The good things never dissipate. Even if you fall for the 100th time, you have to get up for the 101st time. At the end of your perseverance, there will be a good coming.
On the night of December 3, 2018, Chen Keyu, who was tortured to exhaustion by the wedding business in his hand, had just returned home and sat down. He thought: Do I want to upload "Strange Words" to Douyin again?
It's already turned. Make a video, label the strange words "Standing Alone, Standing Alone, Daigo Empowerment" one by one, and have to sleeplessly for another night. He suddenly caught a glimpse that the uploaded works this time could participate in the "Echo Planning" activity of Douyin to support original musicians, and one of the mentors was Zhang Shaohan. Chen Keyu was her iron fan, so she raised her spirits again.
Still too sleepy. The video is done, and there is a pinyin label that is wrong. Chen Keyu realized, but did not want to adjust again. Since composing this song in November 2017, he has published it more than 20 times on Douyin — hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of views, at most. He firmly believes that this is a good song, and it is inevitable that he will be a little frustrated. Chen Keyu's more than 7,000 fans at that time were accumulated by pets. "Send videos of cats and dogs, hundreds of thousands of likes; sing their own songs, 8."
Under the inertia formed by the long-term persistence, he clicked the release button. This is the 26th upload.
"That's it, it still can't catch fire anyway."
<h1>"Sounds good, but there is no possibility of red."</h1>
No one was optimistic about this young man. Chen Keyu asked three music companies with this song "Strange Words" if they could promote it. The reply is much the same, "You don't feel anything about this song"; "It sounds good, but there is no possibility of red".
This song is when he watched the news when he saw a group of strange words "and double rattling", immediately had the idea of creation, hand tapped the table to knock out the beat, sat still for half a day, with the "Strange Words" score outline, and then spent more than half a year, from more than 200 strange words to select the most commonly used 70 more, and finally wrote.
In the past few years, Chen Keyu has long been familiar with similar feelings. He grew up singing, and his family believed that he could eat the bowl of music. The frustration began with the university admission to the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, in a group of talented people, he felt that he had become an "obscure, completely unsung" existence - the opportunity to perform on behalf of the school, never to him; there were classmates around him who debuted by the draft, he participated twice, and the audition was not passed.
"Very frustrated. In a school, you have a bunch of people who can't sing, why talk about pursuing your dreams? After graduating from college in 2013, Chen Keyu, who was a little disheartened, returned to his hometown of Suzhou and started a wedding business. In the eyes of many students, he chose the easiest path for people studying art to take - giving up.
In the music industry, this is the choice of most people. "It's hard in itself, it's even harder to stick to it." Among Chen Keyu's classmates, some people have made their debuts in the draft, and some people have filmed, and then the rise of vibrato, many people have also tried it. But gradually, there was no response, and everyone fell silent.
Until he became popular because of "Strange Words", his classmates sent messages in shock, "Oh my God, you are still insisting on creating? "Some people wonder why it is Chen Keyu who will come out last." A good friend asked him, "For so many years, I didn't know you could still compose music." ”
"Actually, it's been in college." Chen Keyu said that he was not optimistic at that time, so he composed his own lyrics and music, but did not listen to the people around him. He no longer shows his dedication to music, but he still can't let go of it in his heart.
<h1>The light of a tired life</h1>
Chen Keyu can't feel happy from the wedding business - some families have a lot of money and pay him to discuss the details of the wedding in the middle of the night; and some families only come up with a budget of 100,000 yuan, want the wedding to have concert-level lights and sound, and have to bring a rotating stage. Chen Keyu said bluntly that it really can't be done. The other party slapped the table and scolded, pointing at the nose and saying that he was a profiteer.
"The more bad things I encounter, the more I want to write songs." It became my outlet, or rather, the only light. Many late nights, Chen Keyu did not sleep, thought of words and songs, and then excitedly shared them with friends who could not sleep. Sometimes I also record my work on a CD and put it in the car to listen to.
One day in 2015, a recording engineer told him that for 300 yuan, he could push a song to a music app. Chen Keyu was moved. Under that song, there are 7 comments. There is no shortage of praise.
"Now that I think about it, 7 messages are actually quite pitiful." Chen Keyu smiled and recalled, "But at that time, the fire in my heart was lit again." ”
For a long time, he was in the wedding business and creating at the same time. The former is to subsidize the latter.
On the night when he didn't work, he wrote songs, recorded songs, composed a song for idol Zhang Shaohan, posted it to the fan forum, and got praise; soon, a star's support will find him and ask if he can write a song. "At that time, I was very surprised that my songs could be heard by more people."
So, one song, two songs, gradually became twenty, thirty songs. "Strange Words" is one of the ordinary ones. In the next two years, Chen Keyu released two albums. "The first song has a few likes, which can give me courage and encouragement; but when it comes to the 10th and 20th songs, or a few likes, it becomes torture."
Do you want to keep insisting? Chen Keyu once again came to the crossroads. He signed a music company to represent the song, and later found that there was a clause in the agreement: after 3 years, the copyright of the song would be taken away. He was pitted.
