Chapter 705 Really

"Mercedes?"

Chi Jingyuan's eyes lit up when he heard this unexpected good news. He looked at his agent with interest and asked, "When did this happen? Why haven't I heard about it before? Which model? It won't be an entry-level one, right?"

Although Chi Jingyuan now drives several cars, he feels that he is more comfortable with several Mercedes cars, and this kind of high-end brand endorsement is also a top endorsement in the peninsula.

At present, the level of the entire EXO team in endorsements and advertisements has obviously surpassed the level of idols in the music industry. If some overseas big brands and even first-line brands in the peninsula want to find idols to endorse and shoot advertisements, basically the first choice is EXO. Unless it is not suitable, they will consider other idols, or simply not look for idols and other artists such as actors.

And the most special person in the entire EXO team is Chi Jingyuan himself. His personal image and ability to bring goods have always been outstanding. Since his debut, he has been very popular with manufacturers and brands in this regard. In this regard, he has opened up a gap with the members.

"In fact, we have already had contact before, but the other party's intention was not clear before and it has not been finalized, so the company did not say much... During the time you went to Italy a few days ago, the communication progressed greatly, and after two rounds of negotiations, it was almost done."

"Also, what I said just now is not accurate..." Li Chenghuan thought of something and added: "Mercedes's this time is not like GUCCI's full-line 'spokesperson' for a large region. Although it is a brand and model endorsement, it is actually officially called a brand ambassador, because they don't have the title of 'regional spokesperson', at least not yet..."

"As for the model..." Li Chenghuan smiled and kept it a secret. Before Chi Jingyuan frowned, he immediately said very quickly: "Although the advertising is not limited to a single model, Jingyuan, your main cooperation brand is Mercedes-AMG, a high-performance luxury brand under Mercedes-Benz."

"AMG?" Chi Jingyuan smiled when he heard it: "How do they know I like this brand?"

The first car he drove after getting his driver's license was the SLS AMG, he really likes this car model. If it wasn't for the accidental exposure of the car model, he might not have changed to another car later.

"Hehe..." Seeing Chi Jingyuan's expression, Li Chenghuan also smiled, and seemed very satisfied with the recent work results.

After drinking a sip of water, he nodded and said: "But the other party of this cooperation still attaches great importance to advertising and publicity. After discussion, it was decided to mainly use the form of advertising songs. After the meeting, the company still decided to let you do it yourself... And it just so happens that you haven't thought about what type of song to use for your subway song? After considering it, the company thought that if the song is suitable, it would be better to release this advertising song as a subway song directly..."

SM's 'subway station' project is one of the most important projects of SM in the music industry this year. The plan to launch an original song every week is grand, and various cooperation inside and outside the company is also very interesting. The company's artists are also very enthusiastic about it and have been queuing up to join from the beginning.

Ji Jingyuan didn't need to queue up at all, because he was one of the artists who would join SM's "Subway Station" project before it was even launched.

Because no matter how good the project is, it still needs some popular artists to lead it...

This subway project started with the release of the first song on February 3rd at the beginning of the year. Now in July, more than 20 songs have been officially released, and the quality of the entire project can basically be seen...

If we only look at the results and the popularity of the songs, this large-scale project is not very successful, because from February to now, among so many songs, the only one that can be called a hit song and has a high degree of popularity is the first song that started the project, Kim Taeyeon's "Rain". Apart from this song, there are no other popular songs...

... Oh, that's not right, there is also Yoona's "Spring on the Stone Wall Road in Deoksugung Palace", which Ji Jingyuan played on repeat for a whole day.

Apart from these two songs, many other songs received mediocre responses. Even the subway songs released by some members of EXO did not perform well. In the large-scale cooperation, there was even a lot of confusion in the sound source fog. For example, Yoon Mi-rae, Kim Bum-soo, and Cha Ji-yeon, who originally had good individual sound source performance, were all drowned in the subway project...

The main reason is that in order to make more attempts in music, the styles of many songs are not popular but very niche. In addition, because the preparation time for one song a week is too short, it is difficult to carefully polish and make high-quality original songs. There are also some theme songs, public welfare songs, and advertising songs, which makes some songs eye-catching, and the quality of some songs is mixed.

But from another perspective, this project is very successful. It is a redistribution of resources for all artists in the company, allowing many artists who usually don’t release songs at all - such as Yoona senior - to stand out and make good music for everyone to listen to without using performance as a criterion. For many fans, they are already very happy.

