Why bother writing songs? Fast forward to the "Don't Laugh Challenge"

Chapter 44 Let's see who dares to talk against me, Tang, this time!

Soon, the next day, Old Chen arranged for Xia Shen to meet the newcomer.

A young-looking newcomer, the kind who was rather shy, greeted Xia Shen rather reservedly and said, "Hello, Teacher Xia Shen."

Then, through his own introduction, Xia Shen learned about the other party's basic situation.

Billy Chan, also known as Chen Bili, is a singer-songwriter who previously worked as an independent musician.

She wasn't formally trained in music; on the contrary, Chen Bili was self-taught. She simply loved music and taught herself by researching on various websites. Then she started releasing her own music under her own name on NetEase Cloud Music and Spotify, primarily specializing in pop music.

However, after being asked by Lao Chen, Xia Shen actually listened to Chen Bili's old songs.

How should I put it? It's quite niche, extremely niche, and they also do some city pop and other styles that have virtually no audience in China.

Some of the works were quite good; even Xia Shen was impressed when he heard them from a professional perspective.

However, Chen Bili's personal shortcomings are also obvious. He has a problem that almost all non-professional musicians have: he is very unpredictable.

It's unpredictable; one song might be pretty good, but the next one becomes incredibly abstract.

There is no stable guarantee for quality control.

However, this is also why Chen Bili is here.

It was because when Lao Chen was looking for people online, he happened to hear a rather abstract song by Chen Bili, and then he brought the person back.

Xia Shen could only say "666" to this.

It's hard to judge.

Chen Bili's gaze towards Xia Shen also carried a sense of admiration.

This made Xia Shen a little uncomfortable, and he asked, "You're looking at me like that, do you know me?"

"know!"

Before I asked, Chen Bili nodded frantically: "I've heard your song 'Give Me a Song's Time'!"

"Normal." Xia Shen didn't react much.

However, Chen Bili remained silent for a moment before saying, "The original version."

"Tsk, hiss—" Xia Shen gasped, his eyes showing some surprise: "That is indeed not very common."

"That's why I really like your songs."

"So your album is only missing a title track, right?" Xia Shen asked.

"Hmm." Chen Bili nodded with a wry smile: "I've been troubled by this for a long time, but I haven't been able to figure it out. The key is that I don't quite understand the effect that Director Chen wants."

"Old Chen, this is something that most people really don't understand."

Xia Shen nodded in agreement: "But don't blame him. Although he is a bit of a 'limited-time loli' type, he is a bit abstract, his taste is really bad, he doesn't understand music, and he can't give you any good answers if you ask him a few questions. He also sings off-key. Oh, and his drinking behavior is not good either. When he is drunk, he likes to confess to telephone poles."

However! On the other hand, ignoring these minor factors and shortcomings, if you can meet his requirements, your grades won't be bad at all.

Xia Shen spoke very seriously.

Chen Bili listened, completely stunned.

"Ok."

"Let's not talk about that now. Sing me a song first, and I'll hear it for myself to see how it feels."

"Mhm." Chen Bili nodded in agreement. To him now, Xia Shen was like his mentor, so he naturally listened to whatever Xia Shen said.

He'd been struggling for so long, and he'd had enough of those days of uncertainty, where he barely had enough to eat and saw no hope.

He lost too much for his so-called dream and had to realize a painful truth: he didn't seem to have the right to ask for too much in the short term.

Thinking of this, he felt saddened, closed his eyes, and began to sing: "Tonight, the one hundred and first night since I left you."

Xia Shen listened to Chen Bili sing, frowning as he pondered and analyzed the situation.

Head voice, mixed voice, falsetto, and a singing habit of using a high vocal placement.

The advantages and disadvantages of this approach are both quite obvious.

The advantage is that the resulting sound is warm and smooth, which is also the case with Chen Bili's own voice. She has found a singing style and path that suits her.

This kind of voice is very suitable for singing sad love songs, songs with some melancholy emotions, or a small part of songs with warmth.

However, the disadvantages are also obvious: they can't sing fast songs, and they are slightly lacking in expressing intense emotions. Their song style is actually quite fixed.

People like Chen Bili are generally confined to the category of sad love songs.

Other options can be disregarded, because apart from the optimal solution, any less desirable options can be eliminated.

