No talent? Be a superstar!
Dear Johnny,
It was with great appreciation -- and the odd laugh out loud -- that I read your commentary on the state of Taiwan's music industry. I have long been baffled by the lack of recognition afforded to Taiwan's true cultural artists, long marginalized by the music industry and the media in lieu of talentless idols reliably rolled out by the major labels.
Needless to say, there is a profound difference between an "artist" and a "pop idol."
An artist is entirely responsible for the material presented. The pop idol, on the other hand, is typically a product of a horde of handlers that includes song writers, arrangers, music producers, studio musicians, hair stylists, choreographers, music video directors and the agents and managers who spoon-feed the media with bullshit about why these prefabricated products are important to humanity.
The idol eventually strolls into the studio and sings a lead vocal onto the hard disk of a computer, where recording engineers skillfully correct pitch, simulate vibrato and other vocal attributes inherent to capable singers, layer and process the vocal track with chorusing and other effects until the cows come home, and in the end deliver what passes as "industry-acceptable" pop music.
Don't get me wrong. I have the greatest respect for the producers and technicians who are able to craft these "silk purses from a sow's ear." They are often the only talented people on such projects -- the idol included.
What has been remarkable of late is the music industry's obsession with grooming idols into hip-hopsters. Do any of these pretty faces have any idea of the cultural origins of hip-hop? And what does this genre -- which originated largely in gang culture in the Bronx -- have to do with local culture?
It seems Taiwan's pop icons have transformed into representatives of hip-hop culture because it was profitable, which is truly ironic, as this music genre was an expression of one's life growing up amid poverty, racism, violence and drugs. That's not a suit you just throw on one day because it pays well.
What offends me most of all is the mainstream music industry duping young people into believing these idols and their product are actually something to revere, and of course, to purchase. This is an outright deception of impressionable youth.
What saddens me most in all this is how Taiwan's media overlook the true artists which abound here. Just look at the pages of the major dailies when the Golden Melody Award nominations are announced to see which categories appear in print and which do not. You're likely to notice an absence of most traditional music categories, finding instead the pop nominations in full glow even though this music has little or no relevance to Taiwanese culture.
What are the media saying? That traditional and Aboriginal music -- indeed, any genre not falling under "pop" -- are not worth recognizing, and that the industry's cookie-cutter regurgitation of culturally irrelevant, uncreative material are the only offerings to be celebrated?
I am happy to say that in my travels around Taiwan I've been blown away by the artists who do exist here, whether it be an elderly Hakka tea farmer singing in his farmhouse, an erhu player putting a new spin on Taiwanese opera music, or a young Aboriginal singer cutting loose after a few shots of rice wine.
These are my idols in Taiwan's music scene. I only hope the media will take greater interest in recognizing and encouraging these voices by welcoming them onto their pages and channels of their "arts" coverage.
Matthew Lien
Whispering Willows Records
Johnny replies: Thanks for writing, Matthew. I suspect that the most important thing is to promote live music wherever possible. It is in this arena that the artist shines and the pretender falls to pieces.
Dear Johnny,
Haaah!! You had me cracking up when I read your piece on the "Jolin Incident." All I can say is, if scrawny little 36kg Jolin has that effect on male music consumers, then A-mei (張惠妹) had better quadruple her security staff and erect splashguards at public appearances.
And now that Kimbo has proven he's got enough musical talent to hang with MC Shih, maybe he can do a politically neutral rap duet with James Soong (
Rock on!!
Mark
Taipei
Johnny replies: A-mei is too busy making beer commercials to bother meeting the punters in the street. And it's a pity, too, because the advertisements she has released so far make her look like an alcoholic. Check out the ad where she plays bongos on the beach to lure some lithe basketballers away from their healthy enterprise and join her in taking an almighty swig of the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp's finest. It makes you want to stick to Adam's Ale.
And if you've sworn off television, you can see a huge and hideous poster of A-mei leering at a Taiwan Beer product on the corner of Bade Road and Weishui Street in Taipei City (replacing rocker Wu Bai (
On Monday, the day before Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) departed on her visit to China, the party released a promotional video titled “Only with peace can we ‘lie flat’” to highlight its desire to have peace across the Taiwan Strait. However, its use of the expression “lie flat” (tang ping, 躺平) drew sarcastic comments, with critics saying it sounded as if the party was “bowing down” to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Amid the controversy over the opposition parties blocking proposed defense budgets, Cheng departed for China after receiving an invitation from the CCP, with a meeting with
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) is leading a delegation to China through Sunday. She is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing tomorrow. That date coincides with the anniversary of the signing of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which marked a cornerstone of Taiwan-US relations. Staging their meeting on this date makes it clear that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intends to challenge the US and demonstrate its “authority” over Taiwan. Since the US severed official diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, it has relied on the TRA as a legal basis for all
Taiwan ranks second globally in terms of share of population with a higher-education degree, with about 60 percent of Taiwanese holding a post-secondary or graduate degree, a survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development showed. The findings are consistent with Ministry of the Interior data, which showed that as of the end of last year, 10.602 million Taiwanese had completed post-secondary education or higher. Among them, the number of women with graduate degrees was 786,000, an increase of 48.1 percent over the past decade and a faster rate of growth than among men. A highly educated population brings clear advantages.
In the opening remarks of her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) framed her visit as a historic occasion. In his own remarks, Xi had also emphasized the history of the relationship between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Where they differed was that Cheng’s account, while flawed by its omissions, at least partially corresponded to reality. The meeting was certainly historic, albeit not in the way that Cheng and Xi were signaling, and not from the perspective
RSS