Rise To Stardom - Chapter 76

Chapter 76: Sleeper Hit
Having already released the song by himself onto the ‘Buzzing 100’ chart earlier in the day, an avenue afforded to him because he had a hit song on the music platform previously, Kyle felt a bit relaxed seeing the song settle at a stealthy number 95.

Not really bothered by it though, especially since he didn’t even make a post or tweet about it, Kyle switched off the laptop and moved over to his bathroom to take a shower.

Plopping onto the bed a few minutes after, feeling simultaneously refreshed and sleepy, Kyle’s thoughts began to wander off to the events of the week.

The trailer for [Epoch One] had released to a pretty nice response from the public with a current view count of 6.8M, despite the movie coming from a small and independent production company.

Though most of its exposure could be accredited, mostly to Bruce’s surprisingly dedicated fan base of millennials and Jeffrey’s figure as ‘that’ Old Hollywood Star the general public adored, the supposedly mysterious identity of his own character too, one that the general audience was yet to know, also served to add as a bit of intrigue for those who had plans to see the movie.

So many edited short clips of his sapphire eyes piercing through the dimness of the last scene in the trailer, had and were still currently making their rounds on TicToc, ViewTube, TweetTalk & MediaGram.

The shot, seemed to have really hooked a lot of people and quite a few were planning to go see them movie at the cinema for exactly that reason.

All that aside though, the fact that, after almost an entire week of messing around with programming and sequencing programs, just to get the right electronic tune to fit the bill for his new song, Kyle had ended up completing said song and also released it, was nothing short of commendable.

Pulling up the appraisal window for the song through his system’s interface, the young man had a thin smile on his lips.

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{Strange Canvas} – (97%)

Written and sung by Kyle Kestis, this dreamy, unconventional, yet whimsically appealing electronic-pop song, infused with a bit of nostalgia, explores the composer’s longing for sleep, in a way that’s relatable yet ethereally pleasing to listen to.

___________________________

“It’ll find its audience I’m sure…” he muttered to himself as he dismissed the interface.

‘Should rest for a month at the very least now. I think I’ve earned it…’

Those were the young man’s last few words as he slept off.

Meanwhile, on the ‘Buzzing 100’ chart, [Strange Canvas], slowly moved up the charts;

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[Strange Canvas] – 2,753 Streams ↑

[Wild] – 2,752 Streams ↓

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* * *

Walking into a convenience store for her nightshift was Jody, a teenage girl in her second year of high school.

Changing into her work clothes, the young lady soon moved over to the counter, ready to respond to the late-night customers.

The convenience store, also had armed guards who were always on standby for their own shifts too so Jody always felt safe here.

Being an introvert, Jody also struggled with frequent bouts of insomnia.

In the past, it had been quite severe but after seeing the right medical practitioner, one who gave her the right medications to help alleviate them, things had mellowed out considerably over time.

But every once in a while, it would prove to be very stubborn to get over.

Today was one of those days.

Bored out of her mind since no customer had arrived since the last one hour, the lady whipped out her phone and plugged in her earbuds.

Navigating over to [GrooveBox], Jody scowled a bit when her eyes landed on the number one song on the charts.

‘What a vulgar song.’ she clicked her tongue in distaste, clicking on the next song [Lily], just after.

She had listened to it yesterday at a party that her only close friend (one whom was also an extrovert but had ended up adopting her a long, long time ago), dragged her over to yesterday.

Considering the lady wasn’t particularly a music lover like so many other people, Jody’s major preferences when listening to music were songs with good and relatable lyrics.

[Lily], sung by Lily Lockhart, a song that uses the many different varieties of lily flowers to showcase the beauties and fears of a young lady staying true to herself despite the many odds, was a song she really loved.

[Unconditional] & [Resilient] by Steven Andersson and Katie Chopra respectively, was also her kind of music.

Heck even [Party], a dance pop-music which usually wasn’t her everyday taste, was fun to listen to because the lyrics were simply focused on having the time of one’s lives, a state of mind she wished she could have.

But [Sensual], now that was a song she had a sort of deep disdain for.

The lyrics were just so crude, profanely indecent and very lewd that she wondered why the heck people even loved to listen to it, much less taking the top one spot on the chart.

However, Jody understood clearly well that her taste in music just didn’t jell well with that kind of music and everyone had preferences.

And so, keeping her mind off those thoughts, she proceeded to compile all her few favorite songs into a short playlist to listen to, solely for the night.

Just as she was about to though, a group of ladies came in, causing her to quickly put the phone and earbuds aside to attend to them.

After having responded to them a few minutes later, politely thanking them for their patronage, Jody stuffed her earpiece back into her ears, only to be met with an unfamiliar song playing.

It seemed like she had mistakenly clicked on the shuffle feature whilst putting the phone away.

A bit confused though, especially since she had never heard any song of such, the lady was about to change over to her previous jams when the tune of the song, finally picked up with the dreamy falsetto of a young man’s beautiful vocals entering the song.

