vunsin
10-27-2003, 11:11 PM
source: http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/life/story/0,4386,216155,00.html?
OCT 24, 2003
Hard rock cachet
Songcraft and musicianship are sneaking into the heavily stylised Chinese pop party thanks to Taiwanese bands like Mayday and Shin
By Tommy Wee
KING of pop Michael Jackson no longer holds the record for the biggest concert turnout in Taiwan.
His 1993 feat of attracting 40,000 fans to pack Taipei's Municipal Stadium was smashed in August this year by five fun-loving Taiwanese lads with guitars, called Mayday.
The clean-cut rockers made a triumphant return in a sold-out reunion gig, with drummer Yan Ming wearing a ballerina's tutu for the occasion.
Fans - some reports estimated that 43,000 turned up - had queued for days and hustled for black-market tickets to welcome back Taiwan's favourite musical sons.
After all, the Mayday members, who are all in their 20s, had taken a two-year break.
Singer Ashin, guitarist Monster and bassist Masa were involved in Taiwan's compulsory military service. Guitarist Stone and drummer Yan Ming had pursued music studies in Britain and the United States respectively.
Tomorrow, it will be the turn of a crowd, at least 6,000 strong, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium to catch up with the affable quintet. The group last performed here in 2001.
But Mayday is not the only Taiwanese rock export striking a chord here.
On Nov 14, a harder rock outfit, Shin, will play at the same venue.
And soulful crooner David Tao will take over the venue on Dec 7 with his full back-up band.
These charting bands are contemporary versions of veterans like Hong Kong's Beyond as well as Taiwan's Power Station, Wu Bai and China Blue whose members are all already in their 40s.
And the young rockers seem to signal a refreshing departure from the idol worship of artists like the sullen-faced Jay Chou and boyband F4.
Maybe pop has eaten itself, and guitars are hip again. But more importantly, are songcraft and musicianship finally sneaking into the heavily stylised Chinese pop party?
'As you can tell from looking at us,' Mayday's drummer Ming deadpanned to Life! in August, 'we're no hunks.'
What they have is the ability to write their own songs and play instruments. Typically, a popular album sells in the region of 300,000 copies in Taiwan.
Mayday's 1999 debut album, Crazy World, sold 150,000 copies, while their follow-up Glorious Love (2000) sold 350,000.
Their third album, People Life, Ocean Wild, sold more than 300,000 copies in Taiwan in 2001.
Ms Jenny Yeo, a 24-year-old office administrator who runs a 70-strong Mayday fan club here, thinks originality will never run out of style.
A record label executive, who wants anonymity, notes: 'Rock bands always had heavily tattooed guys with cigarettes. Mayday just had to clean up their act and work on the image of guys next door to identify with the common man.'
Fans agree. 'Their lyrics speak to a lot of us. While other rock bands write about hatred and bitterness, Mayday's albums are very encouraging. They give you strength to deal with life,' says Ms Yeo.
Ms Connie Woo, music producer with MediaWorks station UFM 100.3, thinks a band like Shin brings back old-fashioned showmanship and gritty verve into a rock show - something missing from the current R&B-infatuated Chinese pop market, which is formulaic at best.
The hard rocking, self-titled debut from Shin stunned industry watchers when it sold more than 400,000 copies in piracy-afflicted Taiwan last year.
The second album, No Limits, from the 30-something quintet was released in July.
Ms Woo says: 'There is an allure of showmanship with Shin. They value their band as a unit and respect their stagecraft.'
Fans seem to have jumped on the bandwagon. Since 2000, spurred by the crossover success of groups like Mayday, membership i
n guitar clubs and enrolment in band courses in Taiwan high schools have shot up by as much as 100 per cent.
Maybe pop idols like Chou and Jolin Tsai are getting to be too familiar, and a maturing Chinese-pop fan base now requires more than an expensive music video to hold their attention.
But truth be told, there is only so much space on the Chinese charts for rock bands, at least for now.
Groups like Tolaku, Luan Tan and Back-quarter have ploughed the Taiwan pub circuit for close to a decade now, churning out heavy metal and pop rock. Yet, they have not met with enough commercial success to land record deals.
Observes Ms Woo: 'The Chinese market is not as big as the English-speaking market. Globally, anyone who speaks English can listen to Linkin Park, but Chinese bands tend to eat into one another's fan base after a while.'
