The looks on the faces in the crowd said it all as Jarol (甲若) finished up her set at Spring Scream in April. The looks said: "What?!" Over a weekend dominated by rock `n' roll bands of various descriptions and sounds, her music and the music of perhaps a half dozen other acts at the festival were breaking ground by defying the guitar-driven model of rock and incorporating a whole new arsenal of instruments and sound-making machines. For some, the change to a form of music generally called electronica was obviously a bit jarring.
"Most people think the music I make is a bit weird," Jarol said in an interview last week, shrugging her shoulders. "Maybe they're just not used to it yet."
Musicians have been toying with various non-rock format music for years, but the proliferation of home-grown electronica bands and their emergence from the underground has only become apparent in the past year or so.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
"The one thing we noticed in the selection of finalists for this year's awards was the sudden presence of electronica bands," said A-kai (
The awards committee fielded submissions from 124 bands and among the 10 finalists, three bands -- Swing, KBN (凱比鳥) and Mr. 78 & Black Tempo Family -- incorporate elements of electronic music, which can range from the use of basic sampling and beat machines, to the complete creation and manipulation of sound on computers using software like Reactor, Reason, Sonar or AcidPro, among other programs.
The critical nod of approval from the Ho-Hi-Yan awards committee would seem to indicate that electronic music, a late-blooming musical genre in Taiwan, may be coming of age. The most promising sign of this is the diversity of styles within the broad spectrum of electronica that bands have adopted.Jarol and Lin Chung (
"Most people associate electronic music with dance music, so when they hear my stuff it takes a while before they realize it's meant to be listened to and not danced to," Lin said.
The majority of electronica musicians, however, stick comfortably close to dance music.
The DJs-cum-musicians called Monbaza, Fish and Ty form a small vanguard of professionals making electronic dance music, while the expat group Sissy, Dexter and English have had measured success performing at commercial dance clubs like Room 18 with funky electronic jam music.
"A lot of people listen to electronic music now in Taiwan, but they've only done so for a couple years and it's anyone's guess whether people will listen to it two years from now. The speed at which fashions come and go in Taiwan doesn't give much reason for optimism. Remember Hello Kitty and Portuguese egg tarts?" Ty said, referring to flash-in-the-pan trends of recent years.
That's an ominous admission from someone who next month will release a drum and bass recording on Magnum Records (
Without the financial support of a major label and considering the general lack of faith in the local market, the musicians themselves have few illusions of making it big with their music in Taiwan, or abroad for that matter, where the market for electronica is far greater.
"There aren't any music labels with sufficient experience to release and promote a variety of electronic music in Taiwan," said Mika Wu (吳逸君), head of White Wabbit Records (小白兔唱片). "And frankly, the quality isn't high enough to sell abroad." One recently established label, called Akuspunktur (阿酷龐克), is undaunted and has devised a rather bold strategy for releasing its first two albums next month. "We're not even bothering to build up and educate a local market. We're taking it international via the Internet right from the start," said Jupiter Hsu (許雅筑), who started the label with the sound artist Eric Lin (林其蔚).
Akuspunktur has narrowed its focus to noise music, which is a small but vibrant niche market supported by ardent fans mostly in Europe and Japan. The label's first release, titled Wohnzimmer Klang Kampf (
Noise music tends to blur the line between music and performance art, also opens the label's music to venues such as art spaces and may qualify as art exhibitions, which are entitled to government funding.
Ty and his comrades in the dance music scene, however, do not have the luxury of a reliable and supportive market on the fringe as does noise music. They are in the mainstream of a crowded genre and will have to rely on greater curiosity on the part of local audiences, which is by no means guaranteed.
The sharp increase in the number of groups making music of any genre over the past several years nevertheless holds the promise that more bands will move into electronica and lead to a breakthrough for one or more such bands.
"For electronica to go anywhere in Taiwan, more people have to do it so that a community of musicians can begin to feed off each other and develop original styles," Jarol said. "The music has a lot of potential if enough people get involved." But Lin Chung, whose experience as a pop star taught him a thing or two about the music industry, is skeptical about electronica taking off in any form.
"Audiences in Taiwan don't have the patience to see music through its developmental stages. This is a cause and a result of labels doing half-baked jobs at marketing and promotion. Unless that changes, electronic music may not go very far." Local electronica bands aren't likely to come close to huge acts like Chemical Brothers or Underworld, but none has such ambitions. Most are resigned to being small-time acts for lack of a credible market. But if the trend toward more electronic music continues and audiences grow, as evidenced in the Ho-Hai-Yan awards, that may change.
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