Become A Music Monster Overnight! [EN]: Chapter 35

12. Syndrome

The title track, ‘Old Rockers Never Die (90’S)’, debuted at 95th place on music streaming sites.

It was a satisfactory result, but most of the uncles couldn’t hide their disappointment.

“Hmm.”

“Lower than expected, isn’t it?”

“I know, right? 95th is practically the bottom.”

“Is it just here? I checked other music sites, and it’s similar. Some are even lower.”

“Damn it. Got my hopes up for nothing.”

“…Are you guys crazy?”

As if understanding my disbelief at the uncles’ disappointment, Uncle Moon Il-beom shook his head, equally dumbfounded.

However, the uncles looked at Moon Il-beom strangely.

Each of them wore a face that said, ‘Why is that bastard suddenly acting up?’

Moon Il-beom continued, wearing a face that said, ‘You really don’t know anything, do you?’

“Do you not know how hard it is to get into the top 100? Saying it’s the top 100, there aren’t even half that many spots for new songs.”

“What do you mean?”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

The uncles didn’t seem to understand Moon Il-beom’s words, so I provided further explanation.

“He’s talking about the concrete.”

“Concrete?”

“What on earth are you saying?”

Instead of Moon Il-beom, who was frustrated with the curious uncles, I continued the explanation.

“‘Concrete’ refers to songs in the music charts that don’t fluctuate easily. When idols with large fanbases release albums, their fans obsessively stream all the songs to ‘line up’ the music charts [meaning to fill the charts with their artist’s songs]. In the case of hardcore fans, they maintain this until the end of the promotion, but usually, they maintain it for about a week and only push the title track. It’s their way of maintaining the brand value of the idol they support.”

“This is still caused by fans, so it’s not a big problem. In fact, the current music market is dominated by idols. But these days, there are songs that pay agencies to manipulate the charts.”

“If you suddenly see songs by singers you’ve never heard of in the top ranks, you can assume they were boosted that way. Some even shamelessly put them in the number one spot. There are more songs that have risen like this than you think. In some cases, they subtly linger in the lower ranks and only take the top spot during the early morning hours when people are scarce.”

“Since it’s done with a program, it’s difficult to push them out. Besides this, there are quite a few songs that maintain their ranking for a long time due to fan loyalty. The reason Uncle Moon Il-beom said there aren’t even half the spots in the top 100 is because of this.”

“So, even though it’s 95th, if you remove the ‘concrete,’ you can say it’s actually around 50th.”

My explanation made the uncles, who were unaware of the recent music scene, feel dumbfounded, but they were also pleased to know that it was a higher ranking than they had thought.

Shortly after, the manager, who had finished all his phone calls, approached us.

“Did you check the music charts? To be at this ranking only an hour after the song’s release… I had expectations, but this is more amazing than I thought.”

At the manager’s surprised words, Uncle Kwak Do-hoon shrugged his shoulders and nodded.

“We checked. I didn’t know much about it, but they said it’s a great result.”

“Yes, it is amazing. The title track is already in the top 15. If it weren’t for the idol who recently made a comeback, it might already be in the top 10.”

“…Excuse me? Top 15?”

“Hmm? Didn’t you know?”

“No, when we checked, the ranking was… Oh!”

I quickly turned on the Lemon app, the largest music site, and soon realized that the manager’s words were not a lie.

In fact, above us were only all the songs from EX’s album, the main product of a large entertainment company that debuted last week, one song suspected of chart manipulation, and two versions of Snow Lady.

“Could it be?”

Surprised for a moment, I followed the thought that flashed through my mind and quickly began to examine the Lemon chart rankings.

“Good heavens!”

And before long, I let out a short exclamation.

At the uncles’ question of what was wrong, I silently showed them the phone screen, and their reaction was no different from mine.

“Am I seeing this right?”

“Even with the ‘Legends of Rock’ program buff, this is unbelievable.”

“This is crazy!”

“Wow! This is… Huh.”

“Let’s see, one, two… Yeah. They’re all on the chart!”

As Uncle Park Si-young said last, all the songs from Black Tiger’s mini-album Vol. 1 had successfully charted.

“We might have to stay up all night because of this.”

I felt a sense of regret at Moon Il-beom’s excitement, wondering how high the rankings would go.

If it weren’t for the imprinted memories, wouldn’t I also be excited like the uncles? That’s what I was thinking.

My reverie was interrupted by the manager, who was unusually raising his voice.

“We’ll take care of the monitoring, so don’t worry about it and rest! You have three schedules lined up for tomorrow, so you need to rest whenever you can from now on. That’s what you need to do now.”

It seems that the saying that a gentle person is scary when they get angry is true.

Even I, not to mention the uncles, couldn’t dare to argue with the manager’s words.

The uncles cleared their throats for no reason and left one by one.

The manager smiled at the backs of the uncles and said.

“It seems like these people are becoming more and more like children.”

“Hahaha. Originally, musicians can’t do it if they become mature.”

“Ahahaha.”

