An inside look at Isle Formosa’s music industry.
BY PHILL FELTHAM
The song, “Return Of The Innocence” was a very popular song worldwide. The song, made by Enigma, is an exact representation of the aboriginal culture of Taiwan. In fact, the chanting in the song belong to an old Taiwanese couple.
The popular New Age band from Germany sampled the voices of an elderly Amis couple, Guo Yingnan and Guo Xiuzhu without their knowledge, according to Wikipedia.org. The couple were later compensated in an out-of-court decision in 1999, five years after the song was an international success.
However, despite the song’s controversy, it gave the world a taste of Taiwanese aboriginal music while the modern Taiwanese music industry was being heavily influenced by the West and other countries like China and Malaysia.
KTVs, private medium-sized rooms containing karaoke equipment used for a group of friends to use for a length of time, often echo loud ballets of either Teresa Teng or Faye Wong.
Teresa Teng was a very popular singer who died of asthma in 1995. She sang in Paris during the Tianamen Square incident giving support. She gave many Chinese communists headaches with the pro-democratic messages in her songs. However, the Asian public admired her greatly for her heart and spirit.
The 42-year-old pop icon died in 1995 during a trip to Thailand after suffering an asthma attack. A white statue was built at her mountainside tomb on Jinbao Mountain, Taipei County in Taiwan. Her clothes can also be found on display with her music playing in the background. According to Wikipedia.org, “The tomb is well visited by her fans, a notable departure from traditional Chinese culture shunning visits to burial sites.”
Wikipedia’s website said that Teng’s music is still extremely popular today in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and some parts of Mainland China. Faye Wong, a very popular singer of today’s Taiwanese pop music, idolized Teresa Teng. She even released a tribute album.
Chinese native Faye Wong’s popularity soars through Asia and is considered to be the most distinguished female singer in Chinese music history. Wikipedia says her fanbase is so large that the media in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China that the media often refer to in Chinese as tiānhou (diva or goddess) while her Japanese fans call her “Diva of Asia”. She is one of the few singers popular on both sides of the Taiwan straits and aggressively avoids the media.
Jay Chou is a popular Taiwanese singer in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, other Asian countries and among Chinese-Americans in the United States. He mixes R&B and rap combining Chinese and and Western musical styles. The song “Dad I am Back” touches on domestic violence, in “Rice Fields”, has a mention on eco-awareness and in “Wounds of War”, the destructiveness of war is mentioned.
Here is a list of popular Taiwanese singers/ bands: eVonne, Cyndi Wang Xin Ling, Chen Chi Chen (Cheer Chen), Energy, and 5566. and much more.
Taiwanese pop culture has influenced other Chinese-speaking countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. The popularand, May Day (or Wu Yue Tian) has taken the above mentioned by storm. IT!
(with files from Wikipedia.org)
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