They have also made more explorations in music, releasing a new song every week to bring listeners a great sense of freshness and unprecedented experience. In the process, they have attracted more fans by using more musical styles.

The most important thing, and also the biggest highlight of the subway project, is that in so many songs, SM artists have collaborated with almost half of the people in the music industry.

The main feature of subway songs is cooperation. Except for Taeyeon's first song, most of the other songs are collaborations, and they are still collaborations with people outside the company, including but not limited to solo singers, overseas producers and performers, musicians, idols and even variety show stars. It's very exciting for fans and listeners of the entire Kpop.

The popularity of idols drives the project, the project drives the musicians, and the musicians feed back the quality of idol music, deepening the connection and network, forming a virtuous circle.

Of course, from the perspective of SM, although they say that they don't use performance as a standard&...but in their hearts they definitely hope that the songs will be popular and have better performance.

After Taeyeon, SM's most important thing is Chi Jingyuan's subway song.

His subway song has been in the plan since the beginning, but it has not been put on the agenda until now... Although he is actually looking forward to the cooperation of his subway song, he has not yet chosen his own solo songs and cannot find a suitable song, let alone a subway song. He also doesn't like the few songs provided by the company, so he has been delaying it until now...

I originally thought that I could be lazy and not do it after delaying it for another two months, but I didn't expect it to be put together with the advertising song.

"What theme does the advertising song require?"

Chi Jingyuan did not refuse this task that suddenly fell on him and took it directly, looking at Li Chenghuan with some expectation.

"There are no strict theme requirements... but after all, it is mainly aimed at the young market. The advertising company and the brand side suggested that it would be best to use 'love' and 'throbbing' as the theme, and to connect the emotions and love for lovers, the feeling of wanting to be with each other to the car..."

"Why does it sound so tacky?"

Chi Jingyuan=seemed not to like this theme very much, but did not refute it, but continued to ask: "What about the type of song? Dance music or lyrical music is fine?"

"That's not mentioned, you decide." Li Chenghuan shrugged: "But the advertising company and the brand side will check the quality of the song at that time. For publicity considerations, it's better to be more popular."

"Well, I know." Chi Jingyuan nodded to indicate that he would take note, raised his eyes and thought about it, as if thinking about whether there is a suitable song in his music library.

"How is it? Are you stressed?" Seeing him like this, Li Chenghuan asked with concern: "Don't be too anxious. The agreed release date for the advertising promotion and the song is October. It's still in time to start production in September."

"If it's a pop dance song of the love type, there's no problem. There are a lot of stocks of this popular style. I have a more suitable one... I'll take a look later, and I may need to rewrite the lyrics."

Chi Jingyuan's expression looks more relaxed.

He had a lot of unfinished songs of this style before, and interest is the best inspiration. He is very interested in this song as an advertising song and subway song, so it shouldn't be difficult to write it now.

After a pause, he asked curiously, "Does this song need collaboration?"

"Of course, you are the boss."

Li Chenghuan waved his hand casually, not really caring about it: "You are the only spokesperson, but the advertising company has no restrictions on whether to collaborate on songs. Although the advertising company will not pay advertising fees even if it collaborates with other artists... But since it is still a subway song, most of them will collaborate according to previous habits... If it doesn't work, make two versions, one for the advertisement and one for the subway song."

Well... let's talk about this later. "Looking at Lee Seung-hwan who looked indifferent, Chi Jingyuan nodded and stopped asking.

"Then there are some other important schedules recently..."

…………

Chi Jingyuan talked a lot with Lee Seung-hwan in the office. Because EXO's comeback period has ended, although he has been away for more than ten days, he has not accumulated too many schedules. In addition to a few endorsements, there are also preparations for concerts and Smtown. Compared with before, it seems a bit free.

The original arrangement of the company was for him to go back and sleep for an afternoon and then come back in the evening to practice with the group, but the news of Mercedes-Benz's "advertising subway song" suddenly made Chi Jingyuan interested. After leaving Lee Seung-hwan's office, he was too lazy to go back and went directly to his own In the music room.

"Young people's love, throbbing..."

He turned on the computer, silently reciting the requirements of the advertising company, and browsed through his music library.

