[Content Creator from Bilibili]
After FTM’s debut yesterday, Taohe’s official Weibo posted their performance video, and Shengyao promptly promoted it, causing the hashtag #FTM Boy Band Officially Debuts Today# to briefly enter the top ten trending topics.
Because there were over a dozen singers participating in yesterday’s concert, and a fashion magazine was also hosting a celebrity red carpet event, with many celebrities getting publicity, the trending topics kept changing. They only stayed on the list for half an hour before dropping off.
Fang Yinnian didn’t have high expectations for this wave of promotion; gaining 100,000+ followers was enough to make him happy for a long time.
But in the time it took to have lunch with the parents, how did they suddenly gain so many followers and comments?
The “Bilibili” mentioned in the comments reminded the two of them, and Mo Xun quickly said: “Let me log into my Bilibili account to see what’s going on.”
Fang Yinnian had brought his laptop with him on this trip, so the two of them immediately opened it and sat together at the hotel desk. Fang Yinnian found Bilibili in his bookmarked websites.
Mo Xun had previously shared his Bilibili account with Fang Yinnian and he still remembered the login password. As soon as Fang Yinnian opened Bilibili, it automatically logged into Mo Xun’s account with the ID “MX_0727.”
Fang Yinnian clicked on the “Popular” category on the homepage.
The video ranked first had the title “The Stagnant Chinese Music Scene Finally Has Some Fresh Air.” The content creator’s name was “Poisonous Snake Harsh Reviews,” and it was published at 7 AM today. It had over 1 million views, with a considerable number of bullet comments and regular comments.
Videos ranked from second to tenth were all about film and TV show critiques, weekly new game reviews, and similar content, which had little to do with them.
Mo Xun frowned: “This top trending video… it’s not criticizing us, is it? Let’s take a look.”
Fang Yinnian quickly clicked on the video.
The video began with a cute little snake head icon and a mechanically processed youthful voice: “Hello everyone, I’m content creator Poisonous Snake Harsh Reviews. I put this video together overnight because I just couldn’t hold back my thoughts. I stayed up all night and I’m exhausted, but I finally finished recording. Considering I pulled an all-nighter for this video, I’m begging for likes, comments, and shares. Thank you all~”
“I usually enjoy criticizing certain Chinese singers who just scream and howl without actually singing anything recognizable. Today, let’s talk about a freshly debuted boy band.”
“That’s right, it’s FTM, who just debuted yesterday.”
“…” Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian exchanged glances, both feeling nervous.
This was bad. Bilibili’s caustic content creators were the most terrifying—they criticized actors’ performances and singers’ vocal abilities mercilessly, capable of tearing people apart to the point where they felt utterly humiliated and wanted to quit the industry on the spot.
Fang Yinnian gently clenched his fingers, waiting for the content creator’s criticism.
Unexpectedly, Snake Brother didn’t start by attacking them directly, but instead said: “Let me summarize in one sentence: this group can actually sing. Yes, they’re actually listenable. I won’t mention other groups—their fans have already come after me several times… Can what they do even be called singing?”
The bullet comment section filled with a stream of “Hahaha” and “Content creator, do you have a death wish?”
“FTM, ‘For the Music,’ nicknamed the Harmony Group, five guys performing harmonies, debuting very elegantly in suits while playing the piano. I was shocked when I saw the video last night—how does the Chinese entertainment industry dare to create a harmony group? Who’s so bold!”
“Oh, it’s Shengyao! I just criticized that Shengyao singer a few days ago for being affected and pretentious. Today I’m just giving an objective review, hopefully I won’t receive a lawyer’s letter from Shengyao.”
The bullet comment section flooded with “Protect our content creator,” “Freedom of critique,” and “If you can’t take criticism, don’t become a celebrity.”
The content creator continued: “Shengyao started as a music company, so I was quite looking forward to seeing what kind of music group they’d create. So I watched FTM’s performance video several times, processed it technically, and cut together a vocals-only version.”
