Review on Jay's music in i-weekly

[knock]

Jay Chou
He gives the impression that if people dont listen to his song, they are outdated. This year, Jay broke 3 records: The most valued singer in the concerts arena as well as in the advertistments arena and the first singer to make Music Videos for all his songs.

Popularity: 5 diamonds

"Yeh Hui Mei"/Jay Chou

He had made little changes and have no new creations in this album. Actually, what he sells is what teenagers are after today and that is attitude. His weakness which is when he mumbles during singing becomes a trend in this new age in the music industry.

Popularity: 4 diamonds
Freshness: 3 diamonds

-edit by lepencil-
I re-positioned the scans attached here instead, as the layout of the portal page was being messed up by the long URLs for the images.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid96/pdb00f3d79b971ae9e733850ced3105b4/fa1e2eed.jpg http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid96/p893c726d182afc89f846ff34f11350de/fa1e2ee9.jpg



When i read this article, i was like fuming!! He dont sell attitude ok! His music is good! Excellent! That's what he's selling! His talent! Grr. :-x :profanit: :ranting: The article made it as though he is some........ -no comments- and what?! YHM has no changes? I think it's has alot of breakthroughs! The magazine also stated that Jay's album sales are exaggerated as 2.5million instead of the real amount, 400,000.

[masamune]

I agree that it's his talent that he's selling. I live in the US so I get virtually no media coverage of him. The only thing I can base my opinions on is his CDs and I love them!

I think 2.5 million is more believable than 400,000. How can he only sell 400,000? He is the best!

[enchanting]

Are they SERIOUS?!

Ive just become a fan of Jay recently and i can see all the changes from album to album....right from Jay to YHM...

he has TALENT!!! lots of it...and they say he's selling attitude?!
:-x

well...as long as we think Jay is good, it shouldnt matter...its so unbelievable someone can even conceive this notion....these people are insane.....

[yiwen]

jay HAS attitude, but he isn't selling it. He has what people wants, talent and results. I wouldn't buy a CD of a funky singer with a terrible croaking voice and lousy music. I'd rather buy a good CD by a not-so-famous singer! jay has both in this case! Perhaps some people are jealous? :dry:

[moonsilk]

I think he has a lot of breakthroughs...
And i feel that his music are really appealing and attractive to us....he is really very talented...
Ya,i bought th magazine oso...bt they didnt tok too much bout jay!!!Unfair!

[pop]

:? i think most of the article's statements are correct except the sales of ye hui mei and the creativity of it...it's got some truth in it though
maybe they are comparing it with jay album and fantasy which is the real breakthrough(s)
since then he has been maintaining his style..he even mentioned about it that's why people are making these statements
but he's respected to have created a style that so many adores :wink2:

[lattae]

I am already 'numbed' by the 'he's got no breakthrough' talk... I mean... why need a breakthrough when we just love him as he is :? I mean, if xxx singer sux, then he should have 'breakthrough' to impress us... Jay is doing just fine, so as long as he keeps his standards, shouldn't it be great?

the only thing I was concerned about in the mag is the talk that the high figures for the album sales is a hoax... is it for real?? I mean, I don't see the point of 'faking' sales... erm... why doesn't the record company be honest? oh well... then again... the media is not really reliable either :bleh:

[hongdou]

ya man, when i read the article, i was fuming hot, how can they said that the sales figures r being jerked up by such a huge portion. Jay's YHM is the best selling album in TW for 2003, if the sales figure for TW & Asia r being blown out of proportion by such huge proportion, then wat abt the sales fig for Jolin who is No. 2 & SHE & Stef Sun who always claim tt their albums r best selling each time.

[Evenstar]

Hmmm....the article's kinda true...well, half of it.... 400,000 is insane, they should pick a more believable amount than that...I mean, they said it already, Jay's popularity is given 5 DIAMONDS, and 5 diamonds matched with about 0.004% of the population of Asia, then they must have a MASSIVE math defficiency (or maybe they're just stupid... :dry: ) or something....Anyway, about Yeh Hui Mei, some of it maybe, well, have not changed, but for most of the songs, it sounded as if they were revised into a better one...*sigh* stupid article-writers... these scumbags are hopeless... :dry:

[kewlpiggy88]

i'm always so confused on the numbers. sometimes i think that they're just referring to taiwan and then the really big number is for all of the world. it's really confusing because i remember reading it being 300,000 somewhere and 3,000,000 somewhere else and i did not see/not see an extra 0.

