I.D.

Here it is! The wait is over! The dance to my latest single 你是哪種人(I.D.)! Let me know what you guys think :DVideo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpqWe4hKgGg

A little while ago, I saw a documentary about the English boy band Take That. It

followed the members of the band as they prepared for their massive comeback

in 2010 after 15 years of being apart. What struck me about this film was its

unique angle on their growth as individuals between the group’s early years

and its ambivalent reunion after over a decade of uncertainty. One would think

that their best years were probably in the 90’s with the five original members

enjoying their youthful success together. It seems though, that five young

working class English boys’ almost instant arrival at superstardom presented

problems so complex that even they themselves could only comprehend after the

group was split up. As the film suggests, back then, none of them knew who they

were if not members of Take That.

So what makes us who we are? According to scientists and philosophers alike,

we are a lot of things: our genes, our ethnicity, our upbringing, our friends, our

age, our height, our sports team, our job, our favorite book, etc… But I think that

without ever seriously trying to answer the question “who am I?” for ourselves,

it’s easy to become nothing at all. When confronted with this very question, the

members of Take That could only answer with the labels they had been given by

their managers and their fans. Consumed by the pressures of fame, they never

felt the need to reevaluate what they were doing or why they were doing it.

Similarly, surrounded by the conformist social pressures of modern city life,

we often fall into a mode of living through the labels given to us by everyone

else. It may not make us happy, but we do it because it’s easier. Take That had

to endure a disbanding and 15 years of soul searching before gathering the

courage to be better. It’s taken me two albums of songwriting (going on three

this coming March) to really even begin reflecting on my own identity as an artist

and as a person. What will it take you? Who do YOU want yourself to be?