by sonicscape

This new song, “Tell me” by a Korean girl group “Wondergirls” hits hard the Korean music chart. Park Jinyeong, who “raised” Rain for years and recently parted with him, is behind this group. The “concept” is retrospective, more specifically “back to the 80s”. Sounds familiar? It’s been a while since we had S.E.S and FINKLE as leading girl groups. For years, the Korean idol pop was dominated by “boy bands” with a few “girl solos”. Definitely, you can see this group around East Asia very soon. Meanwhile, enjoy this:

by sonicscape

Here is an interesting overview of “music in china” from the perspective an informant to the transnational ‘majors’ about “how-to-make-money-in-the-chinese-music-market” . The british music businessman living in Beijing provides a overview of the music business in china. Well, it might not be a totally new story — music piracy, especially, state-run-piracy et cetera, et cetera… actuall it’s a total mess! And the perspective itself is not totally fresh — and sometimes looks hopelessly hopeful — for example, about the prospect of “english” music. But it might be informative, especially in terms of how mobile music is unfold. It seems that in china the history of music business starts from mobile. No significant history of records, CDs, mp3s, but… mobile music rocks in China as in Japan and Korea! Is it an East-Asian thing, seriously?

The blog of the author is also worth visiting.

by mint_yalin

It’s the first time Tong Vfang Xien Qi (TVXQ) held a concert in Taiwan and the first time they included Taiwan in the schedule of Asia tour. That surprised me, because most Korean artists visit here to promote Korean Drama. Only one Korean singer has ever held concerts here: “Rain,” and it owed much to the success of the popular Korean drama “Full House”. By comparison, TVXQ seems have less inducement to raise popularity. So, pleasantly surprised Taiwanese Cassiopeia* rack their brains to think about: How TVXQ and SM Entertainment could leave a deep impression in Taiwan? Unexpectedly, typhoon turned out to do this favor.

The symbolic color of TVXQ is “red”. That afternoon in Chungshan Soccer Stadium (an open-air soccer court), members of the fanclub distributed red balloons and posters with a big red heart; vendors sell red light sticks and red devil headdress. As expected, the red ocean appeared in the concert, everyone was in a pickle in a pouring rainstorm, and the water ran down from my hair and clothes…but no one cared, this concert turned odd individuals into “Cassiopeia,” a unity.

Moreover, everyone yelled out some cadenced slogans like “sa rang hae yo XXX(TVXQ member’s name)” at the same moment to match up the song’s rhythm. No preparation or coordination was made beforehand. This convention was originally from Korean Cassiopeia, Taiwan Cassiopeia just pick up spontaneously.

As a Korean artist, TVXQ has concentrated on developing the Japanese market this year. They already released 14 Japanese singles and 2 Japanese albums so far. Recently, they work with Japanese pop star Koda Kumi (悻田來未) in her 38th single: “Last Angel feat. Tohoshinki”. Even then, we can’t see any live Japanese performance of TVXQ in other countries besides Japan. We could only sing Korean songs with TVXQ in concert. (It’s interesting, the encore song in Taipei concert is “Hug” in Chinese version, but I’m still most familiar with the Korean lyrics.)

Because of their diverse music styles, they integrate stage effect, animation, and funny clips…to connect and transfer the mood from soft, haunting ballads to the raucous, electronic chords of dance tune songs. The whole concert was just like a big water park where TVXQ interacted with the participants “to get wet in the rain with crowds.” It became a special experience.

In Taiwan, Korean pop music does not easily attract a wide range of population. The extent of Korean wave revolves mainly around drama. Through TVXQ’s concert, I met some K-pop music listeners. They are not Cassiopeia, but they also wanted some company.

* Cassiopeia: TVXQ’s fans chose “Cassiopeia” for their name, because the constellation has 5 stars in its galaxy, and TVXQ has 5 members.

by angel_lin

“Yellow Peril:”

Rappers: ADV, Chef, Double T,  is a new indie conscious rap group in Hong Kong…  see picture: YP performed at Hong Kong Fringe Club (along with other indie rap groups from HK and Guangzhou, China) on 26 Oct 2007… organized by J-Sonics… YP’s 3 Cantonese Debut songs: Choice, Yellow Peril, Bold & Unrestrained…

by terebikun (eva)

Iron Horse Documentary Film Festival is a social movement-themed film festival that’s been held in Taiwan since 2005. Organized by Coolloud (a news/commentary site focusing on labor, migrant, media reform), it features films by media activists and independent filmmakers attending to issues both affecting and connecting global and local lives. Last year, in the tiny (less than 50 seats) screening room of the Chinese-Taipei Film Archive, I saw a fresh-off-the-street documentary about the anti-WTO protest in Hong Kong by Hong Kong protesters. This year (held in Taipei 9/7-9/11) I returned to the same room to see a couple of short films and took home the DVD of a Mediact production entitled 16 Takes on Korean Society. I want to share some thought and questions on this collective documentary with you (being part of the collective and all).

