China Entertainment 1997

China, a city middle school

On Monday, the senior high school students who came to the classroom for classes ended their winter vacation early. As soon as they arrived in the classroom, several men and women gathered together.

"Have you read the news? Cao Xuan is in the Super Bowl."

“What is the Super Bowl?”

"I don't know. What kind of final is it mentioned on the news? Anyway, it's very popular."

"Football, I checked it on my brother's computer. The Super Bowl is very popular in the United States. I can't explain it in a sentence or two, but you just understand it as the American Spring Festival Gala."

In China, if I want to give an example of a very influential foreign program, the Spring Festival Gala and "News Lianbo" are the best references. One set is accurate.

Many people don't know anything about football or the Super Bowl, but when it comes to the American Spring Festival Gala, they understand it instantly.

"Awesome, it has to be Cao Xuan, he's even on the American Spring Festival Gala."

"Not only did he do it, but he did it by himself. Does Michael Jackson know?"

"I've heard of it, but I'm not familiar with it."

"It's equivalent to Cao Xuan in China. No, it should be Cao Xuan in the European and American world. Well, how can I explain it to you (scratching my head)."

"It's equivalent to a foreigner going to China to attend the Spring Festival Gala, and it's still the finale."

"...Although there are big discrepancies, that's probably what it means."

"I don't understand. Anyway, that's the end of it if Cao Xuan is awesome!"

"..."

Just when a few knowledgeable students were unable to refute this simple summary, classmates came to the class one after another, and some also joined in the discussion.

The senior year of high school is full of intense studies and heavy tasks, but this does not mean that there is no entertainment. On the contrary, moderate entertainment can help students relax their body and mind and balance work and rest.

However, it is difficult to grasp the degree of this. If one cannot help it, it will change from a combination of work and rest to a waste of time.

Therefore, too time-consuming entertainment methods such as TV series, novels, and games are not advisable. Listening to music, gossiping, and watching movies are relatively suitable entertainment methods.

At any time, middle schools, college students and young people who have just entered society are important melon-eating groups and the main entertainment consumers.

Most social animals who have children are not that interested in entertainment news.

Unless there is some big news like Shuangzi going crazy, Fanzi stepping on a sewing machine, Luzi getting his hair done, or the Light of Shishi disappearing, it will cause the whole people to go crazy.

Winter vacation is the last long vacation for most senior high school students before the college entrance examination. Everyone goes crazy and surfs the Internet intensively.

It just so happened that Cao Xuan's appearance in the Super Bowl was the last big news for them before the start of school, and many people paid great attention to it.

"Hey, hey, there is a video online now. I watched it. Although I couldn't understand it, the singing was very good. The person who reposted the video said that there were 80,000 Americans at the scene. It was like going crazy. It was very shocking."

"Wherever I can see it, I want to see it too."

"I have it in QQ Zone. I heard that there is also a high-definition version with subtitles, but I couldn't find it."

"Wait a minute, Lavender Flower Bar has all kinds of Cao Xuan related things, there must be a website address."

"It makes you feel itchy. You don't want to go to class anymore. You want to go online and watch videos."

"Go at noon, bring lunch, and you can play for almost an hour."

"Count me in."

Similar situations are relatively rare. After all, the main students have not yet started school. They have more time than these high school seniors. As long as they see the news, they can easily find the video.

It's easy to know the news. Domestic print media and online media reported Cao Xuan's Super Bowl halftime show performance on a large scale.

Even many Asian media have followed suit and reported it extensively. After all, this is the first time that an Asian singer has appeared on this stage.

Prior to this, the singers of the Super Bowl halftime show were mainly Americans, followed by British and Canadians, and also singers from other countries in South America and Europe.

These singers include whites, blacks and Latinos, but this is the first time for Asians of yellow race.

Cao Xuan once again refreshed the history of Asian singers in the world music scene!

Maybe many people don't care about this achievement, but many people think it is very significant.

