Someone named Matthew Lien wrote this screed in the newspapers today. He really gives it to the local star-making machines that turn out idol after idol with no thought of quality. Think Jolin Tsai or Cutie Wang, Etcetera! I wonder if the local show business culture and hip=hop culture which has been promoting J-Z and others coming there, i wonder if they will criticize mr lien for this public SCREAM for quality and authenticity?
He writes: "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?"
great post.
thing is does anybody care anymore? even me. i can’t imagine a life of hope, doing what i really want to do in music. i’m so used to be being out i couldn’t imagine a life of “in”.
curse the Bureau of Cultural Affairs for their policy.
curse AIT for going along with them, helping to keep out foriegn artists
curse ICRT for their going along with the whole thing.
the whole thing has been to keep out free thought and free speech in AIT’s little asian democracy experiment.f#$% the CIA too.
Oddly enough a friend of mine and I were talking the other day about the phases of Mando Pop Divas. They are, according to my initial analysis:
Initial upswing phases:
Fresh face phase
Fake tit phase
First appearance on cover of Next Magazine
Go to America to practice english and find myself phase
Grand return with Sony public relations people getting your face on the cover of every, and I mean every magazine on the same month phase
Peak Phase:
max revenue generated for Sony/BMI
Down we go phases:
Schlepping for mobile phone company
Schlepping for some brand of iced tea phase
Close to bottoming out
Schlepping for some new apartment project (where A-Mei is now, I noticed while driving out to Panchiao the other day)
Then—Oblivion
Then the “Dead Don’t Die” phase wherein ten or twenty years later Mado Deva starts appearing at those Old KMT military officers/government officials lounge clubs that are always on the second floor on side streets in the Hsimingding area
Is this the basic lifecycle?
Yours in MandoPop Science
Dr. B.K.
Matthew might equally ask what the pseudo-mystical, one-with-nature ethos he picked up in the Yukon, and peddles around this island, has to do with local culture either.
If this were the Philippines, there would be some phase where the diva runs for office and wins – the electoral result in direct proportion to the size of her hardened-concrete hairdo.
If this were Italy, the diva would run for office, win and expose her breasts all the time.
This is just a rant about money, nothing to do with his “art,” which as MM so succinctly points out has far far less to do with Taiwan than any of the popstars he rails against.
Thing is, he’s trying to compare apples and oranges, making the mistake of describing these pop idols and music as belonging in the same industry, which of course they’re not.
Theirs is the idol industry, which happens to have pop songs as one of its principal mediums. It’s aimed at a specific market that has absolutely nothing to do with music or musicians. Do any of you seriously think for even one second that if these pop kids didn’t exist that the vacuum would be filled by the likes of Matthew Lien or any other old, bald, hairy fat men purporting to make “real” music? Of fucking COURSE not!
The idol business is aimed at children and “fahionable” young people. Its not aimed at people who buy real music, and these two sectors are exclusive to each other. There isn’t any crossover.
It’s like me ranting about how the Muddy Basin Ramblers are being PUT DOWN by the MAN because Deutche Gramophone won’t promote us, so we’re losing the market share of all those classical music buyers.
The effrontery of that man, trying to imply that if Jolin wasn’t around, all these kids would be lining up to buy recordings of singing rocks or mahjong-playing whales or whatever it is he does.
Sandman nailed it! :bravo: I very much agree that Lien Xian Sheng is out of the loop and that he is indeed comparing “apples to oranges.”
My last course in university was a popular music course and I ended up writing a thesis on J-Pop Idols. Granted personality is packaged and commodified for “young” and “fashionable” people to consume - yet I was interested to learn the origins of pop idols do not center mainly on worship, but identification. Japanese pop idols stress they are “normal ordinary people” and in turn, become even more popular as a friend who just happens to lead a not so normal life. A friend you see on TV or whose songs you can sing to at KTV! (wow, lame attempt at a rhyme). But of course there is a great deal of idolship involved as well. Lien is forgetting that this cultural phenomena is not unique to Taiwan and has exsisted since teens appeared as a consumer market postwar. His sentiments are simply premature.
And what’s up with that bit about Hip Hop? Yes hip hop originally was a counter culture and one dedicated to describing strife and poverty, but now a lot of it is about hoes and bling. Even so, I think it’s pretty natural that Taiwanese music is adopting components of Hip Hop or Punk culture to create their own sound. Take Jay Chou for instance, he’s managed to incorporate Taiwanese traditional sounds into his music but talk about modern themes. This is cool and with globalization it’s only to be expected that cultural jamming is taking place transborders. Can Lien honestly expect popular music to remain stagnant when musical tastes are rapidly changing, with each generation, all around the world?
Haha I’d like to think I’m young and rather fashionable, but I hope that doesn’t mean all the music I buy is crap Although I’ll probably be shaking my head at my own kids’ musical tastes someday, lamenting “turn that noise off!” Each to their own eh.
sandman told the truth. and anyway, i like the idea of “real” music being an outsider thing. i love being a rock snob! if rock n roll came back what could i gripe about?
[quote=“sandman”]This is just a rant about money, nothing to do with his “art,” which as MM so succinctly points out has far far less to do with Taiwan than any of the popstars he rails against.
Thing is, he’s trying to compare apples and oranges, making the mistake of describing these pop idols and music as belonging in the same industry, which of course they’re not.
Theirs is the idol industry, which happens to have pop songs as one of its principal mediums. It’s aimed at a specific market that has absolutely nothing to do with music or musicians. Do any of you seriously think for even one second that if these pop kids didn’t exist that the vacuum would be filled by the likes of Matthew Lien or any other old, bald, hairy fat men purporting to make “real” music? Of fucking COURSE not!
The idol business is aimed at children and “fahionable” young people. Its not aimed at people who buy real music, and these two sectors are exclusive to each other. There isn’t any crossover.
It’s like me ranting about how the Muddy Basin Ramblers are being PUT DOWN by the MAN because Deutche Gramophone won’t promote us, so we’re losing the market share of all those classical music buyers.
The effrontery of that man, trying to imply that if Jolin wasn’t around, all these kids would be lining up to buy recordings of singing rocks or mahjong-playing whales or whatever it is he does. [/quote]
good god a million posts and counting and the sandman comes up with the perfect riposte…
i have to admit lien makes me just as sick as the flavor of the week pop icons here…just look at the way his stuff is marketed; its not serious music either…just background muzak for treehuggers…least he could do is shave his shaggy mane the dirty hippy…
Although I’ll probably be shaking my head at my own kids’ musical tastes someday, lamenting “turn that noise off!” Each to their own eh.