American Entertainment: Taylor Swift wrote a song for the beginning

Chapter 6 Semi-finished products

Ryan then asked Nathan Chapman about music, but the producer could only shake his head.

"You've found the wrong person. I don't know much about this type of music. Young American boys only like to listen to R&B and hip-hop, but Europeans have a special liking for it," said Nathan.

"I know who you should look for." But a voice came from behind.

Ryan turned around, and Taylor and Abigail also looked towards the source of the voice. The person who spoke was the recording assistant who had always stayed in the recording studio.

He wore thick glasses, was short and fat, and looked like a large penguin. He called himself Joel.

Facing the gazes of the three people, he seemed a little reserved: "You can try to contact famous DJs such as Diplo, Dead Rat, and Steve Aoki, or go to Los Angeles and Miami in person. In short, your target is not Nashville."

"You seem to know a lot about this?" Ryan tried.

Joel explained: "I occasionally discuss electronic music production with others on the Internet. There is a discussion group on IRC (Internet Relay Chat), which contains many electronic music enthusiasts. In short, I think your demo is really great, amazing enough, with prominent heavy bass, simple chords, and pretty good big room works."

Seeing Ryan's confusion, Joel explained: "Big Room is a style of electronic music that emphasizes extremely strong rhythms and is most suitable for discotheques."

Ryan felt much more at ease now, as the recognition from professional fans proved that the song had the potential to become popular. Now the most important thing was to produce a complete work.

Joel also gave a similar opinion: "But you'd better not take this demo to anyone. If someone intervenes, not only will you not be able to become the main author, you may even lose the right to authorship."

"So, my final advice is to at least make a complete version and upload it to the major paid music download platforms such as iTunes, Amazon MP3, Rhapsody, and Zune Marketplace. Oh, don't forget Beatport, where nightclub DJs all over the world rip songs. Once you have done all this, you need to promote the preview version on the Internet, starting with social networking sites."

"As for copyright registration, you have to register it with the U.S. Copyright Office as soon as possible." Ryan continued. This was a piece of cake for him, as the original owner had completed copyright registration by mail.

Ryan looked at Joel again: "Have you used Ableton Live software?"

Joel nodded and took the initiative to invite Ryan to his home. Taylor also packed up his personal belongings and prepared to leave with Abigail. The two said goodbye at the door of Blackbird Studios.

"Everyone has good luck sometimes, you just happened to bump into me." Taylor shrugged, regained his confidence, then turned and walked towards the parking lot.

But her friend Abigail did not leave with Taylor immediately, but turned and came to Ryan.

"Thank you, your name is Ryan, right?" she asked with a blushing face, naturally thanking Ryan for speaking for her just now.

"Maybe we will have a chance to meet again." She turned and left, but looked back every few steps, then quickly caught up with Taylor.

Is there really a chance to see each other again? Ryan shook his head. After what happened yesterday, Taylor wanted nothing to do with him.

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"The room is a little messy, watch your step..." Joel picked up the dog by the scruff of its neck and threw it out, then slammed the door shut. Ryan almost tripped over the tangled cables on the floor when he first came in. The whole room was like a cyber showroom, with all kinds of equipment piled up together, from old and broken Trinitron TVs, electronic keyboards, guitars, synthesizers, samplers, and disc players, and surrounded by a computer.

This is Joel's "study". After agreeing to help Ryan complete the production of the song, he gladly invited Ryan to his home.

"I usually make music here. I also have a hobby of collecting various musical devices, although most of them are useless now." Joel explained as he turned on the computer.

Joel then showed Ryan the Roland 808 drum machine he had just found at a second-hand store.

"How is it? It's in pretty good condition, right? It's the cornerstone of hip-hop music." Joel's hands were like he was touching a piece of art collection.

The DAW software Joel is accustomed to using is Steinberg Cubase. Joel said that this software has better expansion support, but Ryan can't see the difference between the two at all.

Ryan then began to depict the melody in his mind and started a new round of production under Joel's hands-on teaching.

Although Joel was very patient, he found it difficult to understand what kind of synthesizer effect Ryan's "harsh and thick", "rough and sharp", and "with a certain amount of distortion and saturation" sound was.

“Maybe there’s no synth effect like this on the market.” Joel shook his head. “Or maybe someone makes a more powerful effect plug-in so you can customize any sound in your mind.”

Obviously, the current level of development of music software cannot meet all of Ryan's needs.

Ryan had no choice but to settle for the second best and chose the sound effect plug-in recommended by Joel. Although it didn't sound as impactful as the version in his mind, it was enough to make Joel shout with excitement.

"That's awesome, man." Joel raised his arms, shook his head to the rhythm, and then turned the volume of the speakers to the maximum. He had never heard such electronic music before. It seemed to come from the future and was ahead of an era.

"Do you want to scare me into having a heart attack? Turn off the sound!" Joel's mother shouted from outside the room.

Joel had no choice but to do as he was told, and then he talked about his own experience: "I wasn't this fat when I was studying at UF (University of Florida). I was still a DJ at that time. After graduation, I stayed in Florida. My roommate Lawrence and I worked during the day and made music at night. We just wanted to make a living from music one day. We stayed there for seven years, but the result was countless failures. Later, my roommate went to Los Angeles to continue pursuing his music dream, and I returned to Nashville."

Judging from his age, Joel is already over 30 years old, and his tone reveals the deep frustration that is unique to middle-aged people.

"How many people are like Taylor? Her father runs a consulting company on Wall Street, her mother is always there to support her, and she has creative talent, a good voice, and good looks. If such a person were put in an inspirational movie, the audience would just think the screenwriter is an idiot with no logic, but God sometimes favors someone." Joel turned and mentioned Taylor, his tone even heavier.

Ryan had heard from Trae before that in order to support his daughter's pursuit of her music dream, Taylor's father moved his company directly to Nashville. Her mother accompanied her throughout the whole process. Two years ago, when Taylor released her new album, it was her mother who drove her and a trunk full of physical album CDs on a radio tour. The mother and daughter went door to door and personally delivered albums to radio stations across the country, which gave the country singer her first exposure.

"Do you want to know why I'm helping you, kid? I see myself in you. I think if someone could provide me with step-by-step guidance, I would have avoided many detours." Joel said what he was thinking: "The audience's reaction is the only criterion for testing a song. I have a part-time job in a nightclub. Do you want to try being a guest DJ?"

(End of this chapter)