Chapter 107: The Change Brought by Kimura to Zhou Xiao

  New song? New song!!!!!

  "You don't know our current situation?" Nakahara's conditioned reflex took over as he received the CD player handed to him by Zhou Xiao, and only then did he finally react, shouting in extreme surprise.

  "Of course I know, how could I possibly not know." Zhou Xiao said with a carefree attitude.

  "I didn't know you'd give me this!? Honestly, whether or not there's a next Smap, it might be a different story, and who knows what singles will come out!?" Nakai said.

  "That has nothing to do with me. I said I'd write songs for you, and no matter what problems you encounter, I'll complete my own work." Zhou Xiao said.

  "Are you not afraid of being banned?" Nakauji Masahiro said.

  "Block me? If they can really block me, then come and try!"

  Of course, there is no internal power or magic in this world. However, after Zhou Xiao said that sentence, Nakai Masahiro somehow felt the confident and arrogant aura emanating from Zhou Xiao's body. In fact, since getting to know Zhou Xiao until now, this eighteen-year-old boy had always given Nakai the impression of being a young man with extraordinary talent but slightly dim-witted. He even thought Zhou Xiao was somewhat weak and didn't have any sharp edges in terms of personality. But now, sitting in front of him, narrowing his eyes as if carrying a murderous aura, Zhou Xiao made him feel extremely unfamiliar. What he didn't know was that Zhou Xiao's current behavior was largely due to the provocation by Murauchi.

  Zhou Xiao actually has his own ideas, so he would do a lot of things in a disorderly manner. In his heart, he has a very complete idea of what he wants to do, but his personality is not particularly stubborn. He's just an otaku (homebody) after all. If his personality wasn't really soft, one person couldn't be an otaku. Most of the time, he has a bit of a go-with-the-flow attitude. Unless someone really obstructs him and causes him great harm, he's too lazy to care about others. For example, when he first started out, there was that comedian who suppressed him, but Zhou Xiao even forgot what his surname was. In his opinion, this kind of person is not worthy of standing in front of him, so since the guy has already fallen down, he's too lazy to waste his energy on being hostile towards him.

  But Kimura's performance gave him a huge stimulus. After returning home and thinking about Kimura's performance, Zhou Xiao understood one thing: a person with great abilities should have the matching temperament. This is similar to the famous phrase from Spider-Man, "with great power comes great responsibility." Kimura became who he is not only because of his acting skills, which are said to be able to "control any role," but also because of his extremely strict attitude towards himself. He rebuilt the salary system, got married under pressure, and even when he had to bring bodyguards with him wherever he went, he never compromised or lowered his head. It was these kinds of performances that made him a super giant star, the most unusual existence in Japan's idol industry.

  And what about Zhou Xiao?

  "I'm a traverser, I will definitely go on a killing spree in all directions!" Even if Zhou Xiao thought so, he rarely showed his tendency, let alone when he thought so, it was just a joke. He just did many things quietly and threw away the voices that belittled him. But now, he's not going to do that anymore. Jenice is very powerful, but he's far from being able to compete with her yet. Even so, he wants to show his strength, because he thinks he has the qualifications and abilities to negotiate conditions and future with Jenice, he's not a lamb to be slaughtered by anyone, he should be a wolf, a tiger!

  "In the days to come, if there are people who want to oppress me again, I won't wait for another Shimizu no Jirocho to appear. I will confront them myself, even though I'm just an ordinary person and may face unimaginable resistance. At least, I must defend myself and those around me with my life!"

  This might be the most precious growth Zhou Xiao gained from the Mù Village incident.

  Nakai Masahiro put on his CD headphones and pressed the switch, after which the demo he had recorded himself came floating over.

  What is the most important thing about a good song? Is it the melody or musicality?

  But that doesn't mean that if you make the melody incredibly luxurious and surpass Pavarotti's musicality, this song will be a good one. Such individuals may achieve great success in the field of serious music, but in the pop music scene, the more difficult the song is, the harder it is to achieve good results.

  Songs that truly become popular are often those with simple and catchy melodies that everyone can sing along to in a KTV. There are countless examples of this throughout history and across the world.

  In 1996, Richie Jen's song "Heart Too Soft" was a hit all over China. The melody of the song "You're Always Too Soft-Hearted" filled every street and alley in China for about two years. In Zhou Xiao's memory, he even got tired of hearing this melody during those one or two years...

  By 1998, the heart was too soft and went down. A foreigner named Richie Martin came up with a World Cup theme song "Cup of Life" that made Zhou Xiao want to vomit... As for after 2000, online music began to lead the trend, starting from "Northeasterners are all living Lei Feng", online music occupied China's musical trends for many years.

  But is writing this kind of music easy? The answer is not at all. Whether it's Xue Cun or Yang Chengang, whether it's Phoenix Legend or other popular music authors, looking at their resumes will reveal that they all have a solid cultural foundation and musical skills that are not inferior in any way. It's not like simple music can be hummed out by just anyone, someone who doesn't even recognize the five-line staff, someone who has to ask others to write the manuscript for submission is almost impossible to produce such music.

  Xiao Zhou from Japan had been practicing guitar for many years, and Xiao Zhou from China was the same. These memories and skills merged together, barely allowing him to take on the task of composing songs after crossing over. He repeatedly came up with great songs, so it wouldn't seem too out of place.

  There is a musician in mainland China named Gao Xiaosong. Regardless of what kind of person he is, in terms of music, he should be more qualified to comment on music than most people who have never learned music in their lives. He once said that if you are a singer and sing popular songs with simple melodies every day, your taste is not high, but if you wrote this song yourself, I admire you.

  "The World's Only Flower" is actually similar to the previous songs, perhaps with a slightly higher musicality, but its essence is also the same as those simple and catchy melodies that anyone in Japan can sing. This song being sung by SMAP is also a good match. What kind of group is SMAP? At first, they were a six-member group, including a person named Mori Katsuyuki. At that time, when SMAP released songs, the melody was basically controlled by Kimura Takuya and Mori Katsuyuki. Back then, SMAP's music performance was not bad, at least their live performances were stable.

  But after Mori and Kusanagi left the group, it was impossible for Kimura to be the only one singing in SMAP, which led to an awkward situation. AKB can't sing well, so they just lip-sync half-heartedly, but SMAP didn't want to do that, so they ended up being a tragedy. Almost every live performance, especially during solo performances, there would be some off-key notes. Kimura's performance was not bad, but the other four members each had their own weaknesses. For example, Kusanagi couldn't hit high notes or low notes, Inagaki's singing was no different from karaoke, and Nakai's voice was ruined from hosting and screaming. It was a complete tragedy that when Japanese people wanted to hear him sing solo, they could only hear it during prank shows.

  There is a saying that the reason why "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" became so popular in Japan is because people all over the country thought to themselves, "If I were on stage, I might be able to sing better than SMAP..."

  Such a combination is out of tune but has the most popular people in Japan, such a song is simple but easy to spread and can be hummed along after listening to half of it, it can be said that this is the most harmonious combination.

  This is also the main reason why Xiaozhou has never had the idea of singing "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" (The World's Only Flower). A song can be popular and sell millions, there are reasons for both the song itself and the person who sings it. Perhaps "Small Love" is a case where the song itself was the reason, and if another rock singer were to sing it, they might also make it popular. Most of AKB48's million-selling singles are probably due to the people involved, and if someone else were to replace them, they would likely have the same popularity as long as the song isn't particularly bad. But "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" is a perfect combination of both the song and the person, and it's possible that only SMAP can make this song popular.