Calvin Wong - my official artist profile -alivenotdead.com

Is R&B Music the new mainstream in Asia?

Apologies for taken so long to come up with another blog. Hectic week at work. Business this month was definitely on the up with a few hit songs and some good selling albums. Yes, despite the gloom and doom, some CDs still sells.

Thanks for all the great feedback on HK music scene blog.

One of the key point that came out from the blog was "what is mainstream music"? Best definition is popular music genre that has been accepted by the general population. Traditionally in Asia, it's all about pop ballad or slow rock etc. However over the last few years, R&B has definitely make a huge inroads into mainstream market. Rather than just vocal technique, it's emphasizes on singing from the heart/soul over a standard R&B arrangement. Melody is still strong like a traditional pop song but the 2 factors create almost a new song experience to what was in the market at the time.

In Japan, Utada change the landscape while in the Chinese market it was Jay Chou. In Korea, Wheesung create the major turning point. Yes, there are R&B artists before them but none of them made it into the mainstream to change consumer taste to this genre. Since, artist like Rain or Se7en, Lee Hom & David Tao, Ken Hirai & Chemistry cement the genre as a format in these markets. I only mention the 3 markets as they influence the rest of the Asian region including Singapore, Thailand, China and Malaysia. In Indonesia and Philippines where R&B has existed far earlier but it was also partly influence as well with acts like Marcell, Glenn Fredly, Nina, Kyla becoming houselhold names in their respective markets.

In the meantime, enjoy what I think is 3 landmark Asian R&B songs.artist that changed mainstream music in Asia.

1) Utada Hikaru - Automatic

The first single from the album that is the BIGGEST selling album of all time in Japan (over 9 million CDs sold!!!). She has then gone on to become the biggest act. She wrote all the songs herself. When it first came out, it was not an obvious hit for even their record company who at that time was run by Masaaki Sato. He was brave enough to take the deal as his background in International music marketing for over 20 years tells him that the song is good enough for the Japanese market. Low expectation, take risk and hey presto..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Rmbb4SEIM

2) Wheesung - A story I can't tell

Taken from his debut album "Like a movie". Korea at that time was completely swamped by boy band and girl groups such as HOT, Shinhwa, Finkl, SES etc. The album was released by a small production house called M-Boat. Park Kyung Jin was a little concern that he is not good looking enough that consumer will not accept him that he did not even has his face on the cover. The album has subtitles of various movies the songs int he albums are influenced by which I thought was interesting and confusing cuz I can't read Korean. This I believe is the 2nd single but the biggest hit and catapult the album to over 400,000 units in Korea. Some may argue Wheesung is not the first R&B singer and Park Jin Yong (JYP who discovered Rain) has done it far earlier but R&B was not a genre as JYP is still a lone ranger in the market. Glad Kyung Jin decides to put Wheesung face in the video as he went on to become the biggest R&B superstar in Korea. His new album is due this year which I believe would be his 6th album. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8COqqZdQEhI

3) Jay Chou - Valuable woman

When the album first came out, the media was writing stuff like great music but will sell less than 20,000 (which is nothing at that time in Taiwan) Media loved it, music industry people fans loved it but consumer a took a little time to respond to this `new' music genre. JR Yang and Jay stuck by their plan and built him organically and then released this video featuring Vivian Hsu. It worked and the next thing you know the album sold 300,000 units. I think the number is now a lot higher. He then gone on to become the biggest star in Asia. Oh yeah, he writes, sings, plays, produce and even directs all the videos himself which shows how big a talent he is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvT4KidzLh8

Moral of the story, if the artist is good enough, the music is good enough even though it don't sound like anything else in the market at the time it WILL work and when it does, you create history!!!

What will be the new `mainstream music'? Love to hear your views. Maybe the next Utda, Jay & Wheesung will be discovered here on AnD?

15 年多前 0 赞s 21 评论s 0 shares

Johnny Chen

Finally someone talks about wheesung!!! No one in HK or Taiwan knows who he is. Nice blog.

15 年多 ago

Lydia Kuan

U're very encouraging.This is great.

15 年多 ago

Dan Burns-Findlay

To be successful in pop you have to look backwards, not forwards. Asian commercial music follows Western pop trends with a lag of a couple years. The same goes for underground club music here, actually. Western pop music repeats ideas every 10-18 years or so. The age of one 'generation' of pop music consumers. Next in line to be popular will sound a lot like what came out of the early to mid-90's. Bet you dinner on that :) Although for the local market, I'm not sure how the prevalence of one style on US MTV influences local opinions and taste. Would Jay Chou be successful in Asia if R'n'B was not so big in the US?

15 年多 ago

Dan Burns-Findlay

> Vocals are too prominent in the mix these days. +1

15 年多 ago

Joanna Yang

yups i like R&B. I also love Jazz, who knows maybe jazz would get bigger and bigger. A jazz pianist talent (jap) is Hiromi Uehara, u can check her music out

15 年多 ago

Calvin Wong

i think the point of the blog is 2 objective 1) why these artists become what they are? (the past) 2) what and how it's going to happen in the future Maybe the headline is a little misleading. I do agree that if you are starting out now as a straight R&B singer you won't be special and leading the market and you will just follow the trend set by these artists here. But they were `special' when it first came out many years ago. It's easy to look at it now and say, I knew it but at that time it was a risk for many people. I also like to point out that changing the mainstream music taste is a huge effort. I am not just talking about credibility here as I am sure there are many many arrtist around the world that is awesome but no one heard of them or few can appreciate. It's about culture change and to me these acts did that from my view.

