China Entertainment 1997

The box office performance of "Hunting" not only shocked the stars and the outside world, but even Cao Xuan was unexpected.

But when he calmed down, he felt it was understandable.

You must know that this year's Han Han's debut film "The Future" is also a literary film, but it has a box office of more than 600 million.

Guo Xiaosi's "Little Times" has 500 million plus, and Jiang Wen's new work "One Step Away", which many people can't understand, also has 500 million.

Cao Xuan and Lao Mouzi, two of the most famous actors and directors in the Chinese film industry, join forces, coupled with the popularity of the Berlin Film Festival and the quality of their own films, it is better than these films in every aspect.

Based on this calculation, "Hunting" did not exceed 1 billion, and Cao Xuan wondered if he had gone out of style.

Of course it's a joke to say it's outdated. The most important thing is that the Chinese film market is growing rapidly.

In previous years, 200 million to 300 million was considered a small hit. Nowadays, it can only be considered a good achievement. Breaking 100 million is not worth mentioning. 500 million to 800 million is considered a hit. In the past, the rare 1 billion phenomenon in a year is nothing now. Alone seedlings.

And this trend is still expanding. By next year, 1 billion will no longer be rare, and the number will almost reach double digits.

Not to mention others, 300 million or 500 million are not as good as dogs, and 700 million or 800 million are everywhere.

Cao Xuan vaguely remembers that in 2015, there were almost 80 movies with a box office of over 100 million. Now that the Star Cinema chain and the catfish effect it caused, it is not impossible for there to be over 100 movies with a box office of over 100 million.

The best era for Chinese-language movies is coming!

The "worst" era for Chinese-language movies is also here!

With a booming market, enthusiastic audiences, and constant influx of capital, the creative attitude in the industry has also declined significantly.

The reason is very simple. As I said before, in order to seize a limited market, everyone used to innovate and strive for excellence. Although there were many tricks, in principle, the quality of the film was still the main focus.

Now that the market is big, you can make a full meal by just messing around, and there are a few things that can be done by Sanli, and there are a few people who are willing to work hard.

Even if some people are willing to continue as usual, the capital behind you will hate you for being in the way, and your colleagues who are waiting to share the money will hate you for being nosy. If the industry atmosphere is bad, this bottom line cannot be maintained by just a few people.

Cao Xuan did not stop it and could not stop it.

Again, the development of things is inevitable. When the field of literature, art, film and television enters large-scale commercialization and marketization, there will inevitably be such a day.

Nothing can be stopped. Only when things go to extremes will they turn in reverse. Only when you get backlash from the outside world and the audience, and you know it hurts, can you bottom out and rebound. Under the cold and realistic market rules, you will slowly return to normal.

What Cao Xuan can do is to let Fanxing hold on to the bottom line as much as possible in this carnival, keep his golden sign, and wait for the rainbow after the storm...

………

Not paying too much attention to the commotion outside, Cao Xuan returned to the capital after the road show ended in March.

I didn’t take much rest, but devoted myself to the production of the new album.

If we include Cao Xuan's singing debut in 1997, Cao Xuan has been a singer for 17 years now, and it will be 18 years when he officially retires at the concert next year.

For Cao Xuan, who has some obsessive-compulsive disorder, it is more or less regretful that he did not complete twenty years.

But it doesn’t matter. It was the same two years ago.

In 1998, Cao Xuan released his first album "Stars Dotted", followed by "Stars Shining" and "Stars Shining". It is still the star trilogy with the highest honor in the Chinese music world.

In addition, Cao Xuan subsequently released "Four", "Chinese Style", "I Love", "Human World" and "Dazzling", for a total of eight Chinese albums.

The first English album was the 2002 EP album "Chris Tsao", which had only three songs.

Later, "Release", the second first-ever million-selling album, "Legend", the world-famous album, "Qing" with many love songs, and last year's new album "Ring down the curtain", a total of five English albums.

Adding the two together, Cao Xuan has officially released thirteen albums, but Cao Xuan also has a "Spring Festival Gala Song Collection".

This album was released after Cao Xuan withdrew from the Spring Festival Gala. It can be regarded as a commemorative collector's edition. It contains songs that Cao Xuan sang or wrote during the Spring Festival Gala over the years.

In fact, many songs can also be found in other albums, but this time they have been separately and systematically collected.

Because we cooperated with CCTV, we added a lot of behind-the-scenes footage of Cao Xuan's Spring Festival Gala for many years that is not well known to the outside world. It lasted nearly two hours, almost catching up with a short documentary.

