Television stations control the entertainment industry, and artists are passively classified into different circles. This is reflected in various award shows at the end of the year.
For example, Fuji TV's year-end awards show, FNS Gayo Festival, has no interest in DreamseTrue, a band that carries the TV Asahi label and whose debut program even beat competing Fuji TV programs.
If you want to get the bonus from this awards show, I'm afraid you have to wait until the band becomes a popular star.
On the other hand, if the All-Japan Gayo Music Festival hosted by TV Asahi had not been canceled this year, then there is a high probability that DreamseTrue would have won some awards.
There are people in the court who are good at doing things, no matter where they are placed.
In order to promote the strategy, the band had no new songs to sing on TV stations at the end of the year. The most popular single since their debut, "So Happy! So Happy! I Like It So Much!", was asked by NHK not to sing at the Red and White Song Festival. Other TV stations
The program also made such a request.
As a result, the band's most popular single after their debut was temporarily blocked due to the self-imposed ban.
Fortunately, it is only temporary. Otherwise, if a popular song is banned, how dark will your face be?
However, although it was temporarily blocked by the TV station, the song performed extremely bravely on commercial radio, another important promotion channel besides the TV station.
The reason for this stems from the rebellious psychology of the audience, especially among young people.
In itself, the young people who have grown up in this generation are what scholars call a new generation that has no interest in current affairs and is more focused on self-centered indifference. They are not interested in Locusts and Locust Chambers at all.
Now, due to the self-restriction order, various entertainment activities are restricted. This year's hit song, which should have been sung happily at the end of the year, is now forced to be temporarily sealed and disappear from the TV.
For young people who pay more attention to personal feelings, this restriction undoubtedly adds another layer of fuel to their dissatisfaction.
The terrestrial TV stations had various concerns, but the radio stations did not have so many regulations. As a result, the audience who could not see the band singing this song on TV picked up the phone and submitted articles to the radio station.
In this approach, it is not only the dissatisfaction caused by not being able to see this song on the TV station at the end of the year, but also mixed with the dissatisfaction with having to stay at home honestly at the end of the year.
The anger is full of power, and the dissatisfaction from the audience unexpectedly caused this single, which has been on the air for more than half a year, to climb up the radio charts at the end of the year.
When each episode of TBS TV station's "TheBestten" starts airing, the ranking data of each list will be quickly reviewed in the TV program, including the radio on-demand list.
When the radio chart was shown on the TV screen, and the song title "So happy! So happy! I love it!" flashed quickly, the young viewers who were watching the TV probably smiled knowingly, feeling that they had overcome this.
An inexplicable sense of self-respect.
Such a situation would occur, which the band's production team had never thought of in advance.
However, the spontaneous behavior has nothing to do with me, and the production team does not need to react at all. They just need to happily wait for the next quarter's royalty settlement. The more on-demand videos, the higher the royalties.
What’s even more interesting is that the song “So Happy! So Happy! I Like It So Much!” has a high on-demand rate in Kansai. Actual data proves the Kansai people’s love for the band and their indifference to the self-restraint order.
After receiving this information, Shinichi Iwahashi suddenly had the idea to go to Osaka during the New Year holiday. The fun was real, and of course, it was also real to discuss ZARD promotion with the Osaka TV station and broadcasting bureau in person.
Not only is he going, but he also has to take four of Zard's people with him.
As a result, Akamatsu Haruko, who is in charge of the zard, naturally has to act with them.
Knowing that Iwahashi Shinichi was going to take Zard to Osaka, Akamatsu Haruko even invited them to play at her home in Kyoto. The decision-making power on this matter rested with Iwahashi Shinichi, and he had to agree.
Shinichi Iwahashi was really curious about what the home of a big landowner in Kyoto looked like. He was from a wealthy family in such an ancient capital, so his house might have a Japanese-style garden or something.
Country bumpkin Shinichi Iwahashi's curiosity was aroused again. Even so, he did not agree immediately. He only said that if his schedule allowed, he would go to Akamatsu Haruko's house to visit her family.
