Chapter 478 "EXOL"

Chapter 478 "EXO-L"

It is a very happy thing that Kim Taeyeon's solo title song has made progress. She has started preparing for her solo several months ago. In fact, Chi Jingyuan himself was very anxious because it was delayed for so long. Although it is still a few months away from the expected return time in the plan, the production of a mini album requires a lot of work.

Style and theme setting, song selection, lyrics, recording, shooting MV and pictorials, recording albums, pre-promotion and other complicated matters take a lot of time, and Chi Jingyuan's own work and schedule are also very busy. At least recently, he can't put all his energy on it.

So it's better to prepare for the album as early as possible.

After the title song is finished, the progress can be accelerated. After recording the demo, let Lee Soo-man listen to it and discuss and confirm it in the meeting. If there is no problem, wait until Kim Taeyeon's lyrics are finished, and then improve the arrangement and start recording.

Speaking of which, Chi Jingyuan originally wanted to try some songs about the "Infinite Challenge Music Festival" today. Unexpectedly, there was no progress in the original purpose, but he unexpectedly got half of Kim Taeyeon's title song done, which can be regarded as an unexpected surprise.

After all, there is no rush for the songs for the music festival now, and the variety show itself does not have very high requirements for the quality of songs, and the style does not matter, and the arrangement does not require such perfection.

In order to participate in this Infinite Challenge, Chi Jingyuan also watched the music festival in previous years. Although many songs in it are exquisite, to be honest, there are actually quite a few mediocre ones. After all, the songs that the guests are required to make in a short time do not have time to be carefully crafted for you.

The fact that it can occupy the top of the list and cause such a big response is more due to the popularity of the program itself and the popularity of the guests.

In comparison, for Chi Jingyuan, the importance of the music festival songs is far less than that of Kim Taeyeon's solo title song. After all, this is the first time he has tried to create a title song for someone other than EXO and served as a producer.

Moreover, as a close relative, Kim Taeyeon's optimism and trust in him also touched Ji Jingyuan. As a close friend and producer, he naturally wanted to hand in a satisfactory answer sheet and try his best to make this sister's first solo performance after eight years of debut a big success.

After the breakthrough, Ji Jingyuan focused on completing the song and arranging the music. As for the song festival, we will see what will happen when they record the next group.

The style has not been determined yet.

…

Today is June 30th. At this moment, all members of EXO are in the lounge backstage of SM town COEX Center. A press conference about EXO's second regular album "EXO-L" will be held in the auditorium in the front field.

EXO's second regular album includes all eight songs from the four single albums "E", "X", "O", and "L" that have been released before, and also adds two new tracks, the lyrical "if you" and the rhythmic dance music "EXODUS".

A total of ten songs make up this regular second album "EXO-L", which has been defined as a god album by many people in the industry, professional musicians, fans and passers-by before it was released.

The song configuration of this album is extremely luxurious, and the four single albums have four title songs.

The first "call me baby" swept January and exploded in popularity. Many members' looks are still talked about by fans to this day. In addition to the poisonous melody, this song really makes the popularity, as well as the most important handsomeness and fashion for idols, to the extreme.

"Spring Day" is unexpectedly strong after the counterattack. After a few months, it is still at the top of the music chart. So far, the number of independent listeners per day is much higher than those boy groups that have just returned recently, which has greatly improved EXO's reputation as a boy group in the hearts of the public.

"Love Me Right" is slightly less popular than the other main songs, but the new and strong dance music and pleasing choreography, the youthful and enthusiastic stage styling and style, as well as the eye-catching American college style and football concept, are still a popular song above the standard.

"Orientation Sniper", which is also included in the album, completely overshadows the main song in terms of popularity and performance as a non-main song. It is very popular among the audience groups mainly composed of students and young people. The sound source performance is unexpectedly good, and it has also created the hot word "Orientation Sniper" which is very popular among young couples today.

Not to mention "Boy with Luv" this month, which has exploded in popularity and popularity after the previous few times. It has almost broken all the records of boy groups in one day after its release, and it has also suppressed the equally outstanding "Bang Bang Bang" on the sound source chart.

It also broke through and entered the US B singles hot 100, creating the best performance of the Peninsula idol group. Various influences have gradually transcended the song itself, and made the onlookers and even Big Bang's own fans have a sense of victory and defeat in this battle between the two top boy groups.

Now, among the people of Peninsula and even many people who like Kpop in Asia, how many of them can't hum a few words of "oh mymymy" when they hear the music?

Other songs, including "Golden Country" and "Butterfly", are also well-made and popular. They all have good sound source performances and live performances. These songs are more than enough to be the main songs of some groups with poorer song resources.

The two newly added songs, "If You" is a lyrical song that Chi Jingyuan likes very much. It sounds very emotional under the interpretation of the four main singers.

"EXODUS" competed with "Call Me Baby" for the main song of the first "E" album at that time.

