Devil’s Music

A few days later, in Lynn's office.

Every morning, after stopping by school, Geon would head to the Fantagio office and always drop by Lynn's office in the morning to have coffee and chat with her.

Unlike before, seeing her face every day meant they didn't have much to talk about, but somehow being with her made Geon feel at ease, and he enjoyed their morning coffee time together, which had now become routine.

As soon as Geon arrived on the fifth floor, Lucy also came over and sat on his lap in a bread-toasting pose, wagging her tail. Lynn briefly focused on Lucy before putting down her coffee cup and asked.

"So, how is the Song of Water coming along?"

Geon pouted his lips and replied.

"Everyone likes it without the lyrics, but the company wouldn't like that, would they? It would lose its mass appeal."

"Hmm? Who says that?"

"Isn't it obvious? A song you can't sing along to naturally lacks mass appeal, Director."

"If it were a single, I would have discouraged it, but there's no reason to oppose one of the tracks in a full album being purely instrumental. We can just make the title track a different song. Do you have a title track in mind?"

Geon slightly shook his head and said.

"The Song of Earth will be trendy hip-hop, the Song of Wind will be the most mainstream as club dance music, and the Song of Fire is rock music, which I'm most confident in, so it's hard to choose just one for the title track."

"Then don't."

"Excuse me?"

"Don't designate a title track."

"And the marketing?"

"Excluding the Song of Water, we can push all three other songs."

"Eh... is that how it's usually done? Normally, the marketing budget is spent on one song, and it's good if other songs hit as well."

Lynn took a sip of her coffee, put the cup down, and laughed.

"It's your music, Geon. I believe all three songs will definitely be hits."

Geon scratched his cheek and laughed awkwardly.

"Ah... haha, thanks for believing, but it's a bit of a burden."

"Hoho, since when has the always confident Geon become like this?"

"Haha... It's just that it's my first full album, so I'm a bit nervous."

"Hoho, just do what you always do. Oh, by the way, how is the work on the Song of Wind going?"

Geon looked troubled and said.

"Um, I've got the framework, but I'm still unsure. It's something I've never tried before. I'm looking for musicians who can help, but the ones I find don't quite match the music I've envisioned." ṟ

"How is your trip to Korea coming along?"

"Well, people around me advise against it, saying what can I learn in a country dominated by girl groups."

Lynn chuckled slightly as she watched Geon.

"Have you made that decision after listening to the current music in Korea?"

Geon pouted and shook his head.

"Byung-jun said it's so bad it'll rot your ears, so I haven't listened."

"Listen first, then decide. I'll have a CD sent to your room through an employee."

"Uh... maybe I should?"

Lynn crossed her arms and stared intently at Geon. Suddenly, seeing Lynn close her mouth and stare at him, Geon nervously asked.

"Why... are you doing that, Director?"

Lynn remained silent for a moment before finally speaking.

"When have you ever made a hasty judgment about someone else's music without listening to it?"

Lost for words at Lynn's comment, Geon made a serious face, and Lynn spoke again.

"It's not too late to evaluate after listening. Have you forgotten that all your teachers were Korean?"

Geon thought about his music teachers.

They weren't into dance music, so he could have made excuses, but it was true that he had made a premature judgment based on others' stories, and he quietly bowed his head.

After a moment of reflection, Geon deeply bowed his head while sitting.

"I think I was wrong, Director. I'm sorry."

Finally smiling, Lynn waved her hand.

"It's nothing to apologize for, and thank you for realizing it quickly."

"Hehe, I'm so glad to have you as my director."

"Hoho, Byung-jun would be jealous if he heard that."

"Not really, Byung-jun has been a lot of help too, not musically, but hehe."

"Shall we have lunch together?"

"Oh, great! I'll treat."

"There's a new Chinese restaurant in front of the company, let's have Chinese food for a change."

Geon and Lynn enjoyed a meal at the newly opened large Chinese restaurant in front of the

company.

After about an hour of dining with Lynn, Geon returned to his floor, where he saw stacks of CDs, easily over three hundred, piled on the desk next to the recording booth's control box.

Whistling, Geon approached the CDs and smiled.

"Director Lynn really pushes things through."

Knowing it was unrealistic to choose from over three hundred CDs, Geon randomly picked one, removed its packaging, and placed it in the player.

Holding the remote, Geon lay on the sofa and began listening to the music while looking at the ceiling.