16 Takes has a Chinese subtitle, The Korean Wave You Didn’t Know. True, the stories, images, and music in this collaborative film by 16 directors have nothing in common with the Korean TV dramas, the romantic landscape so often featured and promoted for tourism, and the sound of K-pop in what we know as Korean Wave. The subtitle obviously is meant to introduce some complexity into the one-dimensional impression of Korean culture in mainstream Taiwanese society. The 16 short videos tell different stories of ordinary, disenfranchised citizens struggling just to exercise their right to influence decisions that fundamentally change their ways of life–to name a few, the relocation of US military base in Pyeongtaek, the Korea-US Free Trade agreement, the building of video horse race track in Kangwon, the revision of Private School Act to protect nepotistic system.

In my experience, the channels promoting “pop Korea” and “radical Korea” (“protest Korea”? “citizen Korea”?) in Taiwan do not have much overlap. I think it was Coolloud’s reporting of the anti-WTO protest in Hong Kong in 2005 that first appealed to the readers using the rhetoric of “a different kind of Korean Wave”–happening mainly among activists, filmmakers, and independent film festival goers. I come in contact with both kinds of images and channels and will try to integrate both kinds of material in my class (so that there can be an option besides the defensive, nationalist, and often masculinist take on Korean Wave).

However, given that “pop Korea” and “radical Korea” are the two most dominant and not necessarily commensurable images of Korea in Taiwan, I wonder if more work is needed toward connecting them (but I have no idea who will do the work or where the work is required). This was the main question I had in mind when I was watching 16 Takes. The use of music in many of the videos made me think whether, if ever, and how they can be “popular” too.

Since I don’t have the answers, let me just share some thought on the music in three videos from 16 Takes:

(1) Take 2–about how the fishing community in Saemangeum fight against the enbankment project which would destroy the tidal flats and livelihood of twenty thousand residents–probably makes the richest use of music. We hear a female singing voice and drum beats–“my lovely seagulls, don’t leave my beloved sea.” It features two singing-with-guitar performances, one by Star Clef, who sings “To Live in Saemangeum,” and the other by Dream Seekers of Socialist Party who sings “The Story of Gyehwa Tidal Flats.”

(2) Take 9, a video that juxtaposes statements and images about conscientious objectors (those who refuse to serve the army for various reasons like religious) against the popular soccer cheer song which goes like “Oh Pilsung Korea, Oh Pilsung Korea (Victory Korea?)…” by Yoon Dohyun Band and patriotic images. I love the guy featured in the video for saying “can’t we love our country with less fuss?” The juxtaposition pokes fun at the national security myth and helps to de-stigmatize those who are criminalized for their choices.

(3) Take 12 is essentially a music video of anti-WTO protest in Hong Kong. By now the images may be familiar to many. I am just curious about the song with a souna lead-in–does anyone know about the song? Judging by the lyrics (“Comrades, join hands and stand tall, don’t let them trick us again…”), it could have been made for the event or other similar types of protests.

You can watch the video on Internet Archive: 16 Takes on Korean Society

p.s. Many thanks to Jung-yup for the soccer cheer song info!

by angel_lin

Hey, it’s been quiet here… go to the following YouTube Link and see a debut MV of 24 Herbs–Hong Kong’s new Hip Hop Group!  It’s the first bilingual Hip Hop Group in HK!  Bringing ex-LMF members with ABC rappers… cool!    angel

by homey81

On September 22 at Sangam World Cup stadium in Seoul, there was an international music festival called “2007 Asia Song Festival.” It is the fourth time since 2003 and, about the details, please click http://ectl.net/eng/index.asp.

I missed the festival this time but was there in 2006 with Ubonrat and Angel, who had a chance to visit Busan. But isn’t it strange that the “international” festival had only been held in Seoul and will be so. What is this “South Korea-centered” pop Asianism? Or is it too trivial to discuss seriously? How do we, academic people, estimate the words they say: “feel up Asian energy”?

Zhang Huimei (Taiwan)

Zhao Wei (China)

Peterpan (Indonesia)

Kuraki Mai (Japan)

F4

Golf & Mike (Thailand)

