Genius Spotlight: Chen Xue Ran

 

You either know this man and love him, or you don’t know this man but will love him - I think I can start this article with this sentence. If you are primarily a Chinese TV series watcher, then for sure you have encountered this incredibly talented person. No, you can’t see this person directly on screen, but he is still there, hiding behind the characters. But, even though he is hiding behind the characters, he is a big part of the overall story.

This person is part of music.

In this article, which I have given a quite self-explanatory title, we are going to take a closer look at Chen Xue Ran, the man behind the most well-known music pieces that are present in many TV series and movies.

Xue Ran was born in China (Nanjing) on April 9, 1991, and since a very young age, he has had a close relationship with many forms of art. At the age of only 15, he started his music-composing journey and made a rearrangement of the song “Blood Lily.” Other than composing, in 2010, he won an award in a singing competition. Xue Ran has two degrees: one obtained from Beihang University, majoring in painting, and a second from the Berkeley Conservatory of Music, obtaining a master’s degree in film music production. His career truly kicked off after graduating from Berkeley’s Conservatory, and it is said that Xue Ran has composed over a hundred music scores related to film and media (1).

In terms of personality, he is very professional but oftentimes described as very humble and shy. He is known to be constantly wearing black clothes and framed glasses, which are his trademark. Other than Chinese stars, he has worked with international stars as well, including Judith Hill, Rihanna, and Brian Kennedy (2).

Xue Ran is a truly sought-out musician, and that’s why no one is surprised by how many music scores and soundtracks he has completed in his still very young life. Since this article can’t be way too long, I sadly won’t be mentioning all of his soundtracks, but I am going to mention only his most popular ones. You can listen to the songs just by clicking on the pictures below!

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GO GO SQUID!

This TV series is popular for its gaming theme but also for its amazing romance. But other than these two aspects, it is important to mention that Xue Ran sang and composed the main OST, “Nameless Generation.”

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LIGHTER & PRINCESS

Lighter & Princess is just like Go Go Squid, a series about romance blooming in the IT industry. This time, Xue Ran not only sang the intro OST, but he blessed this OST album with other songs as well, named “Red Light,” which you can listen to below.

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WHY WOMEN LOVE

This TV series focuses on women and their journey to finding love. This time, Xue Ran took a different approach and didn’t go with his popular rock genre. This time, he sang a love ballad, which truly captured the hearts of many listeners and viewers.

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GUARDIAN

Once again, a very popular TV series focusing on fantasy elements and the not-so-subtle romance between the main leads! This time, Xue Ran sang a powerful song called “We won’t be falling,’’ and he sang it all in English!

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YOU ARE MY GLORY

Another IT-related romance, and China simply has not enough of this trope, so IT-knowledgeable people must be more than happy. For this TV series, Xue Ran lent his voice and sang a song called “Born to Be the Eagle.”

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THE GREAT RULER

This time, Xue Ran lent his voice to a Wuxia romance TV series, and he surely didn’t disappoint. Even though the TV series itself didn’t gain a large audience, the OST did, and that’s why I am sharing my love with you with the song “The Showdown of Youth.”

Finding information about Xue Ran is truly very hard when you don’t speak Mandarin, so the information about albums was very hard to find. Xue Ran has many soundtracks that are part of the official TV series albums, but we cannot count them as his own because those albums contain other artists as well. Spotify helped me with album finding, and overall, I have found that Xue Ran has only two albums of his own, where he is the sole artist.

PLANET DAMIAN

2020

TOMORROW

2016

We have reached the ultimate end of this article, and hopefully you had fun reading and listening to it. The idea for this article popped into my head suddenly as I was listening to this artist’s work. Since MyDramaList has so many fan-related articles, why not write an article dedicated to a man who is still part of the drama industry but not as an actor? Thus, this article was created. I truly tried to look through many sources, but if you think I have made a mistake somewhere, do let me know. Since I had so much fun writing this article, trying to spread awareness and love, I am sure this won’t be my last article about this king. After all, the drama industry has many geniuses!