Beats or Bust! [Morning - Case File]

The raging music and glamorous lights of the night long gone, Suzie Q's Concert Hall was much less lively in the morning than it normally was, though not by much. The fantastical performances gave way to daily practice and performers using their stages to prepare for the next hectic night to come. A few free spirits even decided to play for whoever would listen as long as they were able to stretch their musical talent. Speaking of which, all would arrive at the backstage area for the famous, the fantabulous, the one and only Katty Kurie in the flesh! These special fans of hers would be giving her a little bit of help in choosing her music for an upcoming project, anything for her fans!

The Mission:

"Oh, you wouldn't want anything from Common Cents then. His music is less for dancing to, and more for...well, other stuff." Boy this girl had a lot of criteria though. Rory looked through the track list on his totally normal and legal CD's case. "Oh, here we go. What'cha think of this one? It's not perfect, but I think it's got a pretty kickin' beat." He knew he should've gotten into a teenage girl's mindset for this one.

Wait, that came out wrong.

Looking at the others, Gabe didn't necessarily think that he would fare any better, but originality is something that he can come up with.

"I'll head on out to the booth then..."


Gabe would say as he started to mix his own set of music in order to create something that he thought would be appropriate for the commercial. When he was done, he presented it to katty and the rest.

OOC: Short post, but I made up for it by actually composing it.

Gabe's submission

Spoiler:

Trinity looked at the other two, listening to the tape that the one man brought, and then to the music that Gabe started to play on his own, and as she listened she nodded a bit, as she started to listen to the music being played, but when her turn came up she picked up her Synthtuar and walked into the booth and brought her hands up to the instrument she had with her, tapping a few times to get the sound balance in the room before she took a step back from the mic to get the best quality she thought she could get.

Then she started to play.


When she was finished she took a bow and stepped out of the booth to see if her song was good enough, it was a song she hadn't played before on stage or any concert, in fact she had made it the moment she walked into the booth, singing and making it up as she sang and played, and as she was waiting for the verdict she was writing down the lyrics and notes.

"Oh! I love make-up! I don't really need it myself! But make-up is great! More people should use it! I once helped manage a make-up company! Made a huge profit by teaching people ugly they actually were!"

Rui was actually a classically trained violinist in his childhood and had a decent understanding of how this worked. However, he hadn't played in a long time. Hell, he wasn't even sure if he could play in his current body. That being said, being trained in music actually means that he had an unusually large repertoire of public domain music to rely on. On the other side, he wondered if he could find something that fit into the idol pop aesthetic.

He did in fact help run the private equity "turn-around" of a make-up company once. And if you wanted to sell make-up, there was one really damn good way to do it.

He settled on a rather frenetic violin solo from Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1. He felt it could symbolize the emotions of a young girl, or he supposed boy, who prepared to go out in a public place with tons of staring, cruel, hateful eyes - the exact moment when they realized how ugly they actually were and how much they desperately needed the advertised cosmetic products in order to shield themselves from a panoptican of featureless faces, all sneering, jeering, and derisively laughing AT YOU until you took your cursed face out of public and into your hikikomori hole where it belonged.

Presumably, the make-up would transform the horrific DROLL TROLL of a protagonist, steeped in a black-and-white world of sadness and misery, into the beautiful visage of Katty Kurie, smiling and beaming in a colorful world of happiness and rainbows - all because you bought the advertised product!

Remember!

Pre-makeup: it was the worst of times, 1713 in Ottoman Wallachia. The leprous rats avert their eyes away from your ghastly visage and your hair is made of cockroaches, as the local Pasha calls for a witch-hunt against you.

Post-makeup: it was the best of times, in 20xx Endymion. You are a beautiful wonderful idol pop star and NOTHING can go wrong but remember ALL OF THIS CAN FADE AWAY, much like Dorian Gray's decaying portrait hidden away in the apartment or that idol in Perfect Blue, unless you BUY MORE MAKE-UP IMMEDIATELY.

The TRUE YOU (真なる我) has cockroaches for hair and everyone will know this unless you BUY BUY BUY.

BECAUSE. YOU. ARE. UGLY.

Cockroach hair

The little idol would gleefully invite everyone to her private stage in the concert hall and would allow and encourage everyone to listen to all the other compositions. Once the last note was played they would hear applause and the stamping of feet as Katty jumped up and down and clapped her hands on the hollow stage.