"Tsk," Xia Shen began to inhale again.

Because, just as Old Chen said, it really is difficult to deal with.

If you're talking about someone with a versatile singing style and a wide range of vocal techniques, a classically trained voice like his, he can handle a lot of abstract things.

Chen Bili, a specialist in tragic love songs, is born with a talent for singing such songs, so it would be difficult for her to create abstract songs.

This kind of voice is easy to make sound good, and easy to create high-quality works.

Creating abstract works is actually quite difficult, and the difficulty of the defense is much higher than that of creating high-quality works.

"I need to take a good look at this," Xia Shen said, without immediately indicating whether he could do it or not.

"Okay." Chen Bili nodded shyly and reservedly, "Thank you for your help, teacher."

Xia Shen spent the entire night considering this, frantically rummaging through his memory bank of otherworldly worlds, trying to find something particularly suitable. After searching all night, he finally made a breakthrough.

"I've got it!" Xia Shen found a song, and his eyes lit up immediately.

The next day, he rushed to find Chen Bili and asked immediately, "Here's the thing, I have a clue, but the problem is, this song might be more abstract than you originally thought. It's a 'simp' song. Can you accept that? If it's sung and becomes popular, it might affect your reputation."

"The Song of the Simp??" Chen Bili was taken aback.

Then, as if recalling some unbearable memory, a strong sense of sadness appeared in his eyes.

Then he quickly calmed down, his emotions noticeably dropping two degrees, and said, "I...I can try."

"Alright, then this sheet music is yours." Xia Shen immediately pulled out a sheet of music: "Drop Tower! I've already written down all the important points."

"So fast?"

Although Chen Bili had heard about Xia Shen's high productivity and speed, seeing it in person was another matter entirely.

Although the song requires abstraction, that doesn't mean that abstract songs are easy to make.

Just like online novels, even "beginner's guides" are actually very difficult to write.

One song a night—that's something he doesn't think he can do, and one night is just his opinion; in reality, it could be even shorter.

After dealing with Chen Bili's matter, Xia Shen then began creating his own collection of high-quality works.

The production of "Drop Tower" received unanimous praise from the entire company.

In Lao Chen's words, it still had to be him who took charge.

Therefore, the entire company is now even more excited about his high-quality rap album.

As this is a premium album, we need to be extremely careful, and Lao Chen's requirements are clear: to be as localized as possible, which is actually quite difficult.

Xia Shen was clueless for quite some time.

It took almost half a month of thought to find a suitable solution and a direction for localization.

First, there's his background and place of origin.

Isn't he from Guangdong?

You can start with your own culture.

Then, we can expand on this further by incorporating cultures from other regions.

For example, dialects.

What is localization? Isn't it just about not singing those Black things? Cars, women, leaves, money, none of that?

I don't care about who's more ruthless.

If you're going to sing, sing about what exists!
Things that belong to China!

Moreover, it has to be something he has seen before, something that can resonate with people.

He found several songs that were particularly suitable.

Or rather, they found two particularly suitable works by musicians from another world, and both of them were highly localized.

Moreover, from a professional perspective, the production quality is top-notch!
In Xia Shen's personal opinion, the quality is so high that it's like a hermit's!
First of all, there is no concept of a title track in rap mixtape.

The singles include:

"Compendium of Materia Medica"

"Great Ambitions"

"Wealth Comes from All Directions"

"cause and effect"

The Leader, the Godfather

Six Lines

Zenith Star

A Laughter in the Vast Sea

The Ascetic

Of course, there's one last song, which I tucked in with my own personal touches.

Nocturne

This song is not localized; on the contrary, it is still a dark gothic classical rap style.

He simply wanted to sing it, he simply liked it, he was simply amazed by the song, and he thought it was worth a try.

Anyway, he plans to continue the tradition of including a personal song in the album.

"I refuse to believe it! With such a top-notch album, let's see who can say anything against me, Tang!"

Xia Shen was brimming with confidence.

Will anyone still criticize Tang this time?
Not a single bit!

Because of this album, the whole album is top-notch! The whole album is amazing!
In Hong Kong, the organizing committee of the annual Top Ten Golden Songs Awards is currently holding a meeting.

"Regarding the commencement of preparations for this event, we are now convening the first organizing committee meeting."

(End of this chapter)