Become A Music Monster Overnight! [EN]: Chapter 80

Music Monster Overnight! Episode 71

Jang Woong’s conditions included producing a K-pop-style idol group with Chinese members.

I secretly welcomed the request when I heard it.

This request was unexpectedly helpful to YC Entertainment.

With Black Tiger’s comeback being a huge success, YC Entertainment was being hailed as one of the top 4 entertainment companies.

If we had gone public [listed on the stock market], it wouldn’t have just been talk.

The concert tour was also a huge hit, selling out and properly cementing our brand value.

In addition, Blue Rose’s mini-album Vol. 2 was slated for release next month.

Originally, it should have been released this month, but the afterglow of Black Tiger’s success hadn’t subsided easily.

This concept was also Pink Diary, but with a different color palette.

If mini-album Vol. 1 was vivid pink, the color to be used in mini-album Vol. 2 was indie pink to further highlight the retro feel.

As a side note, diary decorating was becoming popular again among students after Blue Rose’s mini-album Vol. 1.

And this trend naturally led to a virtuous cycle of reprinting Blue Rose’s mini-album Vol. 1.

The luxurious Blue Rose diary, though expensive, was becoming a regular purchase at 00bucks [a fictional or placeholder name for a store or platform].

In addition, sales of Blue Rose diary decoration goods were naturally breaking records.

Furthermore, Lee Na-eun’s first full-length album preparation was going smoothly, and the G1 band was also preparing to release their first full-length album within the year.

It would be stranger if we weren’t considered one of the top 4 entertainment companies.

The problem is that the domestic market is limited, and eventually a war [competition] will break out.

“It’s not that I’m not confident…….”

The problem is that my singers would bear the brunt of the damage.

So, it was important for me to weaken the other top 4 entertainment companies, and that meant interfering with their entry into China.

“If they can achieve similar results with their own country’s idols, they don’t have to cling to K-pop.”

I planned to release the poison called C-pop [Chinese pop music] in advance.

So, I suggested the opposite approach.

“Let’s expand the game. Let’s gather idol hopefuls with Chinese citizenship and make them compete. In other words, we’re creating a survival program.”

“Survival?”

I briefly explained to him about the idol survival program that would be a big hit in two years.

“!!!”

As expected of someone who created one of the largest entertainment companies in China, Jang Woong immediately recognized the value of this program.

However, he also recognized the potential problems.

“Talent will be the problem.”

Is talent the only problem?

The songs are also a problem, as are the producers who can run this program, and the teachers who will teach and lead them.

But if you have money, you can fill this part as much as you want.

And Jang Woong, the grandson of Jangjin Group, one of China’s top 20 companies, had no shortage of money or connections.

At least there was almost nothing he couldn’t do in China.

“There’s no difficulty in finding talent. You can bring idols or trainees who are active in Korea. Considering the Chinese market, the agencies will welcome it.”

It was only a matter of time before small and medium-sized entertainment companies, which were struggling to come to their senses due to the large entertainment companies, had no choice but to advance overseas.

Among these, China is an unexplored territory that can be called a blue ocean [a market with no competitors].

You can make a lot of money just by riding the Korean wave [the popularity of South Korean culture internationally] well.

“I will recommend a producer to run the program. I will also recommend teachers. What’s more? I will also make songs.”

Once the first phase is successful, it is safe to say that Kowloon Entertainment will dominate the Chinese idol market.

It would be easy to eat up even local idols just by making small changes to this idol survival program.

Of course, an enormous amount of connections would be needed to build that ecosystem, but if Jangjin Group moved, there would be nothing difficult.

“……Why are you doing this for me?”

It was certainly excessive to simply establish a cooperative relationship.

So I answered honestly.

I said that it was to damage the entry of other large domestic entertainment companies into China, which would be our competitors.

Jang Woong looked surprised at my answer.

He seemed quite impressed by my honesty, even though I could have lied and gained a great deal of benefit for myself.

“If you don’t mind, I would like to have Representative Park as my older brother.”

Jang Woong, who was still in his 20s, talked about brotherhood, so I shook my head. Seeing Jang Woong unable to hide his disappointment, I smiled and said.

“I want a 好朋友 (hǎo péngyǒu – good friend).”

“!!”

I smiled as I watched Jang Woong, who was surprised.

There are probably no people who put 朋友 (péngyǒu – friend) on their lips as much as the Chinese.

In fact, many Koreans get tricked by this 朋友 when they have meetings with Chinese people. Chinese people are used to 好話 (hǎohuà – pleasantries), so when they encounter this 好話 and 朋友 while having a meeting, they get the illusion that they have achieved great results even though there are no special results.

It always takes a considerable amount of time and effort to achieve tangible results in relationships with Chinese people.

There is a saying in Chinese: ‘The first time we meet, we are strangers (一回生, yī huí shēng), the second time we meet, we are familiar (二回熟, èr huí shú), the third time we meet, we become friends (三回朋, sān huí péng), and the fourth time we meet, we become old (always) friends (四回老朋, sì huí lǎo péng).’

Here, ‘老 (lǎo)’ means ‘old’ and also means ‘always, always.’

Therefore, the relationship of close friends that we know, that is, a relationship that has been properly established, is ‘老朋友 (lǎo péngyǒu),’ which means 好朋友.

Most foreigners do not understand this Chinese culture.

The same was true of Korea and Japan, which are also Confucian countries.