The concept of "love" is used in Kpop, or in most types of songs. Even if the song may not be very suitable, the lyrics should be written in that direction.

But because there are too many, it is difficult to stand out.

Soon, Chi Jingyuan found the song he remembered before. This is a song he wrote last year, and there is still no lyrics.

He clicked on the play button and put on the headphones to listen.

This song was inspired by the impressive Tropical House style when he heard Kygo's classic work "Firestone" before.

Tropical house is a style of electronic dance music with a relatively slow rhythm, a lazy and relaxing style. Chi Jingyuan found it very interesting after hearing it, and then he wrote a song casually when he was inspired, and tried it based on Kpop pop music. Added some tropical house elements.

He was quite satisfied with the final product. If it hadn't been too suitable for the dark style of EXO's third album, he would have used it as a candidate for the title song when he was preparing the album.

"…………"

After listening to it twice, Chi Jingyuan decided to use this song. Although there were no lyrics yet, the melody was very interesting, and the lazy and light feeling sounded inexplicably suitable for a car advertisement.

Chi Jingyuan was very decisive in this aspect. Once he felt it was suitable, he started trying to write lyrics.

Writing lyrics is relatively simple for him, and when inspiration comes, he is very efficient.

According to the brand's request, he directly put the car into the lover's position and began to write their story for a throbbing and elegant love.

"I really, really, really, really like you..."

He wrote the lyrics for the chorus directly, but just as he finished it, Chi Jingyuan frowned again.

No, 'qingjia' is not very suitable for repetition. It sounds a bit awkward in succession, and it also has some earthy flavor...

However, this kind of thing is simple. According to the simplest logic and method of writing lyrics in Kpop, if you encounter this situation, just translate it into English according to the original meaning.

Change it to 'really' and it will become much smoother all of a sudden.

After singing silently, Chi Jingyuan's brows relaxed instantly.

The experience gained by our predecessors is really useful, and it is indeed a good method!

More than an hour later, looking at the freshly released first version of the lyrics, Chi Jingyuan nodded with satisfaction. After thinking for two seconds, he directly wrote "really" in the place of the song title.

The lyrics are roughly in this style. After refining the lyrics and perfecting the arrangement, you can send it to the advertising agency for review. If you think it is acceptable, it will be finalized...

However, Chi Jingyuan is quite confident in his aesthetic taste in music, and he thinks there shouldn't be too many problems.

The next step is whether to collaborate. This song is a dance song. Although he can dance it alone with a group of backup dancers, it always feels like a waste.

And if it’s a subway song, collaboration is the mainstream... For such a relaxing song, it’s good to find friends to collaborate and play together.

If they want to cooperate, Chi Jingyuan really hasn't decided who to look for at the moment.

Wu Shixun is not bad. Although his singing skills are poor and his voice is electric, Chi Jingyuan thinks he is quite suitable for this style.

The style of this song tends to be lazy and relaxed, and it's actually okay for both men and women to sing "Friends". Kim Taeyeon has also proposed to collaborate on a song with him before.

At the same time, the mainstream of subway music collaborates with artists from other companies. If they are outside the company...

Several names came to mind, and Chi Jingyuan felt a little headache for a while. This song does not require so many people, and some friends feel that this style is not suitable.

You can't find Zhou Ziyu...

…………

"really, really..."

After a busy afternoon in the music room, Chi Jingyuan, who had made great achievements and was in a good mood, hummed a song and headed to EXO's practice room, returning to the place he was most familiar with after being away for nearly half a month.

I have just thought about a lot of candidates for cooperation, and I haven't decided on the others yet, but Chi Jingyuan still prefers to bring Wu Shixun with him, and he also wants to save the transparent person and roommate in this group who can't sing a single word of a song.

He is more suitable for this style, and as one of the members with the best relationship within the team, it is appropriate to help him.

Thinking in his mind, Chi Jingyuan quickly walked to the door of EXO's practice room. As soon as he stood here, before he could open the door, the door was opened from the inside by coincidence.

In Chi Jingyuan's field of vision, Wu Shixun was holding his clothes and was about to go out. As soon as he opened the door, he saw Chi Jingyuan at the door, and his whole body froze for a moment.

Then he reacted quickly and looked at Chi Jingyuan up and down with scrutinizing eyes. Then his expression became interesting and asked in a weird and curious tone:

"Have you finished your plastic surgery?"