The native Asian singers once again defeated those European and American singers and "showed off their power" in the center of the world's music scene.

Cool!

On the night of February 6th, "News Network" also mentioned this matter. Although the news mainly introduced this year's Super Bowl champion, it also added a sneak peek.

"...In the Super Bowl halftime show, known as the American Spring Festival Gala, Chinese singer Cao Xuan sang three songs alone, and the audience was intoxicated, bringing a touch of music magic to this sports feast..."

Accompanying the news introduction was a live clip of only a few seconds. Cao Xuan was full of passion on the stage, and countless American audiences shouted and jumped wildly.

For the Chinese, this kind of scene is absolutely impressive, and they can't help but feel proud from their hearts.

How dare these foreign devils jump up and down after listening to Cao Xuan's songs!

………

Compared to domestic and Asian countries, I am simply proud of Cao Xuan's stunning performance that refreshed history and the stage.

The United States and countries that follow the Super Bowl are more complicated and have greater repercussions.

The Washington Post directly stated publicly that this was an unparalleled audio-visual feast.

Chris Cho put the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers to shame with his musical talent and stunning stage presence.

Local media in Detroit reported interesting stories after the halftime show.

After Cao Xuan's performance, he changed out of his performance clothes to watch the game. As a result, the staff was so sloppy that all his original performance clothes, microphone and some unimportant personal items left in the dressing room were stolen.

Not long after, it appeared for sale on a website.

The slim-fitting suit with black background, bright white and dark gold embroidered with double dragons, was specially designed by Cao Xuan and then hand-customized. It had embroidery craftsmanship on it, and the cost alone was almost over six figures.

The person who stole the suit was probably knowledgeable, or had someone authenticate it, and knew that the material and craftsmanship of the suit were excellent, plus the design of the suit was already cool enough, and it had the aura of an original Super Bowl halftime show performance suit.

This suit, called "Cao's Battle Suit", had an initial price tag of US$50,000 on the Internet.

The exchange rate between the US dollar and the RMB in February 2006 was about 8.04. This US$50,000 is equivalent to 400,000 RMB, which is enough to buy a house in small cities in China.

But even so, this [Cao's battle suit] was still snapped up by many second-level dealers, collectors and Cao Xuan fans.

Fans can understand that these second-rate dealers and collectors are eyeing the collectible value of this suit.

In European and American countries, the market for collecting special celebrity items is relatively mature.

Many people believe that Cao Xuan's performance will become a classic, and its influence will probably continue to expand in the future, coupled with Cao Xuan's own prospects.

Just imagine, if Michael Jackson's 1993 Super Bowl performance uniform was put up for auction, many people would be willing to pay hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to bid.

Therefore, many people think that Cao Xuan's suit has a high potential for appreciation and the price is right, so many people are willing to take a gamble.

This [Cao's Battle Suit] was sold for US$125,000 from US$50,000 to US$125,000, or RMB 1 million, before it was finally bought by a second-rate dealer.

However, it wasn't long before the thief was caught by the police and the suit was recovered as stolen property.

Cao Xuan didn't have a cheap policeman either, and Tuo Huahua used the suit and other recovered items to hold a charity sale.

In the end, nearly US$300,000 was raised and donated to UNICEF to help disadvantaged children and teenagers.

But this is a thing for another time. Now it is just treated as a funny story by the local media. They feel sorry for Cao Xuan, and by the way, they are slandering the public security in Detroit.

In addition to paying attention to the super watch itself, more media and industry insiders were surprised by the two new songs released by Cao Xuan.

《Roar》

"Something just like this"

Not only is the quality level extremely high, but judging from the live stage performance, it is very easy to spread and well recognized by the public. Its potential is probably not inferior to the three top ten songs on the Billboard singles chart.

Now people in the industry are really confused.

Many European and American singers and musicians who claim to be creative geniuses cannot help but fall into deep thought.

Doesn’t this kind of hit song, which is at least in the top 20 of the Billboard, cost no money? Just throw it out one by one. Doesn’t this Chinese have a creative bottleneck?