This album had a small circulation, mainly for fans, or even for welfare. Only 100,000 copies were printed, and they were all sold out in less than a month.

Although Cao Xuan did not declare that it was a limited edition, he never reprinted it, resulting in genuine copies of this album being quite popular.

The original price of an album of 128 yuan is now basically more than 500 yuan in the second-hand market, and it is often available to those who are quick and not to those who are slow. It all depends on fate. Some people may pay 1,000 yuan to receive it, but they may not receive it.

And this is still domestic. It is said that it is more profitable to sell it to wealthy fans of Cao Xuan abroad.

Someone in Hemerocallis Bar broke the news that through her cousin studying in Japan, she sold an authentic album of Cao Xuan's "Spring Festival Gala Song Collection" for 60,000 yen, which is about more than 3,000 RMB.

Of course, such rich people are also relatively rare. The normal price is still 500 to 1,000 yuan, but as long as there are no more printings in a short period of time, the price will continue to rise.

Maybe in a few years, it will become a popular niche collection in the circle.

Thirteen official albums plus one "Spring Festival Gala Song Collection" make it fourteen. Adding in Cao Xuan's current last album, it is exactly fifteen.

Corresponding to the eighteen years since Cao Xuan's debut, this frequency is still considered fast. Many singers are not as good as Cao Xuan in releasing albums.

The name of the last album was decided by Cao Xuan a long time ago, and it is also his name - "Cao Xuan".

It is quite common to use one's own name as the name of an album, but most of them are their own first albums and they are also newcomers, trying to expand their influence and popularity as much as possible.

For example, Xiao Zhou's debut album was under his English name "Jay", and Stefanie Sun's first album was also under her own name.

There are also singers such as Elva Hsiao, Joker Xue, Tao Zhe, Yang Sanjilang, Jam Hsiao, Li Yuchun, etc., who are also similar to Cao Xuan, or use nicknames or nicknames.

Of course, there are also people who use their own names for albums other than their first. Most of them are because the album is their most successful work, or it has other meanings.

However, it is definitely very rare for Cao Xuan to name his last album after his own name.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that most singers rarely publicly retire from the music scene. Even if they announce their retirement, some regret it and come back. This is nothing new in the industry.

Logically speaking, there should be some doubts about Cao Xuan's retirement and comeback, but relatively speaking, most people still believe that he is determined to leave the music scene.

Because Cao Xuan is an exception. Most singers in the music world choose to come back after retiring. Nine times out of ten, it is for money, and what Cao Xuan lacks most is money.

Even if he is blind, Cao Xuan will go bankrupt one day and even lose his house.

But Cao Xuan still doesn't have to rely on singing to make a living, because this is an industry where his money-making efficiency is low, and the money he makes from his comeback is not as good as filming two more movies.

It is precisely because of this that the outside world has high trust in Cao Xuan's retirement.

And Cao Xuan named his last album "Cao Xuan" without too many complicated intentions. He just wanted to say goodbye to the music industry.

Eighteen years ago, we met without using our names. Eighteen years later. He left the music scene with "Cao Xuan".

"Cao Xuan" contains a total of 10 songs, 5 of which are Chinese songs and 5 are English songs.

The previous "Xuan" and "Ring down the Curtain" were 10 masterpieces each, which brought him countless honors and each also made a perfect ending.

This also made Cao Xuan's song selection for the final album more calm and peaceful, not so utilitarian, but more in line with his own mood and preferences.

Of course, even though this is the case, the quality of the songs still needs to be controlled. After all, it is a final work, and Cao Xuan is not that obsessed. Honorable results, but I don’t want to lose my reputation.

The first Chinese song - "Xiaochou"

Mao Buyi's masterpiece, the lyrics and music have an excellent artistic conception, with an attitude of exhortation, encouraging both himself and the audience. Although the melody is a bit deep, the overall tone is relatively positive.

This song can be regarded as a rare masterpiece in the Chinese-speaking era, and it is also the second song of Mao Buyi by Cao Xuanzao.

Although this person was not Cao Xuan's biggest victim in terms of quantity, but the two most representative songs were banned, Cao Xuan still felt a little guilty.

In private, he also collected hard-to-find information. If the opponent came back to participate in the draft, Cao Xuan thought about taking care of him and letting this player who had been tossing before try what it felt like to be pampered by capital.

