The Genius Composer Starts Again - Chapter 106

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Haa~am.”

An employee at MM Entertainment’s A&R Team let out a long yawn. He shook his head vigorously and glared at the monitor again, but there was nothing he could do about his mind growing hazy.

[ DEMO – INBOX (232) ]

“The number increased again while I was out for lunch….”

He scratched his head.

An average of 200-300 songs per day.

Out of those, maybe one song per week would pass and make it up to the higher-ups.

Exactly 10 seconds.

Songs that couldn’t capture his attention within 10 seconds were thrown straight into the trash.

The reason was simple. The general public only listened for about that long before judging a song anyway.

There had never been a time like now when people could choose music according to their own tastes. Everyone only listened to what they wanted to hear.

The days when everyone would sing along to whatever played on TV were long gone.

To survive in such a harsh world, you had no choice but to captivate the masses before the chorus even began.

Composers from all over the world knocked on MM Entertainment’s door with high hopes.

But even famous composers were no exception. If there was nothing appealing within 10 seconds, that was the end.

‘Shall I get started?’

He put on his headset and opened the first file.

PLAY.

Kick, snare, hi-hat. A melody that seemed familiar from somewhere.

7 seconds, delete.

Second PLAY.

A bland piano ballad. He almost fell asleep listening to it.

4 seconds, delete.

After that came the third, fourth, fifth… house music, ordinary dance tracks, and even some oddly sentimental city pop.

All were destined for the trash before even reaching the chorus.

‘The song quality is particularly terrible today.’

When listening to songs, there were bound to be some with exceptionally good detail and high density. For those, he would specially allocate an extra 5 seconds and listen up to 15 seconds.

He immediately moved on to the next email.

[ Subject: Demo Submission: YULE – demo_031 ]

It was a short and simple introduction. The content below had nothing special either.

‘I just want to get off work quickly.’

Without any particular expectations, he pressed the PLAY button.

-♩♩♪

The first measure made him think, ‘Huh?’

Drums that weren’t excessive, electric piano that came in at just the right moment. A delicate acoustic guitar swayed gently in the background.

And then,

-The moment I first saw you~.

The moment the guide vocal came in, his eyes widened.

The melody rose smoothly. It sounded comfortable yet somehow had an exquisite sophisticated feel.

“Wow. What is this?”

Before he knew it, the song had passed the chorus and was heading toward the pre-chorus. The bass showed off its skills once, and the snare gradually moved forward.

-Everything seemed to stop~.

It was a song that somehow brought back memories of first love.

A bus stop in the rain, gazes meeting silently. That strange tension seemed to climb up from his toes.

“Crazy…”

What did I just listen to?

Before he knew it, he was playing the song from the beginning again. Twice, three times, four times.

Only after listening repeatedly could he make a judgment.

‘If Team Leader Kim In-ha hears this, his eyes will roll back in amazement, won’t they?’

He took off his headset and shot up from his seat.

But the team leader’s seat was empty. Come to think of it, didn’t he say he had an external meeting with someone?

‘Shouldn’t he be back soon?’

Just as he was thinking that,

Click.

The sound of the A&R Office door opening was heard.

He quickly looked up. Kim In-ha, the team leader he had been eagerly waiting for, was entering while chatting with someone.

“Now, these are our A&R Team employees.”

One more person followed behind him.

It was a young-looking female student, and she was beautiful enough to make his tired eyes snap wide open.

The way she rolled her large eyes and looked around with curious eyes was quite adorable too.

Sure enough, Team Leader Kim In-ha introduced her with a grin that stretched from ear to ear.

“Everyone, say hello. This is Mun Ah-rin, a winner of this Korea University competition, who will be participating in our project.”

“Hello. I’m Mun Ah-rin. Please take care of me.”

When she bowed slightly and smiled, it felt like flowers were blooming in full.

“Ah, yes. Nice to meet you.”

He also greeted her somewhat bewildered. The other employees also took turns greeting her one by one.

“She’s just here for a brief A&R Team tour today, so please be nice to her~.”

Team Leader Kim In-ha said with a good-natured expression. He seemed to be in quite a good mood.

‘Now’s the timing!’

He instinctively felt that way.

“Um, Team Leader. Do you have a moment?”

“Yeah. If it’s not urgent, I’d like to hear about it later. What’s the matter?”