The one who reacted the most fiercely was Olondon.

He was watching the Super Bowl halftime show at home, and when he saw Cao Xuan playing two exciting new songs, he became furious on the spot and almost smashed the TV.

After the rage, there was a deep fear. The Chinese had already released 5 songs. If Cao Xuan's new album really surpassed the previous one, would it be possible for him to actually go live on TV with "Sun Pig".

After imagining the unbearable scene in his mind, Olondon couldn't help but shudder.

He forced himself to calm down and convinced himself over and over again that it was impossible for all of Cao Xuan's songs to reach the top ten of the Billboard. The Chinese were already at their wits end.

U2, Madonna, Britney, Eminem, Coldplay, Shakira, and Linkin Park who are currently on the list are not just for nothing, and they will not let the Chinese dominate the Billboard Hot 100 so easily. Ranked.

O'Landen convinced himself he'd get a good night's sleep that night, but when the new week's Billboard singles chart came out on Tuesday, he panicked.

The rankings of "Monsters" and "We Don't Talk Anymore" seem to have remained the same, but there are differences because they both have a new song on them.

With the two new songs airborne, the ranking has not changed, which means that two songs that were originally ranked in front of them have been squeezed out. In other words, the two of them have actually moved up one place.

The two new songs airborne are naturally the two songs Cao Xuan sang at the Super Bowl halftime show.

With the huge popularity of the Super Bowl halftime show, the two songs directly surpassed many old songs and achieved extremely bright rankings.

"Something just like this" ranked seventh.

"Roar" landed at fourth place, just one step away from the top three. It has such momentum in the first week on the list, which is terrifying and extremely rare in the history of Billboard.

But it's okay. "Roar" is already very powerful. It was on the charts for three weeks and won the championship. Now, with the popularity of the Super Bowl halftime show, it is not completely impossible to reach the championship in one fell swoop.

"Roar" ranked fourth, while "Rolling in the deep", which was originally ranked fourth, did not drop in ranking.

On the contrary, it has risen by two places and has reached the second position on the list. It is very close to winning the championship. It did not take much time for this song to achieve this result. From the time the song was released to the time it reached the second place, it only took three weeks.

In addition, the old song "Natural" that Cao Xuan sang at the Super Bowl also became popular, but it did not appear on the bulletin board.

Billboard has rules. If an old song like this has been off the charts for many years, if it wants to return to the Billboard chart, its ranking must be higher than the previous song's highest ranking in the history of the chart. This is to take more care of new songs and maintain the List freshness and popularity.

"Natural" performed well that year and was firmly in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. It was still in the top ten. It was too difficult to get back on the list.

It might have been possible if Cao Xuan only sang it, but two new songs diverted the popularity, which ultimately led to "Natural" not being on the list for the second time.

But it doesn't matter. At this time, Cao Xuan already has 5 songs in the top ten of the Billboard singles chart.

In the entire American music scene, there are few singers who can achieve such a grand occasion.

Cao Xuan didn't check it carefully, but in his impression, it seemed that there was only one album by Michael Jackson that had 7 songs in the top ten at the same time. However, this record does not seem to have been officially recognized.

After the new century, the same album has 5 songs that have reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. You can count them on both hands.

In Cao Xuan's impression, the most popular song among Billboard's top ten is Aubrey Drake Graham, nicknamed "Drake", who is the guy who puts chili sauce on the sleeves.

This guy is known as the king of streaming media. He has very high traffic and is very popular on the charts. He has 40+ Billboard top ten songs under his name, followed by Madonna, who also has about 40+, which is slightly lower than the male duck. Michael Jackson is 30 songs.

After the new century, the album with the most songs in the top ten of the Billboard is also by Duck. Some say it has 7 songs, and some say it has 8 songs.

There are rumors that there is another female singer whose album has 10 songs in the top ten of the Billboard, but there is no definite information.