Grading Criteria:

Drumroll please!:

"WHOA green guy that's some cool stuff! Nono wait I got it! Okay so.... okay so like the lights are flashing and stuff and these cars are racing and stuff and it's all like VROOM VROOM NNNNYYYYEEEEEEO and then like a pink Mercedes comes up from the center across the finish line and skids like SCREEEEEEEE and then I step out in like a super rad racing suit and then I say stuff like... um... I dunno but people like it and they buy the thing yay!~"

"But you guys all did REALLY good! I'm like totally gonna use your music in other stuff like it said in the fine print of the application to enter this contest too! I really hope you guys had fun, I had a blast but now I gotta go pretend I know what car insurance is so I can endorse it so buh-bye now! Later gators!"

As Katty hopped up and down waving her adoring fans out of her private stage as they were politely escorted out a handful of 300lb security guards that were probably ex-military or at least wanted for a few violent crimes she stopped, thought, and called out to one of them.
"Hey, tall guy! Yeah, the guy that mixed his own stuff while he was here and TOTALLY nailed it! I wanna talk to you!" If he decided to come up on stage like he was "gently" urged to by security the idol would extend a proposition.
"So like... WHOA. You're pretty amazing at the music stuff with the mixing and the tracks and it's all so good wow! Hey. Hey hey hey. How'd ya like to work with me on my next album? I'm SO trying to break into the club scene because raves are SUPER cool and I need dance tracks. OH. MY GOSH. Dance tracks would be awwwwesommmmme! So ya what do you think? Wanna get famous?~<3"

Gabe definitely took his time in making the music, he even went out of his way in order to revise the music that he made in order to better fit the standards that the pop idol was using. With the simple fact that he was better off choosing something that he could make from scratch. He still ended up losing, and the fun fact was that it wasn't Nola that he lost to. It was some other individual that Gabe didn't really care to know about.

Moving on....

Gabe gave Trinity the signature pat on the head that he usually does to acknowledge her as he started to pack up his equipment. He was going to leave, but then he was called back by Katty.

"Me?"

Gabe walked towards her and listened to what she had to say. It seemed as if she was trying to her new heights with her career, the club scene. She was impressed enough with his beats that she wanted to work with Gabe in order to produce an album.

"Sure, I'll try to give you a hand with your dance tracks. Though I do have a casino to manage, I'll try to juggle the responsibility. "

The young idol would grow giddy as Gabe approached the stage, ushering him up with her trademark Trademark an intellectual property of Old Scratch Records hyperactivity.
"Yeah you, silly! Come'on up, step on dooooooooooown!" She would bounce on her heels and clap with his answer, clearly impressed with the response she was looking for.
"Yaaaaaaay! I knew you'd like it! We're gonna have SO much fun, I promise!" Katty rocked back and forth on her heels, swaying her arms as she grinned wide. Against what would be the better wishes of her agent she decided to dive right into talking about what she wanted to make and what she was trying to do, already considering Gabe a full supporter of her vision.
"Okay so like music, it's awesome and stuff! Like I do coooonceeeeeerts and shoooooows and it's so awesometabulous~! Okay so....... okay so like clubs and junk. Right. Shows and concerts are great and stuff but oh my gosh CLUBS! It's like big party and I. LOVE. Parties, so stellar~! And if I make club music then I can play at clubs and then I get party invites and holy cow that would be amazeballs!"

As Katty tittered and chattered she could hardly contain herself, but she'd calm down with an open-armed shrug to get serious for a sec.
"Also like ya know it's a turn-key operation with little investment and high potential payout with the royalties involved as well as making a splash in the scene so like yeah! Super duper great!" Katty beamed at her new partner.
"Okay so we need like.... okay so we need like extra super hot beats you can dance to! You're really talented and like you got super great hooks, got anything that's like jumpin'? Something that makes you wanna get up and dance!"

"There is a lot of energy being emitted from you. This is the first time we met, but I kind of wonder if you are always this energetic with people that you meet?"

It wasn't that Gabe had a problem with it, he just wondered if this was an act of some sort for her fans or peers. If Katty could talk normally perhaps, maybe this would be the time to do so? Or maybe, since she was trying to enter a business partnership with Gabe, she could maybe be more like herself. At the same time, he hoped that she didn't turn into some crazy woman afterward.

"I don't have anything on hand, but I could make something for you if that's what you would like. I think I did the dance beat by accident from following your instructions verbally. Everything you said is how I pictured it. But perhaps if done intentionally, I could make something decent. I guess I might as well throw this in the that but what you experienced was my very first product as a hobbyist composer by trade, off the fly, so that makes you a special business partner."

