1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Seeing Zhou Yan coming, the members of the band all breathed a sigh of relief.

The two concerts in New York were quite large in scale and attracted a large audience. The reason why the tickets sold out so quickly was naturally because of Zhou Yan.

If Zhou Yan is not present at the event, the box office appeal will be greatly reduced.

When Zhou Yan parted ways with Fang Xiu and the others on Taiwan Island, he had already arranged another contingency plan. If he couldn't make it for some reason, Fang Xiu and the others would have to perform on their own.

When the afternoon rehearsal was over, Zhou Yan was talking to Fang Xiu when a middle-aged man with blond hair walked over.

"Hi, Zhou Yan."

Zhou Yan turned around, saw the person coming, and replied with a smile, "Hi, Mr. Brown."

The person who came was none other than Jeff Brown, the agent of Backstreet Boys. Zhou Yan had met him before in London, so they knew each other.

"Long time no see." Jeff Brown walked up to Zhou Yan and shook hands with him with a smile. "I'm very honored to be able to see the rehearsal of the performance in advance. The show is very exciting. I'm already looking forward to the official performance tomorrow night."

"Thanks for the compliment. I'm glad you came. Where are the boys?"

"They are currently on tour and can't make it here. They are very sorry about this and asked me to apologize to you."

Zhou Yan waved his hand, "You're welcome, it's just an ordinary performance. Come to think of it, I haven't been to their concert yet, I must go and see it if I have the chance."

Jeff Brown opened his arms. "You're most welcome. They would be very happy to see you at the concert."

"I heard from Zhang Youan that 'We Are Young' will be officially released tomorrow?"

"That's right." Jeff Brown nodded with a smile. "Tomorrow morning at ten o'clock, this single will be on all major radio stations, and the song's music video will also be played on TV."

As New Balance's advertising song, the MV of "We Are Young" will of course be produced as soon as possible and released to the public together with the song.

The MV of this song is actually a relatively long advertisement. The entire MV is full of New Balance elements. All the characters that appear in the camera are wearing New Balance shoes.

For an advertising song like this, Jeff Brown doesn't have to worry about the promotion at all, New Balance will help take care of everything.

New Balance hopes this song will be a hit even more than they do. After all, this song cost New Balance nearly 10 million US dollars, and this does not include the endorsement fee for Backstreet Boys.

If the final song doesn't become popular, they will lose a lot.

New Balance spent a huge amount of money on this song, and Zhou Yan knew that it cost three million US dollars to produce the MV alone.

Hearing that a MV of several minutes cost three million US dollars, Zhou Yan couldn't help but sigh that these big brands are really wealthy and this money is enough to make a movie.

If "Time Traveler" was filmed in the United States, as long as no well-known actors were hired, three million US dollars would be enough, and some money could even be squeezed out for publicity.

Of course, spending three million US dollars to shoot a music video is a lot, but it is not very rare. I heard that Michael Jackson's music video two years ago cost seven million US dollars, which is enough for a mid-budget movie.

Zhou Yan smiled and congratulated Jeff Brown, "Congratulations in advance on the success of your new song."

"Haha, I want to congratulate you too."

As the song sold well, Zhou Yan was of course also a beneficiary. Not only did he gain fame, but he also received subsequent share of the income.

The two chatted for a while, and Jeff Brown invited Zhou Yan, "Are you free tonight? Let's have dinner together?"

Zhou Yan waved his hand and said, "Forget about tonight. I just flew here from China and came here directly without going to the hotel. Now I have to go back to the hotel to settle down. We can talk about dinner later when we have the chance."

Jeff Brown nodded. "No problem. I won't bother you tonight. When you have time, we can have dinner together. George also said he wanted to have dinner together when we were chatting a few days ago."

The George he mentioned is from Columbia Records. This time, "We Are Young" needed a female singer, who was from Columbia Records and was recommended by Zhou Yan.

Because of Zhou Yan, the relationship between Columbia Records and Jive Records is now delicate, because so far, only these two companies have obtained songs from Zhou Yan.

They are both rivals and allies. They compete with each other, but they don't want other companies to compete for Zhou Yan's resources.

"Well, no problem. I'll make an appointment with you guys later when I have time."

……

After arriving at the hotel, Zhou Yan put his luggage away and called Sebastian Silva.

Although "Titanic" has not yet officially started filming, most of the staff have arrived on the set.

There are several filming locations for the movie, the most important of which should be Mexico, because the hull models are all there. Now the filming has not started yet, and the crew are gathered there.