Mayday rocks tomorrow night at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, with tickets from Sistic going for $129 and $149 ($69 and $99 tickets are sold out).
Shin will play at the same venue on Nov 14, with tickets at $36, $56, $76 and $96 from Sistic.
AS DIFFERENT AS CHALK AND CHEESE
WHEN it comes to deconstructing the Chinese rock band, you cannot get more different entities than Mayday and Shin.
There are similarities, of course. Both are Taiwan born and bred. Both are five-piece outfits in their late 20s and early 30s.
And both bands, which have paid their dues for more than 10 years now, play Western-influenced rock with a Taiwanese flavour.
But put them on stage, and their distinctive personas emerge, fans say.
'Mayday is a fun-loving, quirky group while Shin takes its rock-star posturing too seriously,' says Nanyang Technological University undergraduate Daphne Chen, 22.
UFM 100.3 producer Connie Woo notes that Mayday's strength 'lies in their ability for originality but they seem to be more tailored for a more youthful, student market'.
Homegrown producer Eric Ng, 27, says: 'Mayday has very good melodies filled with a Taiwanese flavour. And the guys give a sense that they commiserate with the common man.'
Mayday members have been known to visit fans' homes while on promotional trips in Singapore.
They are laidback, so much so, that in May, they overslept when they were supposed to meet the Paraguayan ambassador to Taiwan. He had asked them to meet his daughters.
Some fans feel that the true measure of a band's worth comes live on stage.
When Shin played at the Courage Fund Concert in June at Sentosa, some fans thought its music had a grating quality.
'They were too loud, too high-pitched. They seemed to be screaming more than singing,' says polytechnic student Michelle Ngiam, 19.
However, UFM's Ms Woo says rock music should 'sound like that - hard, loud and slightly overwhelming'.
Others feel that Shin is a derivative band emulating the stuff it hears on Western charts.
'They sound like they want to be Taiwan's Linkin Park,' says poly student Julia Chang, 20. 'Still, they're very tall and macho, and that's good for a hard rock band.'
----------
Comment: Read the part where they call Jay "sullen-face" and say that fans "idol worship" him! That's so not true, isnt' it? I mean, I like Mayday and Shin and think that they're great musicians, but they shouldn't be compared to Jay because their styles are totally different!
OCT 24, 2003
Hard rock cachet
Songcraft and musicianship are sneaking into the heavily stylised Chinese pop party thanks to Taiwanese bands like Mayday and Shin
By Tommy Wee
KING of pop Michael Jackson no longer holds the record for the biggest concert turnout in Taiwan.
His 1993 feat of attracting 40,000 fans to pack Taipei's Municipal Stadium was smashed in August this year by five fun-loving Taiwanese lads with guitars, called Mayday.
The clean-cut rockers made a triumphant return in a sold-out reunion gig, with drummer Yan Ming wearing a ballerina's tutu for the occasion.
Fans - some reports estimated that 43,000 turned up - had queued for days and hustled for black-market tickets to welcome back Taiwan's favourite musical sons.
After all, the Mayday members, who are all in their 20s, had taken a two-year break.
Singer Ashin, guitarist Monster and bassist Masa were involved in Taiwan's compulsory military service. Guitarist Stone and drummer Yan Ming had pursued music studies in Britain and the United States respectively.
Tomorrow, it will be the turn of a crowd, at least 6,000 strong, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium to catch up with the affable quintet. The group last performed here in 2001.
But Mayday is not the only Taiwanese rock export striking a chord here.
On Nov 14, a harder rock outfit, Shin, will play at the same venue.
And soulful crooner David Tao will take over the venue on Dec 7 with his full back-up band.
These charting bands are contemporary versions of veterans like Hong Kong's Beyond as well as Taiwan's Power Station, Wu Bai and China Blue whose members are all already in their 40s.
And the young rockers seem to signal a refreshing departure from the idol worship of artists like the sullen-faced Jay Chou and boyband F4.
Maybe pop has eaten itself, and guitars are hip again. But more importantly, are songcraft and musicianship finally sneaking into the heavily stylised Chinese pop party?
'As you can tell from looking at us,' Mayday's drummer Ming deadpanned to Life! in August, 'we're no hunks.'
What they have is the ability to write their own songs and play instruments. Typically, a popular album sells in the region of 300,000 copies in Taiwan.
