American Entertainment: Taylor Swift wrote a song for the beginning

Chapter 7 Nightlife

"Nashville has a rich nightlife, with several well-known bars, historic pubs and lounges, but not night clubs," explained Joel, who was driving his Toyota Corolla.

At this moment, the car is driving on Nashville's Music Street. Both sides of the road are lined with neon signs of bright lights and wine. There is no shortage of people singing and drinking here, and the whole street is full of bars. It is said that Taylor was discovered by former DreamWorks Records executive Scott Borchetta at the Bluebird Cafe, which has a strong live performance atmosphere.

Perhaps it is precisely because of this strong atmosphere of live performances that nightclubs are not popular in the local area.

"Country music can be called 'adult lyrical music' and doesn't necessarily have to be played in the countryside, but electronic music is only listened to by young people and is currently only suitable for nightclubs," Joel explained.

"That's why I said you should go to Florida or Los Angeles. There are famous DJs, giant nightclubs that can accommodate thousands of people, and the most beautiful girls. But the real paradise of electronic music will always be in Ibiza. I dream of buying a mansion there." Joel said.

Everyone has to have some dreams, just in case they come true.

Soon, the vehicle stopped at the entrance of a back alley. The environment here was much worse than the bar street with bright lights and wine, and the entrance also seemed deserted. Not far away, there were a few men gathered together smoking. They were dressed fashionably, wearing baseball caps produced by New Era, shark hoodies produced by Anyape, and sneakers from the series such as Dunk, AJ, and Old Skool on their feet.

From a distance, Ryan took a quick glance and the corresponding information came into his mind. As a male model, the original owner was good at dressing himself up and was very familiar with these trendy items. The original owner had bought quite a few of them, but Ryan was not very interested in them now, and never cared about "dressing up". He only pursued ease and comfort.

"Vanderbilt University is nearby, and a lot of young people gather here every weekend," said Joel.

At this moment, there are already people queuing up at the entrance of the nightclub. It’s not that the nightclub is very popular, but the security personnel will check everyone’s attire.

Joel was considered a half-employee here. He took Ryan past the guards, but unexpectedly Ryan was stopped directly.

"Big guy! He's my friend, and he'll perform with me tonight!" Joel said as he pushed Ryan in, and he finally entered smoothly.

"Face control, you should know this, right? The guards will selectively let in those who are more attractive in appearance. If you are a beauty, you can cut in line directly without even having to pay for a ticket. But then again, your outfit does not quite meet the dress code requirements." Joel stared at the huge "GAP" logo on Ryan's chest.

The two walked down the sloping stairs into the basement. There were huge graffiti on the walls of the corridor, and two pairs of men and women were standing in the corner whispering to each other.

After passing through a large door, the originally vague voice immediately became clear. It was two mechanical male and female voices repeating: "Push me, touch me, until I am satisfied."

"The song is called 'Satisfaction', the first single by Italian DJ Benny Benassi. The vocals in the song were synthesized using Apple's PlainTalk technology. The song peaked at number two on the UK chart. It was the first electronic music to enter the mainstream in the new century, and it's one of the fixed tracks I selected for this nightclub," Joel introduced.

The two finally entered the lobby of the nightclub, which was much smaller than Ryan had expected. It was L-shaped and had only five tables and a bar.

Further away was a dance floor surrounded by iron railings, with only a DJ booth left at the far end.

It was not yet nine o'clock, and there were only two tables occupied in the nightclub. The dance floor was also deserted. "Joel, how much were you paid last month? My salary has been reduced for four consecutive months." The black bartender behind the bar greeted Joel.

"That's because you're selling less and less wine..." said the manager in a suit who walked hurriedly past.

"I'm a bartender, not a drinks salesman." The black bartender looked at the table closest to the dance floor. At this moment, there were seven or eight young beautiful girls surrounding the table. They were wearing one-piece body-covering tun dresses and thin-strap high heels. They had slim figures and were dressed in fancy clothes.

"Whether a nightclub is attractive or not doesn't depend on the decoration, the drinks, or whether the DJ is a big name. It only depends on how pretty the girls are." Joel whispered in Ryan's ear, "Prettier women attract richer men. It's a simple but ever-valid economic logic."

"Managers, bartenders, and guards are indispensable people in every nightclub. There are also promoters. They are not employees of the nightclub but have established cooperative relationships with the nightclub. They bring girls in and help people book tables. Some of these girls are just for show, while others can accompany drinking and sell alcohol. Of course, they can also be taken out. The top promoters have many top wealthy people in their circle of friends, so the beauty resources they have are certainly not bad either!" After greeting the bartender and manager respectively, Joel nodded to the man with a mustache among the women in the booth and introduced his identity as a promoter.

"As for the DJ, he's just a performer, not a necessity. Did you hear the manager's complaint just now? Business is bad right now, and there are two more nightclubs around this year. It's 8:45 p.m. Central Time now, and we still have 15 minutes to get ready..."

Joel and Ryan had already walked to the DJ booth. Ryan saw an electronic device on the booth, or to be exact, two. The two turntables were arranged horizontally like record players. In the middle of the two "turntables" were a bunch of buttons and push rods. It looked like the control panel of some precision instrument.

"Pioneer DDJ-RX, a mainstream DJ equipment manufacturer on the market." Joel turned the turntable twice: "This is called a CDJ, which functions similarly to early record players. This is not a turntable, but a turntable, which is used to adjust the speed and align the rhythm of two songs."

"In the middle of the turntable is the mixer, which can control the output of the player. For example, song A only outputs the high frequency, and song B only outputs the low and mid-frequency parts. Ultimately, the two songs complete the transition and achieve seamless connection. This is the basic job of a DJ. Do you understand?" Joel asked Ryan.

Ryan shook his head.

Joel threw him a monitoring headset: "You'll understand after watching it for a while."

Over the next three hours, Joel created a non-stop musical space, from A Touch of Class's "Around the World (La La La La La)" to the Nightcrawlers' "Push the Feeling On" to the disco classic "The Rhythm of the Night."

From Zombie Nation's "Kernkraft 400" which is frequently used in stadiums, to Daft Punk's "HARDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER" which brought amazing visual effects at the Coachella Music Festival last year, to Tiesto's "ADAGIO FOR STRINGS" which remixed classical music, and the classic of electronic music classics - "L'Amour Toujours".

Joel is indeed an electronic music enthusiast, and the music he played tonight were all classic electronic music tracks.

Ryan also discovered another special thing. These electronic music, whether musicians, production, distribution, or audiences, are all in Europe, which seems to be in another parallel time and space compared to the pop music in the American market.

"Yes, the United States is a barren desert for electronic music. It has been like this since the disco destruction night thirty years ago..." Joel explained the embarrassing position of electronic music in the United States.

(End of this chapter)