Sebadisian was also very happy to receive Zhou Yan's call, "Hey, Y, have you arrived in New York?"

"Yeah, I just arrived."

"It's a pity that I can't go to your concert tomorrow. The set has been very busy lately and filming is about to begin. When can you come over? James asked you about it a few days ago."

"We have to wait until the concerts here are all over before we can go over. What did James ask me? There shouldn't be any rush for the music, right?"

"Just asking when you'll arrive, nothing special."

"Okay, if anything comes up, you can always tell me. What are you guys up to?"

"There are many things to do, such as perfecting the set, studying the script, and having many meetings every day. You are also a director, so you should be familiar with all these."

"Although I'm a director, I've never made a movie with a budget of $150 million."

Sebadisian laughed, "Who has taken a picture of that?"

He was right. No director in the world had ever made a movie with such a high budget, not even James himself. "Titanic" set a precedent.

"Will you stay here for a long time this time?" Sebatisian asked again.

“It’s hard because I have other things going on.”

"You're leaving after just a few days?" Sebadisian muttered, "James might not be satisfied."

Zhou Yan didn't care, "It doesn't matter, James will understand me."

Although Zhou Yan had only met James Cameron once, he had some understanding of his character. Compared with the process, James valued the results more.

As long as James can get the result he wants, he doesn't care about the process.

On the contrary, no matter how hard you try in the process, he will not be satisfied as long as the result is not good.

Just like when he worked with Horner on "Alien" before, he didn't care how difficult Horner's work was, he only looked at the final result. No matter how much Horner said, it was all excuses in his eyes.

On the other end of the phone, Sebatisian curled his lips. He felt that Zhou Yan had not yet realized James Cameron's hot temper, otherwise he would not be so relaxed.

However, he and Zhou Yan had just met and were not familiar with each other, so he had no obligation to remind Zhou Yan. Seeing Zhou Yan say this, he did not say anything else, but smiled and said, "I look forward to your coming to the set. The scene here is very big. I guess all these people on the scene can fill up your concert hall."

Sebatisian's statement must be exaggerated. When the ship was being built in the early stages, there were indeed a lot of staff on site, but now that the film is about to start shooting, the staff and actors combined will only have a few hundred people at most, and it is impossible to fill the concert hall.

Of course, Sebatisian just wanted to use such an exaggerated method to explain to Zhou Yan the liveliness of the scene.

"I'll try to get there after the concert."

"You need to hurry up, otherwise you will have to go to New Scotland," Sebatisian reminded.

"Ok."

Although the main filming location of "Titanic" was in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, the first filming actually started in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, where the modern expedition scenes of the research vessel Keldysh were set.

The filming in Mexico is expected to take place in September or October. Zhou Yan calculated the time and thought that he would not be able to make it in time for the filming in Mexico.

After talking to Sebadisian on the phone, Zhou Yan went to have a meal first, and then returned to his room to start drawing the storyboards for "Time Traveler". However, he did not work too late, and went to bed at 11 o'clock in the evening.

……

Saloli knocked on her good friend Olivia's door early in the morning. Olivia, who was sleeping soundly, shouted angrily, "Saloli, not letting people sleep is a crime, do you know that?"

"Really? When was it written into the Constitution?" Salori laughed outside the door.

Olivia sighed slightly, got up sleepily, and after opening the door, she muttered dissatisfiedly, "It should be written into the Constitution that depriving people of sleep is a crime, with a maximum sentence of one million years. I will send you to court immediately."

"I wish I could live that long." Salori smiled and sat down on Olivia's bed. "You really should open your eyes and see what time it is now."

Salori looked up at the clock on the table. "It's only eight o'clock. Is it late?"

"You forgot, 'We Are Young' will premiere at nine o'clock today."

"Isn't there still an hour left?"

Salori looked Olivia up and down. "Are you sure you want to listen to the new song of the Backstreet Boys with me in this state?"

"Okay." Olivia said defeatedly, "I'll go brush my teeth."

By the time Olivia came out of the shower, Saloli had already turned on her TV at home and locked it to Channel 6.

Channel 6 has a program called "Pure White Music Station" at 9 o'clock every morning. There is nothing special about this program. It just plays some popular songs, and new songs are often premiered on it.

This time, "We Are Young" will be broadcast on many programs, but Olivia and her friends usually watch "Pure White Music Station" more often, so they chose it.

The show hasn't started yet. Another program is being played. It's a boring science program that teaches children how to do scientific experiments, but Saloli is watching it with great interest.