“Next, let’s all appreciate how these newcomers sound when the instrumental accompaniment is removed.”
Fang Yinnian and Mo Xun: “…”
These content creators were truly multi-talented, having technically removed all the piano and string accompaniment, leaving only pure vocal harmonies—essentially an a cappella performance!
With the accompaniment removed, it became easy to hear breath control, vocal tone quality, and singing ability. This was especially true for those concert performances where the instrumental backing was very loud and the singer’s voice relatively soft—they might sound fine initially, but once the backing track was removed, it became an auditory disaster.
Fortunately, their debut yesterday featured piano accompaniment, and with it removed… it was still listenable.
Fang Yinnian’s voice trembled slightly at the beginning, but he quickly stabilized. In the later harmonies, the all-vocal a cappella performance would infinitely magnify any defects in diction and pronunciation.
Fang Yinnian and Mo Xun silently listened to the song.
Ugh… yesterday they thought their performance was pretty good, but now objectively listening to it without accompaniment, they realized they didn’t sing as well as they thought…
The two listened while breaking out in cold sweat as the content creator analyzed and critiqued every word and phrase.
During a section where the two harmonized, the content creator suddenly paused, then rewound and played it again, saying: “In the entire song, what I like best is this duet harmony between Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian. One bright, one dark—it’s a very ear-catching combination.”
The two who had just been praised looked at each other, both quite flattered by the unexpected compliment.
Many viewers praised the singing, while others mocked it, saying it was terrible, leading to arguments in the bullet comments.
[Where does it sound good? It’s like a cow mooing]
[With just vocal harmonies, this is actually pretty decent, okay?]
[Some music critics are too ridiculous]
[It sounds better with accompaniment. They’re newcomers after all and have lots of room for improvement]
[At least this group is listenable. Try removing the backing tracks from other groups!]
The content creator continued with his critique: “Their vocal skills are definitely at a novice level—raw and immature, without many techniques. Fu Fei’s vocal runs are unstable, Tang Che’s falsetto transitions aren’t smooth enough; Tan Junwen has a great timbre, but his pitch accuracy is terrible—the two closing lines he sang solo almost went off-key.”
“Mo Xun has a pure bass voice, which is quite rare in the music scene. He can hit extremely low notes and makes Fang Yinnian’s voice sound particularly bright in contrast. However, his diction isn’t clear enough, and you can’t make out what he’s singing when his notes are too low.”
“Fang Yinnian’s strength is his pitch accuracy, but his weakness is that he sings without technique—very straightforward, expressing emotion purely through his voice, without sophisticated handling of high notes.”
“My reviews are typically quite harsh. But thinking about it carefully, this is a newly debuted rookie group—we can’t compare them to seasoned first-tier singers. Newcomers have a lot of room for growth, and for a just-debuted group, they’re actually not bad, right? At least they’re listenable, right?”
A pop-up appeared—How many stars would you give FTM’s rookie boy band debut?
The bullet comment section was flooded with four and five stars, with five stars accounting for over 70%.
Without exaggeration or downplaying, for a debut, this level was indeed acceptable.
“A harmony group is quite fresh; I’ve never seen one before. I stayed up late last night to search for information about these guys—am I just uninformed, or why don’t I recognize any of them? The result shocked my entire family—this is truly the most hastily debuted boy band in Chinese entertainment history.”
A stream of “hahaha” scrolled through the bullet comment section.
[I saw the trending topic yesterday and also thought it was super rushed and ridiculous]
[A parachute group, the first in Chinese entertainment]
[Absolutely no buildup, straight to debut—is this what they call efficiency?]
[Calling them a parachute group is too generous for Shengyao—they didn’t even have parachutes, they were airdropped!]
