Chapter Twenty-Two: The Founder

  Thank you for the rewards from classmates royyi, beifengqianqi and jwd13. Thank you for the update votes from classmates jwd13 and royyi.

  I'm a bit busy today, so I'm posting late, and I still have overtime later, there's only one update for today, sorry.

  In addition, as requested by book friends, a group was established, and the group number is: 279661258.

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  Before I start, I need to clarify that the person I'm going to praise isn't even a singer. The music that led me to know him wasn't even a complete song, but just a short audio clip circulating online recently.

  By now, people who often surf the internet should have already guessed what song and person I am talking about. Yes, it's "1 Minute 1 Second" and its creator and singer An Jun He...

  This music review was published after much hesitation, as mentioned above, he is not a singer yet and has not officially produced and released the song "1 minute 1 second" to the market. In theory, it's easy to be biased when evaluating a song based on just a short audio clip. Maybe the complete version is not as perfect as I imagined, or maybe it's even more perfect than I thought. After careful consideration, I decided to publish this review anyway, as a way to encourage new creative artists.

  The moment I heard "1 minute 1 second", the first thing that came to mind was Japanese singer Hanzawa Takeshi (FreeTEMPO) and his representative work "SKY-HIGH" which was released last year, a culmination of Shibuya-kei. The two songs have very similar styles, with gentle and soothing melodies, incorporating AOR and house music elements, and delicate yet three-dimensional composition qualities. Considering the release time, one might say that "1 minute 1 second" has a hint of imitation, but if we delve deeper into the inner personal style, it's not hard to find that there are essential differences between the two.

  If we compare the two songs to oil paintings, "SKY-HIGH" is a modernist dream landscape with rich and vibrant colors, full of fantasy and dynamism. It's exquisite and perfect, yet abstract and detached from reality. On the other hand, "1分1秒" should be classified as realistic, with classical coloring, simple yet not lacking in depth, with a subtle sadness and serenity rippling through the scene. These are two completely different styles, and the reason for comparing them is not only because of their similar musical style at first glance, but also due to their respective positions in different popular music genres.

  SKY-HIGH is a manifestation of the Shibuya-kei pop trend in J-pop, while "1 Minute 1 Second" is also a pop trend that has never been explored before in K-pop, which can be called Korea's 'new-style rap'.

  The composition starts with a elegant J-POP style, but also retains the traditional rhythmic feel. After the soothing piano intro, it completely breaks away from the Shibuya-kei influence and doesn't continue to deepen it, instead using it as a repeated melody to enhance the emotional atmosphere while incorporating many K-POP elements. The lyrics and vocals are not lagging behind either, with unique narrative rap-like storytelling that conveys literary qualities while also considering rhythmic feel, accompanied by gentle and slightly ethereal female vocals. The combination of soothing and rhythmic styles in this song is perfect, without losing their respective characteristics, something no one has achieved before.

  He can be said to be the pioneer of this new faction, believing that with his song "1 Minute 1 Second" as a starting point, Korea's rap music scene will find a path from underground to mainstream.

  I eagerly want to hear how An Jun He will produce this song completely, what kind of effect it will have. If possible, I hope he can send me a copy when the album is released!

  ……

  The music review of "Voice of Popular Music" was reprinted on the home page of many portal websites as soon as it was published.

  It's just because the commenter is Jiang Ming Shi, a notorious music critic known for his "poisonous tongue" and fondness for picking on younger generation singers. Without mentioning others, SM Entertainment groups like H.O.T in the past and TVXQ this year have all been ridiculed by him, being evaluated as dance teams with good looks, implying that their songs are not worth listening to more than once, and only their dances can catch his eye.

  No one had thought that he would praise a newcomer so highly, although there were not many flattering words in the comments, but listing that song as a new genre by itself was already the greatest compliment.

  Stimulated by this, many netizens who saw the news but had never heard of "One More Second" couldn't help but feel curious and started searching on Naver. Within just one day, the search term "1 second, Ahn Joon-hee" surpassed "Song Joong-ki's military service" to become the number one searched keyword.

  The previous hype, although there was company manipulation, most people only paid attention to the rumors, and few searched for and listened to the audio of "1 Minute 1 Second". Otherwise, with the heat of the recent rumors, An Junhe's fan club wouldn't have only over a million people.

  This song is still the first search result for one person.

  For the next few days, it still occupied the number one spot. Koreans especially worship talented people, otherwise writers, painters and other creators would not have such a high social status. Looking at the news, someone created a new popular music genre, and people flocked to it, either out of curiosity or with a critical eye wanting to distinguish between true and false. At least for Ahn Jun-hee, he was on fire again.

  The top management of SM company, who were originally worried about the decline in scandal heat, seeing the current situation, immediately contacted more media to increase the hype.

  As soon as I went online, all the major news and entertainment websites were filled with words like "An Junhe, founder". Some more formal communities that only discuss music also started frequently discussing his songs. The number of registered fans on his official website also began to grow rapidly after a brief stagnation.

