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Asian Pop Quality

iris_failsafe

iris_failsafe

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 4, 2004
255
0
San Francisco, CA
So it turns out that I have a Taiwanese Girlfriend (I come originally from Latin America). Since we started dating she always shows me a lot of Asian pop singers that she likes, but I always thought that they can't sing, have zero stage presence and do weird things like closing their eyes for the entire song.

I'm I being culturally biassed because their style is different or they truly suck?

What's your take on this?
 
I've got a good few jpop albums on my iPod, and I tell you this for free, half the time they can't sing (Nanase especially). It's very piercing. Some songs sound incredibly good, some don't.
 
Dreadful, awful, lousy, crappy, dismal, sappy, maudlin, derivative, mind-destroying, extremely profitable.
Oh, and cheesey....and bad, really bad. But, the chix are hawt!
 
We all know Britney can't sing but in Asia they truly believe this people can.. that is the difference... and in her prime she was a good on stage (I used to found her sexy when she danced) but for example Shakira can sing, or Mariah, Whitney Houston (before)

You would think like for example Chinese uses 4 different tones, people will develop better vocan ranger but they don't
 
Abstract said:
When did pop music become all about the voice and quality? :p


I have a Jay Chou album. :eek:
Click to expand...

If it's anything like here in America, pop music is more about the image. I'm assuming it's just as bad over there since they love that kind of stuff, I mean, they think our stuff is god-like. Ridiculous, just ridiculous.
 
just because you think it's crap doesn't make it bad. it also doesn't mean you have to tolerate something you don't like. if it isn't your thing, then it isn't your thing. to answer your question, though, yes. yes, you are being "culturally biased."
 
Just to comment on what I said earlier: The weird thing about having a Jay Chou CD is that I don't even understand Mandarin! I guess it's not that different to owning a Camille album despite not knowing French...

iris_failsafe said:
You would think like for example Chinese uses 4 different tones, people will develop better vocan ranger but they don't
Click to expand...

That doesn't really make any sense.
 
My personal opinion is that Asian music scene lacks diversity. I find it rather boring after sometime. Everyone seems to be singing the same old thing, wearing out the same old shirt. If at any rare moment, someone experiments with something new and it turns out successful, you can be sure that many will try to follow or copy.
 
iris_failsafe said:
You would think like for example Chinese uses 4 different tones, people will develop better vocal range but they don't
Click to expand...

I think the tonal nature of the language actually makes it harder to create a musicality similar to western music. The tonality limits the melodies that can be created, makes them harder to sing in a given emotional tone, and definitely inhibits the types of vocal expressiveness that singers like Mariah, Whitney, Shakira and David Bisbal are known for.

When you have one syllable tone between the lyric "Taste my spicy horse meat, it's very pyretic" and insulting your mother, you're gonna play it safe. :D
 
TheAnswer is right. The Asian languages and English are as about as different as it gets! I actually like a lot of Asian singers, however. (They're mostly from Japan, though.)

  • Ayumi Hamasaki
  • Kumi Koda
  • misono
  • Namie Amuro
  • Perfume
  • Puffy
  • Utada Hikaru
  • BoA
 
I don't know anything about Asian music, but I do know that "BoA" (is that honestly how she spells it?) is Korean. I went to a Japanese restaurant with some friends, and one of them told me. She can sing in Japanese, though. Also, just because someone has a Japanese sounding name, doesn't mean they're Japanese. Many people just give themselves Japanese names. I know that from personal experience.

Weirdness.
If at any rare moment, someone experiments with something new and it turns out successful, you can be sure that many will try to follow or copy.
Click to expand...

Not that he's not a copycat himself, but if that's true, then why did the Japanese album that Timbaland produced end up so unsuccessful in Japan? Don't know the name of the Japanese girl, herself.
 
Abstract said:
Not that he's not a copycat himself, but if that's true, then why did the Japanese album that Timbaland produced end up so unsuccessful in Japan? Don't know the name of the Japanese girl, herself.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I naturally assumed the poster was talking about the Taiwan, China, Hong Kong market. I consider Japan to be another whole new world on it's own.
 
Abstract said:
I don't know anything about Asian music, but I do know that "BoA" (is that honestly how she spells it?) is Korean. I went to a Japanese restaurant with some friends, and one of them told me. She can sing in Japanese, though. Also, just because someone has a Japanese sounding name, doesn't mean they're Japanese. Many people just give themselves Japanese names. I know that from personal experience.
Click to expand...

though BoA is certainly korean, her music is more j-pop than it is k-pop. she launched her career in the japanese market, and she owes her fame to her japanese songs. she had a few korean hits, many of them re-recordings of her japanese songs, but she is definitely j-pop.
 
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