txolops Chapter 433 Golden Melody Awards
Chapter 433 Golden Melody Awards
The game's progress has temporarily come to a halt, but on the music side, a major event is quietly approaching.
Lu Ran had no concept of music awards. He just wrote songs and released songs, and he never thought about what awards he could win.
It's not that he doesn't want to take it, it's that he feels it's pointless to think about it. The judges aren't his relatives, they won't give it to him just because he wants it.
But people in the music industry don't think that way.
Every year in June or July, the nominees for the Golden Melody Awards are the most anticipated event in the entire industry.
It's more important than who released a new song, who held a concert, or who had a falling out with whom.
The Golden Melody Awards are the most prestigious awards in the Chinese music industry, bar none.
This award has been held since the 1980s, and it has been more than 30 years now.
In the beginning, the Golden Melody Awards only had a few awards: Best Male Singer, Best Female Singer, Best Album, and Best New Artist, totaling less than ten.
There were only about a dozen judges, all of whom were veteran musicians in the industry. They would listen to songs behind closed doors for a few days, cast their votes, and that was it.
Later, as China's music market grew larger and more people entered the industry, the Golden Melody Awards expanded in scale as well.
The number of awards has increased from a dozen to over thirty, with new awards including Best Lyricist, Best Composer, Best Arranger, Best Album Producer, Best Single Producer, Best Band, Best Vocal Group, Best Original Soundtrack, Best Music Video, and Best Book Design. Basically, all the music-related awards you can think of are included.
The number of judges has also increased from a dozen to over a hundred, including music producers, songwriters, music critics, record company executives, and music academy professors—all well-known figures in the industry.
The selection process is also standardized, with three rounds of voting: preliminary selection, secondary selection, and final selection. Each round is anonymous, and the total score is tallied at the end, with the highest score winning the award.
All this complexity is for one thing: fairness.
The Golden Melody Awards have survived for over thirty years and are becoming increasingly influential, all thanks to these two words.
Unlike some award ceremonies where the winner is determined by the number of fans or the amount of money donated, this one is different.
The judges of the Golden Melody Awards do not look at the number of fans, sales figures, or even how popular the singer is.
They would listen to the songs, then rate them, and the one with the highest score would win.
Therefore, in the music industry of China, winning a Golden Melody Award is more convincing than holding ten concerts.
Concerts prove you're popular, Golden Melody Awards prove you're capable.
Popularity doesn't necessarily equate to success, and success doesn't necessarily equate to popularity, but those who are both popular and successful are like Lu Ran and Shen Yuege.
In previous years, the organizers of the Golden Melody Awards would have been busy well in advance at this time.
Once the shortlist was announced, we called and emailed each nominee to confirm their attendance at the awards ceremony.
Those who can come should be seated, and those who cannot should be politely told, "We look forward to your next visit."
But this year, the organizers encountered a major headache.
Nearly half of the selected songs are related to Lu Ran.
This is not an exaggeration; it's solid data. Of the five songs nominated for Best Song of the Year, three were written by Lu Ran.
The remaining two songs are a ballad by a veteran singer and a rock song by a band.
Three to two, with Lu Ran accounting for the majority.
Of the five nominees for Best Lyricist, Lu Ran secured two spots.
During the preliminary selection, the judges discovered that Lu Ran's two poems received ridiculously high votes, making it impossible to remove him from the competition, as the difference between his and other lyricists' works was too obvious.
In the end, we had no choice but to let him take up two spots, since the rules didn't say that a person couldn't have multiple works shortlisted at the same time.
The Best Composer award is even more outrageous.
Lu Ran had three songs shortlisted.
When the judges saw the results, someone joked that they should just rename the Best Composer Award to the Lu Ran Award.
Lu Ran was nominated for Best Album Producer for his album by Shen Yuege.
All the songs on this album were written by Lu Ran, and he oversaw the entire production process, participating in every step from arrangement to recording to mixing.
Although Shen Yuege was credited as a co-producer, people in the industry know that this album was entirely Lu Ran's work.
Lu Ran has been nominated again for Best Single Producer.
The Best Male Singer award has nothing to do with Lu Ran, because he has never released a solo album.
He has only released singles, and even then, under the pseudonym "Tomorrow." He has never released a proper solo album.
The organizing committee couldn't find any works to nominate him.
The Best Female Singer award is different.