Shifting around to get a good look at the place, Gabe wondered when she needed it.

"So when do you need this by?"

Katty's face lit up with one of her trademarkTM cutesy smiles that would melt the heart of any frozen-hearted man/woman/individual of a non-binary gender.
"Yeah! I looooOOOOOVE people! People are awesommmmmme~! They have SO many stories and they like listening to MY stuff and we can hang out and have fun and OH MY GOSH so awesome~! I mean unless they have a stick up their aHAHA...! I'm like totally not supposed to say that stuff to fans, fufufu~!" Katty LOVED meeting new people. Always. All the time. Or maybe it was the sugar or maybe it wasn't but if she was acting she'd be a lot less excited about it. But she had a new friend and a new business thingy to do and she couldn't contain her enthusiasm.

The little idol jumped for joy and stretched her arms as Gabe spoke more about stuff she didn't exactly care about until the very end of his sentence.
"Oh YAY! Partners! Partners in crime, time to shine~!" she sang, spinning in place with her arms out.
"You are gonna LOVE working with me, we'll have so much fun and make the fans happy and HOLY crap the money! I'll open up a club and I'll play ALL the good tracks and it'll be SO popular!" She stopped spinning to get a slight bit more serious, placing her finger up and sticking out her tongue.
"I need it when it's done! So like my agent calls this a non-primary business venture which is how my agent says it has to be done by wheeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEnever I have it done! So we can mess around and record and sing and it'll be SO epic you won't believe it!" Katty was wrapped up in her joy and not on task at all but made the least attempt to try to be.
"Okay so............Okay so when do you wanna start recording? Tomorrow? This afternoon!? Right now!?! Let's do right now, I'm inspired and I'm so readyyyyyyyyyy RRRRRGH! So pumped!"

Gabe didn't necessarily know why he was expecting a Nola clone, he didn't even think that most of the idols he met would be this excitable. But he was wrong, it seemed as if there were some idols who were actually like that, with Nola being the black sheep.

"Wow, wait, a club? You might not give it off much, but it looks like you have a bit of an ambitious streak going for you. If you really wanted to start your own club with this music, it's probably going to take a bountiful amount of tracks in order to make the composed beats to be completely specific to that club only. Or better yet, it can play some tunes as filler, but these tracks i produce can be specifically for your establishment only. Could make for an interesting turn of events."

Gabe started to think about it a little more, checking his watch. If he could be done before noon or something along the lines he could be able to head on off to the casino in order to check on things there.

"Alright, we can do it now then. It won't happen instantly, but I think i'll be able to produce something. Something that makes you want to get up and dance, huh?"

Katty became giddy as Gabe spoke, specifically and strategically picking out the parts she wanted to listen to and ignoring the rest.
"Totes m'goats, all it takes is money and I have tons of that stuff! But it needs to be the coolest most happenin' club on the strip or like I'm TOTALLY wasting my time, it's gotta be flash! Flash like cash, cash money! Fufufufu it's gonna be the most popularest club and everyone'll go there and have super tons of fun and dance with me and I'm gonna DJ! ...except on Thursdays. I do stuff on Thursdays butthoseotherdays OH MY GOSH it'll be awesomus maximus~! Yay! We're gonna be BEST partners for like ever! Bee pee eff el eee! No wait...... no wait I can do better. ....best... music... nono, best awesome... Best Awesome Music Friends! BAMF! Fufufu~!"

Katty stopped to count on her fingers before exploding in giggles, completely unaware or maybe not to what her acronym really stood for. She tilted her head with a small frown as Gabe checked his watch but when he looked back he'd find all smiles. When he agreed to help her that day she broke into a wide grin and started to clap and hop up and down.
"Yaaaaaaay~! This is gonna be SO fun! We'll make so many songs and they'll be crazy jumpin' like BOOM BOOM BAKA-KOW KOW CHA y'know!?" Her shrill voice was a step below shrieking but she was incredibly pleased with his answer, devolving into running her mouth more about how enjoyable everything would be and how everyone would like it.


As Gabriel worked to produce music with Katty he would find her incredibly distractable and hyperactive, going off on tangents, getting up to walk about and focusing on everything outside of the task at hand. Whenever she did manage to stay on task however she would become more than competent, showing a degree of creativity, musical skill, and vocal and lyrical talent rare for people at all let alone people her age. When all was said and done what they managed to produce together was good. Maybe not great, but certainly good.