Positive feedback is also decreasing. His mother told him euphemistically, "Your song is always not hot, either the word is a song, there must be a problem"; Fa Xiao later also "revealed his heart" with him, "Friends think you have a problem - there is no publicity company to help create momentum, just like a child who is not convinced." ”
The only echo comes from TikTok. Friends' songs have become popular twice on TikTok. Chen Keyu decided to try again. Over the course of a year, he posted the songs he had composed, and over and over again, waiting for the feedback he had been waiting for for a long time, and became more and more convinced that it would come. At that time, on Douyin, more and more excellent musicians had emerged and been recognized. When Chen Keyu looked at them, he felt that he saw his future self.
"Now that I think about it, TikTok may be the only chance for those of us who don't have a strong backing." Chen Keyu recalled, "Talent shows, variety shows, it is difficult to be our stage. If you want to be well known, you may only have the Internet. ”
<h1>"You're on fire! It's on fire! You know? ”</h1>
When the short video of "Strange Words" was sent, it was already dawn. On the way to work in the early morning of December 4, 2018, Chen Keyu took a look at his mobile phone and gave 36,000 likes; when he arrived at the company, there were nearly 100,000. Things didn't seem to be the same as usual. The phone is out of battery, and after the charging restarts, the number of likes has been 500,000.
Calls began to pour in, countless offers of cooperation, and the people who signed up to the company shouted almost ecstatically, "You're on fire!" It's on fire! You know? ”
For a moment, Chen Keyu felt that everything was not true. He found a corner, lit a cigarette, took a deep breath, and his whole body was numb and crispy, as if floating in the air. The greater sense of illusion came from the fact that 15 days later, he stood on the stage of Hunan Satellite TV's "Happy Base Camp", and He Jiong XieNa and others who had been watching on the screen since childhood stood next to him and shouted to the audience, "Let's invite Chen Keyu, the author of "Strange Words"..." He felt trance: It's so red? Because of a short video that almost didn't send out?
But the happiness of standing on stage is real. In that show, he stood at the center of the stage, a huge stage he had never experienced before. The spotlight shone on him, and He Jiong and countless spectators in the audience said, applauding Chen Keyu. A tsunami of cheers rang out, and Chen Keyu's heart suddenly twitched: everything he had wanted was finally in his hand.
The song's impact later completely exceeded his expectations. His Douyin private messages are almost full, most of which are applications for cover songs of "Strange Words". Soon, the "Cantonese version", "Chongqing version" and even "Spring Festival version" and "garbage classification version" of "Strange Characters" appeared on the Internet... In a "you can sing a few strange words" campaign, the related video played more than 840 million times.
During that period of the Spring Festival, many commentators said that "Strange Characters" made people feel the breadth and depth of Chinese characters and even Chinese culture. Chen Keyu once met a child at the airport, wearing a cultural shirt printed with the lyrics of "Strange Words". In fact, on e-commerce websites, there is no shortage of T-shirts, sweatshirts and even snacks and fudges derived from "Strange Words".
On November 7, Chen Keyu shared his story with Douyin
<h1>"Because of love, so happy"</h1>
After that, Chen Keyu returned to Suzhou and quickly changed hands with the wedding company. With fame, he could support himself by singing, all in music.
Today's pace is very different from before: his week is filled with commercial performances, moving from city to city and stage to stage. But what has not changed is that he still insists on lyrics, composition, recording, and promotion. Most others have long since fallen asleep at the moment when he is still creating, which is the most inspirational moment. It was common to sleep only four or five hours a day; sometimes I walked into the studio at night and walked out of the studio, and the sun was already high above my head the next day.
"Very tired. But doing what you love, so you are also very happy. After the last performance before the Spring Festival in 2019, Chen Keyu took a vibrato in the waiting room to thank fans. At this time last year, he was still confused and entangled; now, he was already supporting his life and dreams with singing.
The first step was taken. He now wondered: How can he compose another song that is widely sung like "Strange Words"? "It's still hard." Chen Keyu said that the moment he sat at the table late at night to create, whether he had been red in the past or not did not matter at all, "Every time is a new reincarnation." Now, he wants to keep two songs a month prolific and then post them on Douyin.
Someone suggested to him that in order to maintain the heat, whether to imitate "Strange Words" and create several "antonyms" and "synonyms". That's almost visible to the naked eye.
Chen Keyu did not hesitate to refuse. "My biggest wish now is for more people to hear my songs." He paused, "I really like my songs, not mixed with substance." ”
Today, Chen Keyu is no longer anxious. A group of people who love music also know each other through vibrato, form circles, communicate usually, cheer each other up, and guess who will be the next red.
And the fans. A high school student wrote to him privately: There are really many clusters and complications in the final exams. If it weren't for "Strange Words", he wouldn't have known. Chen Keyu is very pleased, and letting the students master strange words in fun is also one of his original intentions.
Probably because this song is widely sung among students, Chen Keyu's fan base has a special number of children. He always felt sorry for them and told them to study as well as possible, because "I didn't study well, and I suffered a lot of losses later." He is also passionate about enlightening students who have conflicts with their parents and are confused about life. "I never thought I would one day be able to influence others."
There is always an echo of giving. In a performance that rotated and was extremely tired, Chen Keyu almost fainted. Suddenly, a little boy in the audience shouted, "Chen Keyu, you are fat!" With a laugh, Chen Keyu woke up and called the boy to the stage.
"Why do you say I'm fat?"
"Because I've been watching your videos..."
"At that moment, I was very touched, someone paid attention to you and supported you..." Chen Keyu said, at this moment, it is already a good life that he can think of.