The second Chinese song - "As long as it's ordinary"

This song is also the theme song of "I'm Not the God of Medicine". The original version was sung by Zhang Jie and Zhang Bichen.

This song has a strong humanistic care and also puts a deep understanding of life into the lyrics.

Because of the movie, the lyrics are somewhat of a tribute to the struggles and hard lives of ordinary people, even people at the bottom.

Since Cao Xuan is an album, some modifications have been made to the lyrics. It is more about the impermanence of life, grasping the moment, and being ordinary is not a kind of happiness.

Cao Xuan previously had a masterpiece called "The Ordinary Road", and now he has released "As Long as Ordinary". Although his status has nothing to do with being ordinary, it is even slightly ironic and hypocritical.

But from his heart, Cao Xuan fully recognized these two words. He may no longer be ordinary, but it does not mean that he does not pay tribute to and understand ordinary.

He always sincerely hopes that 99% of the people in the world will be safe and happy.

The third Chinese song is - "Youth"

Perhaps in terms of artistic conception and quality, this song is slightly inferior to the previous two, but it is Cao Xuan's favorite song among the songs, so no matter whether he is willful or not, he puts this song at the end of his list. in an album.

"Youth" is a single released by singer Meng Ran in November 2019. It quickly became popular the following year. It can even be said to be one of the most popular songs in 2020, and it was chosen by the official for adaptation.

Cao Xuan took a fancy to this song, and aside from his personal preference, its popularity was also one of the important reasons.

"Xiaochou" is okay, but "As Long as Ordinary" may not have a high popularity. "Youth" can be regarded as filling this gap.

Like ordinary people, youth is also a common word in all Cao Xuan's songs. Cao Xuan has sung countless youths, and this time he sang it to himself as a middle-aged man.

Eighteen years have passed, and I wish I was still the young man I was before, without any change.

The fourth song and the first English song - "Love is Gone"

The Chinese translation is "Love Has Gone", which is a very beautiful and sad song. The single was released by the American electronic group SLANDER in 2019. Although it did not achieve any success on the charts, it is still quite popular around the world.

The original lyrics of the song meant being rejected and breaking up, but Cao Xuan changed it.

The lyrics probably still mean the same thing, but they imply not the breakup of the girlfriend, but the death of the girlfriend, which makes the already sad song even more sad.

Of course, it's just a hint. How to interpret it depends on the audience and fans themselves. Whether it's a breakup or death, it's more about letting them embody emotions.

The whole song is accompanied by piano. The melody is soothing, beautiful, sad and fresh. It is Cao Xuan's best and favorite style, so he chose it and planned to play a piano song.

There were many piano accompaniments in Cao Xuan's previous works, but it is rare to see piano-based works like this. This time it is considered as a way for Cao Tianwang to show off his skills.

The fifth song and the second English song - "7Years"

The Chinese translation is called "7 Years Old", a song released by the Danish band Lucas Graham. It is not well-known, but is of extremely high quality.

The Original Spacetime was later nominated for the Grammys for "Best Single" and "Best Production", which shows its gold content.

This song was originally considered a niche product. Cao Xuan heard it occasionally and always regarded it as a treasure. However, it was a pity that Douyin later discovered it and used it as the soundtrack of a short video. It has already shown signs of becoming popular.

"7Years" comes from the life experience of the band's lead singer and his beautiful vision for the future.

The protagonist's age is finally written to 60 in the lyrics because his father passed away at the age of 61, and he needs to get over this hurdle and believe in the future.

The core of the song is growth, recalling the past, and focusing on the future. It tells the story of a child's growth into an adult, and his gradual maturity in the face of the passage of time, from being a son, to being a husband, to being a father.

7 years old, 20 years old, 30 years old, 40 years old, 60 years old, each age has a lyrics and a feeling.

Because of his different life experiences, Cao Xuan also modified certain lyrics and incorporated some of his own experiences and feelings into them.

This song can be regarded as semi-original. Aside from the melody and lyric pattern, the rest was written by Cao Xuan himself and tells his own story and psychology.

In the original version, the song was written to be 60 years old because of his father. Cao Xuan also wrote to be 60 years old.

Excusing his shallow life, he can only think of himself in his sixties for the time being. As for the future, maybe he can only imagine himself at that age in another ten years.

The three Chinese songs and the two English songs are all excellent, and the remaining five songs also have their own merits.

Although Cao Xuan is a little more willful, and the song combination is not as meticulous and perfect as before, but his own reserves are here, even if a lot of good songs are picked out, the remaining ones can still make up an extremely brilliant album.