Tongvangxinqi

by viriya

On August 31st ,2007, I presented the papers “Oh Papa Oh Ma Ma, Don’t Blame Me Please”:The Dubbing of Thai(ness) in Chinese Pop Songs” at int’ seminar on “Discourse on Siam VS Thailand: Deconstruction for Reconstruction” Rangsit University, Bangkok.  My argument in the paper is that Thai scholars, particular in Thai Studies, always take for granted that pop music culture in Thailand was influenced by Western pop music, especially from America and England since the Cold war era in the 50s until now. But the most common people don’t think anything like that. The appearance of the mid of 80s scene was changing when Sino-Thai youth, lower middle class, not well-educated kids picked up their guitars and sang Chinese pop songs dubbed in Thai. They began imitating not only band like the Wynners, Hong Kong hit band in the late of 70s who has hit song “ Sha-la-la” but also music in soundtracks of Hong Kong Movies. And it soon evolved into a style of Thai pop music called “pleng string”. Also we can so called ” the revolution of pop music” in Thailand.  Among the groups that emerged from this period were Rainbow, The Forever, The Free Birds, Fruities, The Brandy, The Krereebun etc. Interestingly, in the first album of the Forever Por Fun(1984), its have cover versions of “Sha-la-la” and “I love you”( Japanese pop song)

This reflected in part of Sino-Thai’s burgeoning culture which constructed his “Thainess” linked to other Asian-Chinese identity. At the same time it reflected the question of “Thainess”, although the state tried to maintain and monopolize it. Under the process of making pop music and its cultural politic of Sino-Thai youth in that time. Since the 80s, there is not “unique Thainess” anymore.

Notes*  I would like to thank  our friends in Inter-Asia Popular Music Studies Group, Anthony Fung and Liew Kai Khiun, for giving me papers about “Chinese pop music & national identity in Hong Kong( and mainland China) and Singapore respectively.  ** Siam is the old name of Thailand before 1939  Please link to Rainbow’s vcd karaoke , ” Rak Chun Nan Pau Thor”

by angel_lin

http://blakkbubble.com/

hi asia-pop friends, pls go to the above website to check out the new EP by indie hip hop artist/emcee in Shanghai: BlaKK Bubble.  When you’re in the website, click on MORE on the top menu bar, and then click on Discography, there you can listen to some sample songs from this new album!  Pls support indie artists in Shanghai!  Pls spread this link to your friends and colleagues interested in hip hop music :)!

Cheers to BlaKK Bubble!  Cheers to indie Hip Hop in
Shanghai!

angel lin

(hong kong)

by terebikun (eva)

As we slowly descendedfrom the nose-bleeding section in Hsinchuan Stadium Taipei County with crowds still mesmerized by MISIA’s final encore sequence , my friend asked me, “So who’s the most popular singer in Japan now?” Uninterested in the question, I said, “Who cares? Tonight I found my generation here!”

I have only started going to concerts in Taipei in the last few years. I am still learning to embody myself in different performance venues–from a cozy clubhouse like The Wall to the over-hyped Taipei Arena. Apparently, venue and spatial experience are two separate things. Where one is sitting affects a great deal the concert experience. Before tonight, my last concert was at the Taipei International Convention Center near Taipei 101. My seat was so close to the front that I wanted to run away from my beloved Cheer Chen, with whom I’d rather relate acoustically, not visually (Don’t get me wrong, she is a knock-out).

Tonight, sitting in the third row from the very back in Hsinchuan Stadium Taipei County (which I think is the best concert facility in Taipei), I related to MISIA just fabulously. My friend and I both felt that we still don’t know what MISIA looks like. Yet against the tiger and leopard print stage design, the “tiny” diva done in jazz-hat, colorful cocktail dress, and (fusia!) socks was a powerhouse.

If I could summarize the experience in one keyword, it would be “involvement.” MISIA involved the audience from the beginning to the end through R&B, disco, and ballad. She also created many opportunities for the audience to sing along like the gospel singing. Frankly, I have never clapped my hands so much and so hard sitting at a concert.

I moved and screamed with reckless abandon. Her fast songs made me wave and laugh like a maniac. Her ballads commanded me to sit back submissively. When she returned for encore, I simply lost it. I started sobbing uncontrollably as soon as she hit the beginning of “Everything.” The song was the theme song for a 2000 Japanese TV drama, Yamato Nadeshiko, and was probably her most well-known song in Taiwan, as it was also a KTV hit. But it was not my attachment to that particular drama that evoked the feelings. It was the sudden realization that I was in a stadium with 5000 other people whom I could call my “generation.” I wouldn’t characterize this generation as J-pop or “ha-ri-zu” (Japanophiles). I felt it particularly so because there was no fan-clubs for MISIA in Taiwan to act as mobilization agents. I have not exactly followed her activities. Yet everyone seemed a little surprised to see everyone at the concert.

The feeling of resonance was internal more than anything. “Everything” evoked individual faces of my beloved friends and state-of-minds from the late 1990s when I was living in Los Angeles. Just as I thought MISIA was going to leave me drowning in the debris of sweat, tears, and makeup, she rescued me with another encore song, and another one, until I flew up from my seat and danced with everyone.

Perhaps all these emotions are obligatory in pop concerts experiences. Reporters and academics look to describe those “controlled decontrolled” moments. But for me, to be at the center of that experience–rather than watching from the sideline or analyzing it with concepts like “affect”–was new and full of impact.