Damn Idol Episode 183
* * *
I had worked in the United States for a very long time, but I had almost no connection with HR Corporation.
I knew quite a bit of information related to HR Corporation, but I didn’t really know the character of the people in the organization.
That was because HR Corporation was a company that aimed for traditional white mainstream culture.
Some people might tilt their heads at my words.
After all, HR Corporation had shown interest in Sedalbaegil several times.
Alex, the manager of Chris Edward and the ace of HR Corporation, had sent me a love call, and there had also been an offer asking us to sing the song.
But this had to be interpreted from the perspective of business sectors.
If I had been an American singer active in America, HR Corporation would not have shown much interest.
Because I didn’t fit the business direction they were primarily pushing in the Billboard sector.
If I were active on Billboard, recruiting me and succeeding with me might even have had a negative effect on their overall business structure.
But if I were a singer based overseas, they could show as much interest as they wanted.
It wasn’t as if they only sold white mainstream culture no matter what.
A company on the scale of HR Corporation needed to pursue business diversification, and among those avenues would be the overseas pop market.
HR Corporation’s customers—the traditional white market—and the customers of K-pop, including Sedalbaegil, did not overlap.
As long as I didn’t bombard Billboard under the name Zion.
I was already well aware of all that.
So when the offer came from HR Corporation asking us to sing the song, I thought it was a two-track strategy.
They would release one track with the traditional white vocalist they had, and Sedalbaegil would sing the remix version.
Sedalbaegil might be unknown in America, but there were quite a few people who had seen us on The Color Show.
Also, the number of purchases of The First Day in America was quite high.
Because it was an album made in collaboration with such famous masters.
It probably wouldn’t reach platinum certification, one million copies, on U.S. sales alone, but gold certification, five hundred thousand copies, would come soon.
But there was one thing I hadn’t expected.
“At last, we meet. Scammer. Has it been a year?”
Andrew Bryant, who had taken the CEO seat at HR Corporation a few months ago, remembered me.
No, of course he remembered.
The phone call with me must have been a fairly intense memory for him too.
But I hadn’t known he thought that he had been able to rise to CEO thanks to me, and that he owed me a debt because of it.
Andrew Bryant was someone who would become CEO even in the original history.
At the time of the call, I had thought he might be someone else with the same name—America had plenty of people with the same names—but by this point, it was only normal to realize that wasn’t the case.
Thanks to me, it might have happened faster than in the original history, but it wasn’t something he had achieved because of the information I gave him.
But he didn’t think so.
“So? Is your mouth still small?”
“Didn’t I tell you I finish meals with a teaspoon? Koreans eat rice, you know.”
“Hahaha.”
The expression “small mouth” was an idiom referring to someone who kept their mouth shut.
So my joking reply meant that I had not once let the secret slip past my lips.
“I knew you had become CEO.”
“Is that so? You should have contacted me.”
“I didn’t think our relationship was that deep.”
“Well. I challenged the CEO position because of you.”
“I don’t think the information I gave you was enough to win you that seat.”
“That’s true, but when the word CEO came out of your mouth, it felt like fate.”
—All right, my small-mouthed friend. What’s your name?
“Sion. My family name is Han.”
—If you come to America, make sure to call this number. Whether you become a singer or not.
“What’s your name?”
—Andrew Bryant.
“What? The CEO?”
—What kind of nonsense is that? Do you think a CEO has that much time on his hands?
“In movies, the person you have a call like this with always turns out to be the CEO.”
—Haha. That’s the movies. I work in the marketing department. I’m not a low-level employee, so don’t worry and come visit.
“You became such an outstanding singer, and I became CEO. Thinking about it now, our call was filled with things that sound like a dream.”
“Looking back, it was.”
“Your tone is polite. Unlike on the phone.”
“I’m an introvert, so when I see someone face-to-face, I become courteous.”
If Gu Taehwan had been there, he would have chimed in with something about “E,” but Gu Taehwan wasn’t there.
Because I was having a private meeting with Andrew Bryant, who had suddenly visited.
“I found out about your existence not long ago.”
Andrew Bryant’s explanation that followed was reasonable.
After taking office as CEO, he had reviewed all the minor businesses currently under way.
In the process, he had come across my name through a report from Alex, who was partnered with Chris Edward.
After discovering me, a Korean who used the name Han Sion, Bryant had even checked my phone number to be certain.
He knew my number, and I had never changed it.
Though I had opened a second phone for work.
That was how we had come into contact.
“I listened to The First Day too. You know Eric Scott is under HR, right?”
“Eric Scott?”
“Actually, we signed him recently.”
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Andrew Bryant got to the point.
“Alex, Chris Edward, Eric Scott. All of them praised your talent to the skies.”
“I’m grateful.”
“No, it was more than that. Scott said this. That you’re someone who could take lead guitar in any band.”
Well, that wasn’t wrong.
“Edward said you stand at the pinnacle among all composers who exist in this world.”
That wasn’t wrong either.
Instrumental performance depends on taste.
My guitar was excellent, but not everyone would pick it as the best.
No such person existed in the first place.
Even when it came to guitar playing, for some people, Jimi Hendrix was the best; for others, Keith Richards; and for others, Eric Scott.
I was a skilled musician whose name could be written beside theirs, but I could not become an unrivaled number one.
Because everyone received music differently.
The same went for piano.
