2007 passed quietly, in this year, the Korean entertainment industry can be called extraordinarily uneven, the originally very lively environment has become more exciting, new debuts, new companies are established, new songs are relaxed, new movies are released, and new variety show ratings are obtained.

But among all these wonderful things, Lee Jun-hee and his NRG agency are undoubtedly the biggest winners, producing two blockbuster films, "The Girl We Chased in Those Years" broke the record for moviegoers in the history of Korean cinema, and the other "To Our Dying Youth" was released for a month, still ranking first in the daily moviegoers.

In terms of music, Moon Chengxun's SOLO album is a big hit, and it has a certain popularity in the United States, and the girl group Princess swept the music industry as soon as it debuted, and now it has gained a foothold in the United States, and a song "Girlfriend" made them directly top the American pop music charts, and they are only one trophy away from the throne of the first girl group in the Korean music industry.

In the end, the perfect end for NRG in 2007 was Lee Jun-hee, who debuted for ten years and released his first solo album, almost immediately, swept the charts of major music charts in South Korea, and became the hottest singer at the end of 2007.

It's just that there are some differences in the fact that Lee Jun-hee's solo album has a total of three songs, among which "Father", which is known as the most heartwarming in 2007, and "Where Has the Time Gone" in 2007, successfully reached the top in the year of its launch, and they occupied the top position in each other's tracks, but another English song was unexpectedly snubbed.

According to a professional music critic in the Korean music industry: The song itself is excellent, especially in the chorus part, Lee Jun-hee showed his superb singing skills, which makes people can't help but be attracted when they listen to it. But most of the passages of the song make people sound drowsy, and there are long paragraphs of English monologues, mixed with a lot of American slang, even those who are proficient in English are somewhat incomprehensible. Not to mention the majority of listeners who don't understand English.

All right!

Li Junxi rarely showed his true colors as a scholar, but he was ignored because he was too profound!

However, even though this English song is not appreciated, there are still many people who say that the chorus part of the song is great, and with two other songs in charge, Lee Jun-hee's debut solo album is still a great success.

The cumulative sales in three weeks are as high as 750,000 copies, which is just right in the era when NRG just debuted, and it is far from being a big hit. But now, it is a number that countless singers cannot reach, after all, the decline of the record industry is not a Korean thing, but a global one.

Nowadays, many singers bring their own funds to make records, and these singers are often praised by people behind them, not bad for money, they release records just to get an ID card for themselves in the music industry, after all, everyone's concept for many years is. Only when an album is released can he be considered a real singer, in fact, the record itself has little market significance.

In the process of the decline of the record industry. Digital music and piracy undoubtedly played a crucial and decisive role.

Since the advent of the digital music era, its rapid development seems to be determined to "reform the life of traditional music", and when the popularity of pirated CDs has made it difficult for record companies to fight piracy. Protecting your copyright becomes a top priority.

However, the popularity of the Internet has led to the ubiquity of free digital music, and what is even more terrifying, except for the distributors. Anyone can transfer the downloaded music to others, and when the album is not released, pirated music has been put on the table, this unprecedented threat, the impact on the album circulation is fatal, although the record companies have raised the flag to boycott, but all the efforts are powerless, "free music" has become the mainstream, only a small number of people are willing to pay their own money to buy genuine CDs.

As the gravedigger of the traditional record industry, digital music is expected to establish its own status as a new music medium after "killing the record".

It can be said that the shrinkage of the record industry is mainly due to the change in modern people's demand for "listening to music", they want to listen to their favorite music more conveniently and selectively, and use mobile phones, computers, etc. to listen to music anytime and anywhere.

The decline of the record industry cannot help but make people think about the problems around it, can music still exist in this era?

What form will it take?

Obviously, music is what people need, music carries emotional communication and some exchange of experiences, and before experiencing love, love is heard in popular music. I haven't fallen out of love yet, and I'm feeling the pain of someone else's falling out of love, which is a kind of communication. And one day, when you have experienced these yourself, you can exchange these emotional experiences again through music.

Culture has its value, and so does pop music.

However, in the context of the decay of the record, the singer's growth is facing an almost unbreakable dilemma.

In the homes of many ordinary fans, there are discarded tapes, CDs, Walkman CD players, MP3 players, and these audio-visual products and equipment that were bought with real money in the past have now become a pile of electronic waste.

Hundreds of carefully selected CDs and age-old tapes, although still treasured, could not escape the fate of being shelved, and probably even the owner could not remember how long it had been since he had been "pampered".

Nowadays, people listen to music almost exclusively on their mobile phones, and the music is cached directly to the phone, and there is no need to download it to the computer first and then upload it as before.