  Although the hype is intense, Ahn Jun-hyuk himself didn't have much real feeling about it this time. This was mainly concentrated online or in some music magazines, and paper media reports were not many. After all, the so-called "pioneer" is just a statement from Jiang Ming Shi's family, and the commented work is only a short audio clip. Before hearing the complete song, paper media will not participate much in this topic, or even if they want to participate, they have to wait until Ahn Jun-hyuk's 1st album is officially released.

  He has more important things to attend to now.

  The next day after the comment was released, the production team took advantage of this trend and announced on its official website that "Sorry, I Love You" would be broadcast as a follow-up to "Oh! Victory, Pong Sueng Young" on Monday, November 8, half a month later, starting as a monthly fire drama.

  Due to the previous publicity and the scandal of Ahn Jun-hee, the lead actor, the audience who had been waiting for a long time was naturally tense and expectant after receiving the exact news. The crew was also in a state of tension, with everyone on edge.

  Although everyone already knew the specific broadcast date, the pressure to be borne is completely different between publishing and not publishing. When it was not published, even if something unexpected happened, it could be discussed internally for a delay, but once the premiere date was announced, it had to be done. Jumping tickets is absolutely incompatible with TV dramas, so at this time, anything that might delay progress would bring catastrophic disaster.

  As the male lead with the most screen time, Ahn Jun-hee has to participate in most of the scenes, so his pressure is naturally greater. The crew can work on two lines at the same time, shooting outdoor and indoor scenes simultaneously, but he doesn't have a cloning technique, and needs to constantly rush back and forth between locations. In recent days, he spends most of his time in the car every day, and even can't go home, so he just lives in the RV.

  "Cut! That's a wrap!"

  The recording studio of KBS Annex, the assistant director who temporarily took over the scene, shouted out this sentence after Ahn Jun-hee's whole person was withdrawn from the play, immediately slumped his shoulders and walked to a nearby rest area with a tired face, took a sip of hot water handed by Kwon Bo-geun, and began to breathe heavily.

  Quan Baogen looked at him, his eyes full of bloodshot, too tired to even want to talk, waves of heartache, but couldn't do anything, could only try his best to handle other trivial matters well, not letting him worry too much.

  After resting for a while and recovering some energy, An Junhe finally lifted his head and asked in a slightly hoarse voice: "Uncle Bao Gen, when is the next game?"

  "Take a look at the watch and said: "The shooting on that side is not very smooth, I just called to confirm, there are at least 2 more hours, plus the time it takes to rush over, you can still rest for a while, take a nap, you haven't slept well in several days."

  "Alright! Call me when you leave." An Junhe nodded, lying on the sofa, and soon his heavy breathing gradually became even, falling into a deep sleep.

  Seeing him asleep, Quan Baogen made a gesture to the passing staff on the side, indicating that they should be careful not to disturb him, and then retreated to the side.

  Tired An Junhe, this sleep was not very good, had a dream, very strange and weird, dreamed that he seemed to enter a fantasy forest, with small elves laughing mischievously around him, then dreamed of insects crawling on his feet, even burrowing into the flesh, but feeling no pain, instead very itchy, and those insects could laugh.

  At one moment I suddenly woke up and couldn't help but mock myself, for actually having such a bizarre dream.

  But then he found that his feet were indeed itchy, and there were people around him laughing, and intentionally lowering their voices to whisper...

  "Xiu Ying, sister, don't tease brother anymore, he looks very tired."

  "Who says I'm teasing him?" said Guan Shi Chang, "Let's wake him up."

  "Shall we wake up brother by tickling his feet?"

  "Ah, this is gentle, gentle. Xiao Xian, you're still young and don't understand... hmm, need to take off socks first... hehehe!"

  The girl whispered a small slogan, seemingly wanting to lift his legs and take off his socks. An Junhe closed his eyes, motionless, but pressed down hard with his legs.

  After lifting for a while, she couldn't lift it anymore. In her ear, she heard Xiuying sigh: "Hiss... such heavy thighs! Hmph, I won't be defeated, come on, use more strength!"

  "Hey, sis, what's with your tone? You sound like you're calling a dog!"

  "Haha, you're overthinking it! Hurry up, no nonsense!"

  "Hmm!" A small humming sound came from Yu Nian's side, and then he felt a pair of small hands grasping his calf, starting to pull him with force.

  "Oh oh oh oh, it's up a bit, come on come on!"

  Listening to the soft chatter of the girls beside him, Ahn Jun-hee slightly opened his eyes. After a moment's daze from the light, he saw that next to the sofa where he was lying, Su-young was cheering enthusiastically, Yoon-ah was blushing and trying hard, So-hyun was looking at him with concern, and farther away, Yu-ri, Soo-young, and Tae-hee were covering their mouths and smiling in his direction. The figures of the young girls were reflected in his eyes.