15 年多 ago

Marie Jost

At the end of the day maybe the Asian music biz needs to ask itself if it wants to be a leader or a follower. Does it want to produce music with strictly regional impact, or could it break a star of international caliber? To do that would require rethinking the future of Asian popular music. Asia, China in particular, is looking to play a dominant role in world economics and international relations, why shouldn't it aim just as high culturally? Japan is already a force to be dealt with internationally in terms of commerce. Cultivate originality, look outside of the box, and most of all, dream big. With its rich cultural heritage and tradition of excellence in so many fields, there is no reason that Asia cannot produce groundbreaking music that could have international impact. But this originality needs to be discovered and nurtured, since it has not been as much a part of the music scene in Asia as in other parts of the world. I am confident that there are Asian artists who are every bit as talented as their Western counterparts. China is now a major player in visual arts like painting and film. Why should music be any different?

15 年多 ago

Calvin Wong

I think if you speak to most artists they want to set their sights on Asia rather than International firts. Achieving the goal of becoming an Asian supersatr is more than a dream to many. International is a plus. Music is far more segmented than any culture esp pop music. I had an opportunity to talk to Jay Chou once and he told me that he never intend to break US because he can't speak the language. If they accept him as he is then fine but he would not change to suit others which I thought was fantastic. When you decide to break international market most time you have to sacrifice local & regional markets. Da Da Wa did make a dent but she was never a true mainstream star in Asia. Same can be said about Anggun.

15 年多 ago

Marie Jost

Calvin, I think an Asian artist who breaks internationally will be a very rare bird. It would take another Shakira, and it will only happen mid-career, not at the beginning. I think Shakira is a sort of template for future international artists where country of origin will not be a hindrance to their international success. Shakira labored in the trenches making first local, then regional music. She has 5 qualities that made her an international superstar: she is a talented singer-songwriter-performer and has always done only her own original material that is identifiably hers, she is a very beautiful woman with a commanding stage presence and a fine and quite distinctive voice, she has excellent command of English and can sing and compose in English (she decides what language she writes the lyrics in based on the feel of the song), she is very hard-working and is willing to tour internationally for months on end, but, most of all, she is extremely ambitious and is will to make the sacrifices required to make herself an international star. Shakira is fairly unusual in the music biz right now. But Asia has well over 1 billion citizens, so the odds of the next artist in this mold being Asian are not too bad. As with Chinese visual arts, it probably would require only one groundbreaking artist, and then the way would be clear for others to follow the trailblazer. Then, of course, luck always plays a big part. For the right person to break at the right time, with adequate resources at their disposal, some of that is just sheer, blind luck.

15 年多 ago

Calvin Wong

When the US market has enough Asian as their population, the chances will grow as per Hispanics ala Shakira. Until then, Asian should sing in Chinese for the billions of Chinese worldwide.

15 年多 ago

Marie Jost

In the beginning, Shakira's company marketed only her English language albums internationally, while her Spanish-language albums were targeted exclusively at the Spanish-speaking market. But, with the release of two albums in quick succession, one in Spanish and the other in English, she did something very savy. She began singing music from both her English-language and Spanish-language repertoire in her European, US and Middle Eastern tour dates. English-language radio stations and MTV (the original mainstream English-language one in the US) started playing her Spanish-language hit La Tortura and she suddenly was hotter than ever in the US--whatever language she was singing in. Europe can't get enough of her, (Germany and Scandanavia, in particular--where they don't speak Spanish). For the first time in a very long time (maybe since the Bossa Nova craze in the 60s), people in the US are willing to listen to an artist singing in a language they don't understand. I hope this isn't an isolated fluke. Everything else in our lives is becoming more global--why not music, too? Snowduck, like it or not (and I, personally, am not a fan of this trend), crossover still means singing in English. I agree with you, very few artists who are not native speakers of English can deliver the goods when it comes to composing songs in English. Translations from other languages into English, typically, are subpar unless the lyrics are changed virtually beyond recognition. Perhaps it is a matter of educating the listening public. Young people today in the US and Europe are ethnically and linguistically more diverse than ever. Perhaps this generation of kids (probably still preteens and tweens) who are plugged into their IPods and surfing the Internet incessently will translate this changing demographic reality into musical terms. I think the next 10 years or so could be very interesting in terms of popular music as a global phenomenon.

15 年多 ago

Serena Choong

You nailed it Calvin! Patrick - check out Pop Shuvit, you'd be blown away. Definitely not LP, they have their own identity. And now there's an alliance (I hope this lasts) called Project E.A.R (they performed @ MAA) fusing Msia (P.Shuvit)/ Thailand/ Indonesia etc. Maybe Msia's not as prominent yet in the regional arena, but check these acts out, you'd be surprised. Calvin knows I'm sure.

15 年多 ago

Calvin Wong

Definitely a strong underground movement going on in Malaysia and Singapore. I remember when I sign Butterfingers, they were definitely has potential and the new generation like Estranged, Hujan etc. I am quite keen to see if these acts can be broken in Indonesia (yes, the other way round)

15 年多 ago

Serena Choong

I'm really proud of my boys Estranged. Just burst onto the Indo scene. Am sure u'd heard "Itu Kamu". If not, check it out. Think you'll like! Msia misses u Calvin! Ur a genius!

15 年多 ago

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The Passionate Music Man

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语言: english, cantonese, mandarin, malay
位置（城市，国家）以英文标示: Hong Kong
性别: male
加入的时间: June 24, 2008