It is believed that almost all music listeners have the same history of equipment changes, or in other words, the simplification of the process of listening to music, and behind this lifestyle progress, physical records are facing the dilemma of continuous decline in sales and even about to retire from the stage of history.

CD sound quality is better than mp3, vinyl is a must-have for music enthusiasts, but nowadays people only want convenience, and the glory of physical records has collapsed in more than a decade.

In the past, going to a video store was like going to a fashion store, which was a normal consumption item for people, but in the current era of smartphones and music streaming, going to a traditional record store to buy CDs is a very cost-effective behavior from the perspective of time and money.

The only experience that a video store can provide. It's just to pick a few popular albums and put them there, and you can put on the headphones in the store to listen to a few songs, but if you stay for a long time, you may be stared at by the clerk and the people in the queue behind.

Why go outside when you can listen to all the songs you want to listen to at home?

In the eyes of many people, there is no need to go to a physical store to buy records. Not only because the time and labor costs are too high, but also because the record store can no longer give the purchase experience that the Internet can give.

With free music available on the Internet, even if it is a paid download, it is obviously much cheaper than going to a video store to buy a CD, at least saving time and effort, even if the price of a CD is not very expensive.

While digital music downloads are growing, piracy is also killing record sales.

From the sales level. The golden age of records was the tape age, and when CDs began to replace tapes, sales got worse and worse, and the decline in video stores began in 1999, and piracy was the main culprit affecting CD sales.

The reason why piracy was not rampant during the tape period was that due to the high demand for filling equipment, the sound quality of genuine and pirated tapes varied greatly, but the price difference was not obvious.

However, since the CD is in digital format. It is more economical and convenient in ripping, so it is favored by pirates. Pirated CDs sell only one-third of the original copies. It is even cheaper, and the sound quality is no different from the original, so it is quite popular with listeners.

Records can't be sold, and the most affected are of course record companies and film singers, and in this recessionary environment, it is necessary to change ideas.

More and more singers. From making a full album of 10 songs, to a mini-album of 5 songs, to an EP of two or three songs, and later even abandoned the physical form of the record.

Singers have given up selling records to make money, so is anyone in the audience willing to pay to listen to music?

Although there are all kinds of signs that physical records seem to be about to retire from the stage of history at any time, in fact they are not so exaggerated. Today, when listening to music is becoming more and more convenient and fast, for music fans who are still keen to buy CDs, their collection value has long exceeded their practical value.

Therefore, Lee Junxi's album can sell hundreds of thousands of copies, which is already a very exaggerated number, and now many brokerage companies are launching newcomers and singers, not to sell records at all, but just to launch singers, and that record is just to find a formal ID card for the singers they launch.

When Lee Jun Hee's album sales were announced, there was no doubt that many practitioners in the industry were stunned, and some even cheered loudly, and the golden age of records has come again.

But what about the facts?

The singers who released records at the same time as Lee Jun-hee, their record sales are still very bleak, this is the truth.

Obviously, the miracle that belongs to Lee Jun-hee cannot be replicated, and the era of digital music has risen and will not go backwards.

The impact of the Internet on the music industry is all-round, from the dissemination of music, distribution, creation, music production, etc., digital music has changed the traditional music industry to record as the medium of sales model, so that the record industry dies at the same time, there is no business model and the income of musicians is not guaranteed, on the other hand, the rise of digital music also makes the traditional record industry tie-in model tend to die, the previous use of one or two title songs to tie in 10 songs, has been unable to adapt to market demand.

However, it was only the record industry that died, and music did not die.

In fact, digital music has also gained unimaginable advantages in the record era, and now people obtain music through mobile phones, social networks, and the Internet, and the channels of music dissemination have become diversified, and the Internet has made music popular faster, shorter, and rapidly iterated.

Channels such as social networks have also brought singers closer to their fans, and where there are fans, there is a "fan economy", and in this sense, digital music can have a better monetization model.

Now, all traditional musicians need to do is switch minds, and obviously, most Korean agencies understand this.

After a period of precipitation, NRG's official website announced that Lee Jun-hee will officially return to the stage of SBS's first issue of "Popular Ballads" in 2008.

For a while, Lee Jun-hee's fans were excited and excited, they didn't know how long they had been waiting, and finally waited for Lee Jun-hee to come back.

The last time Lee Jun-hee appeared on the stage of a song show, it was because he won the first place at the "Infinite Challenge" Song Festival, and performed on stage with HAHA and Shen Eunjin. Since then, Lee Jun Hee has fallen into a blank period in his music career, although during this time, Lee Jun Hee has filmed variety shows and starred in movies. still frequently appears in the public eye, but people are obviously still more expecting him to achieve results in the field of music.

