Yesterday, Jing Boran of cpop duo BOBO signed with lesser known Taiwanese company, Seed Music for his label. Still, under Hua Yi management, the company’s CEO and founder Wang Zhongjun was there, residing over the proceedings and giving support, showing how important this was. It was a rare appearance, since Wang Zhonglei (the younger Hua Yi brother) usually is the one that usually is present at the company’s press conferences, even for big Hua Yi-produced films like Detective Dee. He brought along with him a symbol of Jing Boran’s contract for appearance the upcoming sequel to “Hot Summer Days”. Fromer costar Angelababy also sent her congratulations.
With Seed Jing Boran has become the labelmate of artists like Taiwan’s Kenji Wu, Landy Wen, and Yao Yao, Malaysia’s Gary Cao,and Korea’s F.Cuz. The music of Seed ranges, but usually the more popular their artist, the better and Jing Boran, is extremely popular. Jing Boran will soon visit Taiwan.
As for the rumors about BOBO breaking up because of this, Wang Zhongjun denied this, saying that they are going solo, but the group is not dissolved. He said, people to need to grow and try new things for a diverse development, and cooperating with Seed would be one way of doing that. Hua Yi Brothers has collaborated with many various companies in its production history such as 21st Century Fox (Hot Summer Days), Lionsgate/Weinstein(The Forbidden Kingdom), Imax (Aftershock)and various other asian companies with great success, so they can be said to have a lot of experience in expanding this way already. Jing Boran will certainly get lots of attention with Seed. Since Wang Zhongjun is the top of Hua Yi ladder, and both boys of BOBO are still Hua Yi artists, fans of the two can only patiently wait to see what this means for the group.
Im heartbroken. When Bobo was formed three years ago, I thought they are going to do so much, break new ground in the idol group genre of mainland music scene. But three years later, two *average* (Im sorry, Huayi need better producers~) albums later, we have come to this…
@curious – *pats* there. there. Hua Yi does need better producers. Well, that’s not true actually – Laure Shang and Cong Haonan’s albums are really good. But they haven’t really concentrated on their music division thus far, and they are sort of going through a transition period and are not as organized as they could be.
Thus, be glad for Jing Boran – since Hua Yi’s own label is still transitioning, he’s going to get more attention with Seed, since with his fanbase he’ll be one of their top sellers. And he’ll get to promote in Taiwan (since Taiwan’s rules right now are that you have to be somehow affiliated with a Taiwanese company to be able to promote there if you are a mainlander).
Compared to all the other Chinese groups, BOBO’s music isn’t the best. I never saw them as “ground breakers” for the mainland. China has groups like MIC and Top Combine for that who actually write music, and have lots of control over their own artistic direction. BOBO never did.
We just loved BOBO because they were BOBO – two sweet boys who cared for each other and were cared for each by each other. There was nothing I needed from them, for them to do. As long as they were working, doing what they loved. Both will have a good future, and they’re still good friends. This is quite heartbreaking in some ways for BOBO fans, but not so dire.
@curious
I’m disappointed, too.
Like Hera said, I just loved BOBO because they were BOBO – two sweet boys who cared for each other and were cared for each by each other. There was nothing I needed from them, for them to do. And to be honest, I don’t care how good of an acting role or album they get because it was the little interactions that I enjoyed.
Yet rather than try to market that interaction, which is what made BoBo unique, Huayi didn’t really know what to do with them because they’re far better at managing serious movies, dramas and actors than idols. Huayi is used to speaking with products rather than personality appeals, and the fact that Huayi Music was under a different company and inferior management didn’t help. Most of Huayi artists’ good songs are epic songs like Jane’s “Tian Xia Wu Shuang” and “Only for Love” from the Huayi movie/fIlm department, which BoBo doesn’t generally get since they’re not suited for this. So overall, Huayi’s just not the right place for idols.
Lessknown and bolder companies are much better for those, like Taihe Rye and eeMedia, and even newer startups with dreams of filling the mainland boy/girlband gap. Others, like M.I.C., more trained, equally unique and with a more solid company, can instead take on the responsibility.