Even being first place in a competition didn’t mean you played the piano the best.
Competitions were scored by way of deductions, so a rubato that moved someone emotionally could be grounds for a deduction to the judges.
Of course, I had never won first place in a competition.
In any case, that was the objective evaluation of my instrumental performance, but composition was a little different.
It couldn’t be completely free from the realm of taste, but one could evaluate skill based on the results.
From that perspective, I was the greatest composer in history.
There was no one who could express music from as many genres as I could, with melodies in as many different ways.
There also probably wasn’t anyone who had gone through as much trial and error as I had.
It had happened within a closed timeline, but the facts were the facts.
“Lastly, Alex called you a born showman.”
“A showman?”
“He said you knew how to draw people’s eyes. Thinking about it, he’s right. It couldn’t have been purely because of music that the masters of Billboard chose you.”
Had he heard something from Eddie?
That was true.
In order to recruit the masters, I had put into the music the childhoods they longed for so desperately.
If showing people what they wanted to see was being a showman, then I was a showman.
At the same time, I realized that Andrew Bryant wanted to talk business.
He did feel grateful to me, but there was no way he would act like a fanboy.
When the CEO of a company opened with such grand words, business talk was bound to follow.
“First, if there’s a singer you want as the vocalist for the song, decide with Chris Edward and let me know. I’ll make it happen, no matter what. If there isn’t, I’ll attach the greatest top star of the era.”
“That will be the original track, and Sedalbaegil will sing the remix?”
It was obvious, and I was asking just to confirm.
But unexpectedly, Andrew Bryant shook his head.
“NO. The track recorded by your band will be the original. Sedalbaegil? Am I pronouncing that correctly?”
I was flustered.
Releasing several remixes at the same time to get a song onto the Billboard charts was a common marketing method.
Putting rookies into that remix lineup was also a common marketing method.
Getting the song itself onto the Billboard chart, then inserting rookies into the remix lineup, was the textbook way to promote newcomers.
But in this case, something was strange.
If Sedalbaegil became the original version, then the singer of the remix version would be far more famous than us.
Because he had said that if Eddie and I didn’t choose someone, he would attach the greatest top star.
There was only one reason a company would make this choice.
When they wanted to invest in a singer named Sedalbaegil and raise them to an enormous degree.
In other words, HR intended to become a partner beyond a simple distribution contract.
Then was HR Corporation going to offer Sedalbaegil a management contract?
But...
This time as well, my thoughts were wrong.
I was a regressor who could predict just about anything, but Andrew Bryant’s thinking was beyond my expectations.
“We’re plenty willing to sign a management contract, but given the circumstances, it would be difficult. It’s not as if we have much influence in the Korean market.”
“You’re saying you only want a distribution contract?”
“Yes. I’d like exclusive distribution rights for the U.S. and Western Europe, and for the rest, we can negotiate.”
“By the rest, do you mean all of Asia?”
“Except Korea. That’s a market you’re already doing well in, so China or Japan would be the main focus.”
“What exactly does HR want to gain?”
Was he really a fanboy?
A man who was CEO of HR Corporation?
But of course he wasn’t.
Andrew Bryant’s next words were bewildering, but at the same time, they were welcome.
“This is my plan.”
“......”
“What do you think?”
“It’s truly unexpected.”
“Is it? I thought it was a possibility you would have considered enough. So, your answer?”
“I’ll have to discuss it with the members, but... I don’t see any reason to refuse.”
“It’ll be very fun.”
After saying that, Andrew Bryant tapped the table lightly and spoke.
“It would be best for this news to reach your homeland through the program you’re filming right now.”
* * *
This was the story from a few weeks ago, when we were filming Self-Made Season 2.
In the end, the members accepted Andrew Bryant’s proposal.
They were a little flustered, wondering whether the scale was becoming too large, but there was no reason to refuse.
Because, business-wise, it was a perfect win-
win.
And the story from that day was now flowing out through the broadcast.
[Andrew Bryant.]
[HR Corporation, CEO.]
The screen showed Andrew Bryant appearing and greeting us.
At the sudden appearance of a major figure, the members of Sedalbaegil’s eyes darted around.
It had been a real situation.
At that time, the members had been wondering why on earth the CEO of HR Corporation had come to see us.
After that, we had several meetings with HR Corporation, and we discussed matters related to the project.
But Producer Kang Seoku edited all of those discussions as if they had happened during the first meeting.
Because that was more shocking and cleaner.
At that moment, Andrew Bryant on the screen opened his mouth.
[The First Day. Its sales in the United States are not high. RIAA gold?]
We had received gold certification, but there were countless gold musicians in the United States.
Even among indie musicians who had spent their whole lives active only within a single state, there were many who had received silver or gold certification.
The scale of America’s music industry itself was different from other places.
And now.
Andrew Bryant was talking about how to divide up that pie.
[Have you considered rerecording and releasing it in an English version?]
[HR Corporation will support you with everything we have.]
That was right.
What the businessman Andrew Bryant wanted to gain from Sedalbaegil was the release of an English version of TFD.
Because.
‘This album is a foolish project. It’s like a movie where legendary heroes gather, defeat a single zombie, and leave.’
‘If you gathered all the masters, then HR Corporation will be the one to build the show around them.’
‘What do you think? Shouldn’t we aim for diamond?’
He had said he wanted to aim for ten million copies with this album.