There was silence at the barbecue stall, and it felt like everything Zhang Ying's band gained back then was lost after they graduated.
Lu Weiwei even came up with an inappropriate sentence in her mind: "There is reincarnation in the way of heaven..."
"I understand, this may be the trouble of adults." Patted Zhang Ying on the shoulder.
Lu Weiwei was finally able to figure out why Zhang Ying's metal band went on tour in so many cities instead of connecting the time together and doing local performances.
It turns out that opportunities for local performances have long been involved to such a crazy level.
Or should we say that the general environment will have an impact on many things?
First of all, severe involution will cause many people to lose opportunities. At least Zhang Ying's band has lost the opportunity to perform in Jiangnan City.
He Junchao quickly asked: "In that case, you can only go on tour in other cities, but the venues for the tour are also very limited."
"And, according to what you said, there are actually many local performing bands in other cities, right?"
"Yeah." Faced with He Junchao's question, Zhang Ying nodded silently.
He Junchao added: "In that case, you are also trying to seize other people's opportunities, but with only such a small number of people in each performance, it is indeed easy to lose money."
"Isn't this nonsense?" Listening to He Junchao complaining here, Officer Wang couldn't sit still and couldn't help but said:
"Actually, the reason is very simple. Today's performance opportunities are limited, but the number of bands has increased several times compared to before."
"In this way, the relationship between supply and demand has changed. There will be more monks and less meat, which will inevitably lead to an imbalance."
Waving his hands, Officer Wang added: "Just like this, the venue fee may have been a fair price before, but seeing that so many of your bands are coming to tour, I don't have to worry about renting the venue."
"This will inevitably lead to people raising prices, but because there are so many people who need to rent venues, the audience for real bands is very limited."
"It turns out that in this city, there may be 1,000 people who like metal bands, and then 200 people will come to watch the tour."
"But as the number of bands increases, people have more choices, and then the original 200 people are scattered to different bands' performances."
"In this way, no one actually makes money, that's the reason."
"Yes." Zhang Ying took a sip of her drink, looked at the crowd with some embarrassment, and said:
"To be honest, I really feel a lot of pressure. Maybe after this month, or at most next month, the box office revenue of the tour will still be unsatisfactory."
"Then, we will consider disbanding the band, then dispose of these equipment at a low price, and never pursue the so-called music dream again, because we are not worthy."
Having said this, Zhang Ying's originally good mood seemed to start to become depressed again.
In fact, when Gu Chen and Lu Weiwei met Zhang Ying for the first time in the ICU ward of the hospital, they thought she was a lively, cheerful, positive and optimistic nurse.
But now it seems that it is not what I imagined.
No one could tell that behind Zhang Ying, there was actually a metal band.
"Alas!" Just as everyone was discussing, Azhe, a man with glasses who had finished his busy work, came to the crowd panting, took out a small stool and sat down at random.
"Azhe, are you done?" Zhang Ying asked.
"We're done. All the ingredients have been used up. It's time to finish." Azhe took out a paper towel from the table and wiped his face a few times.
Soon, the paper towels were covered with grease.
Azhe looked at Gu Chen and the others and smiled and said, "It's funny, our metal band really doesn't live up to expectations."
"When we were studying, we participated in many music competitions. Anyway, the results were pretty good."
"On campus, we are usually the champions. When we participate in competitions between several universities, we can always get the top three rankings."
"But when the city held auditions for music programs, we couldn't even make it to the finals."
"Is the opponent too strong?" Yuan Shasha asked.
Azhe waved his hand and said with a smile: "That's not the case. People who play music actually know it very well."
"You will know the strength of the other party by listening to it. However, commercial competitions are no different from ordinary competitions with no profit, which require sponsorship."
"And this kind of competition is usually run with money from sponsors, so there will be many hidden rules."
"Unspoken rules?" Upon hearing that there was something in it, Lu Weiwei immediately became interested and quickly asked Azhe: "Then tell me quickly, what are the unspoken rules?"
"Lu Weiwei." Seeing Lu Weiwei's look of expectation, Officer Wang on the side looked disgusted:
"You don't even know the hidden rules? To get a good ranking, you need this."
After the words fell, Officer Wang faced everyone and rubbed a few fingers.
Everyone understood immediately.
Gu Chen also turned to look at Azhe and asked: "Then don't you usually get rankings in campus competitions? The mass base should be very good, right?"
"Haha, isn't that right?" Seeing Gu Chen mention this, Azhe said quite proudly:
"Let me tell you, the mass base is not average, it is far ahead."
"If nothing else, let's just say that during the years we were in school, we almost swept all the awards at major college music festivals. We were far ahead in winning awards."
"The popularity was such that it pushed other rivals a few blocks away. At that time, when I accepted commercial performances, I was always soft-handed."
"It can be said that at that time, no one knew about our band."
After he finished speaking, Azhe took out a pack of wrinkled cigarettes from his pocket, and then handed the cigarettes to several people in turn.
After seeing that everyone refused, he lit one on his own, then moved his arms and continued:
"I'm not exaggerating. We are almost participating in a competition, and the first few in a competition are basically the champions. The second place is all because the band members have diarrhea."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Anyway, in those few years, we were a bit swollen. I felt that the outside world was similar to that on campus. I felt that with the strength of us people, we could go to
Participating in music competitions, isn’t that something you can do easily?”
"So, you..."
Before Gu Chen could finish what he said, Azhe said with a sad look on his face: "So, we were stubborn and didn't know the depth, so we participated in some business competitions."
"But then it really pissed us off."
"We were clearly about to advance to the finals when many judges' scores were much higher than those of our opponents, but the organizers temporarily added the popularity of the audience outside the venue as the basis for advancement, which is completely different from what was said before."
