same is true for Huaxing Records.

Huaxing Records is definitely a well-known time-honored brand in the Hong Kong pop music scene. It has been around since the early 70s and has produced many big-name singers.

In its early days, Huaxing Records was a relatively local company. It did not have overseas capital background like the now-popular PolyGram, Warner, EMI and other companies, but was a rare company in Hong Kong that was controlled by purely local capital.

From Roman Tam, Jenny Tseng, Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui to Alex To, and now Andy Hui and Sammi Cheng, every singer shining in the Chinese music scene has Huaxing as their promoter behind them.

However, there is a rather special phenomenon with Huaxing. Although it has numerous celebrities under its banner, for many singers who became popular after the 90s, Huaxing is often ridiculed as a "transit station".

Because many of them only debuted with Huaxing, and became famous with other record companies.

For example, Alex To and Sandy Lam both became famous by joining Rock Records, while Sammi Cheng moved to Warner Music, and later Miriam Yeung moved to CinemaTown.

The reason why Huaxing Records has been able to help so many singers debut.

The main reason is that the actual major shareholder behind this company is the famous TVB.

Almost half of the entertainment artists come from TVB, so for too many artists, their first choice for debut is naturally to rely on wireless resources.

However, during most of the initial stage in the 70s, Huaxing was just a pure record publishing company. For example, it released music compilations or albums for TVB dramas, which were similar to the later TV music soundtracks. It did not package singers at first.

It was not until the early 80s, with the rise of Alyssa Chan and Leslie Cheung, that the concept of signing singers individually came into being.

At the same time, it co-organized a special singer rookie audition with TVB, creating a so-called assembly-line-style one-stop service for media, events, packaging, and records. This is the reason for the prosperity of Huaxing Records in the music industry.

In 1982, Anita Mui was the champion of the first rookie singer selection.

The following year, Roman Tam moved from EMI to Huaxing, and with the addition of Leslie Cheung, talented singers gradually gathered here, and Huaxing Records became more and more famous.

The prosperity created by Huaxing Records in the 80s only lasted until the early 90s, about ten years.

Not to mention the impact of the return to China on the entertainment industry in Hong Kong at that time, Leslie Cheung first had the gimmick of focusing on movies and bidding farewell to music in the late 80s, and even held a famous farewell concert.

In the mid-90s, Anita Mui publicly expressed her dissatisfaction with a series of actions of Huaxing Records, which included promoting some greatest hits albums without her consent.

Sammi Cheng and Andy Hui, who are on the rise, are also very dissatisfied with some of the practices of Huaxing Company.

It is said that they released a so-called couple duet album. Although the two are indeed a couple, they have only debuted for a short time, and being labeled as a couple right away has some impact on their career development.

If you look at what Huaxing did superficially, it seems that they tried every possible means to expand market sales.

But this still seems a bit stingy.

Moreover, another very criticized point about Huaxing Records is that other companies have already entered the Mandarin market and believe that Mandarin records are the way out for the Chinese music scene.

Huaxing is just too stubborn. It can be said that they are trying to promote Cantonese songs, or it can be said that they are foolish.

Anyway, all singers of Huaxing Records basically only release Cantonese albums.

Even if a singer under the company wants to release a Mandarin song, he or she needs to find a new company on his or her own.

This directly leads to the fact that at the current time when the Mandarin market is unprecedentedly huge and the Cantonese market is shrinking, the singers of their company can only live in a small place, causing many singers in the company to be dissatisfied with Huaxing.

Last year, Huaxing finally couldn't hold on and was officially sold to the South China Morning Post by TVB.

Many of its singers rarely have the opportunity to escape from their suffering.

So someone contacted Hengdong Records, which is currently quite famous in the Chinese music scene.

Li Wen!

This singer debuted as the runner-up in the Hong Kong New Talent Singing Competition in 1993.

He then took the initiative to contact Hengdong Records.

Speaking of which, Li Wen can be considered a singer who debuted in Huaxing but reached her peak in other record companies.

After her debut in the New Talent Singing Contest in 1993, she signed performing contracts in Hong Kong and Taiwan with Huaxing Records and Modern Records respectively.

As a result, she wasted two years in Hong Kong and remained an unknown figure, but achieved good results in Taiwan.

Wanwan's first album "Love Now" sold 130,000 copies on Wanwan alone.

Also in December of that year, she released her second music album "Promise Me", and the physical version of the album sold over 12 copies within three months of its release.

This made Coco Lee a well-known female singer in Taiwan.

"Ms. Li, you are doing well at Modern Records, why do you want to come to Hengdong?"

On March 5th, Zhou Ziheng met Coco Lee at Hengdong Records.

As soon as they met, Zhou Ziheng asked straight to the point.

Judging from Coco Lee’s personal resume, Modern Records’ planning and development for her can be said to be perfect.

Under such circumstances, she did not renew her contract with Modern Records, but instead came to Hengdong Records, which made Zhou Ziheng feel very strange.

“Modern Records was acquired by Columbia Records!”

Coco Lee, who was sitting opposite Zhou Ziheng, was looking at him curiously.

He was very curious about this young man who was three years older than her.

At the same age, I was only a little famous on Wanwan, but this guy now has a considerable influence all over the world.

Comparing yourself to others will make you feel nauseous, which made her very curious about Zhou Ziheng.

"I know, but Columbia Records won't just ignore a singer like you who has achieved good results in the Taiwanese market, right?"

Zhou Ziheng certainly knew that Columbia Records had acquired Modern Records.

I also know that after many companies are acquired, their singers will be neglected by their new owners.

For example, Brother Xiao Qi was badly exploited by Zhou Ziheng.