[lisaki]

people maybe it's not the sales only in taiwan... hasn't he sold a lot in mainland too. 2.5 million in mainland is possible added to the 400,000 in TW.

[Pugwash]

My 0.02:

He had made little changes and have no new creations in this album. Actually, what he sells is what teenagers are after today and that is attitude. His weakness which is when he mumbles during singing becomes a trend in this new age in the music industry.

I'd have to disagree with a lot of the review.

I think he made HUGE changes to this album. I gave my friend all of Jay's album to try to share his talents and he specifically said, that Ye Hui Mei had a HUGE change in Jay's music from past albums.

Also, I don't think Jay's intent is to sell his attitude. Sometimes, his music doesn't represent his attitude. The first time I listened to Jay, I liked him because of his music, not his attitude because I didn't know who he really was unless I wanted to judge from his music which won't really tell me who Jay is. I mean, if you heard Ye Hui Mei without knowing who he was, you may have thought he could've been:

A mafia-looking role model - first track
A punkish one - second track etc.

Lisaki: That's what I was thinking. 2.5 million is the total sales of the album worldwide.

[lilmizzaudi]

the first words i read when i signed on were
Jay ChouHe gives the impression that if people dont listen to his song, they are outdated.
i couldnt belive it! The first sentence makes jay sound like some kind of snob :-x what are they trykng to say?? jay is a very humble and modest person! he treats his mother and grandmother very well even though he is idolized around the world!
Jay ChouHe had made little changes and have no new creations in this album. Actually, what he sells is what teenagers are after today and that is attitude. His weakness which is when he mumbles during singing becomes a trend in this new age in the music industry.
"little changes"?"no new creations"? whoever wrote this article better get ready for a TON of hate mail. m mean just listen to the tracks!! from the mellow hip-hop sounds in JAY to the more rock-influenced tunes in YHM, the sound is SO different. any idiot can see this. :dry:

[princess_xixi]

oh
jay deserves soooooo much more diamonds!!
this is upsetting
in YHM of course there is changes........
well the doubleblade songs,,,,,,,not nunchunks like it's using sword fighting
the 3rd year 2nd class the new pingpong style of rythm no one has acually produced or even had the idea of!!
and east wind broke..it's soooo orinetal and set like in the dynasties
and i'm sure there are tons more..........
the stupid article should consider this rather than just give the fans expression of how jay's music have not improved!!
plus jays new look??!! every loves it........
jay rocks~

[nicolec]

Oh yes yes! i think he deserve much much more diamonds!

I've been hearing people say Qing Tian is a change from his previous styles. It doesn't matter much about whether he's changed much or not, why are these people making a fuss about the mumbling thing - I think it's just fine! 2.5 million makes more sense. Perhaps the person who wrote that article is just bias.

[Mushimushi]

Well, i also saw this article on the i-weekly and actually wanted to post this in here too but i think i am a little too late.

Well, i was also so angry that Jay can lose to other singers shown in the i-weekly. Jay style does change....i can see the change in the style of his songs.....i think the judges must be blind..

[Odium: De_Vangelis]

His weakness which is when he mumbles during singing becomes a trend in this new age in the music industry.
I don't agree with this one...If his mumbling becomes a trend, that's not a weakness....that's his strength! His mumbling is not a weakness anymore, it is his individuality...because there'll be no other musicians who will be exactly like Jay Chou, singing gracefully with mumbling 'accent' :)

and of course...what he sells is his talent, his creativity and his passion towards music, and sharing them to all of the listeners.
Attitude? Wow...the article-writer must be mistaken. Attitude comes more when he sells a product through advertisement rather when he creates his songs.

As for Ye Hui Mei album, LOTS of new ideas come in. The album has more variety of songs, from the moody ones to the energetic ones, from love theme to cool theme. He does many experiments in Ye Hui Mei and it turns out great, with full of his own originality.