Mayday's 1999 debut album, Crazy World, sold 150,000 copies, while their follow-up Glorious Love (2000) sold 350,000.
Their third album, People Life, Ocean Wild, sold more than 300,000 copies in Taiwan in 2001.
Ms Jenny Yeo, a 24-year-old office administrator who runs a 70-strong Mayday fan club here, thinks originality will never run out of style.
A record label executive, who wants anonymity, notes: 'Rock bands always had heavily tattooed guys with cigarettes. Mayday just had to clean up their act and work on the image of guys next door to identify with the common man.'
Fans agree. 'Their lyrics speak to a lot of us. While other rock bands write about hatred and bitterness, Mayday's albums are very encouraging. They give you strength to deal with life,' says Ms Yeo.
Ms Connie Woo, music producer with MediaWorks station UFM 100.3, thinks a band like Shin brings back old-fashioned showmanship and gritty verve into a rock show - something missing from the current R&B-infatuated Chinese pop market, which is formulaic at best.
The hard rocking, self-titled debut from Shin stunned industry watchers when it sold more than 400,000 copies in piracy-afflicted Taiwan last year.
The second album, No Limits, from the 30-something quintet was released in July.
Ms Woo says: 'There is an allure of showmanship with Shin. They value their band as a unit and respect their stagecraft.'
Fans seem to have jumped on the bandwagon. Since 2000, spurred by the crossover success of groups like Mayday, membership i
n guitar clubs and enrolment in band courses in Taiwan high schools have shot up by as much as 100 per cent.
Maybe pop idols like Chou and Jolin Tsai are getting to be too familiar, and a maturing Chinese-pop fan base now requires more than an expensive music video to hold their attention.
But truth be told, there is only so much space on the Chinese charts for rock bands, at least for now.
Groups like Tolaku, Luan Tan and Back-quarter have ploughed the Taiwan pub circuit for close to a decade now, churning out heavy metal and pop rock. Yet, they have not met with enough commercial success to land record deals.
Observes Ms Woo: 'The Chinese market is not as big as the English-speaking market. Globally, anyone who speaks English can listen to Linkin Park, but Chinese bands tend to eat into one another's fan base after a while.'
Mayday rocks tomorrow night at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, with tickets from Sistic going for $129 and $149 ($69 and $99 tickets are sold out).
Shin will play at the same venue on Nov 14, with tickets at $36, $56, $76 and $96 from Sistic.
AS DIFFERENT AS CHALK AND CHEESE
WHEN it comes to deconstructing the Chinese rock band, you cannot get more different entities than Mayday and Shin.
There are similarities, of course. Both are Taiwan born and bred. Both are five-piece outfits in their late 20s and early 30s.
And both bands, which have paid their dues for more than 10 years now, play Western-influenced rock with a Taiwanese flavour.
But put them on stage, and their distinctive personas emerge, fans say.
'Mayday is a fun-loving, quirky group while Shin takes its rock-star posturing too seriously,' says Nanyang Technological University undergraduate Daphne Chen, 22.
UFM 100.3 producer Connie Woo notes that Mayday's strength 'lies in their ability for originality but they seem to be more tailored for a more youthful, student market'.
Homegrown producer Eric Ng, 27, says: 'Mayday has very good melodies filled with a Taiwanese flavour. And the guys give a sense that they commiserate with the common man.'
Mayday members have been known to visit fans' homes while on promotional trips in Singapore.
They are laidback, so much so, that in May, they overslept when they were supposed to meet the Paraguayan ambassador to Taiwan. He had asked them to meet his daughters.
Some fans feel that the true measure of a band's worth comes live on stage.
When Shin played at the Courage Fund Concert in June at Sentosa, some fans thought its music had a grating quality.
'They were too loud, too high-pitched. They seemed to be screaming more than singing,' says polytechnic student Michelle Ngiam, 19.
However, UFM's Ms Woo says rock music should 'sound like that - hard, loud and slightly overwhelming'.
Others feel that Shin is a derivative band emulating the stuff it hears on Western charts.
'They sound like they want to be Taiwan's Linkin Park,' says poly student Julia Chang, 20. 'Still, they're very tall and macho, and that's good for a hard rock band.'
----------
Comment: Read the part where they call Jay "sullen-face" and say that fans "idol worship" him! That's so not true, isnt' it? I mean, I like Mayday and Shin and think that they're great musicians, but they shouldn't be compared to Jay because their styles are totally different!