Even the overall quality is not much worse than the albums such as "Bright Stars" and "Legend".

Cao Xuan was quite satisfied overall and showed demos to Xiao Zhou, Lao Wei, Wu Gao and a few friends.

Comments aside, almost everyone had the same reaction, looking at Cao Xuan questioningly and with extreme regret——

What the hell do you call this a decline in creativity?

Why does such a talented person insist on retiring from the music scene? !

Cao Xuan ignored these voices and went straight to work. It is expected that "Cao Xuan" will finally be released at the end of this year or early next year.

At the same time, preparations for the final farewell concert are also beginning.

This farewell concert will be larger than the last global concert, especially in China, with many more venues being given priority. It can also be regarded as Cao Xuan's compensation to the fans who have been expecting him to hold a concert all these years. .

Temporarily shielded from the outside world, Cao Xuan has been busy working on the album, and it was not until May that he took two days to attend Mr. Zhou's wedding.

To be honest, Mr. Zhou's scandals have been flying all over the world in the past few years, and Cao Xuan didn't pay special attention to them. He just found out that she was getting married.

The groom's name is Gao Shengyuan, and he is a Chinese-American actor. Well, that's all he is famous for.

In the parlance of later generations of fans, it is called "a son-in-law in the entertainment industry", which means that the woman is the most famous and the man has benefited from the career. He is jokingly called the so-and-so family.

According to this theory, many male stars started their careers as "brother-in-law". Of course, there are also female stars who started their careers by relying on their husbands. We don't know what the other explanation is.

At Cao Xuan's level, it doesn't actually matter who is more famous or not, or whether they match or not.

I believe Mr. Zhou is the same. There are several male stars of the right age who can match her in the entire Chinese entertainment industry.

It is widely rumored that Cao Xuan's famous flower has an owner, and Chen Kun is also more friendly than affectionate. What if Mr. Zhou is obsessed with his fame and is single.

In fact, it is not a good thing to really find a male star who is not inferior to Mr. Zhou. Marriage is not a TV series or novel, and getting along with two strong people may not be a good thing.

Based on Mr. Zhou's conditions, it wasn't that he couldn't find any elites from other industries, and he also negotiated with some rich and young businessmen. The reason why it didn't work out was because they couldn't get along.

She is an arrogant and casual person. She always has others to accommodate her, but Mr. Zhou has a hard time compromising with others.

If they really want to find someone with good conditions, both of them are arrogant and neither of them bows their heads, life may not be easy for them. Instead, if they find someone with slightly worse conditions, who is willing to pamper themselves, they may be a good match.

Cao Xuan is experienced in this. His family's life is going smoothly, thanks to the East and West Second Palace being willing to let him go. It doesn't matter if he plays around with small things. Cao Xuan has the final say on big things. He is willing to sacrifice himself in many things to fulfill Cao Xuan's needs.

Therefore, Cao Xuan dotes on the East and West Palaces very much and is almost obedient most of the time. The reason is that he knows that he owes the two daughters-in-law a lot and he must compensate them.

The three people are willing to sacrifice and be humble to each other, and understand each other's efforts and repay them. This is how they become close and comfortable.

If it were a woman with other personalities, the two parties would not be able to reach a tacit compromise and would often clash. No matter how much they liked her, they would eventually become strangers.

So even if Cao Xuan sometimes admires or likes some people, he always knows that the one that suits him best is the East and West Palaces.

For example, Mr. Zhou, let alone getting married, if they can be in love for more than a year, it will be a big deal, and they may end up cheating and turning against each other.

So the two are good friends and appreciate each other, but they have never had other ideas and understand that they are not the same person.

Cao Xuan understood what Mr. Zhou was thinking, and he couldn't say that she was wrong, but unfortunately he still misjudged it.

He didn't know what went wrong, but it still ended in tragedy for the two of them.

Cao Xuan can't persuade him on this point. Everyone has their own fate, but for now, he still expresses his blessings to his friends.

He even went on stage to give a congratulatory speech and sang a song that fit the atmosphere to cheer up, giving Mr. Zhou a lot of face...

————

ps: The remaining two Chinese songs and three English songs are basically the last few songs in this book.

I have several choices in my mind, but they haven't been finalized yet. If you have any recommendations, you can also tell me. Because this is a collection of works, the songs are required to be as high-quality as possible, and it is best to fit Cao Xuan's situation...