The manager nodded, laughing as if agreeing with the words I said with a smile.

“I guess that’s true. Thanks to that, I’ll have a lot of work to do.”

“I’m counting on you, Manager.”

“Thank you for trusting me.”

I was reminded of how well I had chosen the right person, seeing the reliable manager.

It wasn’t for nothing that the people the manager brought in for the activities were all talented and had good personalities.

Thanks to the guy who led the dinosaur-level entertainment company, I knew better than anyone that personnel management was everything.

Like a guy who was strangely lucky, most of the people who were with him were talented.

In fact, even in the situation where he was messed up with drugs, YC Entertainment’s stock price was still trending upward, so he was born with good fortune.

I was really envious of that, but now it seemed like I didn’t need to be so envious anymore.

Was it because I realized that?

Even though I had debuted, I felt particularly relieved, as if I had put down a burden.

+++++++++++++

Youngchan entered the car with a refreshed face, as if he had slept well.

“Is your mind really made of steel?”

Park Si-young, who was already in the car and looked tired, grumbled as if he didn’t like the sight.

Youngchan smiled silently at the uncle’s grumbling. Perhaps it was because he thought that he would look like that if it weren’t for the imprinted memories.

‘Seeing his haggard face, I guess I shouldn’t be too disappointed that he can’t feel the beginning as much as I do?’

In any case, regardless of their circumstances, everyone had to get in the car and move from a time when the sun hadn’t fully risen.

Because they had to visit the shop [beauty salon for hair and makeup].

“You’re here? CEO. The others have already gone ahead.”

“Oh my. Thank you for your hard work from the morning.”

“It’s nothing. I bought something for you to eat in the car. Please have some on your way.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

It seems that since they don’t live together, they took the people who live closer to the shop first.

Thanks to that, Youngchan rode in the car alone with Park Si-young.

Unlike Park Si-young, who was only drinking water as if he had no appetite, Youngchan ate two rolls of kimbap [Korean seaweed rice rolls] on the spot.

“It goes down well from the morning.”

“You have to eat well to handle the schedule well. Uncle, please have some too.”

“Oh my. I’m okay. I think it’ll make my stomach worse if I eat now.”

“Then at least have some juice.”

However, Park Si-young shook his head as if even that didn’t sit well with him. Youngchan didn’t urge him any further at the sight of his uncle.

‘Well, he’ll get better gradually.’

Anyway, there was no separate stage or anything like that today.

There was only one radio show and a few interviews, so there wasn’t much to exert energy on.

However, since they had to run around the broadcasting station from tomorrow, Youngchan hoped that the uncles’ tension would be relieved before that.

“Ah! CEO, we’re going crazy on M Portal right now.”

“Really?”

Unlike the excited manager, Youngchan wasn’t surprised or anything.

It wasn’t just because of the imprinted memories that had topped the search rankings countless times.

It was because he had already experienced it through Snow Lady and the previous YouTube cover videos. However, the only difference was that it was the first time as Black Tiger, so he couldn’t help but be curious.

“Hmm!”

Before entering M Portal, Youngchan first entered Lemon and checked the search rankings, and let out a short exclamation.

It wasn’t because Old Rockers Never Die (90’S) had taken the number one spot.

What surprised him was that all of Black Tiger’s songs were in the top 10.

The B-side tracks, Sun, Black Tiger, and Followers, were ranked 3rd, 5th, and 7th respectively.

“…The reaction is hotter than I thought.”

In the meantime, seeing that the 2nd place was the overseas version of Snow Lady, it was safe to say that the top 10 was currently lined up with Youngchan’s songs.

This was popularity that was not inferior to top idols.

Soon, Youngchan closed the Lemon app and turned on the M company app, and saw that Black Tiger was at the top of the search rankings.

No, it wasn’t just number one.

All the search terms from 1st to 10th place were filled with issues related to Youngchan.

There were also dozens of articles, and just looking at this, he could tell how busy the manager had been last night.

Most of the comments on the articles were close to rave reviews, and the reactions of the high-nosed music critics were not much different.

-I couldn’t believe it even after seeing it. It was hard to believe even after hearing it. But it was reality. The god of rock left his mark on their album.-

-The moment I heard Black Tiger’s title track ‘Old Rockers Never Die (90’S)’, I regressed to the past. It was a short but intense moment.-

-Their album was like watching them conquer the representative rock genres of the era. Surprisingly, Black Tiger won them all.-

-There have been many geniuses in the Korean music scene. But no one can simply consider YC one of them. A new word is needed to define him.-

-Do you think rock is just noisy? Do you think it’s already a genre of the past? If you think so, listen to Black Tiger’s mini-album Vol. 1. The moment you hear the first song, you will get rid of all your prejudices.-

-I had to shed tears while listening to the songs on the album. I pay my respects to Black Tiger for creating this amazing masterpiece.-

-Today I realized what kind of music I vaguely wanted to listen to.-

The scores were close to the highest.

Even the critic who had never given a score of more than 4 points gave it 4.5 points.

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