Now, Lee Jun-hee is back!

“OPPA！ The original publicity plan, wasn't it temporary, not to play on the ballad stage? ”

On the way to SBS TV, Pei Xiujing couldn't help but ask curiously.

After the first wave of publicity for Lee Jun-hee's solo album ended, Lee Hyo-jung returned to the United States, although Lee Hyo-jung really wanted to stay, but Lee Jun-hee was really worried about the seven girls of Princess in the United States, so the first wave of publicity ended. Li Xiaozhen was sent away.

At the beginning of the publicity plan, there were indeed no ballad programs, after all, with Lee Jun-hee's current status in the ballad industry, there was no need to go to the ballad stage to compete with those juniors.

But~~~~~~~~~

"The major award ceremonies are about to start, and I need to warm up now, to put it bluntly, it is to pull votes for our company's artists and brush up on their presence. Don't you understand what I say? ”

Hearing Li Junxi say this, Bae Xiujing immediately understood. Obviously, this year, Lee Jun-hee has great ambitions for major award ceremonies.

NRG's artists have indeed achieved remarkable results in music over the course of a year, but Moon Seong-hoon is currently preparing for his second SOLO album. I don't know where I went, the last time Li Junxi talked to Moon Chengxun on the phone, he was told that he had gone to Canada.

The newcomer girl group Princess, which was launched, is now in the United States, and on the side of the Korean local market, Lee Jun-hee can only support it alone.

If you don't wait for a long time to be on the mainstream stage. Lee Jun-hee worries that people will forget what NRG has achieved in a whole year because they haven't seen it for a long time.

The car arrived at the headquarters of SBS TV, parked the car, and Lee Jun-hee went upstairs with Bae so-kyung and other assistants, and followed the guidance of the TV station staff to his lounge.

Lee Jun-hee's current identity and status naturally have an independent lounge, after all, no matter in terms of seniority or fame, Lee Jun-hee wants to beat all other Korean singers.

This kind of treatment can only be enjoyed by singers in Li Junxi's rank, and this is all earned by Li Junxi's years of hard work.

Bae Xiujing and other assistants were busy as soon as they came in, while Li Junxi sat quietly in the sand, adjusting his state, he needed to put himself in the best condition before taking the stage.

But it is impossible to be quiet, and at this moment, many singers who came to participate in the recording of this episode of "Popular Songs" also know that Lee Jun-hee will announce his return today.

Therefore, many singers were repeatedly told by their respective agents many times on the way here, and the first thing they did when they arrived at the rest area was to visit Lee Jun-hee.

Li Junxi's generation can now be called extremely high in the music industry, debuted at the same time as him, or debuted before him, and now there are very few people who can still be active in the front line of music, so he sees a singer in the background now, basically for the first time, what he sees is the other party's juniors, because when the other party sees him, the instinctive first reaction is to bend over, and then put his head low.

"Senior! Hello! We are XXXXX"

Li Junxi smiled and nodded: "Hello! Come on! ”

On the way back from the rehearsal, a lot of words happened in the same scene, and many seniors often reacted to ignoring when they met such juniors, not because the seniors thought very highly of themselves, but because they kept greeting each other, they were too tired, and their hearts that finally calmed down were easy to become chaotic again.

But Li Junxi couldn't bear to be like this, he also came step by step from the newcomer period, he couldn't be clearer about the feelings of these newcomers, sometimes, a word of encouragement from his predecessors is very important to them, even if this encouragement is false.

Back in the lounge, Lee Jun-hee also can't rest, because there are constantly juniors coming to greet him, this is the traditional etiquette of the Korean song industry, in the rest area, as long as there is a senior here, then he must visit, otherwise, it will be regarded as impolite and of low quality, it is conceivable that in a country that pays extreme attention to etiquette, such juniors can still have much room for survival.

Although Li Junxi is very disgusted with these, he is forced by the general environment to accept them and deal with them as much as possible.

Just sent off a wave of juniors who came to visit, Li Junxi didn't wait to sit down, and the door was knocked again.

At this time, Lian Pei Xiujing was helpless, walked over and opened the door, and the five big boys entered the room, lined up in front of Li Junxi, and then bowed deeply.

"Senior Lee Jun-hee! Hello, we are YG Agency's newcomer duo Bigbang! ”

"I'm Captain Kwon Ji-ryong!"

"I'm TOP!"

"I am the sun!"

"I'm Dacheng!"

"I am the victory!"

Li Junxi looked at the five familiar big boys in front of him and couldn't help laughing!

"Are Yang Hyun-suk's predecessors finally willing to let you debut?" (To be continued......)