That’s why Jang Woong is so surprised.

“……First of all, how about having a position as 老朋友 (lǎo péngyǒu – old friend)?”

“I understand.”

I couldn’t hide my smile at Jang Woong’s words.

It may sound like a rejection, but in fact, this is nothing more than accepting the offer of 好朋友.

Perhaps when this survival program is successful, I will officially establish a relationship with Jang Woong as 好朋友.

‘From the perspective of the Korean entertainment industry, it may seem like a short-term loss, but in the long term, it is right to distance ourselves from China.’

Starting with the Korean Wave Restriction [a series of measures taken by the Chinese government to limit the influence of South Korean entertainment], the Chinese media is gradually trying to increase negative perceptions of Korea.

Although it is the media, it is actually the will of the Chinese Communist Party, so this is a trend that cannot be resisted.

So, the best thing to do is to create a reliable local partner who can eat and run away appropriately like now.

‘Above all, they will try to die of overeating with just the Chinese market.’

Due to their capabilities, but this is the main reason why Chinese entertainment companies do not covet the overseas market.

If this wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t have even thought about helping.

In any case, the only way for YC Entertainment, or rather, domestic entertainment companies, to survive was to go overseas. In this situation, fighting with a Chinese entertainment company with a huge market was no different from fighting a fully armed opponent with bare hands.

‘No, is it not that bad?’

It’s difficult, but I might be able to fight.

China is completely different from Hong Kong, which once influenced Asia and the world.

For culture to flourish, liberal ideology must be present, but China is fundamentally a communist country, so this is impossible.

Idol survival project.

As soon as Youngchan thought of it, he recalled all the related content and patented a more systematic program.

Surprisingly, this was also patentable, and Youngchan patented it because he thought that this project, which started in China, would occur indiscriminately in Korea.

Unlike China, where you can just go around the provinces with the same platform all year round, in Korea, which has such a small market, anything that goes too far will fail.

Even a program that held auditions for the entire nation and gained immense popularity eventually disappeared without a trace after repeating episodes, didn’t it?

Everything happened because I didn’t think about audience fatigue.

So, to go long-term, it is best to run this program every 2 or 3 years.

If not, changing the gender to change the fan base would also be a good idea.

‘As expected, it would be difficult to do this on terrestrial broadcasting [free-to-air television].’

Due to the nature of the program, it was difficult for terrestrial broadcasting to produce its unique harsh taste.

Naturally, Youngchan thought of A broadcasting station, which has a deep relationship with YC Entertainment among cable channels.

“Fortunately, PD [Production Director] Lee Ki-chan has finished Season 2 of ‘Legends of Rock’ and is taking a break.”

Although the genres are different, he has dealt with survival auditions, so just giving him this platform will be enough for him to do well.

‘If I gain experience here and return to Korea to open an idol survival project, I will be able to catch a lot of attention.’

Coincidentally, the activation of this program was also good for YC Entertainment.

Since Youngchan has the platform patent, he can raise his voice in this market, and above all, he can have priority in discovering talent.

Even if they have an agency, it is not difficult to bring them in with the name value of YC Entertainment.

So, apart from starting a new project in China, the Chinese concert tour was progressing steadily.

Thanks to Jang Woong’s help, we were able to appear on quite a few large programs, and the promotion was done properly.

Thanks to this, the Chinese concert, which had some unstable factors, fortunately sold out all the tickets quickly and continued its success.

Since China is such a large country, concerts were held in 11 locations including Hong Kong, but the success became even hotter as time went on.

-Korean Black Tiger Shakes the Continent!-

-Is the Black Tiger syndrome also in China?-

-The streets of Hong Kong are now decorated with Black Tiger’s music…….-

-The revival of rock is blowing even in China!-

These were embarrassing articles, but they were not entirely wrong compared to the facts.

The charm of Black Tiger, which everyone who knew already knew, was fully revealed to the public through this concert tour, and the enthusiasm was beyond imagination.

In particular, as the story of their brilliant struggle was belatedly revealed, Black Tiger, who did not even appear on Chinese music programs, frequently took first place.

The attitude of the employees dispatched from Kowloon Entertainment had changed at some point, as they were so surprised by the popularity.

Those who had previously been at least equal, if not slightly arrogant, were now completely submissive.

“Hehehe. Seeing this, it seems that China is not that different.”

“Well, no matter what, the one who is popular in this industry is the best.”

“Above all, Youngchan is showing such friendship with the president of Kowloon Entertainment, so the employees have to look up to him.”

“Was the president’s name Jang Woong? That person is not easy either. What did he do to make those annoying public security guys so quiet?”

“He’s a young man with great talent. Isn’t that right, Youngchan?”

“……Ahahaha.”

Youngchan could only give an awkward smile at his uncles’ words.

This was because he couldn’t say that Jang Woong of Kowloon Entertainment was a candidate to be the successor of Jangjin Group.

There was no reason to keep it a secret, but the reason for this was that Jang Woong had not yet told Youngchan about his identity.

Youngchan only found out about it after the Korean Wave Restriction, so Youngchan had to keep it a secret until Jang Woong told him.

Just when they had finally conquered China after Japan.

News came from Taylor, who had returned to the United States.

“I think the challenge you mentioned is slowly coming to the surface.”

“???”

Youngchan didn’t understand what he was saying, but soon he realized what he was talking about.

The number of followers on Black Tiger’s official SNS began to increase at an incredible rate.