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

Chapter 69 What the hell is this song?

Then came the sound of piano, and images began to appear on the large screen in the venue. The images had a faded, old-fashioned style, and the words "SKYINDEEP" were written in Chicano font, along with Chinese characters below.

Nocturne

【Summer Deep】

As the music played, Xia Shen's profile appeared on the screen.

Everyone knows this is a music video.

It wasn't one of those annoying melodies they were so used to, the ones that brainwashed them every day, nor was it the kind of music video they remembered of bowing three times to a stove or the spirited scenes at a horse racing stadium.

As Xia Shen spoke, the number of comments and bullet screen messages in the official live stream began to decrease sharply.

"A swarm of bloodthirsty ants, attracted by carrion."

"I gaze at the lonely landscape with a blank expression."

"Without you, love and hate become clear; without you, what else is there to care about?"

"When pigeons no longer symbolize peace, I am finally reminded that the animals being fed in the square are vultures."

"I used beautiful rhymes to describe love that had been completely plundered."

The semi-melody flow (which is difficult to translate precisely) with its melody and tune, following the principles of tonality, and unfolding with consistency and coherence in the final vowels, left everyone bewildered.

"Nocturne? What the hell is that song?"

"Shouldn't it be about bringing wealth or singing karaoke in a villa?"

"I haven't heard of it, but how should I put it? This rap doesn't sound like it's just randomly written and sung. When I listen to 'Come to Wealth' and 'Singing Karaoke in the Villa,' I always get the feeling that Xia Shen is just randomly singing, just to rhyme. That's not right."

"Sing whichever line you dream about, or simply Dream Fly Rap."

"Hahaha, genius!"

"Xia Shen's two songs require a certain level of understanding of regional culture. For people in South China, some things are really familiar. Recently, someone posted them on Douyin and Kuaishou. The song 'Bie Lao Zai Zhi Jia' is exactly the same as the lyrics in Xia Shen's song. It's not just something made up."

"It can only be said that 'Great Ambitions' and 'Wealth from All Directions' belong to the kind of rap that is selective in its audience. The musicality itself is more concentrated in the beat, and the rap part is more focused on rhythm and beat."

"But this one is different. The musicality... wow—is this something Xia Shen could write?"

"Oh no, it seems to actually work, and it doesn't have that dream-like feeling of singing a particular line."

Everyone was stunned. After a brief moment of shock, the comments and bullet screens started another round of discussion.

The official live stream room originally had an average viewership of around 45+, but when Xia Shen's nomination was announced, it surged to over 78+.

But right when this song was released, its popularity suddenly doubled, and it has now reached over 150 million views.

On Douyin and Kuaishou, popularity is based on the actual number of online viewers. There may be bots, but the number of viewers is never inflated. 150 million is already an outrageous and exaggerated number. This is the real number of viewers that live streaming should have, far from those exaggerated numbers of millions.

Meanwhile, the new viewers who entered the live stream were all spamming question marks.

"??????"

"??????"

Then everyone was saying: Who is this? Is this Xia Shen?

This left them utterly astonished! The melody and tune were completely unfamiliar, and the overall listening experience was refreshing. They didn't hear the catchy Cantonese accent that Xia Shen was known for when he rapped.

I didn't even hear any words like 'lazy sleep', 'prison', 'Lugao', 'Binzhou', 'crab fishing', or 'family misery'.

In short, it can be described in one word: elegant. The main melody advances step by step, while the secondary melody follows closely behind, creating a unique, gothic feel and a melodic flow.

Most of them had never even heard of this song!
But that wasn't the end of it; it wasn't even the most shocking thing for them.

What caught them off guard was the sudden burst of electronic keyboard effects sounds that, after which a wave of emotional build-up began, followed by a vocal melody.

It's sung!
Instead of repeating rap hooks (which can't be accurately translated either)!
"I will play Chopin's Nocturne for you."

"In memory of my dead love."

"The sound is like the night wind; it's beautiful to hear a heart break."

"My hands are on the keyboard, typing very lightly, and the longing I give is very careful."

"And the place where you are buried is called the underworld."

"I will play Chopin's Nocturnes for you."

Furthermore, after this hook melody, Xia Shen's singing stops.

An interlude melody began to play.

This makes things even more confusing.

"Holy crap! It has a chorus! This rap actually has a chorus?! And not only does it have a chorus, it even has an interlude?! And the interlude is so catchy? Holy crap, I can even hear a Baroque melody in it? Is this something that can appear in Chinese rap?"

"Oh no, this song is listenable. The structure is unbelievably complete. The so-called new school songs popular among rappers in China now have hooks that have no musicality whatsoever. They emphasize what they say, repeating the theme with a rhythmic lyric. They only focus on rhythm and beat, completely ignoring that rap music is not just about expressing an attitude, but also about having good musicality."

"Moreover, you'll find that many of the current Chinese rappers, in order to show off their skills and emphasize their technical prowess, cram the whole song in, with all sorts of fast rapping, constantly switching between different flows, and all sorts of fancy tricks, without even leaving themselves any breathing space, and it sounds chaotic."

"It's hilarious. The classics don't leave themselves any breathing room, and then they play the echo loudly at the live show. The rapper just dances on top, occasionally sings a couple of lines, and the rest is all echo. When someone complains, they say that's just how hip-hop culture is, that's what a hip-hop live show is like. But if you tell them that the big names who really came out of the culture abroad don't do echo at live shows, and at the Grammys, Victoria's Secret, and Oscars they just sing straight through, they'll tell you that's new school, that's how it has to be."

This is what's so shocking: the song they're hearing now from Xia Shen not only has a true chorus hook, but also a break!

Of course, there's also a completely new listening experience.

This left many netizens who initially came with hostility completely dumbfounded.

How does it feel?

They were already about to start the raid, had already targeted the BOSS, and had done all the mobilization and preparation.

Just as we were about to start the raid, four big words suddenly appeared on the BOSS: Untargetable!

Then most of the skills on my body turned gray.

It caught people off guard and completely unexpected.

But most importantly, they still couldn't shake the big question in their minds.

"What the hell is this song?"

Why have they never heard of it?
At that moment, the music on stage gradually slowed down, and the lights came back on.

The host picked up the microphone: "Let's congratulate Xia Shen on winning the Best Chinese Rap Song of the Year award for his song 'Nocturne' from the LP album MixTape 'HipHop from China'!"

Pah, pah, pah, pah—

This time, the applause was thunderous. Xia Shen stood up with a bewildered look on his face and waved at the camera.

Isn't it a traffic-based award?

(End of this chapter)