Volume 3 2011 Chapter 403: Sistar's Breakthrough Experiment
Since I have accepted the work of the student union, I naturally have to do things. It is now the beginning of April, and there is still a long time before the cultural festival begins, so Yi Haoyan has plenty of time to start his work.
The cultural festival stage has several fixed components.
Of course, the number of programs rehearsed by students themselves is the largest. Practical Music, Practical Dance, Performing Arts, and Film and Television Performance are the main forces in producing programs. These four majors of Seoul Arts High School have cultivated a large number of singing, dancing, and acting talents, and many trainees come from these majors.
In addition to the performances that students rehearse themselves, another part is to invite popular idol groups to perform at the campus cultural festival. This kind of performance is very popular with students, and if there are students from the school in the debuting group, such as Miss A's Bae Suzy and F (X)'s Choi Sulli, the performance will be more effective and can also play a role in promoting the school.
Of course, as an idol who has already debuted, this kind of performance comes with a fee.
The appearance fees of Korean idols are not high, far from being comparable to those of Chinese stars. The appearance fees of top idol groups are about 50 million won (about 290,000 RMB), and groups with some fame like F(X) and Miss A are about 20-30 million won (110,000-170,000 RMB). Groups like Sistar may be a little cheaper.
But even so, the school invites only a few groups every year in order to control costs.
But hasn’t CJ also invested now?
Yi Haoyan decided to invite more idols who had debuted to make this cultural festival more exciting. Sun Enxi would certainly satisfy her beloved brother's wishes for such a small matter. After a phone call, the invitation list for this cultural festival was finalized.
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"Ah! Don't you have to go to school? Why are you here again?" Seeing Yi Haoyan walk into the practice room, Zhaoyou's disgust was beyond words.
Although she knew the other person's identity and admitted that the young master had good taste, the girl always felt that she was a little out of tune with this man, so she always disliked him.
“Ouni! Is it really okay to just speak your mind like this?” The youngest member Dasun was a little panicked.
When Hyo-rin and Bora saw him coming, they paused their dance practice, smiled and said nothing.
"Even if I don't go to school, my grades are better than yours~ Jiang Zhixian is angry."
Yi Haoyan raised his eyebrows nonchalantly.
“Ha~”
When Soyou was called by her real name, she rolled her eyes and smiled, totally unconvinced.
"Hehe~ I'm not bragging about this at all~ If you don't believe me, go to Seoul Arts High School and ask, it's not that easy to get full marks in all subjects."
"Full marks in all subjects?"
Soyou was surprised. As an excellent student in school, she knew very well how difficult it was to get full marks in all subjects.
"Yeah~ Don't doubt it, I'm going to Seoul National University in the future, so I don't have to worry about grades."
“Getting into Seoul National University through the arts college entrance exam? Are you dreaming?” Soyou didn’t believe it at all.
"People are different. If you are angry, just take care of yourself!"
The boy smiled smugly and said no more. His condescending attitude made Zhaoyou feel suffocated.
"What's the matter this time? Are you feeling wronged and coming here to find balance?" Paula handed over a bottle of water and asked with a smile.
"Ani! Am I such a boring person in Nuna's eyes? Is this how you see me, the person who brings good luck to Sistar?"
"yes."
Without waiting for Yoon Bora to respond, Soyou directly shot a cold arrow.
“Poof~”
“Hahaha~”
"Ouni, you are so brave~"
Yi Haoyan took a deep breath, ignored his stubborn sister, and got straight to business.
"Campus commercial performances? Are you in charge of the school's cultural festival activities now?" Hyolyn was surprised. This kind of activity is of course a serious matter. For a new girl group like them, commercial performances are actually a big source of income in addition to music. This young man really came here to introduce a job!
"I'm not responsible, I'm just participating. But since there's this opportunity, of course I'll let you go! You're one of us after all, right? I just came here to give you a reminder. The school will contact the agent later."
"Oh, Kangsami! It's rare that you still remember us so much..." Paula was very touched.
This young master who suddenly broke into their lives did bring a lot of changes to Sistar. CJ's investment has obviously improved the company's conditions. The practice room has been upgraded, the dormitory has been changed, and the group's various activities are also increasing. Everything is getting better, and all of this is related to Yi Haoyan. Although this young master is a bit harsh, after a few times of getting along, he is actually a good person.
"This is a small matter. I came here mainly to see how you are preparing for your next return."
Yi Haoyan waved his hand casually and changed the subject.
Indeed, introducing commercial performance schedules is not worth mentioning and there is no need to make a trip in person. Yi Haoyan came here this time for Sistar's next comeback, and the performance at the cultural festival was just mentioned in passing.
For a new girl group from a small company like Sistar, although they had a good start and won the rookie award, the road ahead will only be more difficult.