This matter is purely a small incident at the end of the year. Once the itinerary is decided, I will put it aside for now.
The momentum of "So Happy! So Happy! I Love It!" in the last month of the year was unexpected, but the trend of "Future Vision II" is related to the next series of projects.
The effort of bribing commercial radio stations across the country to promote this song has not yet shown such fierce momentum in the past few days.
However, after the first week, based on the feedback from listeners and the specific listening rate, the song's trend is undoubtedly on the rise.
After the data came out, the broadcasting bureau breathed a sigh of relief.
To promote a song that is seven and a half minutes long, you risk having the audience change the channel. Since the data is stable, the broadcasting bureau is somewhat relieved and is willing to continue to cooperate with this song promotion.
The data is rising, which means the outlook is much more optimistic than if the data explodes at the beginning and then falls.
More people liked the song on the second day than on the first day. As long as this can be ensured, the word-of-mouth effect from the audience will bring huge gains.
After all, the earliest form of publicity among humans is word of mouth.
In this way, in the last month of 1988, DreamseTrue was like returning to the 1960s, working closely with radio stations.
…
After ten o'clock in the evening, there were not that many cars on the road. Kanda, who always drove safely, relaxed and turned on the car radio.
A song by the Youth League was playing on the radio. Kanda didn't like Johnny, so he changed the station.
He drives a Volkswagen Golf, which he bought in installments when he was a junior in college. During school, he only needs to repay 10,000 yen per month. After he gets a job, he will repay 50,000 yen per month. The repayment period is five years.
However, Kanda is already considering paying off the loan next year, selling the Golf, and buying another car.
In today's era, college students have bright prospects. Whether it is manufacturers that have launched installment car buying services or students who take out loans to buy cars, they are full of confidence.
Kanda is the same. During his college years, he confidently signed an installment car purchase contract and officially became a car owner. Now, less than a year after joining the job, he has enough time to pay off the loan.
During college, Kanda wanted to buy a car because he wanted to have his own space. To realize this wish, buying a house was absolutely impossible. Even now, Kanda doesn't dare to think about buying a house.
However, buying a car is so easy. When you close the door, you have your own little world.
As an ordinary person, Kanda signed an installment contract. After that, he drove his own car for a drive during the holidays and felt a kind of real happiness. The longing for his own space became real happiness.
After he got a car, he had plans almost every weekend, running around.
It was also the same year that he bought a car that Kanda dated Yoko, a girl who worked in a convenience store near the apartment he rented. She was small and very cute, but she was not known as a beauty.
Kanda himself was the same. When he was in school, he was an ordinary college student. When he got a job, ordinary-looking company employees like him were everywhere on the train every morning.
When they were students, Kanda and Yoko went on a date. Two ordinary young people, walking together in a fashion paradise like Shibuya, Shinjuku, would be secretly laughed at by the fashionable young people for being a rustic couple from the countryside.
When Kanda and Yoko faced the ridicule, they felt a little shy rather than unhappy. But rather than going on a date here, they actually had a tacit understanding and liked to drive together and have fun together.
In order to go for a drive with Kanda, Yoko would discuss the shift change with her colleagues at the convenience store in advance, and the two of them would use the golf car they bought on installment payments to travel around Tokyo.
Then, after experiencing the various preferential treatment provided by companies when recruiting workers, Kanda graduated from University and joined his current company. Within a year, he had enough time to pay off his loan and had higher pursuits.
After hanging out with his seniors in the company, seeing the nightlife in Tokyo, and gaining a deeper understanding of luxury goods, Kanda began to feel unwilling to just be his ordinary self.
He drove a Golf to work, but was laughed at by his seniors, saying that such a car would be laughed at in Roppongi. As a student, Kanda was not afraid of being ridiculed as a "local couple", but now he feels terrified when faced with the words of his seniors.
Will you be laughed at?
However, the relationship between Kanda and Yoko has always been stable.
Although Yoko was still the same Yoko as before, Kanda began to care about her clothes. Yoko didn't think anything of it yet. He first thought of buying a Tiffany heart-shaped pendant for her.