“It’s nothing major, but I found something good among the demo songs.”

“Really?”

Kim In-ha pondered for a moment, then glanced at Mun Ah-rin beside him and immediately changed his tune.

“Ah-rin, one of the tasks our A&R Team does is this. We check demo songs sent by composers and discover good tracks. It seems our employee just found one. Would you like to listen together?”

“Is it okay for me to listen?”

“Hey. If you’re here for a tour, you’re a temporary employee for today~.”

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t right to play company demo songs for outsiders, but no one could raise objections to Team Leader Kim In-ha.

“Then I’d like to listen too. If it’s MM Entertainment, promising composers from around the world must all send their songs here. Among those, an exceptional song. I’m curious how good it will be.”

“Hahaha. Ah-rin, you speak so prettily too. Well, it might not be as good as your songs. Shall we give it a listen?”

When Team Leader Kim In-ha gave a look, the employee immediately moved quickly.

Click, PLAY.

-♩♩♪♩♬♪

Team Leader Kim In-ha’s eyebrows slightly raised.

“Oh?”

He let out a short exclamation and began listening to the song with a rather serious expression. It wasn’t a bad reaction.

If it had been a worthless song, Team Leader Kim In-ha would have listened for about 10 seconds and dismissed it as mediocre.

-Everything seemed to stop~.

When it reached the climax, Team Leader Kim In-ha burst into laughter.

“This is good?”

This level of reaction was quite rare to see.

“Good work.”

With that simple phrase from Team Leader Kim In-ha, it felt like hours of hardship were melting away.

The corners of his mouth naturally curved up at the feeling of having his abilities recognized.

“What do you think of it, Ah-rin?”

“Well….”

“Wait a minute. You’re not feeling sick, are you? Your complexion suddenly turned pale.”

A slightly stiff smile appeared on her face that had turned white.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I was just a bit surprised. The composition style is similar to someone I know.”

“Really? Does it seem to have a reference?”

“It’s not that. Um, the melody line was really pretty the moment I heard it. It feels exactly like first love.”

The employee unconsciously nodded enthusiastically at Mun Ah-rin’s impression. It was similar to what he had felt.

Then Mun Ah-rin hesitated slightly before continuing carefully.

“But… there’s something I’m a bit worried about.”

“Hm?”

“All the songs being collected now will go into this comeback album, right?”

“Most likely? We’re still in the song collection stage. Whether title track or B-side. There’s a high possibility they’ll be bundled together in one album.”

“I see….”

Mun Ah-rin trailed off quietly.

“Why? Is there something bothering you?”

Kim In-ha caught on immediately. Mun Ah-rin waved her hands dismissively while showing a slightly troubled expression.

“Oh, it’s not that. The song is really good, but….”

“But?”

“It’s just that the style seems to overlap a lot with my song.”

“With yours, Ah-rin? Did it?”

“Yes.”

Mun Ah-rin nodded.

“The competition theme was ‘unforgettable scene,’ so I composed accordingly, but when arranging it for the album concept, I was trying to create a first love feeling.”

“Ah, is that so?”

Kim In-ha scratched the back of his head.

“It would be problematic if they overlap like that within one album.”

“Yes. That’s why I’m bringing it up carefully. Thinking about the overall album composition, it might become a bit monotonous.”

Kim In-ha crossed his arms and made a thoughtful “hmm” sound as if seriously contemplating.

The employee fidgeted with his hands for no reason.

‘You’re not thinking of just removing this good song, are you, Team Leader?’

To him, it would be absurd. Not even going through an A&R Team internal meeting to decide, but because of one outsider who came from who knows where?

Team Leader Kim In-ha stroked his chin briefly, then started rewinding and listening to the beginning of the song again.

“Hmm.”

As his contemplation deepened, Mun Ah-rin gently added once more.

“This is just my opinion, after all. Please don’t take it too seriously.”

“No, what you’re saying makes sense too, Ah-rin. We could collect it for now and use it later….”

“Really?”

Mun Ah-rin immediately chimed in agreement.

“It’s too good a song to just throw away. If we release it later as a pre-release digital single, the fans would love it so much.”

At least not for this album, she was saying.

At the subtle whisper, the employee clenched his fists tightly.

The fate of the song,

hung in the balance at this very moment.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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