155 Three Taboos
With the battle plan all set and Miaoyi's signature decisiveness in full swing, they switched off "party mode" and began working through their list of tasks.
Rehearsal spots? Not a worry in the world. Ultra, being the big kahuna of music festivals, had its act together like a pro juggler with chainsaws.
She also had a brief chat with the top brass at East Records, including East himself, and had asked about some insider knowledge she was too new to have learned yet.
Gotta give credit where it's due – the OG electronic music guru had a treasure chest of wisdom, and he shared some gems with Miaoyi that had her going, "Well, I'll be darned," especially when she heard about something called the "Three Taboos of Electronic Music Festivals."
Wait, what? There are taboos at electronic music festivals? What's that all about?
Honestly, although Miaoyi had been a hardcore electronic music fangirl, reviewing tunes, and now creating her own, she had never dived into the inner workings of these mega-events. She had about as much insight into the inner workings of the largest electronic music fiestas as a platypus trying to knit a sweater.
For her, a DJ's role was as simple as mixing beats and getting the crowd to lose their marbles through the power of dance. Seemed pretty straightforward.
But today, she got a crash course on the "Three Taboos of Electronic Music Festivals."
First Taboo: These festivals go on for a while, and there are other DJs lined up after your set. So, fiddling around with your equipment mid-performance? Not cool. Although, if you really have to tweak stuff, make sure it's back to square one when you're done.
Second Taboo: Remixing or messing with other DJs' creations without their express permission? Big no-no. It's like swiping your buddy's fries without asking – it's not okay, and there will be consequences.
Third Taboo: Big music festivals mean big crowds. How you interact with fans has to match your skill level in controlling the stage. If anything goes south, you're on the hook, and the event organizers won't have your back. This stuff usually gets written down in the contracts.
These three no-nos packed some serious punch. Miaoyi was all ears when she learned about them.
On closer inspection, these taboos were kind of a big deal, with major consequences if you messed up.
Take the first one, for instance. Equipment settings were finely tuned by pros, and messing with them during a set would be like handing a chainsaw to a toddler – a disaster waiting to happen. And by "disaster," we're talking about losing control of the stage, dead silence in the crowd, or a total party foul, all of which were the opposite of what an electronic music festival was all about. Even with tech whizzes standing by for post-set cleanup, stuff could still hit the fan. And when it did, it was big trouble.
Miaoyi, who hadn't heard about this before, almost blurted out, "Hold up. You're telling me I can't tweak my gear during a set? That's like telling a chef not to use seasoning. Unthinkable!" Elite DJs had their secret sauce in those equipment settings, giving every set a unique flavour.
As for the other two taboos, they were as plain as day. Breaking those rules was like showing up to a costume party in your birthday suit – just not okay. Using someone else's work without a green light? A straight-up ethical and legal foul.
The third taboo was all about stage mastery. Crowd surfing and crowd waves? Those were Olympic-level skills. Without control, you could end up with a human tidal wave and a stampede, which is like handing a bull a red flag and hoping for the best – not smart. Big venues meant big risks if you didn't have those mad crowd-control skills.
There had been multiple stories of hospitalizations and even deaths at large concerts before, due to out-of-control crowds packing an area so tightly that people couldn't help but get trampled.
At first, Miaoyi had a grand vision of wowing the crowd with some next-level audience engagement wizardry. She was all set to drop some mind-blowing tactics. But then, the 'Three Major Taboos' smacked her plans right in the face, and she did a quick 180.
Why the change of heart? Well, the potential pitfalls were like giant sinkholes on a tightrope walk. Miaoyi realized she had about as much stage control experience as a penguin does with a unicycle, and her song selection for crowd-pleasing was as empty as a politician's promise.
Because, you see, the right tunes were like the secret sauce for crowd hypnosis.
With all the logistical ducks in a row, the spotlight shifted to rehearsals.
The good news? Qiuying, who'd been flip-flopping between nerves and excitement, was now more pumped up than a bouncy castle at a kid's birthday party for the rehearsal. Miaoyi's worries shifted from "Will she crack under pressure?" to "Will she break the sound barrier with her enthusiasm?"
They finally hit the jackpot: the East Records rehearsal room.
"Alright, let's break down the plan: start, middle, peak, grand finale. First things first, does The Rex have any objections to rocking just one track for his grand entrance?"
The Rex, chilling on the side, nodded calmly, "No issues here."
Obviously, it was his gig to shine, so why would he have any gripes?
Truth be told, The Rex was silently thanking his lucky stars for this gig. But he kept those grateful vibes on the down-low, saving himself from bursting into giggles.
"Great, this time it's just us three in the spotlight. Since you're all the lead vocalists, once we've locked in your parts and timing, you can each go solo and shine."
Out of the blue, Qiuying dropped a question bomb, "Hey, Miaoyi, besides The Rex, are there any other surprise guest performances planned?"
Qiuying remembered that during their debut, they'd rolled out the red carpet for Song Ziyin as a guest.
Miaoyi's poker face didn't even twitch as she replied, "Not a chance. It's too late for that now, and even if we wanted to, who in the world could we possibly invite?"
She took the full weight of the performance on her shoulders. She was kind of kicking herself for not spilling the beans about the electronic music festival sooner...
Miaoyi was firmly in the camp of 'with enough prep time, I can charm the socks off the Ultra crowd.' She had a whole treasure chest of talents to serve up.
Qiuying nodded in understanding and said, "I gotcha..."
With that, their rehearsal pow-wow wrapped up, and Miaoyi dramatically slammed the door of the rehearsal room.
- - - - - - - - - -
The first day of Ultra had played out successfully.
The main stage lineup was stacked with four DJs, and the opening act, Th3as, had kicked things off. Each of these DJs had the potential to set the crowd on fire and make this electronic music bash the talk of the town. Even folks who normally jam to elevator music were tuning in.
But what got Chinese internet folks all kinds of hyped was...
This year's Ultra wasn't just a foreign DJ parade.
This time, China's electronic music up-and-comers were storming the international stage.
Yep, it was time for the world's youngest Top 100 DJ, the first female DJ to conquer the Top 100, a dazzling electronic music producer, and the rising star of Chinese electronica – the princess of the Chinese electronic music scene herself: TMY!
The day had come. January 10th was here!
It was go-time!
- - - - - - - - - -
(A/N)
So about the cover...
For those viewing this in the future, there was a quote, "cover competition," in which I had readers choose between two different covers.
It went well, and in an overnight upset, the new cover beat out the old one 12 to 9.
The issue I've come across is during the competition, FulcrumDX came up with multiple images that I honestly like a lot.
This leads me to my new idea.
I want to begin rotating covers. Whether on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly basis is still to be determined, but I feel there are too many beautiful images out there now, or still to be created that I don't want to limit myself.
So, I'd like to add a section as an auxiliary volume where I'll post all past covers, and where you, the readers, can submit potential covers, or just fan art if that's what you prefer.
The images I will use for covers will follow this criterion. They must be in portrait mode, they must be of Miaoyi, or what could reasonably be interpreted to be Miaoyi, and there must be music-related objects in the foreground or background.
Honestly, I was gonna try and think of other criteria, but that's basically it. Anyway, it should be up now, along with the previous cover images. Check it out if you are thinking of adding an image, or if you just want to look at cool art from the story.
Thanks~
:)