It is difficult for small companies to succeed, and it is even more difficult to maintain their success after they succeed. The weak resources and fan base require them to continuously produce high-quality works in order to attract fans and consolidate the market. The current Starship does not have the family fan base like SM and JYP, and Sistar does not have the dazzling halo like Girls' Generation. If they want to gain a foothold in the increasingly competitive girl group market, they must take every step right. If they take a wrong step, all their efforts will be wasted. Although they won the Rookie Award, there are so the Rookie Award is given every year. There are also many groups that have won awards and disappeared. Now that the girl group market is booming, groups from small companies really have no chance to make mistakes. This is why Yi Haoyan pays special attention to this comeback.
" It hasn't . We just have a demo and a general idea. The arrangement and choreography haven't been finalized yet." Hyolyn gave a brief introduction to the current situation.
"The president still wants to go for the sexy route and develop his previous style a little bit, but he is worried about being repetitive and falling into clichés, so he has not decided yet."
When it comes to business, Soyou also becomes serious. After all, this is their life and career.
"How about taking a look at the current version first!"
The last time I talked to Eun-bi about Girl's Day's comeback, the boy had some vague ideas about the current market trend of girl groups, but these ideas still need to be verified. Today, we will see if Kim Shi-dae, the clear-minded president, has any ideas.
So, in the practice room, after Yi Haoyan and Kim Si Dae arrived, they watched Sistar's new song "Ma Boy" together, which is currently being prepared for their comeback.
This single produced by Brave Brothers has a brisk tempo, beautiful melody and sounds very memorable, but it is not a traditional K-Pop dance song. There is nothing particularly impressive about the killing part in the four-person dance version. Obviously, without a determined style, the performance of the entire stage has been affected.
"In fact, I personally prefer to continue with the sexy style, and the girls from Sistar are also suitable for this style." Jin Shida sighed, "However, there are more and more sexy styles in the market now. We haven't found a direction to make a breakthrough in the healthy and sexy style we insisted on before."
The problem of the proliferation of sexy styles that President Jin mentioned is the same as what Yi Haoyan realized when he analyzed Girl's Day.
As more and more small companies enter the girl group market, a trend of homogenization has begun to emerge. The two levels of tendency are pure and cute style and mature and sexy style.
Pure and cute types include Girl's Day's transformation, A Pink, which is a subsidiary of Cube and includes Nam Joo and Na Eun, and Dal★Shabet, a six-member girl group launched by Happyface in January 2011.
There are even more girl groups with a mature and sexy style. Girls' Generation, Kara, T-ara, Miss A, and After School basically all belong to this style, but the characteristics of each group are very clear and different. In addition, the style is relatively high and the scale is well controlled.
In addition, 4Minute, 2NE1 and F(X) have an alternative and unique style that is different from these two categories.
However, it is not easy for small companies to create an alternative and unique style or to subdivide their own characteristics within these two mainstream styles.
Therefore, most of the new groups are simple, crude, and stereotyped, taking the cute and lively route or the mature and sexy route.
The lively and cute style cannot be sustained due to the age limit of the members, and most of the famous girl groups have a mature style, so the mature style girl groups have gradually begun to have some special phenomena.
What made Yi Haoyan feel this way was a girl group called Nine Muses.
Nine Muses, which officially debuted as models for Maxim magazine on July 22, 2010, is a new girl group launched by Star Empire Entertainment. Most of its members are former models and have an average height of 172cm.
Maxim is a Korean magazine for men, and debuting in this way means that the group has completely given up on the pure and cute route. The group's debut song "No Playboy" is also sexy.
This group has frequently changed its members shortly after its debut. It has now been reduced from a 9-member group to a 7-member group. They have never won first place on any music show and are a typical girl group from a small company with mediocre results.
But this group still has a lot of attention and is very popular in the commercial performance market. The key lies in the outstanding selling point! Think about it, 9 beauties with an average height of 172cm and model-like figures standing there, paired with high heels, garters, tight skirts and other eye-catching things, which itself has a strong visual impact! Coupled with the average level of singing and dancing skills of Korean groups, of course it will attract attention!
This group borrowed ideas from After School, but went further. Although the singing and dancing skills and the quality of the trainees were obviously inferior to After School, Nine Muses' selling point was completely based on the visual effect of the sexy model figure, which was quite effective.
This is a signal.
For companies with limited strength, as long as they can make a breakthrough and look sexier, they can make money...
Yi Haoyan faintly smelled a kind of involution. Sexiness is not bad, but commercial profit-driven will push this style to the extreme. There is often only a thin line between sexiness and vulgarity... and once a group is labeled as vulgar, it is basically impossible to achieve great success. Vulgar things are difficult to be accepted in any place. He doesn't want Sistar to become like that, and Jin Shida doesn't want it either.
However, Sistar’s style breakthrough is imminent. After winning the Golden Disc Newcomer Award, the market’s expectations for Sistar’s return will be even higher, and they have to find a way to respond to this expectation.
"Or, try a small team."
An idea suddenly occurred to the boy.
