Chapter 461: Cruelty

Chapter 461: Chapter 461: Cruelty

Compared to the other three more traditional and classic music styles in the music industry, Kanye West represents the most trendy, avant-garde, and youngest new-generation hip-hop force.

Achieving fame at a young age and reaching the peak right upon debut, in just a few years he swept the Grammy, won numerous international awards, and was selected as one of Time’s 100 most influential people, possessing both front-stage singing strength and top-tier backstage production skills.

He is proficient in rap, R&B, and trendy arrangements, possesses an advanced aesthetic and unique style, and is adept at discovering niche, highly individualistic, highly opinionated, and talented up-and-coming singers, completing the show’s shortcomings in the trendy, street, and new-generation tracks, enabling the four mentors to seamlessly encompass every musical style and audience in the American music industry.

After the four mentors took the stage one by one, the scene’s atmosphere reached its peak.

The four simply greeted the camera and the audience, each briefly expressing their expectations for this blind audition.

Without any redundant or flashy speeches, they maintained a spotlight on the music itself throughout, fitting the pure core of the show.

Afterwards, according to the positions designated by the production team, the four mentors took their seats one by one in the four iconic exclusive red rotating chairs.

The four adjusted their sitting postures, put on their in-ear monitors, and confirmed that the button devices in front of them were functioning normally, ready at any time to receive the singing coming from the stage and enter the judging state.

The stage lights suddenly dimmed, leaving only a single fixed white beam in the center of the stage, falling lonely on the stage’s performance area.

All monitor screens in the control room synchronized spotlight, the sound collection equipment maxed out its sensitivity, and the whole venue instantly plunged into extreme silence.

Carson Daly’s voice resounded steadily through the speakers, proclaiming the official launch of a new era of music talent shows: "Welcome to The Voice, the blind audition round officially begins."

As Carson Daly’s words settled, the recording of the blind auditions for the first season of The Voice officially kicked off, and the entire studio fell into an extremely quiet recording state.

There was no audience clamor, no off-site noise, only a cold white follow spotlight in the center of the stage quietly waiting for the first contestant to take the stage.

According to the alphabetical name list arranged in advance by the production team, the first contestant, guided by backstage staff, gripped the microphone tightly and walked slowly onto the stage.

The youth was young and slightly thin in figure.

Standing in the center of the vast and magnificent circular stage, he was instantly enveloped by the professional aura of the top-tier studio, and his visible nervousness and awkwardness hit him head-on.

Everyone was clear that the competition in this blind audition was extremely cruel.

Through layers of screening among two hundred contestants, every single one of them was a one-in-ten-thousand high-quality amateur, while the team quotas for the four mentors were extremely limited.

The production team had clear rules long ago that each mentor could eventually recruit only eight to ten trainees to form their exclusive teams, competing for spots in the subsequent team and individual competitions.

This meant that out of the two hundred top singers, only thirty to forty people would successfully advance in the end, and the vast majority of the rest would be eliminated with regret.

The contestants who appeared in the first round naturally bore the pressure of the opening, and the slightest mistake would lead directly to their curtain call.

The accompaniment slowly sounded, and the gentle melody filled the entire studio as the first contestant opened his mouth to sing.

Perhaps because the psychological burden of being the first contestant to take the stage was too heavy, or perhaps because the sound collection equipment of the top-tier studio was too sensitive, amplifying all flaws of the human voice infinitely, his state was tense and extremely restrained throughout.

For the first dozen seconds after opening his mouth, his timbre was mediocre, lacking eye-catching recognizability.

Although his pitch was online, it was completely devoid of emotional appeal and memorable points.

The four mentors were all top experts who had cultivated deeply in the music industry for many years, having heard countless talented voices and professional-level performances.

Faced with such mediocre and unhighlighted performance, the four sat upright and motionless the entire time, with no one having the thought of raising their hand to press the button.

Ultimately, the nervous emotion crushed the contestant’s performance.

When the singing progressed to the critical thirty-second section, an accident suddenly occurred.

His breath was disordered and his rhythm was broken.