Shen Yuege was nominated with a strong showing thanks to her album last year, and she has the highest odds, making her the biggest favorite.
Music critics praised Shen Yuege for demonstrating her most mature vocal control since her debut in this album, singing every word perfectly, without adding or subtracting a single word.
Liu Siqi is also nominated for Best Female Singer.
At the beginning of last year, Lu Ran wrote quite a few songs for Liu Siqi. Although he wrote fewer in the second half of the year, the overall quality was not low.
There's also the Best Newcomer Award, which Xu Manxue was nominated for with the two songs Lu Ran wrote for her.
This one has a relatively low chance of winning. Xu Manxue's voice isn't very good. Although Lu Ran's two songs are alright, they're not up to the level of the songs he wrote for Shen Yuege and Liu Siqi.
However, there aren't many newcomers this year.
Lu Ran also had songs on the list for Best Band, Best Vocal Group, and Best Original Film Soundtrack, but not as spectacularly as the previous ones.
But Lu Ran also won the Best Music Video award.
The music video for Shen Yuege's song "A Thousand Songs" was directed by Shen Yuege's father, Shen Zhiwei, who is also Lu Ran's father-in-law.
The entire music video was shot like a short film, with cinematic visuals, lighting, and composition.
This music video was nominated for Best Music Video, and Lu Ran was responsible for the lyrics, music, and production of the song.
In the organizer's office, the staff responsible for compiling the nominations printed out the final list, a thick stack of A4 paper.
Director Zheng Jianguo put on his reading glasses and flipped through the book from beginning to end. When he got to the third page, he frowned. When he got to the fifth page, he took off his glasses, leaned back in his chair, and stared at the ceiling for a long time.
The assistant beside him asked cautiously, "Director Zheng, what's wrong?"
Zheng Jianguo slammed the list on the table: "Look at it yourself."
The assistant picked it up and looked at it, then fell silent.
"If this were a normal awards ceremony, Lu Ran would have won Best Song of the Year, Best Lyricist, Best Composer, Best Album Producer, and Best Single Producer all by himself. Add to that Shen Yuege's Best Female Singer and Xu Manxue's Best Newcomer, and the entire competition would be his. Is he expecting the people from TuTu Technology to line up here to accept the awards?"
The assistant paused for a moment, then said, "Director Zheng, isn't this great? It shows that our Golden Melody Awards are fair. Whoever is good wins, regardless of whether it's the same person or not."
Zheng Jianguo glared at him: "You make it sound so easy. If the awards ceremony turns into the Rabbit Technology annual meeting, what will those record companies think? They've invested so much money and promoted so many people, and in the end, all the awards go to one company. Will they even register next year?"
The assistant shrank back, not daring to speak.
Actually, he really wanted to complain that Shen Yuege, Liu Siqi, and others in this group were not actually from Tutu Technology.
But it would be very unwise to bring this up at this time; it would be better to remain silent.
However, what Zheng Jianguo said was true.
The Golden Melody Awards have achieved their current status because of their fairness, but fairness alone is not enough.
We also need to make the entire industry feel that this award is worth fighting for.
If the same person or company dominates the award list every year, and others can't win no matter how hard they try, they'll gradually lose interest in competing.
If you don't want to compete, then don't register. If you don't register, then the Golden Melody Awards have no meaning.
This is not a problem unique to the Golden Melody Awards; awards across all industries face this dilemma.
But Zheng Jianguo also knew that he couldn't withhold Lu Ran's award just because Lu Ran had won so many.
The Golden Melody Awards are known for their fairness; if they fail to award prizes to those who deserve them, they are ruining their own reputation.
He thought for a moment, then picked up the phone and dialed a number.
The phone rang three times before the other party answered.
"Hello, who is this?" It was Lu Ran's voice, with some background noise, as if he were outside.
"Hello, Professor Lu, I am Zheng Jianguo from the Golden Melody Awards Organizing Committee."
Lu Ran was taken aback. He knew what the Golden Melody Awards were, of course, but he never imagined someone would call him from there. "Director Zheng, hello. What can I do for you?"
Zheng Jianguo considered his words carefully on the other end of the phone.
He didn't want Lu Ran to think that the organizing committee was pulling strings behind the scenes, nor did he want him to feel unwelcome.
After thinking for a while, he said something that was reasonably appropriate: "Mr. Lu, you must have already seen the list of nominees for this year's Golden Melody Awards, right? Our organizing committee would like to formally invite you to attend the awards ceremony. It will be on the 18th of next month at the Shanghai Grand Theatre. Is that convenient for you?"