[An airdropped boy band, hilarious]
[Shengyao be like: We don’t need to level up in games, we start with ultimate moves to attack the base]
[The five rookies respond: Sorry, we haven’t learned our ultimate moves yet]
[Hahahaha]
Fang Yinnian laughed at the bullet comments—the Bilibili army truly had maxed out their sarcasm talent.
The content creator continued: “Normally, boy bands follow the idol route to cultivate fans, right? But with this group, before their debut, except for Tan Junwen who participated in ‘Youth Rap Class’ and got third place, the others had zero online exposure.”
Here, a clip of Tan Junwen from last year’s rap competition was inserted—he looked quite handsome, drawing a wave of “wow” in the bullet comments.
“I really couldn’t find any performance videos of the other four!”
“A group of completely unknown amateurs, trained for a month and sent straight to debut. I’m truly amazed by Shengyao’s makeshift operation.”
The bullet comment section was frantically scrolling with “makeshift operation.”
Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian silently gave their approval.
You think it’s rushed?
Yes, we think it’s rushed too.
The content creator changed his tone: “I don’t know if Shengyao’s upper management has some kind of illness, suddenly pushing out a harmony group with all members being complete nobodies without any fan base, directly airdropping them into debut is just bizarre.”
“But I have to say, this group, I think they can become popular!”
“I won’t comment on their looks, but just talking about their voices, their vocal timbres are highly distinctive. When the five of them blend together, it gives a feeling like a tank + DPS + healer all fighting as a team in a game—you know what I mean?”
“Different voices supporting each other, complementing one another, merging together very harmoniously. If they strengthen their vocal skills, they’ll definitely go far—because they’re one of a kind in Chinese entertainment.”
“When I heard them yesterday, I was actually very pleasantly surprised. Capital is best at copying, worst at innovating. Shengyao daring to form a harmony group—regardless of the outcome, this courage deserves recognition.”
“Let me officially recommend FTM, a very interesting boy band. Their debut is, I would say, the freshest and most surprising thing in the Chinese music scene this year. Everyone can consider becoming early supporters and see how they develop in the future.”
“Debuting without an original song, without a music video, without any promotion, directly covering a popular song—it’s so rushed that I can barely stand it. I hope they can perform well with their original songs in the future. I’ll continue to follow them.”
Here, he included a dramatic “I’ve got my eye on you” meme.
Many people in the bullet comment section were joking:
[Content creator, you’re just like a paid promoter]
[This must be a paid advertisement, right?]
[Taking your recommendation, I’ll go search for them now]
[Found their official account, they’ve only posted one concert video, truly a makeshift operation hahaha]
[Can I join as an early supporter fan?]
[I’ll lie at the bottom of the pit first, and when they get famous, I’ll be a veteran fan]
[Looked at the Weibo data of all five, they’re so obscure it’s pitiful, I’ll follow them out of friendship]
[Their official account only has a hundred thousand plus followers, not even a fraction of other groups, I’ll go follow them too]
…
This content creator already had several million followers and was a famous critic on Bilibili. After posting the video in the morning, the views, bullet comments, and regular comments increased frantically, quickly becoming number one on the trending list, attracting even more casual viewers to click and watch.
The video’s popularity continued to soar, resulting in all five FTM members gaining a wave of followers.
After watching the video, Fang Yinnian and Mo Xun exchanged glances.
Fang Yinnian said seriously: “His critique isn’t wrong. Our vocal skills are indeed too green.”
Mo Xun said resignedly: “Being targeted by this kind of critical content creator isn’t a good thing. He often removes the backing track in post-production to amplify the singer’s original voice for criticism. In the future, every performance we do will probably be clipped by him and judged word by word.”
Fang Yinnian remained quite calm: “If we sing well, we shouldn’t fear judgment. If we don’t sing well, being criticized is normal, right?”
Mo Xun thought about it and agreed, laughing: “Anyway, more than half the singers in the Chinese music scene have been criticized by him. Recently he criticized Tao Yizhou for being affected and pretentious, and got attacked by Tao’s fans.”