More than half of the ten songs in the whole album are standard-level songs. The other songs are not inferior to the main songs, but also have their own characteristics. The music quality of this album makes other boy bands envious and jealous. You know, in Kpop idol groups, the most important resource of all the resources for each comeback is the song resources.

It's not just the small groups. Even within SM, people like SJ, Shinee, and even Girls' Generation would be very jealous after seeing this. I don't know what they discussed privately.

If there is a disadvantage, it should be that in order to complete the four-month comeback mode of releasing songs every month, the style of the songs in the entire album is not unified, and it can be said that there is a bit of a mixture.

This may have some impact on some listeners, but most fans and passers-by don't care about these things. Most people only care about whether the songs are good.

Now there is still one day before the official release and release of the second album, but the previous four single albums have laid enough groundwork. EXO's current popularity and fans' expectations for their albums are unparalleled. There is no need to do too much in terms of publicity. This time the company puts more energy on promoting sales.

After all, although the quality of the album is amazing, most of the songs in it have been released, and the freshness is much lower in comparison.

Chi Jingyuan was sitting in the corner of the lounge at this time. He took out an album from the pile of albums on the table in front of him and looked at it in his hand.

Although the second album has not been officially released, the insiders have already received it. There will be many activities such as raffles and autograph sessions to promote sales in the next few days. They just took the time to sign their names on the album and give it to fans as a gift.

This time, EXO's second album changed the way of the previous comebacks. In addition to the same team cover as before, it launched the "single cover" of all members for the first time.

The so-called "single cover" is to use the member's own individual photo as the cover printed on the physical album, which is the "single cover version".

This time, the album cover of "EXO-L" is based on gold and silver. It has a Chinese version and a Korean version. The Chinese version has a silver cover and the Korean version has a gold cover. There are a total of 20 different versions of the album.

According to the development law of most idol groups in the peninsula, as the group becomes more and more popular, the number of members' fans will also increase. Compared with the entire group, many fans are more willing to spend money for the idol they support.

A long time ago, fans of EXO, or fans of the more popular members, have been calling on SM to release a single cover version of the album, but SM has never released a single cover before. This time, it finally opened the album cover in accordance with the fans' wishes. When the pre-sale channel was opened a few days ago, many fans cheered and jumped for joy. Some more generous fans even bought dozens of single cover albums of their favorite members. The enthusiasm simply scared the people of SM.

Although opening a single cover will promote the sales of the album to a certain extent, it is not all good to be honest. The first thing that is affected is that the popularity gap within the team has become more obvious.

EXO is not a boy group with relatively average popularity. The popularity and heat can be as high as the top of the team, such as Ji Jingyuan, and there are also popular lines composed of high-popularity members such as Wu Shixun and Park Chanyeol.

But at the same time, there are also members with low popularity and low popularity, and they are very different from the top members.

Before, although everyone had different personal resources, the difference was not that big. Popularity is a more abstract thing. Even if the difference is huge, it cannot be seen without looking for some relevant data.

However, once this single-cover album is released, who sells more and who sells less will become particularly clear, intuitive, and cruel.

From the opening of pre-sales to now, except for the group cover, which still accounts for the majority, the sales gap between the first and the following single covers is several times or even dozens of times. This is because the company has specially set up "single cover but not single card", that is, the cover is personal, but the small card is followed. Otherwise, the gap is estimated to be even greater.

Although on the surface many members have become accustomed to the popularity, such a huge gap will inevitably make these less popular members feel anxious and uncomfortable.

But there is no way, the competition in the Peninsula music industry is so fierce. In addition to the competition with the outside world, the same is true within the group.

In the past two days, after the pre-sale data came out, Chi Jingyuan faintly felt that the atmosphere in the team had changed. Although no one would take the initiative to show off or be jealous, sometimes the words and eyes would still become subtle. stand up.

When he thought of this, he felt helpless and at the same time couldn't help but admire Senior Yoona.

Girls’ Generation is also a group with a huge gap in popularity between the top and bottom.

During the years when YoonA was most popular, she was not only one of the most popular in the team, but also had a huge gap with the other top backs. At the same time, she also had various film and television resources, and Ji Kyung-won, who had good resources, was Somewhat envious.

In those two years, every time she was interviewed and participated in programs, when talking about topics and issues related to her popularity, she was always very humble and embarrassed. The most popular words she always kept on her lips were:

‘Popularity has its seasons’.

Gee, this emotional intelligence.

Although those back sisters will not increase their popularity because of this, at least they will feel better.

Chi Jingyuan will now start to learn from senior YoonA.

After dispelling some complicated thoughts in his heart, Chi Jingyuan shook his head and looked at his single album in his hand.

