Chapter 44

In the barbershop, Zhang Kexuan looked at himself in the mirror, his face full of disbelief.

The barber was also a bit stunned. Although he had created this awesome hairstyle himself, he still found it incredible.

Li Mu stood to the side with his arms crossed and asked Chen Wan, "Wanjie, what do you think?"

"Li Mu, you're amazing..." Chen Wan didn't know what to say, because the Zhang Kexuan in the mirror seemed like a different person, better-looking, more spirited, and cleaner. In short, it was a tremendous improvement.

Li Mu nodded, also marveling. He had originally intended to give him a neat and shiny hairstyle like Chen Weiting's, but he never expected that this guy would look so handsome after the haircut.

This is the charm of the times. A hairstyle from a dozen years later is enough to make so many people gape in amazement today.

Ye Tianming, who had been watching the commotion, suddenly sat down on the chair next to Zhang Kexuan and pointed to his head, saying, "Excuse me, can you give me the same haircut?"

"No," Li Mu quickly said, "Before a band becomes successful, there must be only one standout. If everyone stands out, it's like no one stands out."

A performance group is different from the later Korean pop groups. The Chinese public always values the lead singer and ignores the others. Therefore, many lead singers are worth more than the rest of the band members combined, such as Alex from Xintu Band, Ashin from Mayday, and Wu Qingfeng from Sodagreen, and Dazhangwei from Hua'er Band...

There are too many similar examples, and this is determined by the nature of the audience, which Li Mu can't change.

Zhang Kexuan was also extremely satisfied with his new look. Now, looking at himself in the mirror, he was basically at the level of a top-notch handsome guy.

He was very happy inside, but he still sighed, "Ah, I can't thrash my head around when playing rock music anymore."

Li Mu said disdainfully, "Remember, Simple Plan's future style, in simple terms, is pop music. Only then do you have a chance to become famous. Of course, you can't abandon rock. You have to talk about rock every day and promote pop music under the banner of rock."

"Isn't that like selling dog meat under the sign of mutton?"

"Do you want to be famous or not? Stop complaining so much."

Zhang Kexuan chuckled, checked the time, and said, "It's only half past six. We've changed the name, tuned the instruments, and now I've had my long hair cut. Let's go eat something."

Li Mu nodded, then suddenly remembered something and said to Zhang Kexuan, "Do you know any photographers?"

"Photographers?"

"Yes, but with better equipment and skills."

Ye Tianming quickly said, "I know one who runs a photography studio. He learned photography in Yanjing back then."

"OK." Li Mu hurriedly said, "Get him to come over. After you perform tonight, have him take some close-up photos of you."

The group was a bit stunned, "We're just participating in a competition. Do we really need to hire a photographer?"

"Yes." Li Mu glanced at Zhang Kexuan. If the photographer could make this guy even more handsome with his shutter and software, and if they spent some money to do some PR news on a few online media outlets and run a small ad before the TV broadcast, it should attract a lot of girls, right?

Ye Tianming didn't know what Li Mu was thinking, but he still took out his phone and made a call.

The other party seemed to be very accommodating. Upon hearing that Ye Tianming was participating in the competition, he immediately said he would bring his best equipment.

Li Mu finally felt relieved. With no video websites yet, the four members of Simple Plan could only rely on television media to become famous. However, Li Mu believed in "Li Bai" and in Zhang Kexuan's image and singing ability. This time, they would definitely make a stunning debut.

...

At exactly 8 PM, the national band competition's preliminary round in Nan Su Province officially began. The students of Jinling University were very interested in this competition. By 7:30 PM, the gymnasium was already packed, and there were still many people standing at the back, estimating at least two to three thousand people.

Li Mu and Chen Wan were lucky enough to get a relatively front row seat. As for the four members of Simple Plan, they were already in the backstage, nervously preparing.

A female host from the local Jinling station was in charge of hosting the provincial round. At 8 PM, she officially announced the start of the national band competition and introduced the five judges, four of whom were professors from Jinling Art College, and one from a record company in Yanjing.