Lu Ran did not answer immediately.
He thought about it for a moment. Tan Yu's wedding is on the 18th of next month?
No, Tan Yu's wedding is on the 18th of this month.
He got them mixed up.
He opened his phone's calendar and glanced at it. Tan Yu's wedding was on the 18th of this month, and the Golden Melody Awards ceremony was on the 18th of next month.
The times don't conflict, so we can go to both.
"That's convenient. I'll go."
Zheng Jianguo breathed a sigh of relief, but he didn't hang up because there was still one more thing. "Professor Lu, there's something else I'd like to discuss with you."
"Please speak."
"This year's nomination list includes many works related to you. Our organizing committee's intention is to follow the normal selection process and let whoever is right win. However, we would like to make some adjustments to the awards ceremony format, spreading out your nominated awards so they are not presented consecutively at the same time. This way, the audience won't feel it's too... concentrated."
Lu Ran understood.
The organizers were worried that it would be too embarrassing for him to go up and accept the award several times by himself.
He didn't care about those things, but he could understand the organizers' difficulties.
"Okay. You can arrange it however you want. I have no objection."
Zheng Jianguo was completely relieved.
He confirmed the number of attendees and seating arrangements with Lu Ran again, and then politely hung up the phone.
Lu Ran put down his phone and leaned back in his office chair.
Golden Melody Awards.
He had seen it on TV many times in his previous life, and each time he would change the channel halfway through.
It's not that I'm not interested, it's that I don't know those people.
He listens to songs based on the songs themselves, not on the singers. Who sings them is unimportant to him, as long as they sound good.
It's different now.
He's not just a listener; he's a songwriter.
Moreover, the songs he wrote were nominated for the Golden Melody Awards, and not just one.
It's a strange feeling.
It's like someone who's always been watching a play from the audience is suddenly pulled onto the stage, with lights shining on his face and everyone below staring at him.
He thought for a moment, then picked up his phone and sent Shen Yuege a message: "Yuege, have you received an invitation to the Golden Melody Awards?"
Shen Yuege replied instantly: "Received it. You received it too?"
"Yes. The 18th of next month, at the Shanghai Grand Theatre."
"I know. The organizers called me and said they would try their best to seat us together."
Lu Ran looked at the message and a smile crept onto his face.
The organizers are quite good at handling people.
"Then what will you wear?" Shen Yuege asked again.
"A suit, please. I can't exactly wear a windbreaker."
"You've finally figured it out."
"What do you mean by 'finally figured it out'? It's not like I don't wear suits all the time."
When was the last time you wore a suit?
Lu Ran thought for a moment, but couldn't remember.
It seems like I haven't worn this since I started making games. I wear a windbreaker and work pants every day. They're comfortable, but I don't really look like someone going to receive an award.
"Pick one for me. I'm afraid you won't like what I pick out myself."
Shen Yuege sent a "That's more like it" emoji, then said, "Okay. I'll go shopping with you this weekend."
Lu Ran put down his phone and stared at the ceiling.
Next month, on the 18th, at the Shanghai Grand Theatre.
Golden Melody Awards ceremony.
He had to go on stage to accept awards in front of a national audience, and more than once.
He needs to prepare his acceptance speech in advance, so he won't be at a loss for words when he goes up on stage.
The thought that popped into his head was, "Thank you to my wife Shen Yuege, thank you to the Golden Melody Awards organizing committee, and thank you to all my fans who support me."
After speaking, he bowed and stepped off the stage.
Simple, appropriate, and concise.
He wrote down this sentiment in his memo, read it over, thought it was alright, and saved it.
Then he thought, what if he wins several awards?
You can't go up five times and say the same thing every time. The audience will think you're a broken record.
He thought for a moment and then wrote four different sentences, each one short, only twenty or thirty characters long, with similar meanings but different wording.
Even if he goes up five times and says something different each time, the audience won't think he's reciting a script.
After he finished writing it, he read it again and felt it was enough.
Anyway, at the awards ceremony, the audience cares more about who wins the award and not what the winners say.
As long as you don't embarrass yourself, no one will care whether you say "thank you to my wife" or "thank you to my cat".
He closed the memo app, turned on his computer, and continued working.
He can put the Golden Melody Awards aside for now; he has a lot of other things to deal with.
...