Fans of European and American singers such as Taylor, Adele, and Rihanna are at war with each other in order to compete for historical status. Many relevant data are added to the story, making it difficult to distinguish between true and false.

Not only these female singers, fans of European and American male singers and those ancient singers also make up all kinds of nonsense.

The data from platforms such as Douban, Bilibili, Tieba, Zhihu, and Baidu are not consistent at all, and they all claim to be official translated real data. As a result, there are huge discrepancies in the data.

These fans only care about praising their idols and have no idea how troublesome it is for the author to look up information (slaps the table and becomes furious)...

So Cao Xuan only knew that this achievement was awesome, but it was not clear where it ranked in the history of Billboard and how many people had achieved it.

Don’t think that it’s just domestic fans who are messing around, and foreign fans are also making random changes.

Even the official website makes corrections frequently, and some relatively unpopular records are difficult to find out.

After all, except for some fans, the masses don't care about how many top ten songs a singer has in an album. Even if they care about data, they can only look at the overall list.

But for the singer himself, this kind of data also means Cao Xuan's ranking on the overall list.

Number of Billboard No. 1 singles!

Number of Billboard top ten singles!

The number of songs on the Billboard charts!

Number of weeks on the Billboard charts!

Billboard's number one weeks!

...!

As well as some other miscellaneous data, it will have an impact on the singer's position on the Billboard chart, and it will also greatly promote album sales.

The more songs that are on the list, the longer the weeks, and the higher the ranking, the greater the influence of the album, sales will continue to rise, and Cao Xuan's fame, money, and achievements will also increase accordingly.

Otherwise, Cao Xuan would not have put so much effort into the charts, and the outside world would not value the charts so much, which directly determines the performance of this album and Cao Xuan's next position in the music world.

But for Aolongden, he has no control over what Cao Xuan does next.

However, Cao Xuan's new album now has 5 top ten songs, officially surpassing the previous album "Release" which only had 4 top ten songs on the Billboard.

According to the previous vow, if Cao Xuan's new album exceeds the previous album.

He is going to broadcast Sun Pig live on TV!

Aolongden took out the pistol from the drawer, wondering whether to shoot his temple or swallow it. Anyway, others can die, but they must not die socially.

But soon, he found a loophole. Even if the five top ten songs of the new album beat the four of the previous album, the previous album still had two number one singles.

O'Landen didn't believe it.

He knows that Cao Xuan is awesome, and he also believes that "Rolling in the deep" has more than 90% chance of winning the championship, and even "Roar" also has a certain chance of winning the championship.

But except for these two songs, other songs are still far away from the championship.

For example, "Monsters", although it is currently ranked sixth, had strong momentum before and looks promising.

But don’t forget, if it wants to win the championship, it must not only surpass other songs, but also defeat the two best songs "Roar" and "Rolling in the deep", which is twice as difficult.

Not to mention this song, it’s hard to say whether “Roar” can overtake “Rolling in the deep”. If two tigers are competing against each other, maybe both sides will lose.

O'Landen was very proud. He admitted that Cao Xuan was a genius and that this new album was destined to become a classic.

But it is a pity that Cao Xuan made a fatal mistake, that is, he ignored that so many high-quality hit songs were crowded together, which would cause internal friction, and many songs that were expected to reach the top became cannon fodder for better songs.

Originally, at least 3 of these 5 songs were able to reach the top spot, but now only 1 is stable, and the other one is in the 50s, and there are layers of obstacles for other songs.

Cao Xuan's new album only has two number one songs, so it doesn't count as surpassing the previous album, and he, O'Landon, doesn't need to be a pig-riding warrior.

Therefore, faced with the malicious reporters who came to visit him again, Olondon laughed proudly.

The reporters were confused and looked at each other. Could it be that this guy wanted to pretend to be mentally ill to hide from the limelight.

"Mr. O'Landen, why are you laughing?"

"I don't laugh at others. I only laugh at the Chinese people who have no plans and the Warner Group is so stupid..."