[aznbballer]

well i very much disagree on the article, i mean.. sure he mumbles buh attitude isn't the only reason y he sells i mean.. ever thought of him jus being a good singer?? i mean taiwan sold lyk sumwot 2.5 million records and other countries have bought lots of records off him for instance.. china, singapore, the u.s, malaysia and plenty mor.. his even sold records where everyone thinks will sell there.. lyk Australia,, new zealand, netherlandz and lots and lots of other countriez, u can't tell meh even nerly all of them bought it coz his got attitude!

[Qp_patt]

i realy can't understand chinese but still know the differences between all of his album. don't know about them guys i think they have nothing else
to write about after the rumours of " planting hair" whatever...........
he's a talented singer he do not sell attitude every body knows.
it's his music he sell ahhhhhhhhh,,,,,,,, people

[shanni26]

:-x I totally agreed that he does not sell his atitude, but his music . He is a talented man, and whoever wrote this probably just don't understand and admire his songs and all they think is that he got atitude(he does have alittle atitude but mostly his music

[gracecherry]

urgh!!! i m so very sick of those article or column writers ........breakthroughs??!!! why do we always want breakthroughs? what does breakthrough actually mean? i guess everyone has a different defination of it. Jay created a music style of his own, his success of mucis lies in his individuality, as in once u listen to his song, u can tell for sure that its jay, his voice and his music is one of a kind......of course, if he already has created such a style so well recognised why want to keep changing it , if its changing all the time sure the music could no longer maintain its originality, yeah, i know, that changes are important so that the things dont get dull, but jay DID add lots of new elements in the new YHM, cant they see it? the italian classical elements, some more heavy metal elements......he did add new stuff but at the same time maintaining his style, thats what i think is successful, its not easy at all to maintain the similar style and yet want it to sound new and fresh, but he did just that!

he selling attitude? this is the first time i heard of such a comment, ok, i admit, he does hav attitude, an atttitude of confidence ......and that is a good attitude for musicians, we dont wanna listen to some songwriter who isnt even sure if his own works are appealing or not, do we? but, he isnt selling his attitude......we didnt like jay jus becoz he keeps talking bout how confident he is in music and yet producing unappealing songs, we like him becoz his works are good, coz we like his songs from composition to lyricks......to style and everything. these article writers perhaps just lack the understanding.........they probably just see jay in the exterior........oh, how shallow they are i just realised.

[abra16]

yes. jay sells his talents! not just attitudes.
why is it that all the media are trying to make jay looks like he can no longer make music? duh!

[phoebe]

well , what do you expect from a writer who cannot even gets his figures corect - in twn alone jay sales is 330,00 - excluding worldwide sales.
jay sells music - never his face or his dressing - these came later as bonuses for his fans .
jay mantained that his music is the same and yet different from each album - different as in innovations but have jay's stamp on it.
this writer and his/her mag needs to do fact finding real bad .

[jmin13]

i am glad tat Jay album is selling hot in asia..but 400000 onli is quite a small amount..maybe there is a wrong count...:) Do u all know tat Jay YHM onli lose to Jolin KW72B for 30 thousand ??? makes mi wonder if there is something wrong with all calculations..

[hisashiluv14]

Um, not sure about the rest of you, but I get a totally different impression when I read the Chinese article in the scan. I mean, my Chinese isn't that fantastic but I thought the writer is saying that despite criticisms of Jielun's music being unchanged ("formulaic" was the word that one writer from Life! the Straits Times used, that idiot), his style of music has infiltrated into the Chinese mainstream scene and everyone is emulating (copying) it. In other words, he HAS achieved some breakthrough of sorts because his style has become a trend. He is a trend-setter, he is the original, and thus, it's a breakthrough, DESPITE what critics are saying.

Anyone gets the same impression as me? Or is my Chinese really that bad?! :?