A bit enthralled by the electronic tune of the song, Jody gradually gave in until she was completely mesmerized by said song along with its whimsical lyrics.

In about two minutes and thirty seconds later though, the song ended… only for Jody to immediately replay the song.

And then it happened again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Before she knew it, she had already replayed the song fifteen times!

Having the most beautiful smile surface on her lips, a rarity from her, Jody stared at the title of the song and the artist who sang it.

“[Strange Canvas] by Kyle Kestis…” she muttered.

This song, a song about a guy simply trying to sleep, at least in the way she interpreted it, resonated with her so much.

This, obviously, was due to the many times she had struggled with insomnia in the past and still struggled with it occasionally.

The tunes, were literally, so blissfully put together and yet, despite electronic pop not being her thing, Jody found herself falling in love with it.

But the lyrics… now those were her most favorite parts of the song.

‘It’s so whimsically innocent… almost child-like too, but in a very relatable way.’ her thoughts went on.

Feeling like she had heard the name of the artist somewhere before though, Jody simply dismissed those thoughts and instead, replayed the song again.

“This song…” she muttered again.

“I’m fucking gatekeeping this song!” Jody silently declared.

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[Strange Canvas] – 45,003 Streams ↑

[Twerk It] – 44,986 Streams ↓

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* * *

(Two days later…)

“See. That’s what I’ve been saying! There’s no originality to most songs these days. It’s just recycling and reuse.”

“Yeah. That is true. And not that it’s a particularly bad thing but at times, it can get very bland when you begin to spot all these musicians employing the exact same elements to their so called ‘Viral’ hit songs…”

On a fairly unpopular, late night segment of a certain radio station, one that a lot of night crawlers liked to tune into, a fairly-well known Disk Jockey that went by his stage name DJ Trippy and another individual, one who was a previously popular and retired music producer that went by the stage name Producer Bones, conversed over the general state of the music industry.

Usually, as they did this, they would collect music requests from the listeners and play it on the show, analyzing and breaking down what makes the song tick after the song had finished playing.

Today was no different as they kept talking while analyzing the currently most popular song on the charts, [Sensual], that had just finished playing a few minutes’ back.

“That basic four chord progression; Em, G, C, D; It’s such a catchy tune but it’s also become so, very overused that it’s kinda lost its charm for a lot of people.” Producer Bones explained while Trippy read out a few comments.

“So someone said;

‘I get what you mean Bones. Sometimes I just steer clear of the charts and listen to my old school CDs. Those are much more innovative.’

“Another person said;

‘So literally a formula. Got it. If I wanna make a hit song, use those cords. Thanks Bones!’

Trippy chuckled a bit as he read that particular message, realizing that some people just didn’t give a shit as long as it made their song popular.

“And the cycle goes on…” Bones on the other hand, massaged his temples with a small sigh of resignation.

Shaking his head whilst reading a few more comments, Trippy soon received a new music request for them to play and analyze after.

“So uh, [Strange Canvas] By Kyle Kestis yeah? Alright then. Give me a minute!” the DJ quickly tried to locate the song and play it.

Already having expected another typical, easily analyzable song to grace his ears, Bones stared on with a bland expression.

However, the moment Trippy finally found the song and played it, Bones expression gradually shifted into that of genuine interest as the first few seconds of the song’s tune, opened up.

There was an almost ethereal piano tune which was complimented by a gentle electronic melody, one that was gradually building up in layers to create a sort of dreamy and lush feel.

Trippy also seemed to be so invested in the song, and even the chat, went silent.

But the moment the song actually picked up with Kyle’s enchanting vocals entering the fray, that was when both Producer, DJ and listeners became truly mesmerized by the song.

With such a whimsical feel to it, one that quite a lot of listeners could resonate with being the night crawlers that they were, the song played on, ensnaring every single person listening to it.

And then, when the song finally ended, there was pin-drop silence in the room, Bones and Trippy unable to muster the words to say.

The song was so unconventional from what they were very much used to and yet, it had the makings of a song that was so appealing!

The listeners on the other hand, soon began to bombard Trippy with messages, snapping him out of his trance;

– Trippy! Play it again!

– Repeat! Repeat! Repeat!

– Oh my God! What the hell was that song?!

– Bones is utterly speechless! Haha!

– The man was too stunned to speak! And so was I a few seconds ago!

– Leave it on loop Trippy!

– That etherealness. That dreamy feeling… Inject me with it again!

As the comments rolled in, Bones also reading them through the large tab in front of him, he couldn’t help but agree with said comments.

Truly, he had been too stunned, too mesmerized and too captivated by the song to speak.

“Trippy. Play the song again.” he smiled and said.

“You got that right P-Bones!” the DJ grinned as he replayed the song, glad that there was an influx of people interacting on the show.

This was definitely going to be good publicity for a small show like theirs.

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[Strange Canvas] – 999,003 Streams ↑

[Boogieman] – 981,695 Streams ↓

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