"Hmm?" Jin Shida glanced at Yi Haoyan and didn't understand what he meant.
"It is necessary to make a breakthrough, but it is also a reality that we are not sure about the scale and direction. In this case, it is better to use a small team to explore the way forward."
Yi Haoyan looked at the four beautiful sisters and became more and more confident as he spoke.
"The return of the small team is an experiment to try to break through the original style. This has an advantage. The small team will not affect the overall style of the big team. If the return of the breakthrough style is not well received, at least we can make adjustments the next time the big team returns, and have another chance to try and fail. If the response is good, then we can continue to strengthen this attempt the next time we return. In short, the small team model is most suitable for the current situation!"
Jin Shida silently thought about the boy's words.
"If the team formation is so good, then why don't other groups do the same? We are not the only ones facing this problem, right?" Hyolyn asked a very sharp question.
"Good question!" Yi Haoyan smiled and clapped his hands in praise, "In fact, Girls' Generation has also used this method."
"Eh? Girls' Generation seniors have never been in a squad, right?"
"We've released a small-group single."
"Taeyeon and Jessica have also released singles."
Dasun and Soyou are well aware of Girls' Generation's situation.
"Haha, I'm not talking about Girls' Generation forming a sub-group, but using a similar form with relatively low risks to experiment with transformation." The boy explained with a smile, "Before Girls' Generation completely transformed, they added the completely different style of "Run Devil Run" to the remake of the successful album "Oh!" This is to use the previous success to reduce the risk of subsequent transformation and test the market reaction in advance. Later, the complete transformation "Hoot" was born. This method is the same as the test waters in the form of a sub-group we are preparing to use."
These words made everyone suddenly realize, and Jin Shida nodded frequently.
"How should the team be formed?"
"Hyolin must be included." Jin Shidae spoke up, "Sistar's current style is built to suit Hyolin. She must participate in this experiment, otherwise it will be ineffective. The team can only have two people, who will be the other one?"
After saying that, he didn't look at the girls, but turned to look at Yi Haoyan, obviously he had already made a decision in his mind.
"Of course it's Paulanunar! Is there any need to think about it?" the boy said firmly.
"Why can't it be us? Are you seeking revenge on purpose?"
Soyou and Dasoon didn't dare to question the president, but they had nothing to fear from Yi Haoyan. Bora, the person involved, just smiled and said nothing.
"Ah! If you two want to join the team, you must understand the situation clearly!" He began to teach the third and fourth children in the team, boys who were obviously his younger brothers, without any courtesy.
"This time we are trying to break through the sexy style while also maintaining the healthy feeling from before. Of course, Paula is the most suitable for this style! Who of you has better performance in the idol sports meet than Paula? Who has her healthy and lively image? Who can have her energetic and sunny smile and unique slender and sexy legs!"
"Hey! Here we go again! It's totally outrageous, you're thinking about unnie's legs all day long!"
“That’s right!”
Soyou and Dasun were not convinced.
"Why don't you guys compare them? If you're not convinced, then compare!"
Yi Haoyan jumped out and pointed at Paula's legs and shouted angrily, "Who of you has ankles as beautiful as Paula's? Who can beat her in a 50-meter race? Do you dare to compete?"
Yoon Bora is rated as an idol with beautiful legs because, on the one hand, she has a good body proportion, short waist and long legs, and on the other hand, she has thinner ankles than ordinary people, which makes her calves look more slender and slender, which is indeed incomparable to Soyou and Dasun. As for running, let alone, the gold medal of the idol sports meeting is there.
“……”The two sisters were speechless after hearing the boy’s words.
When the person with beautiful legs was mentioned, Yoon Bora just stood aside, blushing and covering her mouth with her hands, laughing secretly, and did not participate in this topic which was obviously bullying her younger sisters.
"Besides, in a two-person team, Hyolyn Nuna is so strong that she can fully interpret the sexy music style by herself, and Paula Nuna is responsible for showing the image concept. This combination is the most suitable!"
"Wait, there's something wrong." Hyolyn felt something was wrong. "From what you said, I sang and danced and did all the work, but Paula just stood there and got a share of the money?"
"......Yeah!" Yi Haoyan was stunned for a moment, then nodded in acknowledgement.
The practice room exploded.
"Oh! Am I too miserable?" Hyo-lin felt terrible.
"Haha! You actually admitted it? Are you so biased?" Duoshun was indifferent to the matter and laughed the happiest.
"President-nim, is it okay for Paula unnie to get her share of the profits this way?" Soyou went straight to Kim Si Dae to seek justice.
"Ah! It's not like that. I want to dance, and there's rap too!" Yoon Bora was going crazy.
Jin Shi laughed so hard that he waved his hands without saying anything.
"President-nim, why don't you say anything? This is very important!"
"Hahaha!"
"Ah! President, stop laughing! Wait , don't go! President nim! President nim!!!"
Jin Shi laughed and fled.
The practice room was in chaos.
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