With a heavy sigh, Azhe also said helplessly: "In this way, we were far ahead, but because we had no money to gain popularity, we were quickly overtaken by those bands with low scores."
"The most annoying thing is that we clearly have the highest score in the preliminary round and the semi-finals, but we have no chance to enter the finals."
"Things like this happened one after another, which almost destroyed the mentality of our band members."
"Later, we really couldn't figure it out. Does this kind of commercial competition have to use off-field factors to affect promotion?"
"Music competitions don't rely on the musical prowess of the contestants to determine the outcome? Why should they be determined by off-site factors?"
Shaking his head, Azhe's mood suddenly became depressed again, and he said in a bad mood:
"So, later we all figured out that those low-level bands that won the championship were all a group of rich second generations."
"My family all has money, and participating in music competitions is just to accumulate historical achievements so that they can add some chips to their band's resume."
"And those people's backgrounds are sponsors of music awards."
Having said this, Azhe took a deep puff of his cigarette and said angrily: "You said, in a competition like this, do you have a chance? Not even if you are far ahead."
"Okay, Azhe, stop talking." Seeing that Azhe seemed to be a little emotional, his voice became louder and louder, even disturbing the guests at several other tables.
Zhang Ying came over quickly to stop her and said, "Stop saying a few words. Before, we didn't understand the rules of society. We felt that even if we were children from ordinary families, we could still play in a band."
"It was when we were in school that we won too many awards, and these awards paralyzed us."
"It gives us a sense of elation and makes us feel that we are really capable."
Speaking of this, Zhang Ying also sighed heavily and said somewhat helplessly:
"But who would have thought that bands that are far ahead sometimes have to accept reality."
"Now that we are touring various places, we are actually losing money all the time. In fact, there are not many performances that can really make money."
"But it's really difficult to support this band with just this meager profit."
Turning to look at everyone, Zhang Ying added: "I was the one who proposed disbanding the band. I feel like I can't hold on any longer."
"Everyone else in the band means the same thing."
After the words fell, Zhang Ying glanced at Ah Zhe in front of her, and then said: "Actually, Ah Zhe, I came here this time just to have a good chat with you. Everyone has decided that next month may be the day of disbandment.
.”
"Because you have been doing barbecue and using the money you earned to subsidize our metal band, we are all very grateful to you."
"But sometimes, persistence can't bring about good results. We really can't bear to rely on the money you earned from your hard-earned barbecue business to subsidize everyone."
Wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes, Zhang Ying also choked and said: "Really, otherwise, let's give up."
"No, we have always been far ahead." Perhaps stimulated by Zhang Ying's words, Azhe suddenly became a little excited. He also took a deep breath and tried to adjust his state, and then said again:
"We have always been far ahead of other bands, and many bands have disbanded. This shows that there are fewer and fewer bands competing with us, and we have a chance to break through."
"But you also have to face reality. Although some bands are disbanding every month, more bands are formed every month. There are more bands than enough. This is reality, and you have to admit it."
Perhaps because she felt that Ah Zhe was a bit indifferent, Zhang Ying couldn't bear it, so she spoke much louder.
Both of them were venting their emotions at the moment.
This made Gu Chen and others present confused.
Everyone originally wanted to go out for dinner and have some late-night snacks, but instead they witnessed that a leading metal band was about to break up.
To say that eating melons and eating so much, Lu Weiwei really didn't expect it.
Perhaps it was the head-on confrontation between the two just now that shocked many customers present, and many secretly glanced at Azhe and Zhang Ying.
Gu Chen saw that the atmosphere was awkward, and the two of them suddenly fell into a state of silence again, so Gu Chen quickly resolved the embarrassment and said:
"Let's have something to eat, Boss Azhe. I see you've been busy all night, so you should have something too."
As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Chen handed a kebab in his hand directly to Azhe.
At first, Azhe's eyes were still in a dull state. He never thought that his most trusted teammates would actually want to break up.
But when he saw the kebabs handed over by Gu Chen, Ah Zhe also borrowed the money from Poxia Donkey, picked up the kebabs, put them in his mouth and took a few bites.
Zhang Ying, who was very emotional and said harsh words just now, also chose to take a sip of the drink handed to her by Lu Weiwei to calm down her shock.
In this way, the originally embarrassing scene was suddenly relieved.
Azhe was eating barbecue and said slowly: "Zhang Ying, actually I know your pressure. You all have your own jobs. Even if you don't play in a band, you can still get a good income."
"Working in a band requires you to spend time and effort, and it's thankless."
"As for me, I don't have much ability, so I can only set up a barbecue stall here and do some small business to supplement my income."
Taking a deep breath, Azhe said again: "I know, our band is experiencing an economic crisis. I have been using the money from selling barbecues to provide various subsidies to everyone. You are a little sorry."
"But you must know that we may be just a little bit away from success."
Turning to look at Gu Chen and the others, Azhe turned his attention to Zhang Ying again and said:
"Remember the last time we went to Chengdu? The venue could have accommodated 200 people, but more than 300 people showed up, almost overcrowding the venue."
"Everyone supports us and encourages us to continue to persevere."
"I know that we still have many new songs that have not been released. Isn't that because we don't have money for post-production?"
"You don't need to worry about this. I have already taken out the mortgage on the wedding house my family bought for me. Soon we will have money to make an album."
"At that time, our band will have more chips..."
"enough!"
Just before Azhe finished speaking, Zhang Ying suddenly interrupted him.
Everyone was stunned on the spot, but Zhang Ying was filled with indignation and said: "Azhe, I think you are really crazy, or are you possessed? Are you using the wedding house as a mortgage?"
"Don't think that the one in your heart is so far ahead that you forget who you are? We are all ordinary people, so don't bother anymore."
When she said the last sentence, Zhang Ying broke her guard and burst into tears.
