The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 486: The Fourth Special "Return to Tibet"

"why not?"

Facing the reporter's questions, Zhou Jianhui smiled particularly heartily, and a simple rhetorical question directly stumped the reporter from the Daily News.

He is considered a senior journalist in the industry, but he has never seen such a ridiculous idea before.

Yes, in the eyes of him, who is already 57 years old this year, if this interview with Zhou Jianhui were released, it would undoubtedly directly cause a shock to the entire Chinese-language record industry.

To put it in a broader sense, you are disrupting the market and driving up the singers' prices.

But it turned out that he was worrying too much.

After the new issue of the Daily News published this interview with Zhou Jianhui, Sony, EMI, and Universal followed up without any hesitation, saying that Zhou Yi was worthy of...

"If it's not enough, you can always add more!"

The three giants wanted to show off their wealth, especially Sony. They were not short of money and had just been beaten up by Zhou Yi in Europe and the United States. They were eager to recruit talents and wanted to kneel down and beg Zhou Yi, the strong man who beat them up.

"It's really annoying to compare people to each other."

Although they knew this day would come, when Zhou Yi actually entered the transfer market as a "quasi-free agent", the energy unleashed by this group of international giants still made the top kings and queens of the Chinese music scene lose their minds.

At a time when the music market is clearly sluggish and declining, Zhou Yi is the only one who can get this kind of free money treatment with his name, which is rarely available to anyone even in Europe and the United States.

"Two words from Zhouyi, each worth 50 million!"

"This is too exaggerated..."

In a hotel suite in Tianhe, Guangzhou.

Fat Fan was reading the news in his hand and was shocked.

She is currently participating in the pre-promotion activities for "The Empress of China" and arrived in Guangzhou a few days earlier than Zhou Yi.

She had been feeling smug about making a few million from the song "The Couple Sitting at the Alley Corner", but now she was a little confused.

Oh no, the man my sister likes seems to be making more and more money. Even if she opens a money printing company, she can’t keep up.

As a star born in the mainland, Fan Xiaopang's ambition naturally grew after he grew stronger. He began to be dissatisfied with simply sharing the money with Chen Shufen - that way of making money was too simple.

In order to expand her scope of making money, she opened several companies in the mainland to manage her endorsements and commercial performances in the mainland. She also set up an acting training school to gild herself, under the guise of giving back to society and cultivating talents for the industry.

Chen Shufen also saw her ambition and maintained a cooperative relationship with Fan Xiaopang, and renewed her separate agency contract. After all, there are many big-name agents who want to sign Fan Xiaopang, and they don't need her.

"What's too much?"

After taking a shower, Zhou Yi wiped his hair with a towel and walked out of the bathroom with his muscular upper body naked. He looked at the woman who was counting money with a calculator with amusement.

"I'm calculating whether the amount you took is before or after tax. If it's after tax, it's too much."

Fatty Fan said in amazement: "But if it's before tax, the difference is huge."

"Is one hundred million a lot?"

"..."

Fatty Fan, who was just typing away on the computer, suddenly stopped, raised his head and gave the man a look of contempt: "I feel like if I stay with you for too long, I might really fall into a vicious circle of not treating money as money."

In this entertainment industry, earning tens of millions is considered a top star, and earning 20 to 30 million a year is considered a god among gods. Fan Xiaopang always sees a sense of separation in Zhou Yi.

"No wonder Zhang Ziyi is trying so hard to get into Hollywood. The income gap is so huge."

Feeling that his spirit was about to be crushed by the numbers reported by the calculator, Fat Fan thought of Zhang Ziyi who was being criticized.

There used to be only two outsiders in the Chinese entertainment industry - Cheng Long from the $20 million club, and Li Lianjie from the $10 million club.

These two are from the movie.

There is no one in the singer circle who can compare with them.

"Who earns more money, you or Jackie Chan?" Fat Fan, who had his arms around the man's neck, was a little curious.

