Christopher Nissen is a Danish pop singer. Outside of his home country in European and North American markets, Christopher wasn't much of a name, and the song never made it onto the Billboard 100 singles chart.
But in China, Christopher is quite famous. Since 2014, the 12 singles he has released have ranked in the top ten of the QQ music charts, and on NetEase Cloud Music, works such as "Told You So" and "Nympho" have more than 10,000 reviews. In the past four years, the 27-year-old singer, known as "Little C" by Chinese fans, has performed in China eight times, and he has also appeared at the global launch of Huawei's Mate 20 series. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, he now makes more money in China than in his home country of Denmark.
"There is no mature experience to show how it can develop in China, it is a young market, especially for international artists. Can we grow from scratch? I'm an experiment. Christopher told Bloomberg Businessweek.
Behind this experiment, there may still be logic and laws to be discussed. The evolution of the Chinese music market itself, his personal style and the publicity strategy surrounding him have all played an important role.
In 2014, Christopher conquered fans in his hometown with his album Told You So. His subsequent performances in Germany, Norway and Sweden were met with a mediocre response. The good news, though, is that the album performs well on QQ Music. At that time, he had never heard of QQ Music, and under the arrangement of signing the label EMI Denmark (now owned by Warner Music), he embarked on a journey to Perform in China.
Due to the rampant piracy, the Chinese music market was not favored at that time. In 2013, the size of China's music market was not as large as Christopher's hometown of Denmark. This changed with the legalization. Driven by the streaming media launched by Tencent Music Entertainment Group, NetEase Cloud Music and Xiami, the Chinese music market has achieved surprising development. According to ifPI's report, the Chinese music market ranked 10th in the world in 2017, up two places from the previous year, and China ranked in the top 10 for the first time on this list.
The rise of The Chinese music market has made it attractive to more foreign artists. If Christopher first came to China to perform with a tentative mentality and accidentality, the continuous visits later are obviously a manifestation of long-term development. Christopher also learned Chinese. Streaming media becoming the main listening medium means that people's choices are richer and more dispersed, thus giving more opportunities to relatively niche music and artists.
Christopher takes the love song route, and this style is actually not a niche. He did not succeed in the United States, on the one hand, it may be that the domestic pop music scene in the United States can already be described as saturated, on the other hand, the popular music of the love song department no longer has a strong attraction in the competition with hip-hop, rock and electronics. For comparison, in China and even in Asia, pop love songs can still capture a large number of listeners. Of course, Christopher brings a little "dirty", and the style of being interpreted as "little yellow song" also promotes the communication effect.
Xiuxing Ma, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Warner Music Asia, assisted Christopher in formulating its development strategy in China. He said that in order to gain a firm foothold in China, in addition to Shanghai and Beijing, it is also necessary to perform in second-tier cities such as Chengdu, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Wuhan. These performances may not make money, but if you don't go, the audience won't remember you.
Music isn't the only path to publicity. As early as 2014, Christopher appeared on variety shows such as "Happy Base Camp" and "Every Day Upward". Ma Xiuxing told Christopher that for the various strange challenges raised by the host, those who want to come will not refuse. Christopher has shown abs on TV, eaten jellyfish, and staged a "smell a woman's fragrance" test.
Music variety shows make it easier for the audience to access new songs and artists, such as "Singer", which allows Dimahi from Kazakhstan and Bulgarian singer Christian Kostov to enter the vision of Chinese audiences, compared with the more entertaining atmosphere of life, Christopher has more aspects of the display, but also seems more close to the people. After the broadcast of "Every Day Upward", many people asked on the Internet who the "small fresh meat" of that program was.
Even the sympathetic song genre, the light-hearted and funny style, also allowed Christopher not to be pressured by censorship. Many Artists in Europe and the United States have been banned from performing in China for political opinions or misconduct, including Katy Perry, Maroon 5, U2 and Justin Bieber. For these big-name artists, the ban doesn't diminish their popularity, and they may not care, but for Christopher, who is far from reaching the level of international superstar, a similar ban could be devastating to his career.
Title image from: Tulips album cover, with cuts