I’m surprised no one mentioned Coco Lee. She is a prime example of a manufactured pop “star.” She looked very ordinary (geeky even) in high school and college (the couple of years that she did attend anyways), but the studios gave her a complete makeover and she became a big hit.
The Asian market loves this kind of artificial “star” but as she is finding out, you gotta have more than a studio willing to spend money on you in order to break into the US market.
To me most Asian pop stars are almost the same, with the same look (probably from copying each other) and same music style. But then if the market likes regurgitated music then I guess this is what the market will get…
This is a pretty massive topic - horriblly tacky Taiwanese pop stars…
Amei - dumb and manufactured
閃亮三姊妹 - i agree - get my shotgun
every boy band out there - 5566 energy etc
Makiyo - the sound of sqweeky bicycle brakes…
Basically any female singer with one english name
Linda, tracy, jill, murdle, hazel… - I think the record company just has a huge list of names - and they just tack one on to the next hack that walks in the door.
Anyone remember beauty 4
Aya - hong dou, da hong dou, lu dou, chwa chwa chwa, chwa chwa chwa
If anyone knows how to erase that from one’s memory please help me end my suffering…
Sammi - brutal brutal music - but have you seen her movie with Andy Lau - Love on a diet - 搜身男女… she’s bloody hilarious - some of the funniest facial expressions I’ve ever seen
Taiwanese video’s - exactly how much staring off into the distance can one do…
Sun Yan Zi - I actually kind of like her because her voice has a somewhat different unique quality that they try to beat out of everyone else
Wu Bai - the Niel Young of Taiwan
Ugly - out of tune but kick ass - gotta see him live to get the full effect…
definitely not manufactured crap - gotta give that some respect
Most definitely manufactured - before they even had an appearance in a song, the were up on ads for some mobile phone company with the subtitle (under their names) - “BMG’s newest stars” or some such. Never mind they hadn’t released anything. Foreshadowing much? Then they got their first appearance piggybacking on Jordan Chan (who was cool when he still realised he couldn’t sing and just had fun with it. Now he seems to believe he’s good. Poor bastard.). Then I saw their video “Eskimo” on the bus TV system. They’ve got the art of wooden performance and complete lack of personality or emotion down to a fine art. Then I caught their second video on the buses too, but it took about 3 times before I realised it was a different video. Points for creativity girls!
Haven’t heard them sing - not holding out for that either - and yes they’re good looking, but I haven’t seen anything that vacant since… actually no, I’ve never seen anything as vacant as those two. Christ, they make Keanu Reeves look like… someone who can act, I guess. Or at least someone who’s not more wooden than a lumber yard.
I vote for energy.
they can’t dance and can’t even sign!
For example,in their 2nd album, there is a song called “click click boom”. That’s dub a song “boom” form a hardcore band “saliva”.
Energy made taht song really sucks,and barely can their music video be watched.
Energy singing is a disaster.
I work at a record company here in Taiwan as a remix engineer. The industry is suffering terribly, kids are not stupid if you keep pumping out the same old tired bullshit they are going to stop buying.
Would any of you be suprised to know that some of the these acts only sell 2000 copies?
Actual quote from the company pres “it doesn’t matter if the product is good it just matters how we package and promote it.”
I was utterly speechless
i think Du Deh Wei sucks! “rang wouh touh diao” is the biggest piece of crap to hit taiwan in a long time.
actually i wish for the end to this whole “Chigga” thing (is it alright to say that? i definitely don’t hate black people).i hate listening to rap in mandarin. it’s not smooth. rap was made for the way black people talk. chinese language doesn’t fit it. it’s really noisy. if they could fix it i’d say okay.
another thing is that mando-pop melodies are really stupid. they sound like a gu zhen. they think the more words you can cram into a measure the more cute you are.
mando- pop music is all lyrics. the intros are all different, but the middle is all the same. when they do tear jerkers they sound serious, but when they do rock it sounds like they’re spoofing a rock song.
but come on1 all this criticism on the taiwan music market is like regular students making fun of special ed. let’s applaud for the funk afflicted.
