Rise To Stardom - Chapter 77

Chapter 77: Dethroned
Kelsey West, was previously, a country-song musician.

However, her luck had changed when one of her songs hit the top of the charts a few years back, bringing her into the mainstream space.

So as not to stay irrelevant, Kelsey, now commonly known by her stage name ‘Gingercat’, flipped her entire style of music to fit the trends, one that her core fans weren’t too happy about.

Sure they were happy for her success but, at the same time, they began to lose interest as she kept on releasing more and more songs that only fit the trends, completely ignoring her country-songs, songs which made her different from other mainstream musicians.

But since the new formula worked for Kelsey and made her relevant in the music industry, she ignored the growing concerns about her music not being distinct anymore and instead, embraced the new change.

Unfortunately, the fame too, also got to her head and soon, she ended up embroiling herself in a few nasty controversies here and there that were mostly her fault.

Before she even knew what was happening though, slowly, she had started to become irrelevant, with most of her fans leaving her, either because they became very disappointed in her, or to find greener pastures in form of fresh new music that wasn’t hers.

Her agency too, had also stopped treating her like their golden goose and had instead, given her an ultimatum, one that detailed that unless she had a song that was in the top 10 for an entire month, they would drop her without fail.

This sent Kelsey into a state of panic but, as if the universe was giving her one last chance, one of her recent singles, currently sat at No. 10 on the charts, overtaking the eleventh song by a few million streams.

Believing that she was now back in business, Gingercat was once again found at the center of a major controversy, one where she had been caught sleeping with a well-known music producer who was a married man with kids.

TweetTalk as usual, flamed the topic to no end with people mostly canceling the music producer himself for cheating on his wife whilst Gingercat, stayed relatively unharmed, feeling as if she was untouchable.

But then again, karma was a bit of a bitch.

Receiving a call from her agent a few seconds ago, Kelsey was currently biting her glittered fingernails in fear whilst sweating buckets.

The cause – One particularly crazy song was shaking up the music charts like crazy, its ascent to the top of the charts, unprecedented and phenomenal.

—

[Wet] – 6,891,417 Streams ↑

[Strange Canvas] – 6,885,973 Streams ↓

—

“Please don’t rise! Please don’t rise! Please don’t, fucking rise!!”

That was the mantra Kelsey had been chanting for over an hour now and yet, nothing seemed to be changing.

—

[Wet] – 6,893,014 Streams ↑

[Strange Canvas] – 6,890,107 Streams ↓

—

“Fucking stay in your lane, please!!!” she screamed and cursed, tears already falling down her face.

And yet, as if to spite her every word, the rankings on the charts changed.

—

[Strange Canvas] – 6,895,002 Streams ↑

[Wet] – 6,894,241 Streams ↓

—

Gingercat, collapsed onto her knees, her head slumped downwards in defeat.

* * *

Mike and Betty, along with Haley and her friends, were currently throwing another small, low-key party, with only the wealthiest of the wealthiest invited.

Considering Haley had broken up with Austin midway into the shooting of their movie because she found him cheating on her, she had decided to do the next best thing in her dictionary.

Jet-setting.

Her friends were also in support of it, telling her she had every right to enjoy as many men as she wanted.

And so, finding a few wealthy young men, her and her friends, along with Mike and Betty, were practically having the ‘time of their lives’.

Smooching each other, tongue and all, a few people were cheering them on as the group practically almost ripped each other’s clothes off right there in the small club.

However, disrupting that moment was Mike’s phone which beeped with a familiar ringing tone in his pocket, causing him to break off his smooching session with Betty.

“Sorry babe. Gotta pick this.” he explained to a Betty who was almost out of breath.

Picking up his agent’s call, he heard the man say in a somewhat nervous tone;

[Mike, you remember that kid who eliminated you in ‘Rising Voices’…]

Tilting his head in confusion, a deep frown forming on his face, Mike responded;

“Kyle Kestis?”

No sooner had he said those words, Haley, along with their other clique of girls, stopped what they had been doing almost immediately, their attention on Mike.

That name, was one they hadn’t particularly heard in a quite a while since his last hit song, [No Clue].

“And so, what about him?” Mike asked again, his frown getting deeper by the second.

Hearing a small, nervous laughter ring from the other end of the phone, Mike listened as his agent said;

[Just… g-go… go check the charts…]

Not liking where this was going at all, Mike quickly did as he was told.

Haley and her girlfriends too, started to become very curious as they watched Mike’s actions.

The guy Haley was locking lips with previously tried to pull her back into the kiss but she dismissed him with a push;

‘Kyle again…’ she couldn’t help but think, wondering why she always felt so interested whenever his name was brought up.

Mike on the other, having pulled up the charts, gazed at it with a confused expression;

—

[Sensual] – 11,682,956 Streams ↑

[Lily] – 11,203,180 Streams ↓

[Unconditional] – 10,998,959 Streams ↓

[Resilient] – 10,543,298 Streams ↓

[Party] – 9,999,069 Streams ↓

…

…

…

[Strange Canvas] – 8,105,628 Streams ↓

—

“So what? He has a song on the charts. Am I supposed to be concerned? Is this supposed to be some sort of prank?” Mike’s tone was laced with a strong hint of annoyance as he responded to his agent, one which the man replied to by saying;

[Check… check the analytics of the song…]

Frowning again, Mike reluctantly did as he was told, only to have his eyes widen in shock as he read out loud;

“3632.06% increase in the last six days?!”

