Friday, June 25, 2010

the golden melody awards: taiwan's "big club"


the taiwan golden melody award reeks of the cronyism and insider privledges that the whole "music" industry here as whole does. it's basically a club where " i win this year, you win next year".
what is equally ridiculous are the "categories" of music: taiwanese songs, mandarin songs, hakkanese songs.
i've got news for you- those are LANGUAGES NOT MUSICAL STYLES! but since taiwan has YET to establish a true musical style of it's own, the only distinctions they can make are linguistics.
the fact is, taiwan threw away its musical heritage a long time ago, back in the 90s, in favor of more western sounding music, in an attempt to show they were on an equal footing with the west.
now taiwan music sounds no different than any other western music, except the language used. there is no definitive style to taiwan music (save tai yu song, which is a hair's difference from japanese enka).
this year they are sure to have a foriegn artist as a guest. thing is, if that foriegn artist lived in taiwan, they'd be doing EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER TO KEEP HIM FROM EVER MAKING A RECORD! because taiwan artists aren't ready to have competition on their own soil.
simple as that.
will i watch the GMAs this year? maybe. or maybe not. i doubt very seriously if it will be anything but the same shit, different year.
i'm sure jay chou and tchai yi ling will win most of the awards, with a few concessions to the little guys to keep people hoping. and i'll bet little fat (ass) gets "best new artist" of the year.
no, i probably have better things to do that night. like writing some songs that'll never be heard anyway because i'm too white to be marketable here, or maybe just a little too taiwanese for the record industry's comfort.

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. i dont find it ridiculous to have seperate catagories for mandarin/hakka/aborigine/etc. music though. there are artists who only involve themselves in a certain language of music and i find it sensible to catagorize them seperately. it is what taiwan is, it has people from different backgrounds and it is legitimate that give each one of them specific *edit* and individual recognition.

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  3. then they should say "hakka lyrics" not hakka music. ming nan lyrics category, mandarin lyrics category.
    the fact is they have NO style. yes that is what taiwan is.
    as far as recognition, recognition for what? for being a follow the crowd,song stealing idiot?
    i happily give them credit for that, hence this site.

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  4. actually the really UNIQUE music is produced by aborigines. it has value and a place as world music.
    i also find certain hakka artists to be creative. taiyu song is in a rut and needs new additions to its writing style.
    mando pop just sucks, sorry to say.

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