Chapter 155 - A Force To Be Reckoned With
In the music charts, the month ended with Iris Long's victory in the singles rankings while Jin Chonglin retained his title as reigning king in the album rankings.
The Black Stars celebrated with gusto over their victory on the singles chart and were now eyeing the albums chart. On the other hand, Jin Chonglin's army of fans were sullen that they lost in the singles chart. As a result, they became even more determined to defend the number 1 position of their idol's album.
Both of these fan clubs poured tremendous support to their respective celebrities' albums. It was in this way that Jin Chonglin's fans regained their confidence because the gap between them and the Black Stars was still too big. Jin Chonglin had been at the top of his game for years now. Additionally, he wasn't just popular in the country but across Asia as well. Compared to Iris Long who just made her comeback, not to mention her past as a second-rate pop star, Jin Chonglin had already rooted himself deeply in the music industry.
But as soon as the new month started, JJ's record label released an official announcement.
"We are excited to announce the upcoming release of the piano version of Iris Long's album 'Rebirth' next month. This new album will be titled 'Rebirth Melodies'. All of the songs in the album are singlehandedly transcribed for solo piano by Iris herself. So for her fans who are pianists, we have another exciting news. We have compiled the sheet music for all of the songs into a piano songbook which will be available for purchase separately or as a package with the album. One month from now, Iris Long's new album 'Rebirth Melodies' and the piano songbook will be officially available for sale in the country and internationally as well. Please look forward to Iris Long's next album!"
JJ's record label also released thirty-second audio samples for the piano versions of "Rebirth", "Black Star" and "Phantom of Your Love", the current top songs from the original album.
As expected, the Black Stars were ecstatic upon hearing this news. Although "Rebirth Melodies" technically contained the same songs as the original "Rebirth" album, it was still considered as a new album. Coming up with a new album so quickly was already an accomplishment to be proud of. What was more, this new album was planned for international release! How exciting was that?
The pianists among them were the most excited. Many of them already made their own fan transcriptions of the songs from the album, but they still wanted to get their hands on the piano songbook as soon as possible. They wanted to compare their boss Iris' original transcriptions to their own versions.
Listening to the audio samples, they were already quite impressed. It seemed that their boss Iris didn't just transcribe the songs as they were but also took creative liberties and rearranged them to elicit more powerful emotions.
They were all so excited about this new album that it took some time before someone noticed that there was more to the announcement. When someone pointed it out, people began reading the next lines of text at the bottom.
"The song 'Phantom of Your Love' has been chosen as the official theme song for an upcoming film. Iris took it upon herself to rearrange the song to make it more cinematic and fitting for the movie's overall theme. In addition to this, we are also confirming that Iris has been appointed as the film's official music composer. She is currently working hard in cooperation with the film's director and producers to compose a film score for the entire movie. We will reveal more information in accordance to the film's production progress. Thank you."
After reading, everyone was completely shocked.
Iris Long was going to compose a film score for a movie?!
What the hell?! How did that happen? Could she really compose an entire film score by herself?
This bombshell instantly overshadowed the news of the upcoming release of her piano album "Rebirth Melodies". People wanted to know more about this mysterious film and how Iris Long became its official music composer. They bombarded JJ's record label with online comments, e-mails, and even with phone calls. However, the record label refused to say anything more. The people turned to Iris Long's social media pages and even to Bright Summit but both kept silent just like JJ's record label.
And so everyone started playing detective. In the following days, people started investigating which films were currently in production. As a result, some directors and producers had to release official statements denying that Iris Long was working with them because they were being constantly bothered by these wannabe detectives.
There was another outcome to this huge revelation. "Phantom of Your Love" finally moved from its stable fifth position in the singles chart, jumping all the way to number 2. It unexpectedly joined the fierce battle between Jin Chonglin's song and "Black Star".
Fans were curious about how their boss Iris would make "Phantom of Your Love" more cinematic. The musicians among the fans even started making their own cinematic versions of the song even without knowing what the film was about. As a result, there was a great surge of fan covers of this song being uploaded online. A betting pool was even set up to see which of these fan covers would be the most similar to Iris' official version when it was released.
After a couple of weeks, a much bigger shock swept everyone.
The album "Rebirth" finally kicked Jin Chonglin's album from its number 1 position in the music chart. Although its hold to the top position was not stable yet, the fact that Iris Long's album was even able to reach this position and replace an album by a big star like Jin Chonglin was already unbelievable to many. After all, there were still a lot people who viewied Iris Long as a second-rate pop star despite her image change and recent accomplishments.
As the new queen of the music charts, taking the sought-after double crown, Iris Long was finally starting to be recognized as a force to be reckoned with in the music industry.