Some songs he skipped immediately after they started, and others he listened to up to the first verse, but there was not yet a song he had listened to completely through the second verse. However, deciding to listen to all the songs, Geon reviewed the music until late at night.

After 11 PM, having listened to music for the whole day, Geon, looking tired, removed the CD from the player and placed it back in its case.

"Phew, didn't even get through fifty. When will I ever get through all these?"

Turning off the music, an awkward silence filled his space. Geon, feeling the tinnitus that comes from the sudden silence after noise, turned his head toward the sound of the elevator stopping.

As the autumn season approached, Byung-jun entered the office wearing a thin raincoat and seeing Geon sitting among the piled-up CDs, asked.

"What's all this?"

"You're here, hyung. This is all from Director Lynn, she had them brought over so I could listen to Korean dance music."

Byung-jun scanned the CDs and chuckled.

"Why bother listening? Whether it's China, Korea, or Japan, their music is still far behind. And although they succeed in their own countries with their unique styles, most of their songs don't make it in the global market."

Geon, looking exhausted, laid his cheek against the piled CDs.

"That's the problem, most of them. Not all, just most, which means somewhere out there, there might be someone making dance music that could make it globally."

Byung-jun nodded in agreement as he frowned at the piled CDs.

"Even so, when are you going to listen to all this? You don't have that much time, do you?"

Geon, lying down, closed his eyes and said.

"There's no other way, right?"

"Jeez, always making things hard for yourself, you fool."

Geon sat up and stretched.

"Ugh, but there were some results."

"What?"

Geon pointed at a few of the opened CDs.

"Korean musicians have great ideas and use sound well. Most importantly, they know how to make the hooks in dance music addictive."

Byung-jun looked at the CDs Geon was pointing at and frowned.

"But why don't they make it in the global market?"

Geon stood up and stretched his back.

"The producing is a mess, meaning the structure doesn't fit. At first listen, you think, 'Oh, this is really good, addictive,' but it doesn't become music that's still good years or decades later like American music. Without the right structure, the music quickly becomes boring."

Byung-jun pursed his lips and tilted his head.

"But I seem to remember there were some dance songs I wanted to listen to every day."

Geon laughed and stretched his arms above his head.

"Listen to those songs you mentioned wanting to hear every day again. If the structure of dance music collapses, it might be nice to listen to occasionally, recalling memories or nostalgia, but it won't be music you'd want to keep listening to."

Byung-jun nodded in agreement.

"Uh... that seems about right."

Geon put on his thin outerwear and said.

"It's late, I should go now."

"Do you want me to book a top musician from the U.S. for you? If you call for a music exchange, there are plenty who would come running."

Geon waved his hand as he walked out of the office first.

"I'll study a bit more, and if I need it, I'll let you know. I still have a lot of material to analyze."

Byung-jun glanced at the unopened CDs still piled up and left the office with a frown.

However, at that time, Lynn, who had efficiently arranged for the Korean dance music CDs during their lunch, had made one mistake.

It was the employee she sent to buy the CDs. There was no breach of security, but the record store owner, who specialized in Korean music and had seen an employee buy over three hundred CDs, had once run a music business in Korea before going bankrupt and moving to the U.S.

Watching the employee carrying boxes filled with CDs into Manhattan's Fantagio office, the record store owner widened his eyes and watched the Fantagio building. After a moment of thought, the owner picked up the phone.

"Hey, it's me,

President Kim. How are the kids doing? Oh, me? Just running a small record store here in the U.S. Ha, sure, let's have a drink when I return."

The owner, seeing the red brick building of Fantagio, smiled.

"It's not about that, I have a reason you should buy me a drink, and I'm telling you because it's you..."

After checking that no one around could understand since he was speaking in Korean, the owner made a foolish face.

"Ahem, it's a secret, but you know Fantagio, right? The company Kay is with. Yeah, that's the place. They just bought three hundred CDs of Korean musicians. Why would they listen to that, right? Clearly, Kay is analyzing it because they're planning to feature some Korean musicians. From what I know, Snepdog and Neminem also visit that company often."

While the other end of the line couldn't be heard, the owner was pleased with his conversation and continued.

"Yeah, prepare well in advance, and who knows, your kids might get picked by a miracle. Prepare well, I'm only telling you this because you cared when times were tough. Ha, we definitely need to have a drink later."

As the early days of autumn set in, this misunderstanding slowly began to spread.

>

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