"SooooOOOO we should go with the first one nono the third one with the hook of the first one! WAIT I GOT IT. Remix~. Put the first one with the second one with the second one's hooks and the vocals of the thi- wait that won't work. Darn. ....Oh well! Fufufufu~!" Unfortunately for Gabe the tiny little idol did not run out of energy or approach any form of silence for more than a full minute during the entire time they worked together. But it got the job done, so that was something.
"Oh em gee it's gonna be so awesommmmmme when it's done! Like super fantastariffic to the max~! Hey hey heyheyheyheyhey where'd ya learn all this stuff from anyways? You're like uber good at this!" Katty continued to engage in conversation as she had been the entire time they were supposed to be working as Gabe's watch ticked ever closer to noon...

As Gabe agreed to work with Katty, he did have a feeling that Katty needed to be there in order to use her mind to mold and shape the music. The things that she reacted to positively or the type of beat or hook she seemed fond of, Gabe cultivated it from his library as he found other combinations to mix them together with something that supported the flow. An apart of having a knack for this involved having a good ear, something that Gabe definitely had to give her when it came to continuing with the mixes.

Believe it or not, Katty was one that could possibly surprise Gabe with the fact that her pop star status wasn't just a meaningless title. The firecracker was still full of energy through the entire altercation, but it wasn't all bad. Gabe still had a bit of a belief that things could all turn around and maybe they could have a good friendship together.

"Where did I learn all of this stuff? Growing up, I didn't have much growing for me, but I figured that if I ever wanted my manga that I was working on to be an anime or a series, there should be music. I guess between that would be a digital model online that people can access with theme musics and sounds taking place with each turning of the page. So this all falls back to when I used to make manga and owned a literature shop. In all honesty, no one taught me anything. I was self-taught. Maybe that's the same for you? Having the talent to sing and dance, sometimes people just "have it", right?"

However, he was running out of time and had to part with Katty soon.

"This is good for now right? We should pick this up on the next time that we meet. I actually heard that superstars had two or three kinds of phones. One for business, another one for family, and the third one for .....whatever they want. I'm not too sure if you also contain such things, but maybe it would be best for us to exchange contact information? That way, we can work together with a little better and you can contact me ahead of time for when you need me. Is that something you would be open to doing?"

"Comic books!?!" she shrieked with a clasp of her hands, "I. LOVE. Comic books! Oh Em Gee they're like picture books for grown ups and everyone's all like I'll stop you Hyper Guy! and then he's all like lol you won't and then BAM! KA-POW- NEEEEEEOOOOOOOW Prrrssshh! And then they're all like No Hyper Guy we're sorry! and he's all like sure B just be good now and the day gets saved and my favorite one is the cartoons because the cartoons you get to see the awesome like NOT in a book like it's actually happening an- OH EM GEE you should do cartoons~!" Katty spazzed out for a moment as she reenacted some random scene from something only she knew about, motioning with fervor as she got wrapped up in her own little screenplay. Almost wrapped up enough to miss the question, but not quite.

"Oh I got it alright! I got it in more spades than blackjack cuz I'm gonna be the best idol there is!" Katty took a triumphant pose and hooked her thumb to herself. "I'm gonna be a bigger name than... uuuuh... uuuUUUUUH something really really popular! Fufufu~! Then everyone will listen to my music!" Then again she didn't quite get the question either but listening and Katty went together like oil and water.
"Yeah it's super good, like the bestest! We can release it like right now and it'll get a Grammy nominee but it'll lose to Watch Me Make It Rain and then I'll act super excited that Ca$ha won even though she didn't deserve it and then I'll fall out of the public eye for a few months and come back with a SUPER BIG SINGLE that'll sweep the playboards and then I'll get it next year! Ooh oooh! Or we can make it besterest! It's like bestest but betterer!"

Katty continued to bounce around until the prospect of exchanging numbers came up, to where she suddenly stopped and put a finger to her chin.
"Oh okay, I know this one." Her eyes suddenly sunk and she took on a lifeless expression.
"I regret to inform you that all official dealings are to be handled by Old Scratch Records and their subsidiaries and associates, who are acting in the interests of my career and public image. Don't call us, we'll call you," she droned. And then returned to her peppy attitude as if it never happened.
"Fufu so sorry! My agent's a real Sir Buzzkillington of the Boring Table. He says if I give my phone number out to strangers I'll end up like Jodie Foster. Ooh but we can set up a date to do other stuff! How's Tuesday at... ummm... Tuesday. Tuesday at Tuesday! Yep!"