The girls around who had no idea what those numbers meant, still understood that it must’ve been an exceptionally crazy incident for Mike to have such a mixed expression of shock and fear on his face.

[Yeah. And… it’s not, stopping anytime soon…]

Those were Mike’s agent’s last few words before he cut off the phone call, causing Mike to slowly lower himself back onto the couch, a genuine expression of mixed disbelief and fear settling on his features.

“I’m gonna lose to him again…” he subconsciously muttered out loud, causing everyone around him to get an idea what was going on.

* * *

Following the events of the past week, a lot of popular media sites, bloggers and article writers from many major Hollywood publication companies, waited in feverish anticipation as they watched [Strange Canvas]’s meteoric rise to the top of the charts!

Although a few sites and smaller bloggers had started raising awareness about the song’s crazy ascent, the more popular ones bided their time, knowing fully well that people would still read their own articles once the song finally dethroned the current number one song.

And speaking of the current number one, Mike had gone into a state of panic, utilizing some very heavy PR to get his song further up the charts.

Truth be told, it was also that same heavy PR that had originally gotten him to the top of the charts, courtesy of coming from a very wealthy family.

However, PR couldn’t do shit when the general public had one singular, whimsically beautiful, pleasantly fresh, appealing, and still, very relatable song for a lot of people, playing in their heads.

On people’s playlists, in their cars, at late night bars, on radio stations, at clubs, parties, malls… the song was literally getting everywhere!

And so, at some point, Mike did nothing.

Why?

Because he could do nothing!

Not to the song’s rapid ascent, not to the general public who were so enamored by it, and certainly, not to the singer of the song himself.

Considering Kyle had such a private life, one that even after having being exposed to a bit of fame, still stayed very much under wraps, ensured that no dirt could be found on him.

So Mike just watched and waited, his dethronement from the top, inevitable.

* * *

—

[Strange Canvas] – 10,100,011 Streams ↑

[Party] – 10,099,001 Streams ↓

—

“Haha! Always the man of the hour, isn’t he Joe?” Ryan asked Joe who was currently also gazing at the updated charts, a proud grin on his features.

He was truly happy for and proud of Kyle.

“That he is! Also means we need to work harder!” Joe switched off the phone with a fired-up expression.

“For sure!” Ryan replied, a similar fire in his eyes as he and Joe resumed their dance routine for the music video of [Party] they were going to be shooting today.

—

[Strange Canvas] – 10,899,999 Streams ↑

[Resilient] – 10,861,650 Streams ↓

—

“He may have not won the competition but he’s certainly winning in life…” Katie smiled as she viewed the notification on her phone, informing her of her song’s displacement to fifth place.

“That is true. I always meant it when I said ‘Rising Voices’, isn’t the end of anyone’s career…”

“More than that, the experience you glean from the show, should serve as fuel to propel you even further.” Kiara gave a few words of advice to Katie, one that the lady couldn’t help but nod in agreement to.

“Now, let’s get back to the lyrics of that new song of yours.” she clapped and promptly, Katie pocketed her phone and resumed her previous discussion with her mentor.

—

[Strange Canvas] – 11,286,708 Streams ↑

[Unconditional] – 11,200,159 Streams ↓

—

“Man… I always thought Lily was a pain in the ass. Who knew Kyle would climb up on that list?” Steven had a light smile on his lips as he viewed the notification.

“I always felt a bit sad that he never joined a record label despite his many talents but now that I’ve heard his new song, I think he made the right decision…”

“This kind of song might’ve never seen the light of day if he had been signed to one.” Blake who was in the room with Steven, and also knew about the harsh realities and controlling natures of many record labels said.

Nodding his head in agreement to that, understanding what his mentor meant by that, Steven cracked his knuckles and then said;

“Still, I want to surpass him! That driving yet underlying piano tune he used in the song was quite spectacular. I want to create something even better than that.”

“That’s the spirit.” Blake, being the music coach that he was, was glad Steven found some really good motivation.

—

[Strange Canvas] – 11,901,725 Streams ↑

[Lily] – 11,859,080 Streams ↓

—

“Dreamboat, you sly devil, you…” Lily grinned from ear to ear as she watched the song take her spot on the charts.

“I can’t believe he never informed us about the song…” Amy, Lily’s younger sister, had a pretty amazed look on her face as she watched the stream count of Kyle’s song still soaring through the roof.

“And that’s what actually makes the feat amazing Peaches. It’s a song that got to the top, solely based on how exceptionally well-composed it is. It’s remarkable honestly…” Lily explained, a happy smile settling on her features.

“That is true. Kinda sad your song got dethroned but I can forgive our cinnamon roll for doing that. He earned it.” Amy gave a similar smile in response as she said.

—

[Strange Canvas] – 12,566,000 Streams ↑

[Sensual] – 12,565,852 Streams ↓

—

Massaging his temples as he watched his song, finally get dethroned, Mike instantly felt small again, his thoughts running back to that faithful day on the set of ‘Rising Voices’ when he had underestimated Kyle and paid the price for it.

And then, as if to add a dash of salt to his wounds, a notification from Rising Voices official account, finally replied to his tweet with a picture of Kyle’s song dethroning his, captioned;

{Well, well, well… who’s the stepping stone now, bub?}

The post itself had already garnered over a hundred thousand likes and retweets in just a few minutes, with the comment section laughing at and roasting the shit out of Mike.

“Fuck!” Mike screamed and threw his smartphone across the room in enraged fury!