Fang Yinnian asked curiously: “Do these content creators make a living from video traffic?”
Mo Xun said: “Yes, high-traffic videos can earn money, and some advertisers approach them for promotions. I’m not sure about the specific revenue split.”
Fang Yinnian thought for a moment and said: “Staying up all night to make videos is pretty tough, and he also recommended us to many fans. Can I use your account to like his video and give him a coin?”
Mo Xun: “…You’re not going to follow him too, are you?”
Fang Yinnian smiled: “If I follow him, we can immediately see whenever he criticizes us again in the future.”
Mo Xun was speechless. Fang Yinnian’s mentality was truly impressive—having his vocal skills criticized after the backing track was removed didn’t anger him at all. Instead, he gave likes and coins, and even followed the content creator.
At the same time, Fu Fei’s exclamation came through in their group chat: “Brothers! A Bilibili content creator’s video criticizing us is trending!”
Mo Xun replied in the group: “Yinnian and I just finished watching it.”
Tan Junwen sent a thumbs up: “You two are really quick.”
Manager Xu popped up saying: “I watched that video too. Yesterday’s promotion focused more on Weibo, we didn’t pay for promotion on other platforms, so having organic attention is a good thing.”
“A certain forum’s entertainment group was also discussing you guys last night, turning a post into a hot topic. Most replies were about the makeshift operation, the sudden debut, decent looks, and whether they should invest in you as fans.”
The five of them: “…”
No wonder there was suddenly a bunch of “investment fans” on Weibo.
They were all coming from other platforms.
It was like seeing potential in a stock and buying it at a low price—entertainment industry “investment fans” often keep an eye on newcomers, and if they think certain new artists have good prospects, they’ll invest by continuing to follow them.
FTM’s debut yesterday was very sudden, parachuting into the concert at 10 PM as a “surprise bonus,” and although their debut hashtag briefly trended, it quickly dropped off the trending list due to fierce competition.
After a night of public opinion fermenting, with the Bilibili content creator’s critique trending and the entertainment group’s discussion becoming a hot post, these relatively “delayed” traffic surges all poured into Weibo today.
Today, all five members gained another huge wave of followers.
Currently, Fang Yinnian was the first to break 200,000 followers, with the others between 150,000 and 200,000.
Fang Yinnian wasn’t sure if these numbers were considered good.
He asked in the group: “Brother Xu, how’s our rate of gaining followers?”
Manager Xu said: “Far beyond expectations.”
Fu Fei chimed in: “The lead actors in summer hit dramas only gain a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand followers a day at most. Brother Nian, you’ve had a mini explosion! Based on ‘daily follower growth rankings,’ we could all be in the top spots across all of Weibo today.”
Manager Xu said: “Xiao Fei is right, but don’t get too excited. Actors can become huge traffic generators from one hit drama. You guys need to maintain visibility, create more works, and get more exposure to retain more fans.”
Everyone understood that breaking through in the music scene would be harder.
Especially for a male singing group like theirs without precedent, they would have to find their own way forward.
Manager Xu said: “After returning to Jiangzhou, continue with your vocal and dance lessons to build a solid foundation. I won’t be arranging music variety shows for you yet—you don’t have that qualification yet, we’ll talk about it next year. The next variety show has already been arranged.”
Mo Xun immediately asked: “Brother Xu, what kind of variety show is it?”
Manager Xu said: “A team-based gaming variety show. It’ll let you relax a bit as one-time guest participants. Recording time is August 30th, Friday evening.”
Today was already the 19th, so that was 11 days away.
Since it was a gaming variety show, it should be fine—at least they wouldn’t be criticized for their singing, right?
Fang Yinnian thought optimistically.
![President Huo Wants Me to Restore His Reputation [Entertainment Circle]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/03-cd6f642.jpg "President Huo Wants Me to Restore His Reputation [Entertainment Circle]")
thank you for the update!
also poor Fang Yinnian, you just jinxed yourself 😭