Olivia held the glass of milk and mocked Salori, "This kind of show is perfect for college students like you."

Salori smiled and shrugged, "You're right, it's just right for me. When I was a kid, I couldn't understand it either."

Seeing that her attack had no effect, Olivia felt a little discouraged. She took the milk and walked to sit next to Salori and started watching with her.

You know what, even though it’s a children’s show, it’s quite interesting. Olivia became absorbed in it as she watched.

Halfway through the show, Salori turned to look at Olivia and said, "It's pretty good, isn't it?"

“It’s not pretty.” Olivia denied it immediately, but her eyes were still fixed on the TV screen.

"Should we set off early in the afternoon?" Salori asked again.

"Leaving? Oh, you mean to go to Wireless Music City? Doesn't the concert start at seven o'clock? What's the point of going too early?"

"Maybe you can see Y himself."

"Can't we see it in the concert hall?"

"That's different."

"What's the difference? If we go earlier, can we get an autograph?"

"Who can say for sure? Anyway, we have nothing to do in the afternoon, so let's go there early."

"It's quite hot today..."

"Go."

"Ok."

Olivia compromised because she knew that as long as she didn't agree, Salori would keep pestering her about this matter.

……

The two watched the science program for a while, and finally it was nine o'clock, and "Pure White Music Station" started on time.

Because the format of the program is simple, there is only one host, and the task of this single host is also very simple, which is to introduce the songs to be played to the audience. Sometimes, there is no introduction and the songs are played directly.

However, there is a new song premiering today, so the host naturally has to talk about it in detail.

"Hello everyone, welcome to Pure White Music Station, I'm the host Davis."

"Today I want to introduce the Backstreet Boys to you. Although we have introduced them more than once in previous programs and played many of their songs, we still have to introduce them again today because their new song "We Are Young" will be premiered worldwide today."

The host then introduced the Backstreet Boys, mainly their members and famous songs.

"This new single "We Are Young", like the previous song "yellow" which was loved by countless listeners, is from the hands of the famous musician Y-Chou. Well, now I won't say any more nonsense. I believe that everyone is eager to listen to this new single like me. Now let's enjoy the music together."

After the host finished speaking, the screen on TV changed and a stage appeared. All the members of Backstreet Boys were standing on the stage, and there was also the sound of rapid drum beats.

When the two girls saw the members of Backstreet Boys, their eyes lit up at first, and then the sound of drums surprised them again.

This kind of rapid drum beat seems to have never been heard in Y's music. It sounds like the boys on the stage are ready to roll up their sleeves and fight at any time.

As soon as the two girls turned around and looked at each other, Brian began to sing a rhythmic fast-paced song that sounded like pop but also had a bit of hip-hop feel.

Olivia opened her mouth and was about to say something when the drum beat of the song suddenly changed, becoming slower but more powerful.

The chorus came on.

"tonight——"

When the first line of the chorus came out, Olivia felt as if someone had slapped her on the head, almost making her lose her soul.

This chorus... is too sudden.

However, such a sudden chorus does not make people feel out of place. The passionate shouts and powerful lyrics make the song more dramatic, at least it gives people a strong auditory shock.

This is a very spirited song and one that is easy to sing along with.

Saloli even wanted to sing along with the line "tonight——" on the spot, but when she opened her mouth she found that this seemingly simple line of lyrics was not that easy to sing.

However, even though she didn't sing well, Saloli was still willing to sing along, which shows how powerful this song's ability to drive people forward is.

At this moment in the picture, the members of Backstreet Boys had already walked off the stage holding microphones and instruments, and mixed with the audience below, causing the scene to fall into a carnival.

It looked like a university. The stage was set up outdoors and the audience were all young people.

Although the picture looks chaotic at first glance, if you look closely you can find that there are many small stories happening, including love, friendship...

If "tonight——" was the first surprise that the song gave to Olivia and the others, then the high-pitched and loud voice of the girl that followed was the second surprise that the song gave to them.

Looking at the black girl on TV, both of them were a little surprised because they had never seen this female singer before.

Although he is a black man, he is not particularly dark. He should be mixed-race. He looks quite young, probably not even an adult.

But although he is small, he sings very well and his pitch is very high.

Olivia guessed that this might be the new star that Jive company wanted to promote.

Saloli had the same idea as Olivia, otherwise, she really couldn't understand why such a young girl was arranged to sing with the Backstreet Boys.

Of course, now is not the time for them to have wild thoughts. The chorus of young girls and Backstreet Boys is very good. They just need to enjoy the music with their hearts. (End of this chapter)