Rather than wanting to give Yoko a gift like this, is there a sense of vanity in it like "I hope Yoko's colleagues know that she has a boyfriend who can buy her Tiffany's?"
Kanda was unwilling to delve into such an issue. However, after graduation, the two quarreled several times over this difference.
In December, due to the self-restriction order, the catering industry was hit hard. However, the convenience store where Yoko worked was still busy. Today she was working the night shift, and Kanda promised to pick her up.
Yoko has never changed, everything is ordinary. Although Kanda sometimes feels dissatisfied with Yoko's simplicity, he has never thought about falling in love with another person.
However, in the past, Kanda, as an ordinary person, moved forward in step with ordinary Yoko. But now, Kanda wants Yoko to keep up with her.
The world is moving so fast. Is it wrong to want Yoko to experience such a world?
…
On the radio station, the chat session ended and it was time to sing. The prelude sounded, and it was an unfamiliar song.
However, Kanda’s first impression of the song was not bad. He originally used the radio to pass the time, and since the first impression sounded good to his ears, he continued to listen to it.
"It's already the third spring since graduation."
The singer began to sing. As if to tell a story, he started the song with such peaceful and simple sentences.
Driving alone on the road at night, Kanda thought the slightly slower rhythm of the song was just right and made him feel relaxed.
The song slowly unfolded, and it turned out to be a story about a couple who had been together since school days.
It’s written in such detail, isn’t it the singer’s own experience?
While Kanda was listening to the song, he had a somewhat nonsensical thought that if he were to write it, he would write about driving to Shonan with Yoko into the song.
Kanda was unknowingly attracted to this song and wanted to hear the next lyrics.
Although the song is about another love, the lyrics that are too life-like make Kanda involuntarily think of his own love.
This is probably what is called resonance.
The resonance is not what happened in the lyrics, but the emotions of ordinary people. The song is about the love life of ordinary people, and the current audience is one of countless ordinary people.
When Kanda was moved by the song, his pursuit of the times was temporarily put aside and he returned to the essence of ordinary people.
"No matter how many years pass, I can maintain this feeling and it will not change."
The two people in the song drove motorcycles when they were students, but switched to cars after working. The means of transportation have changed, and so have the secret codes for confessing to each other.
However, the reason why the secret code works is because we still love each other, isn't it?
Everything is changing, so if he wants to buy a new car and live a more free and easy, less ordinary life, isn't that also his own change?
Since he is still in love with Yoko, why can't Yoko change with him?
"Because I'm with you, I've been drawing a picture of the future in my mind."
This vision of the future was not conceived by one person, but drawn by two people together. Because it was two people together, even though everything has changed today, the feeling of falling in love has not changed either.
Kanda suddenly thought, had he asked Yoko what he thought?
In his mind, he also imagined a future with Yoko. But now, has he taken the brush away from Yoko and is painting a picture of the imaginary future by himself?
The traffic light ahead changed, and Kanda slowly stepped on the brakes.
He didn't realize at all that he was listening to a song that was a bit too long. This was because the lyrics of the song were so eloquent, the melody was so smooth, and the singer's performance was perfect.
I was listening to a wonderful story, so I forgot the length of time.
Kanda recalled his school days, when he and Yoko were walking on the streets of Shibuya. In a fashion paradise, the two of them were extremely rustic. Kanda was very embarrassed, "It seems that we are in the wrong place."
Yoko said, "What does it matter? Even if you are laughed at, it is enough that the happiness is real."
She was always so confident. Kanda thought, was he attracted by Yoko's confidence?
"Are you happy now? Kanda-kun." Yoko asked him.
Kanda did not forget his answer, "I am very happy."
The song ends with a long improvisation. During this improvisation, Kanda lets his thoughts wander.
At this time, the urging horn of the car behind was heard. The signal light had changed.
Kanda drove forward quickly.
On the radio, the song ends and commercials begin.
Kanda thought to himself, I still don’t know what song this is. How about calling the radio station and asking later?