In her opinion, these two people should be the current ceiling of money-making in the domestic entertainment industry, one with a song and the other with a movie.

"Before 02, he earned more than me, but after 02, he couldn't compare to me." Zhou Yi gave the correct answer.

Even though Cheng Long has accumulated a reputation for movies for twenty years, his several movies have failed in succession since "Rush Hour 2". When his latest movie "Around the World in Eighty Days" was released, it directly kicked him out of the $ million club.

“Hollywood is so realistic.”

Fat Fan couldn't help but sigh: "Now I know how much pressure you are under.

"Right now, the outside world is looking forward to your fourth Chinese major, and with this fierce competition for talent, I feel that many people will use magnifying glasses to trouble you."

The quality of the first three albums is already high enough. If these four albums are any bit sluggish - oh no, it should be said that if these albums are even a little bit backward, they will probably be criticized by many people.

In addition, Zhou Yi's Chinese album was released after his English album became a global hit...

"They couldn't give me any trouble in a big way this time."

Zhou Yi smiled and didn't take it to heart at all.

It will be difficult for him to surpass his fourth album "Gui Zang" even in the future, especially with the blessing of the concept of "War", the ceiling of the music throne.

Looking at all the album concepts in the world music scene, the concept of "war, anti-war" is undoubtedly T0 level.

In the Chinese music scene and even in the world music scene, there is a complete contempt chain when it comes to the subject matter and concepts of album songs, and this chain of contempt is even more serious in the Chinese music scene.

In the long history of pop music, no matter how the position of the contempt chain changes, the theme of "war and anti-war" always stands at the top.

And his "Return to Tibet" this time is exactly this theme——

First song on side A: "The Art of War".

One of the pinnacle anti-war works in Tao's career.

The opening is straightforward, describing the future world in which the outside world is no longer habitable due to years of war. Then there is an artificial earth space where people of the new era live.

This is to express the damage that war has caused to the future of mankind - the four seasons have not been seen, and the cities of the past have become legends in the mouths of the elders.

Song 2: "New Earth"

One of Lin Junjie's best compositions and arrangements in his career.

As time goes by, the earth gradually recovers. The surface of the future world destroyed by war, greed and desire gradually sees a group of people who dare to step onto the new land. People call this world after the war the New Earth.

A brand new social system and a brand new social class.

But from Zhouyi's perspective, although the appearance of the people on this new earth has changed greatly, the direction of society is no different from that of the human kingdom before it was destroyed by war - the same mistakes of the past will be made and are being made again.

The members of the old organization who are good at using various means to manipulate the minds of the new earthlings are still enjoying themselves from a high position.

What has been will be again; what has been done will be done again—

It implies that if the direction of establishing a new earth and a new order is wrong, the final result will be nothing more than another round of private affairs of the Six Dynasties.

The third song: "The Sorrow of Ending the War"

This is the song with the greatest scale and meaning in Jay Chou's career, no doubt about it.

It is also a work that elevates his musical status.

Leveraging the imaginary future chapter formed by the first two songs, this song directly pulls the perspective back to the 21st century - "What shape does hope take in the eyes of children? Will they have bread for breakfast and a bowl of hot soup when they wake up?"

This song, as a link between the previous and the next, directly explains why he has the concerns about the two songs in the Unreal Future: because even in the 21st century, there are still unjust wars breaking out in countries we cannot reach.

The fourth song: "The Great World"

Xu Shangao's masterpiece of anti-war work.

Following the previous song, after the original lyrics of "By the Lake Assad" were changed to "By the Lake Baghdad", this song became an anti-war song that directly criticized the United States for launching the Iraq War without any support or permission despite opposition from a number of countries in the United Nations.

It also links up with the previous song - why do the dreams and hopes of Iraqi children turn into bread and hot soup?
It's just because the United States forcibly launched the war.

The fifth song: "In the blink of an eye"

This is the best string interlude in Xu Shangao's career. It is also a song that commemorates the teacher by borrowing the story of "Su Wu shepherding sheep".

