Talking with Mister Music

A vast majority of the record-buying public may never have heard of Johnny Duann (段鍾沂), but as the co-founder and chairman of Rock Records (滾石唱片), he has played a pivotal role in influencing their listening habits for of a quarter-century.

He modestly shies away from any talk of being the guy who transformed the local music industry and balks at suppositions that he played a major role in bringing Mando-pop to the world stage. But while he's quick to downplay his role in shaping Taiwan's music scene, even the modest and unassuming record industry mogul agrees -- when pushed -- that without him the local music scene would probably be very different today.

Canto-pop would possibly rule the airwaves in the region, Mando-pop would never have become a global phenomenon and the musical careers of the first generation of modern Taiwanese crooners, like Chen Ming-chang (陳明章), would never have gotten off the ground.

"I don't like to think that it was all me, but I'll have to admit that the way in which I approached it and saw the route in which Taiwan's recording business needed to go was lot different," he said. "Labels were afraid of signing new and different acts and marketing relied heavily on artists' names rather then their music."

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Rock Records and the label continues to release albums by established artists like Bobby Chen (陳昇) as well cultivating new talent such as Yu Heng (宇恆).

One of Rock's most significant moves, however, was to open its recording-studio doors to a new breed of Taiwanese acts. Referred to at the time as "New Campus Folk Songs," the breakthrough hybrid musical genre, which blended contemporary folk rhythms with lyrical content in tune with Taiwan's youth, was to prove a milestone not only for the label, but also for the nation's music scene.

"The New Campus Folk Songs movement played a very important role in shaping the direction of the music scene as well as providing us with a platform from which to distinguish ourselves from other labels," Duann said.

"As a new label we wanted to find our own way as did those involved with the movement. In hindsight we helped each other."

The first acts Duann signed in 1980 were two of the leading lights of the campus movement. Today's more Western rock-inspired youth may have never heard of Wu Chu-chu (吳楚楚) and Yang Tsu-chun (楊祖珺), but in the late 1970s both artists were as radical as it got and proved perfect signings for an infant label looking to make an indelible mark on the scene.

"[Rock] took a very different approach to its artists. Up until then, Taiwan's labels had signed artists simply because of their looks. They didn't need to write their own material and they didn't necessarily have to be talented," said Duann. "From the beginning, I knew that if we were going to find our own way we needed to do something different."

Within a short period of time, Duann found himself inundated with phone calls and demo tapes from both known and unknown artists wanting to sign with Taiwan's radically new-look record label.

It wasn't only local artists who sought out Duann. Representatives from EMI and RCA were quick to strike up licensing deals. Within seven years, Rock had became not only a staging ground for new local talent, but also one that local audiences could rely on for the latest in international releases.