Chapter 119: The Battle for the Annual Championship The song "Spring Love Sakura" has topped the Melon monthly chart in February and March. Up to now, this song is still firmly in the top three of the daily charts, and can occasionally steal the first place on the daily charts. It can be said that it has considerable staying power. This is based on the premise that "Spring Love Sakura" has no publicity and promotion. After the first episode of "THE FIRST TAKE" is broadcast, this song is bound to regain its popularity. "Based on the current momentum, there is a good chance that 'Spring Love Sakura' will be able to take first place on this year's Melon Chart!" IU said with emotion. Her music performance in the past two years has been quite good, but due to the late release of her songs, she only won the Melon Unnatural Yearly Championship, but failed to win the Natural Yearly Championship. As we all know, the annual chart is somewhat unfair to singers who release songs late because the songs released at the beginning of the year have a longer cumulative time, while the songs released at the end of the year have a shorter cumulative time. On the other hand, for the non-natural annual chart, each song is accumulated for 365 days, thus ensuring the fairness of the data in terms of time. From a rational analysis from this perspective, the non-natural annual crown is actually more valuable than the natural annual crown. However, the reality is that the Natural Year Chart will be posted on major music websites and will exist for a long time as an important reference list. The non-natural yearly list is only counted by some fans and forums. In terms of popularity and attention, it is far inferior to the natural yearly list!

This resulted in IU's fans bragging about her dominance in music, but they actually left a weak spot for the haters to fight back. Since your main sound source is so strong, why is there no natural annual championship? Don’t you like it? Fans can only use the excuse that IU doesn't care about these honors and try to explain the value of the unnatural annual championship. But the haters naturally won’t listen to the fans’ explanations. They will just selectively turn a deaf ear and regard the authoritative annual charts on the music website as the gospel. What kind of unnatural annual list is this? It’s just a fake list! If it is really that valuable, why don't music websites use it as a selection criterion? Meeting this kind of person is like a scholar meeting a soldier. You can't explain yourself even if you are right! But then again, does IU really not care about the honor of winning the Natural Year Championship? How can it be! Who would complain about having too many honors? To be fair, IU does want a natural annual championship to consolidate its position. "Spring Love Sakura" is a collaboration between her and Jin Shiming after all. If she can win this year's Melon Natural Year Championship, it will undoubtedly give a great boost to her career. "The first half of the year hasn't even ended yet, who can guarantee that there won't be a hit song that becomes a global hit in the second half of the year?" Jin Shiming replied casually. Judging from the big data of previous years, the probability of a hit song being released in the second half of the year is often higher than in the first half. Especially the summer war in June and July, which can be described as the Ragnarok of the KPOP gods. Those who don’t have some ability would not dare to choose this time to return. For example, last year and the year before, the two songs that took the Natural Year Championship by following IU, miss A's "Bad Girl Good Girl" and T-ara's "roly poly", were both released in late June and early July. As a spring song with a strong seasonality, even Jin Shiming cannot easily guarantee whether "Spring Love Sakura" can survive this summer and withstand the repeated attacks of the summer war. Furthermore, Jin Shiming also has high hopes for his next album, "Summer", the second of the Four Seasons album. He is also looking forward to the title song of this album to surpass "Haru Ai Sakura" and "Haruhi". ...Perhaps it was because they still had a tacit understanding, the new version of "Spring Love Sakura" performed by Kim Se Myung and IU was so satisfying that even the always demanding Kim Se Myung was quite satisfied. The two people's singing, as well as the piano and guitar accompaniment, are all perfectly and harmoniously intertwined. If I have to find a word to describe it, it would probably be "harmony"! This version of "Spring Love Sakura" makes people feel warm all over, as if their ears have had a spa treatment. "Ji Eun, your singing skills have improved a lot!" Jin Shiming praised.

"I learned a lot of skills from Oppa last time. After a period of time, I have gained some new understandings." IU said modestly. Her singing skills were not bad to begin with. After seeing from Jin Shiming what it meant that "there are always people better than you", she gritted her teeth and worked hard to hone her singing skills, and her progress is considerable. "The show 'THE FIRST TAKE' is just a test. Later I plan to launch a professional, in-depth, specific and detailed talk show where I can have in-depth exchanges with guests about music. At that time, I may have to invite Ji Eun to take some time out to discuss my understanding of music." Jin Shiming revealed. Music is fluid, changing, and constantly evolving. It is bound to be difficult to create excellent and popular music if you work in isolation. As a singer and producer, Jin Shiming really enjoys discussing music with his peers. The collision of musical concepts, the differences in artistic aesthetics, and the confrontation of technical techniques and ingenuity can all give Jin Shiming inspiration and enlightenment, allowing him to better appreciate the purest charm of music. Perhaps such a professional music salon program is destined to be difficult to succeed commercially, but Jin Shiming still wants to do it. He hopes that through this program, the audience can gain a deeper understanding of the guests' artistic personalities, discover the musical concepts behind unpopular songs, and pay attention to some behind-the-scenes stories that are rarely focused on by entertainment gossip media. "Oppa, you are really unique!" IU looked at Jin Shiming deeply, but smiled sweetly and said, "I don't dare to discuss it, but Oppa, I am very happy to participate in the music talk show you mentioned." In her opinion, Jin Shiming is a bit like a contradictory individual. On the one hand, Jin Shiming is very good at grasping popular and commercial things, and is shrewd and calculating beyond his age. But on the other hand, Jin Shiming is full of idealism and likes to do some stupid things that seem stubborn. While making appropriate compromises towards popularization and commercialization, he also adhered to his bottom line as a musician and tried hard to balance the two ends. At the same time, he also tried his best to exert his influence to guide the music market and public aesthetics in order to create a relatively better environment. It’s a pity that IU’s Chinese proficiency is not deep enough, otherwise she would definitely think of a sentence at this moment. Being poor cares themselves, being wealthy cares the world! This sentence may be the most appropriate to describe Jin Shiming. IU admits that she does not have the breadth of mind and courage of Kim Se Myung, but she is happy to help Kim Se Myung within her ability and hopes that he will be able to project his ideal picture into reality one day. (End of this chapter)