On the surface, the story is about Su Wu being forced to stay on the grassland to herd sheep due to the war, which can be regarded as a filler of the impact of ancient wars in the album;
But in fact, this song commemorates the man who led his comrades to establish a new order and freed China from the hardships of war from then on.

The simplest example -

Why has Iraq become a mess?

Why can we still eat, drink and surf the Internet safely in the country?

That man's ideal is the answer.

The sixth song: "Beautiful Countryside"

This is an ironic work by Xu Shangao. Zhou Yi can now be used as a prediction of the coming of a new era.

There is no war in the country, the country is prosperous, and there is no need to worship foreign things.

Based on Zhou Yi's experience as a person who just returned from a trip to Europe and the United States, it is more convincing to say that we should not worship foreign things.

With the advent of the digital age, people who are used to computers will stay at home more and more, and like to learn everything through the Internet at home. The various famous mountains and ancient capitals mentioned in the lyrics all show that the motherland is beautiful, but people who are deeply immersed in the Internet are only used to staying at home and being Internet addicts.

They are used to receiving all kinds of Western ideological information on the Internet, and they look down on the motherland.

At the same time, this song also contains a second meaning: Don’t let the country only have beautiful mountains and rivers in the future.

At the same time, because "Gui Zang" itself has the meaning of predicting the future, this song happened to serve as a "work of predicting the future" in 2003 when the Internet wave had not yet begun to sweep the world, predicting the future wave of the Internet era in China.

When it comes to side B, the heaviness of side A begins to change.

First song on side B: "Seven Miles of Fragrance".

This is the only song by Jay Chou that topped the annual charts during that era when the stars were fighting each other. In 04, he and the upstart Lin Junjie competed fiercely in Jiangnan and they shared the throne together.

This song is chosen as the first song on Side B, firstly to follow the relaxed and cheerful feeling of "Beautiful Rivers and Mountains", the last song on Side A;

Second, it is to contrast with the unfortunate people trapped in the quagmire of war on Side A, and to echo those who are remembering.

Although things are in chaos abroad, life at home is still peaceful.

And this is what the man and his comrades expected to see.

They fought for their entire lives, just to ensure that the Chinese people would be free from the invasion of wars by foreign powers from now on.

And it is precisely because of the peaceful environment that Zhou Yi was able to denounce the "chatty sparrows on the telephone poles outside the window" and to have a sweet love affair.

The second poem: "Writing a poem for you"

This is Wu Kemeng's masterpiece, and the song that made him surpass Jay Chou in fame and made him shout "I can surpass Jay Chou" at one point. It was so popular that it was sung in every street and alley.

The reason why I chose this song is that "Writing Poems for You" just follows the lyrics of the previous song "Seven-Li Fragrance": "You appear on every page of my poems."

I write poems for you, so your name will appear on every page of my poems.

The third song: "Blue and White Porcelain"

It is the pinnacle of Chinese-style works, the highest mountain and the longest river in the field of Chinese style, bar none.

This song directly helped Jay Chou overcome the period of declining reputation and regain the throne of the number one Chinese pop music.

Continuing from the previous song, what kind of poem does Zhou Yi want to write about love?

There is no doubt that this beautiful poem is "Blue and White Porcelain".

The above three songs directly combined into Zhou Yi’s dream when he was young.

The fourth song: "Forever love".

Wang Lihong's masterpiece of love songs.

The lyrics are about pure love, but the original MV was filmed as letting go, which Zhou Yi didn't like, but it wasn't a big problem, he simply changed the plot of the MV to his own wedding.

At the same time, once it is changed to marriage, the appearance of this song represents that Zhou Yi in this album has entered a new stage - starting a family and building a career.

Directly plays a connecting role -

After ending the youth, romance and fantasy in the three poems before B, what he needs to face next is the reality of getting married, starting a family and entering society.