Li Mu didn't have much hope for this kind of competition. There were no shortage of good-voiced lead singers in underground bands and college bands, but they lacked many things when put together in a band: skilled musicians, high-quality equipment, and excellent original songs.

As the competition began, it indeed went as Li Mu had predicted. Most of the bands were terrible, each lacking in various ways. Occasionally, there were one or two that were barely acceptable, but they were far from being able to become famous.

The judges were also very consistent in their scoring. On a ten-point scale, the highest and lowest scores from the five judges were removed, and the remaining scores were the total. The maximum score should have been 30 points, but after seven bands performed, the highest score was only 19 points, which was truly pitiful.

By the time the eighth band performed, nearly two hours had passed. Most of the bands' performances were boring, and the college students in the audience had lost their enthusiasm for clapping. Li Mu heard a girl next to him complain to her friend, "If it weren't for the Peony Pavilion band from our school, I would have left long ago."

The other girl nodded, "Yeah, what are they singing? It's so terrible."

The eighth band finished their performance, and the applause was pitifully sparse. The lead singer even had tears in his eyes when he bowed.

The host returned to the stage, "Alright, please let our judges score the Oxygen Deprivation band."

A moment later, the judges raised their scorecards.

"Alright, removing the highest score of 5 and the lowest score of 2, the final score for the Oxygen Deprivation band is: 11 points!"

The judges' comments were also consistent: "The original song is not outstanding, and the lead singer's voice is not good enough."

"Next, please welcome the ninth band of the evening: Simple Plan. Their original song is 'Li Bai.'"

"Here they come!" Chen Wan was excited like a child, tugging at Li Mu's T-shirt.

At this moment, the other three members of the band carried their instruments onto the stage.

Li Mu had arranged their positioning on stage. The stage was divided into three sections horizontally. The drum set was in the center of the back section, the bassist and the other guitarist were on either side of the middle section, and the front center position was reserved for Zhang Kexuan.

The three members were already in place, and the guitarist and bassist had plugged in their instruments. At this moment, Zhang Kexuan slung his electric guitar over his shoulder and walked out from the backstage with a cool stride.

This was the attention-grabbing point.

If all four members came out together, the audience would look at all of them first and then say, "Wow, look, that guy is so handsome."

But by having the three supporting members get into position and remain still, and then having Zhang Kexuan come out, the audience would directly say, "Wow, that guy is so handsome."

Indeed!

The girls around him were stunned by Zhang Kexuan, and many of them couldn't help but scream. The screams were continuous and didn't stop for a long time, which immediately set them apart from the other bands.

Zhang Kexuan stood in front of the microphone and said in a low voice, "Hello everyone, we are Simple Plan."

Originally, Zhang Kexuan was quite nervous, but after hearing eight terrible songs in the backstage, he was no longer nervous. He was very confident in the song "Li Bai," and the fact that so many girls were screaming for him as soon as he stepped on stage made him even more confident.

This simple introduction was also Li Mu's idea. The host had already said a lot, so it was best to minimize unnecessary talk and get straight to the point.

Indeed, Zhang Kexuan turned around and gave the other three members a look. Then, Ye Tianming hit the drumsticks four times to set the rhythm, and "Li Bai" was performed for the first time in front of the cameras.

Just the light and casual prelude of "Li Bai" was already refreshing. When Zhang Kexuan started singing the first line, not only did the audience scream and cheer, but even the listless judges perked up.

Li Mu had required Zhang Kexuan to grasp the emotion and feeling while singing. He needed Zhang Kexuan to express a light and casual, even a bit rebellious attitude in his voice and emotion. It must be said that Zhang Kexuan performed very well today.

While Zhang Kexuan was singing, Li Mu looked back and saw that almost everyone was tapping along to the rhythm. This was enough to prove that the song was very successful in the live atmosphere.

Seeing the adoring looks of the infatuated female college students, Li Mu became even more confident in Simple Plan's future success.