O'Landen explained his point of view and couldn't stop smiling brightly when he looked at the thoughtful expressions of the reporters. One of the reporters was a fan of Cao Xuan and couldn't stand his expression.

"All this is just your imagination, and it is only based on the current chart situation. Is there a possibility that there will be a better song below?"

"No way, absolutely impossible."

Ao Langden originally wanted to shout that Cao Xuan could not have a better song, but thinking about being slapped repeatedly in the face before, he swallowed his words again.

"Even if he still has good songs, it will be difficult for him to reach the top spot due to internal friction."

The reporter smiled and added cruelly: "Let's talk about another possibility. Cao Xuan's multiple songs were on the charts at the same time, creating a huge popularity that far exceeded that of an ordinary album, offsetting the internal losses of the album.

Moreover, the competition for the list you just imagined is between two different singers, ranking high and low, fighting to the death.

But if both songs are by the same singer, then resources can be diverted. For example, the song on the hedging chart will be more promoted and fans can be accurately charted.

One deliberately rushes and the other deliberately gives in. I think the difficulty you mentioned is actually a good thing. "

O'Landen was dumbfounded and stood there in despair, his eyes were empty and he just murmured.

"Impossible, impossible..."

On the way back, a reporter colleague asked him about the feasibility of the operation he just mentioned, and the reporter was stunned.

"It's feasible, but Cao must form an unshakable dominance on the Billboard charts before he can give in internally. If he doesn't reach that strong point, playing this way will give his competitors an opportunity."

"Then how can we form this dominance?"

"At least we need to come up with two more songs that are not inferior to "Roar", and then they will be in the top three, or even the top five, of the Billboard singles chart at the same time."

"This is too exaggerated. I have never heard of a singer dominating the top five on the Billboard singles chart at the same time."

"Actually, there is. The Beatles seemed to have it once, but it was already forty years ago."

After returning home, my colleagues went to check the information. On April 4, 1964, five songs from the Beatles' new album occupied the top five spots on the Billboard Hot 100 singles list in a single week, creating Billboard history. and has not been refreshed yet.

The closest to this historical record is American rapper 50 Cent. Last year, in March 2005, he had three songs in the top five of the Billboard at the same time in a single week.

Cao Xuan's last album "Release" also had three songs in the top five.

However, the time before and after was different. The most time they had was only two songs in the top five at the same time, which was far from forming the so-called dominance.

When my colleague saw this, he forgot about it. He didn't believe that a Chinese could rival the Beatles on the Billboard singles chart.

But soon, he felt that he had underestimated this great singer who had been called by the American media to have changed the world's impression of Asia.

On February 9, Cao Xuan participated in the 48th Grammy Awards and served as an award presenter and performer at the awards ceremony.

After the awards ceremony, in addition to the shady controversy caused by the failure of the popular Sister Niu in the general category, Cao Xuan also released a new song at the Grammy Awards, which also attracted the attention of countless people.

《Apologise》

The Chinese translation is called "Sorry", a well-known representative work of the American Republican era.

This song was released at the end of 2007 and topped the music charts in fifteen European countries. It has been on the Billboard Hot 100 for 47 consecutive weeks, which is definitely the longest time on the Billboard Hot 100 in the history of the Billboard. A batch of songs.

Even if it may be slightly inferior to two other hits such as "Roar", it is definitely a quasi-hit song.

It is worth mentioning that there is a saying that this song was written very early, but Cao Xuan went to some copyright libraries to check the score, and even used connections to test the Republic Era and related producers, but did not find any information about this song. Physical evidence exists.

After several checks, Cao Xuan finally came up with confidence. Even if the score could be produced in the Republic era and the copyright had been applied for, it would not be considered plagiarism by Cao Daguan.

Maybe Boss Cao will sue the Republic Era for tampering with his lyrics and music at will, adding unnecessary extravagance, taking advantage of his popularity, and kicking him whenever he encounters...