"An album like 'Stairway to Heaven'... yet one that stands in total contrast to the music we've made so far."
Inside the rehearsal room of the juniors recruited by Ichigo Production, the bald Mad Scientist bassist was clutching his head, agonizing over the songwriting process.
The bald bassist felt that Enfants Terribles had nothing more to show within the bright, rocking sound they had maintained up until now.
The public wanted something new from Enfants Terribles.
An album that transcended their previous limits.
"Hyung, why don't you try changing the atmosphere?"
"Changing the bright atmosphere?"
"It's going to be a double album anyway. Wouldn't the shift be even more impactful if you went from a bright vibe to something dark?"
Originally, the bald bassist's forte was creating dark tracks with a clear narrative arc, layered with deep messages. However, he knew that if he simply turned the music dark without any innovation, it would surely be rejected as nothing more than the 'dirge-like rock' he had produced in the past.
"Hey, a dark song isn't just something you whip up. You have to weave in a message that fits the turning point of the track, while still maintaining just the right amount of brightness."
"For the message, Hyung, you're always reading literature like Demian or Faust. Recently, I even saw you picking through books by Noam Chomsky. Can't you just pull something suitable from those?"
While the bald bassist was known primarily as a vertical eccentric, he often displayed an intellectual side that lived up to his 'Mad Scientist' nickname. Considering his favorite genre was essentially 'Opera,' it was perhaps inevitable.
"I only read that Noam Chomsky book because you recommended it. Besides, putting twelve dark tracks into an album would be suicide. Who would listen to that?"
"You could use a piano-style synthesizer. A new model just came out, and I'm learning how to play it myself."
As he listened to his junior, the bald bassist's face lit up. Certainly, using a synthesizer would allow him to calibrate the tracks so they wouldn't descend into pure gloom.
An opera-like structure, a dark melody, and a message of social criticism. The Mad Scientist was attempting to move beyond the teachings of Hide, the band's leader, to carve out a new domain of his own.
"You're exactly right! I'll combine the leader's strengths with my own! I'll blend my own colors into the palette of Enfants Terribles!"
"Good luck!"
"You bet! I'm going to make an album that'll leave both the other baldies and the leader slack-jawed!"
For the record, the name of the junior who advised Shuji was Sakamoto Ryuichi. And Sakamoto Ryuichi was currently learning the synthesizer with the intent of joining Enfants Terribles.
"What should I do for the second album..."
The second album had to be different from the first. Our band, Enfants Terribles, had already exhausted everything there was to show in our previous genre—Britpop, or more accurately, British Modern Rock.
"I've already used up the best songs in that field. It was a genre with a short lifespan to begin with."
Sitting alone with my guitar, I was deep in thought. I had long since used the tracks of Oasis, the absolute titans of Britpop in my past life. I could use songs from their rivals, Blur, but the problem was that I hardly listened to Blur back then, so I couldn't remember them well.
'Yokishi and Shuji are also starting to want a change in genre.'
Those two, who had once simply followed my lead, were now building their own distinct styles.
Yokishi had established a worldview blending Hard Rock and Metal, while Shuji had long since settled into a mix of Progressive Rock and Art Rock. If I tried to push an album with the same feel as the first one on them now, they would surely reject it.
"Hmm..."
I strummed the guitar idly while I deliberated. The music I pursued was the kind that delivered a message through simple, easy melodies.
— Dun dun dun... dudu...
Suddenly, a familiar riff began to resonate from my fingers. It was the iconic riff from Nirvana's masterpiece, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.'
"Oh...? If it's Nirvana's [Nevermind], it might actually work."
Come to think of it, I remember seeing a dream where we released [Nevermind] as our second album. It made sense; the Britpop genre we had been doing was originally born as a reaction against the Grunge Rock scene led by Nirvana. If we were going to pivot to something different, there was no better choice than this.
"Those two will definitely agree to this album, too."
The core genre of [Nevermind] is Grunge. Grunge is less sharp than Metal and lacks the bluesy stickiness of Hard Rock, which makes the sound less overwhelming for the average listener.
In other words, [Nevermind] was an album that could satisfy both Yokishi's desire for a raw, heavy sound and Shuji's preference for somber, moody tracks.
Then, I caught my reflection in the rehearsal room mirror. I looked exactly like Kurt Cobain.
"Since I look so much like him, does that mean Kurt Cobain doesn't exist in this world?"
When I first arrived in this world, I had shamelessly plagiarized masterpieces from the past. Since this was a world where even the concept of a band, let alone Rock music, was scarce, I had assumed that the legendary artists who defined Rock wouldn't exist here either.
Looking at my reflection, I had a thought.
Would it be okay to plagiarize Kurt Cobain's songs?
If the person doesn't exist in this world, it shouldn't matter if I use the songs.
I had begun to feel a sense of guilt toward plagiarism ever since I learned the [Truth], but strangely enough, I felt no such resistance when it came to Kurt Cobain's music.