From this, the next two songs are introduced naturally:
Song 5: "You Were a Boy"

One of SHE's representative songs.

The realistic and bare-bones lyrics are particularly touching.

The series of place names in the lyrics can also be linked to the A-side song "The Great Rivers and Mountains", which encourages young people to go out more often and mentions a bunch of place names for this purpose;
But "You Were a Teenager" is more like self-encouragement after recognizing the reality. He reports a lot of place names just to enable himself, who comes from a small town, to persevere. It is a response to the last sentence in "Beautiful Mountains and Rivers": "Don't just think about beautiful mountains and rivers."

The sixth song: "Swallows Return to the Nest"

This is one of Xu Shangao's masterpieces of Chinese style, and also his personal masterpiece on the theme of homesickness.

After You Were a Boy, many people who have worked hard outside and are exhausted physically and mentally think of their hometowns unconsciously, just like the swallows returning to their nests - "The singing echoes among the mountains and rivers, echoing the burning longing; reading the two lines of last year's letter from home, my eyes are filled with tears again."

This song expresses the homesickness of the wanderer.

And homesickness and returning home means the end of hard work outside.

At the same time, it also represents the end of this album.

Moreover, in the album "Gui Zang", Zhou Yi did not act as a person who only raised questions.

On Side A, he not only raised the issue of war and expressed his anti-war attitude, he even proposed a solution - learn from the man who needs to be remembered.

Don’t say it’s impossible, because the B side of the album is the result of learning from that man——

The reason why China can have the peace it has today, and the reason why Zhou Yi can grow up peacefully from his youth in "Seven Miles of Fragrance" to delving into the uninterrupted romantic Chinese culture in "Blue and White Porcelain", to starting a family in "Forever Love", and finally to the life of being able to return home whenever he misses his hometown in "Swallow Returns to the Nest", is all because of the peace he and his comrades have brought.

The contrast between China and the West, the intersection of war and anti-war, and the coexistence of peace and beauty;
Hip-hop, rock, R&B, Chinese style, and guava love songs.

It is all-inclusive and has everything you need.

At the same time, this album "Gui Zang" can truly form a series of linkages with the previous album "Zhou Yi" and the third album "Lian Shan".

"The Book of Zhou" once recorded that in the Zhou Dynasty, the three Yijings, namely "Lianshan Yi", "Guizang Yi" and "Zhouyi", were controlled by fortune-tellers: from national affairs and military wars to sacrificial activities, social family, and even the fortune of an individual or a country, they could all be predicted through the Yijing trilogy.

Zhou Yi's debut album "Zhou Yi" represents a person's fortune, that is, Zhou Yi's own fortune - Ziwei Star;

At this time, Zhou Yi had just made his debut and was at his "most arrogant". The album expressed and showed himself. After the explosion, his future was bright, and the so-called Purple Star momentum began to flow.

His second album "Jiangnan" brought him the complete formation of the concept of Chinese style and its acceptance by the world. Zhou Yi's reputation was further expanded and his status was further consolidated.

Including the English songs of this period, they are all groundbreaking for Zhouyi.

During this period, Zhou Yi, who had reached the top of the music scene through self-expression, had endless money and his ego had reached its peak.

Here, we come to the third special "Lianshan"——

No longer confined to expressing himself, Zhouyi began to pay attention to the impact of social environment and family education on people, and this is exactly the definition of the third special work "Lianshan".

In his fourth album "Gui Zang", because he had traveled abroad twice and had a clear understanding of the foreign countries, the content that Zhou Yi wanted to express in the album was further expanded to national affairs and military wars.

He even "accurately predicted" the future after the advent of the Internet wave in the album.

And this divination and prediction happens to be within the scope of the I Ching trilogy.

"The Book of Changes", "The Book of Changes of Lianshan" and "The Book of Changes of Guizang" - "The Book of Changes", "The Book of Changes of Lianshan" and "The Book of Changes of Guizang".

(End of this chapter)