Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 128 A Gathering of Heroes
As it turns out, making Na Ying a judge was the right choice.

Aside from the vast difference in fame, she almost perfectly fits the persona of a sharp-tongued judge; she not only dares to speak, but also talks a lot and very frequently.

Many times, it was Li Guyi who stopped her from making the contestants cry.

With her presence, the originally uneventful preliminary rounds suddenly became much more interesting.

So Zhang Yan specially arranged for camera and audio recording to track her entire conversation, to organize and record her words, and then, after removing the dross and refining them, edit and modify them so that they could be used again in the round of 32.

Just three days after Na Ying joined, Teacher Gu Jianfen called specifically to ask if she could replace him with her eldest apprentice, Mao Amin. Mao Amin was more famous, so he could at least be placed at the bottom.

The production team naturally disagreed, saying only that part of it had already been recorded, and that the eagle himself really liked the job.

Upon hearing this, Gu Jianfen sighed and said, "This child is determined to make things difficult for himself, and even I, as his teacher, can't stop him. But I urge the production team to be lenient and not broadcast those outrageous remarks."

"You can rest assured about that."

Zhang Yan assured, "Our TV station still has its bottom line. If something goes too far, we will definitely cut it out—or at least mute it."

I finished the phone call with the old lady.

Zhang Yan turned to look at Zhang Weining, who was waiting beside him: "Brother Ning, are you going to make a phone call, or do you need to talk to me about something?"

"Of course I need to talk to you. Our production team doesn't just have this one phone." After Zhang Weining and Zhang Yan became more familiar with each other, Zhang Weining stopped calling him "General Manager Zhang" all the time.

He is now the music director of Dream Company and also the music director of "I'm Crazy for Singing"—of course, this position is mainly about sounding good, and he doesn't have much real power.

Zhang Weining pointed towards the hall and said, "There was a contestant who was eliminated in the first round, but I think he might be a good fit for our record company."

"You were eliminated in the first round?"

The first round of assessments shouldn't be too difficult, and Chen Hong should be able to pass if she performs well.

Zhang Weining explained, "He sang his own original song. Because there was no accompaniment, he sang it while playing the guitar. But that song is not suitable for live performance, let alone for him to sing it himself."

However, after hearing him introduce himself on stage, saying he had already composed over a hundred songs, I chatted with him—the young man's songwriting ability is indeed quite good, especially his lyrics.

"Oh~"

Zhang Yan suddenly realized: "You want to keep him here so he can write songs for us, right?"

"That's what I thought, but he insisted on writing and singing it himself."

"Let's keep him here first. At worst, we can release two versions, one for him to sing himself, and one for a suitable person to sing—by the way, what's his name?"

"Xu Wei, like Zheng Jun, is from Xi'an."

It turns out that even singers who make the list can be eliminated in just one round!

Zhang Yan had assumed that any singer who made it onto the list in the future would definitely make it into the top 32, so he hadn't paid much attention. But Xu Wei's elimination in the first round served as a wake-up call for him.

He quickly found the preliminary round list and flipped through it, and sure enough, he found another person who was eliminated in the second round—Park Shu.

Zhang Yan approached the staff at the scene to inquire about the situation. The staff said that the young man was too inexperienced and had not received professional training. It was already a remarkable achievement that he had made it to the second round.

He's really young. Although this guy is over 18, I don't know if he started school late or repeated a grade, but he's currently still in his second year of high school.

Zhang Yan hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided against forcing Pu Shu to grow up too quickly. He decided to let Pu Shu develop first, and wait until he graduated from high school and went to university before making any decisions.

Then Zhang Yan saw a familiar person at the performance venue.

"Old Wolf?"

When Zhang Yan saw the person approaching to greet him, he glanced at the list of participants in his hand with a puzzled look: "This... oh, you used your real name to participate. You keep calling me 'Old Wolf' all the time, I almost forgot what your real name is—how's it going, did you pass the preliminary round?"

"We just passed the first round, and the second round will be held this afternoon," Lao Lang said. "I'm pretty confident that I'll pass the preliminary round—but Brother Zhang, I think our judges are still a bit biased against rock music, especially the youngest one, Ying."

After 'death rock' became a legend in the scene, the attendees seemed to have developed a special relationship, which is why Lao Lang affectionately called him 'Brother Zhang'.

By the way, Xu Wei and Lao Lang were both born in 68.