As for YHM's worldwide sales, just read in Sister magazine, and straight from the horse's mouth, that it's 1.5 million. :D

[dazzlette]

actually i agree with you hisashiluv14.. this is not the first time i've read that Jay is selling an 'attitude'.. the way i interpret it.. i-weekly is saying that Jay is a trendsetter.. with everyone trying to copy him now and his music represents what popular chinese is like now... i feel that i-weekly is recognising Jay as the leader of popular music now rather than criticising him...

as hisashiluv14 has said.. the only people who always criticise him in the singapore media as far as i know is the stupid 8-days writer Charlie Young who is to put it simply just biased (and proably jealous too) and the Straits Times writer (i forgot his name) who is a little more objective than Charlie Young who obviously fails to recognise good music... ANYWAY.. i-weekly is usually quite kind (and of course fair) to Jay

Of course.. both hisashiluv14 and me could be wrong.. but this is a problem that we have when there are translations.. it's very hard to realy convey the underlying tones of writers...

only 1.5 million? i thought he already sold 2 million!! even with the huge market of China?

[muzikanjel]

... i feel that i-weekly is recognising Jay as the leader of popular music now rather than criticising him...


i agree with dazzlette and hisashiluv14...coz wen translated the meaning of it all can be slightly changed..plus..theres nothing right or wrong in english (language)..everyone has different interpretations...maybe the writer is praising jay or critising...buh the reader can take it differently..iduno..=p

[hisashiluv14]

the only people who always criticise him in the singapore media as far as i know is the stupid 8-days writer Charlie Young who is to put it simply just biased (and proably jealous too) and the Straits Times writer (i forgot his name) who is a little more objective than Charlie Young...

Hmm, only read criticisms of him recently with the release of YHM. I don't know if you remember, but the music reviewer at Life! wrote a totally crappy review of his album, saying that he should take a break as his sound is unchanged and boring or whatever, and yet he gave the album four out of five stars. Was that like a misprint or something? :laughing: What an idiot!

But the same reviewer wrote a really flattering review of "Ba Du Kong Jian" two years back, so I agree with you that he's quite objective. At least, i think we're talking about the same guy here...

And if you didn't read Life!'s review of "Hidden Track", Tay Yek something or other (forgot his name lah!) totally slammed the movie. Gave it one star out of five, which I thought was too generous as I would've given it half a star, but at the end, he wrote something like, "But Chou's songs are superb. If only he could've popped up more often." I totally agree with that!

Hmm, I'm digressing quite a bit, but yeah, I guess I'm just expounding upon dazzlette's point that the Singapore media is generally quite kind to him, except for that 8 Days guy. Who cares about him though. He's probably jealous, like you said. :)

As for his album sales, I'm not very sure, but Jielun said it was 1.5 million. Maybe he remembered wrongly though. :laughing:

muzikanjel, agree with you. The original meaning of the writer can sometimes get lost in translations. And I personally didn't think that the English translation was what the writer of the article meant, but I could be wrong, so it's all quite subjective. Oh well. :)

[nycgirls]

:dry: I know, this guy has an attitude of rating... :oops: if you guys don't pose this news in the forum I will never know there is such of a guy in singapore...meaning, you just did a favor for him by advertising him overseas...nice, never expect that, huh?
but in one way, I quite agree on the music part that he mentioned.
The background music are changed into more a band, rock mode.
But the main tune is remained at pretty much the same as what he had before...
Now I don't mean that he did not improvise in this album, he did, but he just need to dig in more if he wanna claim his next album better than the previous ones.
Ye Hui Mei is good in a sense of musical refreshments, but I think his lyric buddy Fang Wen Shan needs to dig in more if they wanna be really good.
I totally understand why he has very hard time finding a new tune...after some albums, the artist might use some of the familiar sections from his previous songs to improvise... Jazz people do that all the time, so no shame to do this...(my ears are falling off because I have listened to too much louie armstrong, and seriously that guy repeated all of his previous improvisations...zzz...and the usual scat singing... I will not take this course if this is not required, but it is!)
Recommendations: Damn it...give them a break...
I wish to give them 2 years of rest and improvise new tunes before hitting back to the entertainment field... If I am Alfa's executive I will never exhaust them like that! And to all ya fans, including me, good music takes time...but if you don't wanna hear junks from Canton pop like twins and others, whom they release their albums in cell-division speed, give President Chou and Buddy Fang a nice vocation...NO advertisements, Not too much concerts, Nada...
I am offending all of you again...damn it I have been breaking rules since I opened my eyes! :cry: