1990: Starting from Baojia Street

After Kudo Shizuka's legs warmed up, Zhou Yan took her to Xidan to buy clothes, and then the two went to the Audiovisual World together.

The current Audio and Video World has just opened not long ago. It is located at the southeast corner of the intersection, and its business area is only more than 200 square meters.

Later, when Xidan Audio Video World became popular, it moved to another location, and its business area increased to nearly 2,000 square meters. It can be said to be a landmark store in Yanjing. When it comes to buying records, everyone will think of Audio Video World.

Most of the singers who could be named at that time also had signings in the audio and video world.

Although the audio-visual world is not as big as it was later, it is not too small now. When Zhou Yan and the others arrived, there were already many customers in the store.

Compared with other audio and video stores, the design of Xidan Audio and Video World is relatively novel. In addition to rows of shelves, there are also display windows on the wall to display the records in the store.

What can be displayed on the window display are basically hot-selling records, which customers can see at a glance when they come in.

Moreover, there are many listening positions in the store. Many people come here to listen to music even if they don’t buy anything.

However, audition seats are hard to grab. Every time Zhou Yan comes, the audition seats are basically full.

Even though today is Tuesday, the audition seats are still packed.

If it's a weekend night, there will be more people in the store, and sometimes it's hard to even squeeze in.

There is an information board at the entrance of the store, which contains information about new albums that have been released recently. Shizuka Kudo's new album First Dream was ranked first because it was just released today.

When you enter the store, you can see the new shelves, and the first row on them is First Dream.

There are three items on display, one CD and two tapes. I don’t know if some of them have been sold or if they are just the three items on display.

Zhou Yan hadn't seen the finished record yet, so he walked to the shelf and picked up the CD and looked at it.

The cover is a photo of Shizuka Kudo wearing JK and holding a ukulele. In the photo, Shizuka Kudo has a bright smile on her face, and she is a perfect little sweet girl image.

[Neon Shizuka Kudo’s new Chinese album]

[The first Chinese album of Neon Singer]

Noriko Sakai's Chinese album has not yet been released, so Initial Dream is indeed the first Chinese album by a neon singer in history.

Many neon singers have sung Chinese songs before and even released Chinese singles, but Shizuka Kudo is indeed the first to release a Chinese album.

Such a good gimmick, Sony, the cooperative record company, naturally couldn't waste it and printed the words directly on the album cover.

In addition to Kudo Shizuka, Zhou Yan's name is also on the cover.

[Music master Zhou Yan, personally produced]

Ogi Productions asked Zhou Yan to help Kudo Shizuka write songs, not only because of Zhou Yan's musical talent, but also because of Zhou Yan's fame in China. Of course, he also wanted to print Zhou Yan's name on it for music fans to see.

Zhou Yan looked aside and saw that there was no trial version, so he couldn't see what was in the album.

The packaging of the tape is similar to that of a CD. The photo of Kudo Shizuka printed on it is the same, but it is scaled down.

Kudo Shizuka hugged Zhou Yan's arm and whispered, I, do you look good?

Zhou Yan smiled and nodded, Yeah, she looks good, but she's still a little thinner.

I have grown fast, ten pounds. Shizuka Kudo pouted.

It can be longer.

If I grow longer, can you still hold me?

Even if you were twice as long, I could still hold you.

Kudo Shizuka curled her lips and said, Bragging.

Of course Zhou Yan was not bragging. Shizuka Kudo weighed just over ninety pounds, and if she doubled in weight, it would still be less than two hundred pounds. He could still be hugged by a princess, but it was a little difficult.

At this time, there seemed to be more and more people in the store. Of course, the two of them couldn't stand next to the shelves all the time. Zhou Yan took Kudo Shizuka's hand and walked inside, preparing to take her to visit the video store.

Just after taking a few steps, Shizuka Kudo suddenly stopped, and then she walked to one of the shelves with a look of surprise on her face, Here, there is you...

Halfway through, she said no more.

Zhou Yan went over and took a look. There were his music albums on the shelf. In addition to Piano Boy and Mysterious Country, there was also the original soundtrack of Yanjing Silence.

Of these three albums, only Silence in Yanjing has a live photo of Zhou Yan playing the piano on the cover. The other two albums do not have photos of Zhou Yan. Shizuka Kudo only noticed it after seeing Silent in Yanjing.

I haven't heard this album yet. Kudo Shizuka took Yanjing Silent and said, I want to buy one and listen to it when I go back.

Zhou Yan said with a smile, You don't need to buy it. I have a video of this concert at home. I will show it to you when I go back tonight.

Shizuka Kudo put the album down with a smile, Well, then I won't buy it. But there are very few of your albums on the shelves. There are only a few of them in total.

It's okay. This shelf is relatively near the front. Pure music albums from the mainland are not easy to sell. If you look at the rows of shelves in front, there are only a few pure music albums like mine.

Kudo Shizuka looked at several shelves. She actually didn't know much about these albums. She didn't know which ones were pure music and which ones were pop songs, but she could basically guess it by looking at the covers.

The covers of Zhou Yan's albums are obviously different from the covers of ordinary pop song albums. The covers of most pop song albums, like Initial Dream, have the singer's photo printed on them.

Kudo Shizuka curled her lips, In Neon, your albums are all placed in the front row.

What she said was true. In most video stores in Neon, Zhou Yan's albums are placed in the most conspicuous position, and there are usually many of them because they sell easily.

In the past two years, Zhou Yan’s album sales in Neon have been unmatched by anyone.

Although both albums have been released for a while, their weekly sales are still very high, and they can always enter the single-week sales rankings.

The market in Mainland China is very different from Neon. Here, the best sellers are either rock songs or popular songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan. It is already very important that Zhou Yan’s album can be placed in such a high position. It's not easy anymore.

Zhou Yan is used to it, but Shizuka Kudo is a little unhappy. She feels that Zhou Yan's album should be placed in the most conspicuous position.

Go check out other shelves. This video store has a lot of records, including many foreign language records.

Are there any neon ones?

have.

Do you have mine?

You can go look for it.

Hearing what Zhou Yan said, Kudo Shizuka was quite curious, so she followed Zhou Yan to the foreign language record area.

The foreign language records area is not large, with two shelves.

Speaking of which, these two shelves account for a lot in record stores, but for the music industry around the world, these two shelves seem a bit small.

Therefore, the records that can be placed on this shelf are basically those that are well-known around the world, and most of them are English records.

People like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and the Carpenters in the United States, as well as the Beatles, Queen, and Genesis in the United Kingdom, are basically all popular singers or bands, and their recording talents Show up here.

On the neon side, singers like Tanimura Shinji and Tamaki Koji are relatively familiar to Chinese people.

Female singers include Yamaguchi Momoe and Nakamori Akina, but there is no Kudo Shizuka.

Not finding herself, Shizuka Kudo muttered, Where's Ariakena?

The latter sentence, Without me, was not spoken.

Kudo Shizuka and Nakamori Akina are a few years apart, but they can be considered singers of the same era. The two are often compared together by fans.

However, the positioning of the two is different. Akina Nakamori is a serious singer, while Shizuka Kudo made her debut as an idol. In terms of music, Shizuka Kudo cannot compare to Akina Nakamori.

In fact, Shizuka Kudo's music career had already declined slightly at the beginning of the year, but she just happened to sing covers of Stay with Me and If Love Has God's Will, which stabilized her music career again.

Kudo Shizuka and Nakamori Akina had a pretty good relationship in private, but when she saw Nakamori Akina's records here but not her own, she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

Zhou Yan smiled and comforted her, It's okay, there will be a lot of your records here soon.

Actually, I don't really care either.

Hearing Kudo Shizuka say this, Zhou Yan smiled, this girl's mouth is quite tough.

I took Kudo Shizuka to the foreign language album section, and Zhou Yan went to the classical music section.

Compared with the foreign language album section, the classical music section has even fewer products.

Not only are there less goods, there are also fewer people.

However, this area has the highest style. There are many vinyl records placed in the display windows on the wall. This thing covers a large area and is very conspicuous.

For video stores, these vinyl records are not like commodities, but more like decorations, placed there for customers to see rather than buy.

Under normal circumstances, the best-selling products are naturally tapes, followed by CDs, while few people buy vinyl records.

Not to mention the price of vinyl records, they have many disadvantages compared to CDs. Firstly, they are large in size and difficult to carry and store. Secondly, they are also difficult to store. This thing is extremely heavy and easy to knock when moving. Touch.

Moreover, vinyl record players are also large and take up a lot of space, so most people will not buy them at all.

Those who still buy vinyl records now are players who are not short of money. The sound quality of vinyl records may not be better than CDs, but some people like the sound of vinyl records.

It is also because of these reasons that people feel that vinyl is more premium.

Both Mysterious Country and Piano Boy have produced vinyl, but the sales in the mainland are average, but the sales in Europe are pretty good.

There was also a copy of Mysterious Country on this wall. When she saw this album, Shizuka Kudo was very happy.

This is the place where Mysterious Kingdom should appear.

Zhou Yan joked, The albums on top are very difficult to sell.

In addition to Mysterious Country, there are also collections of music by well-known classical musicians such as Beethoven's Collection, Mozart's Collection, Tchaikovsky's Collection and so on.

In China's classical music market, these albums are indeed difficult to sell.

Before Kudo Shizuka could speak, a man's voice sounded next to her, Brother, what you said is wrong. This Mysterious Country sold very well.

Zhou Yan turned around and looked at the person who spoke. He was a young man in his thirties, short, fair, wearing glasses, and slightly chubby.

Oh, really? Zhou Yan replied with a smile.

Of course, Zhou Yan's music is nothing to say.

Zhou Yan looked at the display window on the wall, It's somewhat inappropriate to put him together with Beethoven and the others.

What he means is that he is the only living person above.

However, the man thought that Zhou Yan was not qualified, It can't be compared with Beethoven and others, but he is very famous now. He is one of the first among the younger generation of composers. You can listen to his music when you have time, especially His Eternal Night and Flow Wind are of very high quality, but unfortunately they are not included in this album. He has played them in concerts. If you want to listen to them, you should buy the Yanjing Silent live soundtrack.

Zhou Yan nodded. It seemed that this man was a classical music lover. Most music fans liked Kite, Wind and Reunion, which are highly listenable songs.

Eternal Night and Flow Wind will sound very tiring and boring if you don't like listening to classical music.

And ordinary music fans don’t know these two songs.

Kudo Shizuka heard this interestingly and covered her mouth with a smile.

She looked at Zhou Yan, then at the man, and asked, Have you ever heard of Zhou Yan's concert?

No, I also listened to the original soundtrack. I couldn't get tickets for his concert at all. The man glanced at Kudo Shizuka and said curiously, Girl, your accent sounds like you are not from here.

Kudo Shizuka asked with a smile, Then, where do you think my accent comes from?

It's a bit like... from Ganxi? In fact, the man wanted to say that Kudo's accent sounded like that of Neon Man, but he was embarrassed to say it. If not, wouldn't this make people unhappy?

Kudo Shizuka felt that her pronunciation was affirmed, I am not from Ganxi, I am a neon person.

Oh, then your Chinese is good.

It's okay, so-so.

Oh, by the way, a female singer from Neon released a video today. I saw it on the new album shelf in front of me just now. It seems that Zhou Yan helped produce it.

Shizuka Kudo pretended to be surprised, Really? Then I'll go take a look.

However, when she spoke, she still pulled up her scarf to prevent the other party from recognizing her. When he and Zhou Yan went out, they both disguised themselves. She wore a hat and scarf, and only a small part of her eyes could be seen on her face.

The man nodded and said, Yes, that female singer seems to have had an affair with Zhou Yan.

That's what happened. No wonder Zhou Yan would help her write songs.

The man smiled and waved his hand, Hey, you can see these news, most of them are fake. There are many female celebrities who have had scandals with Zhou Yan. Wasn't the scandal between him and Zhang Manyu spread all over the world before? Now it seems that they are also heard Not here, there is also a female star from the Mainland, her name is Honglai, and it has been spread.

Shizuka Kudo said with jealousy, Maybe, it's all, is it true?

The man laughed, How is that possible? Zhou Yan is alone, how can he be so busy? From my point of view, the scandal with a female singer from your country is the most unlikely. We are not in the same country, so far apart, I would rather I believe Zhou Yan and Anita Mui are in a relationship.

Zhou Yan and Anita Mui also...

Zhou Yan on the side coughed lightly when he heard that the two people were talking more and more nonsense, I didn't expect that brother, you are quite concerned about gossip news.

The man scratched his head in embarrassment, I saw it by chance. I still pay more attention to the music. Come on, you two continue shopping, and I won't disturb you.

After saying that, the man left.

After the man left, Shizuka Kudo rolled her eyes at Zhou Yan, Are what he said true?

“There’s truth and there’s lies.”

Is it true or false?

Zhou Yan shrugged and said with a smile, Isn't it true for you?

Hearing what Zhou Yan said, Kudo Shizuka pursed her lips and smiled, You have more scandals than me.

It seems that you have a lot of scandals. Zhou Yan turned around and led an army.

That's all arranged by the company.

Zhou Yan smiled and teased her, Is it also arranged by the company for me?

Kudo Shizuka stamped her feet, I won't tell you, I'll tell you.

Then she ran to the new product shelf at the door and looked at it, and found that none of her albums were missing, which proved that no one was buying her albums at the moment.

Seeing such a result, she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

Seeing her disappointed expression, Zhou Yan took her hand with a smile, You have been in the industry for so many years, but your mentality is still so bad. It's only been a while, and it's normal that no one comes to buy. Let's not look at it now. It's almost here. It’s time for dinner, I’ll take you to dinner.”

All right.

Although she was a little disappointed because she didn't see anyone buying her album, she still needed to eat, so she followed Zhou Yan to find a restaurant to eat.

But not long after they left, two young people, a man and a woman, entered the video store and went straight to the new product aisle.

Seeing The First Dream on the shelf, the girl smiled and said, I said yes, but I clearly remembered that it was put on the shelves today.

When the boy saw Kudo Shizuka's photo on the album, he raised his eyebrows and said, So Kudo Shizuka looks like this. No wonder she had a scandal with Zhou Yan.

The girl looked disgusted and said, Hey, that's all you pay attention to.

After saying that, she quickly took an Original Dream tape from the shelf and ran to the checkout counter, Boss, check out.

Then she pointed in the direction of the boy and said, He gives me money.

After saying that, she began to remove the tape's plastic wrap.

After unpacking it, she took out her Walkman from her backpack and put the tape in. Then she didn't rush to play it, but studied the lyrics book first.

She was not a fan of Kudo Shizuka. The reason she bought this album was entirely for Zhou Yan, so she wanted to see if there were any songs written by Zhou Yan in this album.

I read news reports before that Shizuka Kudo said personally that Zhou Yan helped her write songs, but she did not say how many songs he wrote and which ones they were.

There was no need for a girl to find it. The first song in the lyrics book, and the three columns of composer, lyrics, and arrangement all had Zhou Yan's name.

My dear, Zhou Yan is really good to Kudo Shizuka.

Zhou Yan has written pop songs before, but he has never done it so comprehensively. Most of the time he only composed music, and more often just added arrangement.

The first song on side A, which is also the title song of the entire album, is Initial Dream with the same name as the album.

The girl didn't turn back and pressed the play button impatiently, then started listening to the lyrics.

The song begins with a very high-spirited violin. If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of wind mixed with it, but the sound of wind is looming, and the girl is not sure whether she heard it wrong.

Soon, she was sure she heard correctly because she heard some more waves.

It should be specially sampled when arranging the music.

In addition to the sound of violins, wind and waves, you can also hear the sounds of some other musical instruments, but you can’t tell what specific instruments they are. It’s very special.

Perhaps it is not the sound produced by conventional instruments at all. Synthetic sounds appear in many of Zhou Yan's songs. These synthetic sounds are made by Zhou Yan himself and do not belong to any conventional instrument.

This new century style element actually appears in Zhou Yan's music.

After the intro ends, the vocals appear.

If pride is not coldly photographed by the sea of ​​reality

How do you know? You have to work harder

Only then can we go far...

There is no temptation at all in this song. It hits hard right from the start and grabs the listener's full attention.

At this time, the boy had already paid the bill and came over, walking to the girl's side, Why...

The girl quickly made a silence gesture, Shh!

After saying that, she gave another earphone to the boy.

Plant tears in your heart

Brave flowers will bloom

allowable……

No matter where you start listening to this song, it is high-spirited and forward-moving, and the melody is not muddled at all.

The girl originally thought this would be a love song, but after listening to it, she discovered that this song had nothing to do with love, but an inspiring and motivational song.

Although she didn’t know what kind of style Kudo Shizuka was originally, the girl felt that Kudo Shizuka was very suitable to sing this song.

What surprised the girl even more was that Shizuka Kudo's pronunciation was very standard, and she couldn't even tell the accent in some sentences.

Although singing is inherently simpler than speaking, being able to pronounce it to this point is obviously a result of hard work. This Kudo Shizuka is likely to be able to speak Chinese.

If you don't speak Chinese, it will be difficult to achieve this level of pronunciation just by leaning back.

After listening to the song, the girl let out a long sigh of relief and said, Zhou Yan's composition is really trustworthy. Both the melody and the arrangement are very nice.

The boy couldn't help but nod, Yes, this song is a typical major-minor key conversion of the same name. The verse part is in the key of g # , and then the chorus is changed to the key of Ab, and then the chorus is changed to F. Tune...

The girl rolled her eyes and said, It's true.

What I said is true. The arrangement of this song is indeed very rich. It blurs the unique properties of major and minor keys, neutralizes the brightness of the major key and the darkness of the minor key. There are also off-key techniques...

Okay, okay, I believe you can't do it yet. The girl looked down at the lyric book in her hand again, Let me see what other songs Zhou Yan wrote for her.

The boy curled his lips and said, It's great to be able to write a song, don't be too greedy.

Hey, the first song on side B is also the same.

Really? The boy looked up in surprise.

The girl didn't lie. The first song on the b-side was actually written by Zhou Yan. The composer, lyrics, and arranger were all Zhou Yan.

Little hands holding big hands, I don't know what to do, let me listen. (End of Chapter)