"is it?"

Zhang Yan replied perfunctorily, "Then I'll remind them later to try to treat them all equally."

That's all we could do; after all, rock music isn't currently favored by the mainstream music scene.

"That's not what I meant." Old Wolf rubbed his hands a little embarrassedly and said, "Actually, my buddy Gao Xiaosong wrote a folk song. The melody and lyrics are almost finished, but it's still missing a bit of feeling—Brother Zhang, could you help us to perfect it a little more?"

"I?"

“Yes, wasn’t ‘Dreaming Back to the Tang Dynasty’ written by you and Dou Wei together? With your help, Brother Zhang, we’ll definitely make it into the competition—I’m singing folk songs, the judges can’t discriminate against me anymore, right?”

This……

Zhang Yan did help refine the lyrics over the phone, but the theme was Dou Wei's own idea. He only gave Zhang Yan half of the copyright because they were "brothers" and he had been discouraged by the Tang Dynasty band.

If I really wanted him to help me write songs...

Fortunately, Zhang Weining was there for him; adapting and repairing was one of Ning-ge's specialties.

After a slight hesitation, he readily agreed, "How about this, you call your Gao Xiaosong over, and I'll see if he can help."

Old Wolf said happily, "Okay, I'll call Gao Xiaosong right now and ask him to bring over the sheet music and lyrics for 'My Deskmate'!"

With that, he dashed away in a flash.

Zhang Yan then realized that "My Deskmate" was a folk song, not a rock song.

It seems he misunderstood before; people who are now in rock bands may not necessarily stick to one path forever.

He was about to return to the office area to hand over the matter to Zhang Weining when he suddenly heard someone singing: "There's a girl in the village named Xiaofang, beautiful and kind, with a pair of beautiful big eyes..."

Ok? !

Zhang Yan turned her head to look, but quickly realized that this had nothing to do with her younger sister, and because the preliminary rounds were not broadcast, Zhou Tao and Zhang Fang were not present.

When Zhang Yan returned to the office area.

Zhang Weining also called Xu Wei over. The young man had long hair and carried a guitar, looking like Zheng Jun—a typical rock youth.

However, in terms of vocal talent, Xu Wei is far inferior to Zheng Jun—at least the gap is quite obvious at present.

According to Zhang Weining, Xu Wei's current sweet spot is in the mid-range, which is not suitable for the kind of highs and lows. Unfortunately, the songs he is currently writing are a bit too energetic, so it is not surprising that he was eliminated in the first round.

Zhang Yan shared his thoughts with Xu Wei and added, "We won't force you to write songs for others, but if your song is indeed suitable for someone else to sing, we hope you can grant permission."

Xu Wei frowned and thought for a long time, but still couldn't make up his mind. Finally, he said, "I need to think about it some more."

He didn't agree on the spot, which didn't surprise Zhang Yan. Most rock singers are stubborn, and it's not easy to get them to compromise.

I wonder if Xu Wei will also have an understanding girlfriend.

After seeing Xu Wei off.

That evening, Lao Lang and Gao Xiaosong came to his door. According to Gao Xiaosong, the song was originally written in late 90 when he was stranded in Xiamen and wrote it for his first love.

After a year and a half of repairs, I still feel like something is missing.

After listening to Lao Lang sing, Zhang Yan also felt that the melody and lyrics were not well integrated, but he couldn't give a specific suggestion on how to improve it.

Fortunately, Zhang Weining quickly got the hang of it and dragged Gao Xiaosong to the recording studio—after all, Zhang Weining was the producer of this song in history.

Zhang Yan and Lao Lang talked about their future choices.

"So, you're planning to switch careers and sing folk songs?"

"That's not necessarily true."

Old Wolf stammered, "If I could make a name for myself in the rock scene, I definitely would... But no, sigh, I might really not be that suited for rock."

"You don't need to hide things from me like this."

Zhang Yan patted his shoulder and laughed, "I'm not in the rock scene. I prefer folk music to rock. Why don't you just join Dream Come True after the competition? We're all brothers here. I'll look after you from now on!"

Old Wolf was overjoyed upon hearing this and wished he could immediately become the patron.

Zhang Yanbai was naturally overjoyed to have gained such a great general, but not long after, he received bad news: Zheng Jun, who had already passed the preliminary round, suddenly requested to withdraw from the competition.

Ok?
What's this guy up to now?

(End of this chapter)