On the cover, he is wearing a pure white plain shirt, with calm eyes and a calm expression. Facing the camera, he tilts his head slightly to the left. The overall black and white color scheme and the silver coating of the album make the entire cover photo very natural and handsome. It’s very textured and classy, ​​and it looks and feels very good.

At the bottom of the cover are the characters 'EXO-L' written in a matchstick-like font, and the back is filled with a large, very designed EXO logo, one after the other to form this official cover. The cover of the second album.

The single cover of Chi Jingyuan's Chinese and Korean versions is the best-selling among all the pre-sale versions, except for the group cover.

He held his single album and looked at it for a while. Looking at Chi Jingyuan, he remembered something. He glanced around, and then picked out a few albums from the pile of albums in front of him. After looking at it, he took out four group albums and stood up from the stool.

"Sign your name for me."

He placed several albums in his hand in front of Wu Shixun and gestured with his fingers.

"oh."

Wu Shixun, who was already signing his album, nodded, picked up the oil-based pen and signed the album without asking.

"Sign it smaller, there are others." Seeing Wu Shixun carelessly drawing a long black line on the cover, Chi Jingyuan immediately reminded him.

"Does everyone sign autographs? What do you want to do?" Wu Shixun asked casually after signing all the albums.

"Giving it away."

Chi Jingyuan responded with a roar and picked up the album, patted him on the shoulder and walked to the next member's seat. After walking around and getting all the other members' signatures, he returned to his seat and spoke again. I took two of my own envelopes and started to sign my name.

Then he found a bag and wrapped all the albums. When he was stuffing all the albums into the bag, he stopped. After thinking about it for two seconds, he took out a piece of note paper from the side and started writing with an oil-based pen. stand up:

"TO. Seo-yeon

Everything will be fine. I wish you find the light in your heart, or try to be the light to illuminate others, Fighting! (come on)"

When it came time to write the signature, Chi Jingyuan had just written a ‘Y’, but he quickly crossed out the letter and added his own name ‘Chi Jingyuan’.

After putting the TO signature on the album and wrapping it, everything was settled. Chi Jingyuan took a long breath, put the package next to him, and started to sign other albums.

If the number of autographs is small, it is quite enjoyable. It gives me a sense of accomplishment that I have become a star and is being sought after by others.

But if you sign too many albums, like this table full of albums, it will be a torture.

…

"We all know that as of noon, the number of pre-sales for EXO's regular second album "EXO-L" has reached nearly 800,000. Regarding this number, Yuan, what do you think?"

Because of EXO's current popularity, a lot of people took note of this album launch. After the members introduced the content of this official album, the style of the songs, and some of their experiences and difficulties in preparing the album, It was time for questions, and there were many people in the audience asking various questions about this album to the Nine Lives members on the stage.

"I was actually very surprised when I saw it."

The person who was asked, Chi Jingyuan, sat a little to the left in the middle, held a microphone and answered with a smile on the camera, with a flattered expression on his face: "Actually, I, including the members, never thought that I could achieve this. Numbers, after all, we have released several singles before, and the sound sources of the songs have been released... I really appreciate the fans’ support for XO. We will work harder to become a better EXO, Kang Sang "Mida."

.

Chi Jingyuan said it very sincerely, and he was indeed very surprised by the sales volume.

Since the pre-sale channel was opened a few days ago, in just over three days, the pre-sale figures for all versions combined have been close to 800,000. There are still nearly ten hours until the official release, and there will definitely be more sales by then. Go up a little.

This number also shocked countless people in the circle. You have to know that this is a regular album, and most of the songs in it have been released long ago.

"So what are your expectations for the sales this time?"

"Well, no expectations, it's already great."

Chi Jingyuan smiled and waved his hand, not craving for more.

In fact, when their members saw this pre-sale number and discussed it privately, they really hoped that the sales of this single album would exceed one million.

Although EXO has achieved this achievement in the past two years, it was achieved through the accumulation of the first and the subsequent. Although it is also a million, the gold content will appear a little weak.

They have never achieved a single album of one million, and the rest of the music industry can't even think about it. Now only EXO can slightly look forward to achieving this achievement.

"Among the ten songs in this album, which one do the members like the most?"

"'Boy with Luv', because it's very popular, haha..."

"I like 'Call Me Baby', I especially love the styling in it."

"..."

"What about Yuan?"

"As for me, I like them all, haha... If I have to choose one, I'll choose 'If You' which has not been released yet, I really like the melody, atmosphere and feeling of this song."

"Hahaha, then I'll choose 'EXODUS', everyone must remember to listen to it tonight."

"Please look forward to EXO's album to be released tonight, 'EXO-L', Kang Sang Mi Da!"

...

At 12 o'clock in the evening, SM released all the ten songs of EXO's second regular album on time, including several remix versions of them. All the songs that had previously dropped in rank or dropped out of the charts were also returned to the charts. Looking from top to bottom on most of the charts, the singer column with all 'EXO' is particularly eye-catching.