Chapter 142: The Shut-In’s Peeping

The day after completing his evaluation, Cheng Xiaoyu was released from Old Ganma's jurisdiction and transferred to the Planning Department on the sixty-seventh floor. When he handed the sheet music for the ten songs he had painstakingly finished the previous night over to Cao Danian that morning, his heart sank by half.

It wasn't that Cao Danian treated him poorly; rather, Cao Danian spoke to him with the earnestness of an elder: "Since you are going to be a producer, the arrangement naturally has to be completed. You must write out the instrumentation and harmonies. That is what truly reflects a producer's level of skill."

Cheng Xiaoyu took back the sheet music for the ten songs he had worked so hard to write, wondering if Cao Danian was deliberately making things difficult for him. The workload for musical arrangement was immense. Even with fully realized works already complete in his mind, he would have to transcribe them instrument by instrument, one by one, just to finish, let alone if he weren't a time-traveler. Finishing the arrangements for ten songs would take at least half a year. Of course, he could just slap something together perfunctorily and finish much faster, but that would go against Cheng Xiaoyu's attitude toward music.

For record companies, however, there was a standard called "publishing grade," used to measure whether a commercial arrangement met the requirements. It typically included the following:

1. Harmony and music theory compliance: fluent syntax and reasonable vocal parts. The harmonies could be simple, but they must never contain errors.
2. Performance technique compliance: instruments must follow proper playing techniques, barring deliberate innovations.
3. Form compliance: intros, outros, and bridges must be present where appropriate, with smooth and non-abrupt transitions. This was quite simple, but without it, a piece could barely be called a song.
4. Acoustic compliance: the frequency distribution of various instruments must be reasonable, section contrasts should have depth, and vocal parts must be constructed with even soundfield distribution in mind.
5. Details must not be too crude: maintain a sufficient amount of musical information, make things as intricate as possible rather than taking shortcuts.

In reality, this standard was constantly shifting. To Cheng Xiaoyu, the current "publishing grade" standard was very low. One reason was that shoddy internet songs had made many record companies realize that listeners didn't really care about the quality of the arrangements, prompting them to cut costs and make a quick buck.

Another reason was that the overall standard of arranging at the time was not very high, falling far short of the complexity of the arrangements in Cheng Xiaoyu's past life. Only when the public's palate became refined and record companies could no longer get away with perfunctory work would true progress in arranging be promoted.

Some might ask whether composition or arrangement is more important.

For pop songs, composition generally refers to the lead vocal melody. The composition can be mediocre, but if the arrangement is mediocre, the entire song is ruined. The lyrics can even be completely absent.

Therefore, Cheng Xiaoyu felt that both were extremely important. However, looking at specific musical forms, the arrangement determines the style, temperament, and ear-pleasing quality of a pop song, while the melody determines its popularity and reach.

Of course, for bubblegum pop, composition is relatively more important (because nothing else is left; the arrangement is practically thrown together at random). But other outstanding pop songs owe almost everything to their arrangements (refer to the shifts in Faye Wong's early, middle, and late styles—one could say they were entirely changes in arrangement style).

As for electronic music, it is almost entirely a matter of mixing and arrangement, with mixing and arranging often handled by a single person.

The reason most ordinary listeners only care about the singer or the composer is due to commercial necessity and the excessive packaging of singers. Singers are merely components within a massive record industry ecosystem; in this spacetime, pop singers hardly needed any musical literacy at all.

Yet, no matter how formidable Cheng Xiaoyu was, he still had to play by the rules of this world. Even with his cheat codes, reality wasn't so easy to navigate. He already understood that Cao Danian was simply stalling. By the time he managed to finish the arrangements for all ten music tracks, Su Yuqi and the others would have already debuted.

Rack his brains as he might, he couldn't think of any way to make his plan proceed smoothly and swiftly. Furthermore, he had a wager hanging over him with Xu Qinning. If even his own music failed to make it onto an album, wouldn't that be a joke?

Cheng Xiaoyu arrived at the Idol Project practice room. Because it was a major project for River Upper, it had its own dedicated dance studio.

Early in the morning, several girls were inside stretching their bodies. Since he could now enter openly, he naturally wouldn't miss the opportunity.

Yet the moment he raised his eyes to gaze closely