Chapter 179 - New music for the show
Chapter 179 - New music for the show
The next day I had to go to the set so we could record the scenes at the Duncan house in preparation for the fishing trip and the scene that would take place after we returned from the fishing trip, which didn't take long so I could go home early.
The rest of the cast stayed to continue shooting other scenes for their characters, including Laura.
Back home, my idea was to get ready for the opening of the Dark Pistol concert.
According to Selena, her audience were real rock fans, an audience that was a little prejudiced against music of other styles, which made things a little complicated for me, as my repertoire was very diverse.
Of the pure rock songs I could sing, there was only Numb, In The End, Up Down (which I did a rock version of), and maybe A Bar Song and Boyfriend.
That took The Lazy Song, All of Me and Bailando out of the possible songs I could sing.
Of course, if the crowd was excited, I could add those songs to the list I would sing and they would still have a good time, even if it wasn't the kind of music they liked, but it would depend on me really getting the crowd excited. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
So just in case, I had to prepare a strong rock repertoire to sing there in case things didn't go 100% smoothly.
While I was thinking about what to do, I decided to open up my analytics to see how the channel was doing and how my growth had been over the last week.
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Monetized Views Songs: 3,414,000 (+3,414,000) = $4,016 (+$4,016)
Monetized Views Vlogs: 1.621.000 (+1.621.000) = $10.549 (+$10.549)
(810k views of Orphanage videos)
[428,000 subscribers +28,000 subs
[Spokify music plays: 9,400,000] +1,760,000 views Spokify Monetized Views: 1,760,000 = $7,040 (+$7,040)
[Instabram: 200k followers] +30k followers
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The two vlogs I posted for the orphanage had over 800k views combined, and one of the vlogs I posted today meant that of the $10k I received from the channel this week, I had to donate $5k to the orphanage.
Did that sound like a lot of money to you? Yes, it certainly did, but when I thought about how much more the kids needed it than I did, I didn't worry about it.
It's not like I didn't get something in return, because the videos had gotten me a lot of subscribers, as well as people interested in watching my old videos, which generated more money for the other videos, and loyal fans who would follow me more often, and a good image for my career.
It was a win-win situation.
With the orphanage getting the money they so desperately need and me getting the popularity that will make me even more money in the future.
Even the song [You've Got a Friend in Me] did very well on the channel and on Spokify, with over 400k views in less than a week.
Compared to the other songs, it didn't do that well, but it was something I expected.
Over time, this song would grow slowly, so I wasn't worried about it being a flower.
With nothing else important to do that week, I spent the rest of my days just focusing on the repertoire I would have for the concert.
Since I wasn't sure if I would be able to sing half of my songs, I thought I would write a new song.
A song with a rock style, but one that would also appeal to an audience that wasn't into that style.
Considering that my biggest hit at gigs was Boyfriend, I thought of a song that was like the opposite of that.
Boyfriend was the song about a boy who was happy to see the girl he liked alone at a party and took the opportunity to talk to her and show her that he could be the boyfriend she deserved, leaving aside the asshole who treated her badly.
A song lyric that made the girls happy as they imagined the scene of this handsome boy coming to talk to them at the party.
Something that the vast majority of girls love, but another thing that I know girls also like is the bad boy, the boy who doesn't care about anything, the boy who seems too distant, too good for them, something unattainable.
And to fulfill that image, I would use a new song, a song whose lyrics are about a guy rejecting a girl who is after him.
Whereas in Boyfriend the boy was chasing the girl and explaining why they should be together, in this new song I would be singing about him rejecting the girl, explaining why they weren't compatible and shouldn't be together.
While she was a nice girl and he was speaking the stereotypes of the average girl who would fit in with the vast majority of girls who would listen to my song, he was saying why they were so different and couldn't work out.
Thinking that this lyric was focused on dismissing a girl, saying they wouldn't work out, you would think that girls would just feel like this song wasn't for them, right?
But no, when that song came out in my previous world, the girls went even crazier with those lyrics, making up different stories about the character in the song and feeling that he was much more charming and mysterious, which made them want to pursue him even more.
It was basically a version of the Thrist trap disguised as a rejection.
This song didn't make the guys as uncomfortable to listen to because I wouldn't sing it in a way that sounded like I was talking to their girlfriends, but the girls would be so interested in the character of the song that the result would be very similar to Boyfriend.
So with the days I had available before I could sing the opening for Dark Pistol, I spent that time practicing my old songs, practicing my skills, as well as developing and recording this new song.
Since it was going to be a big show, I called Mark and Frank over to my house so we could practice a few times as I wanted them on stage with me.
Their reaction to knowing we were going to be singing in front of 3,000 people was priceless.
From performing to small audiences of no more than 100 people before meeting me, to growing that audience to a few hundred with our shows together, and now making the leap to over 3,000 people, our improvement was clear to see.
"Noah, Noah... coming to play with you was the best decision I ever made!" Mark laughed as he gave me a half hug.
Frank next to him also nodded in agreement.
Considering that they each made $350 per gig with me, and that they only made between $50 and $100 per gig with their old band, the difference was huge.
And when they saw how much I was growing, they saw that they were going to get more and more with every show we did in the future.
To open for the Dark Pistols, I wouldn't get paid that much, only $2,500, something Selena had to give up to get them to choose me.
For a show like that, her band would make a profit of over $200,000, so paying me $2,500 to open the show was very little.
But considering that I was a bottom of the D-range artist, just climbing from the E-range, and they were top of the C-range artists, almost climbing to the B-range, this opening was more of an opportunity for me to get known to their San Francisco audience than an opportunity for them to have me open the show, since they didn't need me to sell tickets.
The advantage is that after opening for them, my popularity in San Francisco would be so hot that we could start organizing solo shows for me.
Even if they were small gigs, gigs that could bring in five figures a night, which was a big change from what I was getting paid now.
As we rehearsed, Mark and Frank loved the new song I was going to sing, especially Frank, who liked it so much that he gave me some tips on how to improve the guitar and bass parts of the song, which were the main instruments, as well as some small changes in the editing of the song that could enhance the feeling I was trying to convey even more.
His editing tips were to add some sound effects or parts of a choir in the background of the song to enhance my singing voice, which we had to record in advance to be able to use in the show.
With his changes, I could close my eyes and imagine this song being sung by a cowboy from the far west, rejecting a beautiful, innocent city girl.
Frank said that he saw the character in this song as the jerk in Boyfriend who tried on the girl he was trying to win over and realized that they weren't a match, so he had to reject her in a way that didn't hurt her, but still seemed very elegant.
Mark, on the other hand, said he couldn't think of anything as deep as us, he just liked the lyrics and the melody of the beat and thought it was a good song, more to his liking than Boyfriend's.
Even though the three of them had different opinions about the song, I was sure that the public would like it and that it would be a big hit!