His mind went blank instantly, and he got stuck right at the conjunction of the lyrics, showing a clear mistake of forgetting the words.

After a brief stutter, he panicked and wanted to make up for it, forcibly continuing to sing, but this completely disrupted the melody and rhythm of the entire song.

Out of tune, breathy, and with hurried articulation, the texture of the whole song completely collapsed.

The blind audition stage was strict and cruel, with no chance to start over, no permission for re-singing, and a one-second mistake was a finalized conclusion.

The four mentors sat steadily in their rotating chairs throughout, nobody was moved, nobody pressed a button, and the red indicator lights remained dim and dull throughout.

The one-minute singing time limit passed in a flash, the accompaniment slowly came to an end, and the stage lights remained cold and austere.

"It is a pity that no mentor turned around for you."

Carson Daly’s voice was gentle and restrained, without deliberate emotional manipulation, yet it precisely sentenced the contestant’s result.

The first contestant to take the stage thus stopped at the blind audition stage.

The youth managed to hold back his emotions and bowed to leave.

Just as he walked back to the backstage waiting area, the long-accumulated tension, anxiety, unwillingness, and frustration completely erupted.

He turned his back, covered his face, his shoulders trembled violently, and suppressed sobs quietly sounded.

Breaking through layers from a sea of 100,000 people and surviving two rounds of rigorous re-examinations, he finally managed to stand on the stage of a top-tier variety show, only to fall in a nervous mistake of just one short minute.

This gap was enough to crush any amateur full of dreams.

Seeing this, Carson Daly naturally walked onto the stage, holding the microphone to offer a kind reminder, sounding the alarm for all subsequent contestants. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

"I know that every single one who has walked here possesses extraordinary talent and strength, and is a strong person who stood out from tens of thousands of applicants.

But please remember firmly, the blind audition stage is fair yet cruel; every second of singing, every breath, and every detail determines your staying or leaving.

There is no fluke in the arena, no chance of remedy for mistakes, and the performance is only one minute long, yet it is enough to condense months and years of hard work.

I hope that every subsequent contestant can adjust their mentality, stabilize their state, go all out, bring out their best self, and leave no regrets."

Carson’s gentle reminder pointed out the cruel rules of the show, making all contestants completely abandon any fluke mentality and treat every upcoming stage appearance seriously.

Unfortunately, the high-energy plot of an opening victory did not arrive as scheduled.

Several contestants following closely took the stage one after another; some had acceptable timbres but thin emotions with no memorable points, some had stable singing skills but mediocre styles lacking characteristics, and some were nervous and stage-frightened, with unstable rhythms and abnormal performances.

In just over twenty minutes of recording time, the stage welcomed multiple contestants in succession, yet not a single person was able to touch the four rigorous music mentors.

The indicator lights of the four red rotating chairs remained silent and dim throughout; not once did they light up, not once did they rotate.

The continuous elimination situation made the atmosphere of the entire recording increasingly gloomy and depressed.

In the quiet control room, the staff members who were originally calm and composed gradually revealed expressions of tension that were hard to conceal.

Several editors and production assistants exchanged secret glances, their eyes full of concerns.

They had cultivated deeply in the variety show industry for years and knew the audience’s viewing psychology extremely well.

When watching music talent shows, audiences never look forward to bland conventional singing and continuous contestant eliminations, but rather high-energy iconic scenes where talented dark horses amaze the whole audience, multiple mentors scramble and compete for people, and a two-way rush towards each other.

The continuous bland elimination plot would make the show’s rhythm draggy and lack highlights, easily causing audience aesthetic fatigue and declining ratings, which was completely unfavorable for the new show’s premiere to break out.

Even Irene, who had always sat steadily and remained unperturbed, lightly tapped her fingertips on the tabletop, scanning the monitors with calm eyes.

She was not flustered about the show’s quality at all, but she also knew that a high-energy stage and a mentor-stealing iconic scene were needed now to completely revitalize the show’s rhythm, ignite the audience’s enthusiasm, and set a tone of starting high and going higher for the entire season.

And this highlight moment that revitalized the overall situation soon arrived as promised.