In 1990, Richie Jen signed a contract with the then-well-known Xingge Records and released four albums within two years.

Judging from the signs at the time, Richie Jen was clearly a singer that Xingge Records was keen to promote.

Unfortunately, in 1993, Xin Ge was acquired by Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone was at its peak at that time, and had a large number of popular singers under its banner. Naturally, they were unwilling to cultivate Richie Ren, so Richie Ren was thrown into a corner.

It was not until 1996 that it was reactivated by Xiao Chong.

There are many singers in the Chinese music scene who have had similar experiences.

Many singers have been abandoned and become unknown because their companies were acquired and they changed to new owners.

But, generally speaking, the abandoned singers are those who are not very famous.

Columbia should not be so foolish as to ignore a singer like Li Wen who already has a considerable influence in Taiwan.

“My contract with Modern Records was only for three years and it expired this year.

So far, Colombia has not contacted me to renew the contract.

I myself feel uncertain about my future in Colombia.

I also heard that Hengdong Records was recruiting singers, so I came here. "

Li Wen's carefree personality reminded Zhou Ziheng of Faye Wong.

Faye Wong is like this, she never beats around the bush when she speaks.

When thinking of Faye Wong, Zhou Ziheng couldn't help but think of her marriage with Dou Wei, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

Faye Wong was too stubborn and refused to listen to any advice. Not only did she marry Dou Wei as usual, she is now pregnant.

Obviously, he couldn't change the fact that she was hurt once.

Coming back to his senses, Zhou Ziheng looked at Li Wen.

He is actually very satisfied with Coco Lee.

This person's achievements are actually not low.

In the late 90s, she was one of the best-selling Chinese female singers, second only to a few singers such as Faye Wong.

Signing her will also bring many benefits to Hengdong.

It can not only make up for the company's situation of more male employees than female employees, but also allow Hengdong to open up the Taiwanese market.

"Forget it. I won't ask you why you came to Hengdong. We welcome singers like you to join us."

Zhou Ziheng stood up and extended his hand to Li Wen, "I hope we can have a pleasant cooperation. We will fax you the specific contract details in two days.

If you have any requirements, you can raise them now.

If I can do it, I will do my best.”

"I don't have any requests, except one: I hope Mr. Zhou can personally participate in the creation of my album."

Li Wen said this, staring intently at Zhou Ziheng.

Hearing this, Zhou Ziheng suddenly smiled, "Is this probably the reason why you joined Hengdong?"

"Of course, this is why I want to join Hengdong. I think no one will refuse the temptation of Zhou Ziheng to participate in the creation of an album."

Li Wen said generously.

Zhou Ziheng nodded, "Okay, I will participate in your album."

Zhou Ziheng was not surprised by this, as he was the biggest drawcard of Hengdong Records.

It made sense that Li Wen wanted him to help create the album.

Zhou Ziheng did not reject this either.

The money earned from producing Li Wen's album belongs to Hengdong, which is also his. Of course he doesn't object.

When it came to writing a song for Coco Lee, the first thing he thought of was "Dama Dan", but after thinking about it, he decided not to write this song yet.

After thinking for a while, Zhou Ziheng made a decision.

She remembered that Coco Lee's official rise in the Chinese music scene seemed to be based on her self-titled album "Coco Li Wen".

Although the songs in this album are not very popular, its sales are very good.

The Taiwan region alone received 400,000 tickets.

It was also with this album that Coco Lee officially established her style of being lively, cute, and sexy.

This laid the groundwork for her to become a pop diva later on.

So, after thinking about it, Zhou Ziheng decided to create this album for her.

……

On March 8, Women's Day, Zhou Ziheng went to Beijing to attend a film symposium organized by the China Film Organization.

He originally thought that he would go over and learn something, but he was very disappointed.

There were many people present at this symposium, but they were all just talking official language.

There were not many people who knew much about movies, and the entire symposium was filled with a group of people talking in official language, which made Zhou Ziheng fall asleep.

Finally, I stayed up for several hours and almost fell asleep before the symposium ended.

The symposium had just ended and he was about to run away when he saw two young men walking towards him.

"Hello, Mr. Zhou. I didn't expect to see you at this symposium."

"Who are you?" Zhou Ziheng looked confused. He didn't remember knowing these two people.

"Oh! Excuse me, I'm Wang Zhongjun, and this is my brother Wang Zhonglei. We brothers are both fans of your music and movies, Mr. Zhou!"

The older of the two spoke up.

Hearing this, Zhou Ziheng looked at the two of them carefully.

He felt a little embarrassed. He had never seen these two people in his previous life. Although he had seen photos of them on the Internet, how could he remember them after seeing them once or twice?

However, no one should impersonate these two people now.

"Hello!" Zhou Ziheng shook hands with the two brothers.

"Mr. Zhou, I have booked a table at the restaurant next door. Would you mind coming?"

The two brothers Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei are very enthusiastic.

Zhou Ziheng wanted to refuse, but after thinking about it, he agreed, "Okay!"

He actually had no good or bad feelings towards the two brothers.

However, these two brothers will be well-known figures in the Chinese-language film industry in the future, so it would be nice to make some friends and get to know them.

"Please, this way!"

Seeing that Zhou Ziheng agreed, Wang Zhongjun and his brother were immediately delighted. They took the lead and led Zhou Ziheng to the restaurant.

After taking two steps, Wang Zhonglei called out to the other side, "Director Feng, this way!"

Hearing the name "Director Feng", Zhou Ziheng looked over there and immediately saw a man with a pointed chin and monkey cheeks.

Isn’t this a small cannon?
(End of this chapter)