Comments on: Friday Links: Why China can’t create Gangnam Style, Chinese reactions to the US presidential debate, and the nastiest squid-ink hot dog

By: name

name — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:11:15 +0000

“Now, what’s cooler than being cool?”
“Refrigerator.”

By: Jess

Jess — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 13:02:44 +0000

I suppose they’re inept because China is a country with a musical history so far removed from modern pop music that nobody knows how to make it well (yet). Vocal harmonies, a staple of pop music, are almost completely absent because people don’t know how to harmonise; it’s never really been a “thing” in Chinese music. (Which is how you get vocal “arrangements” like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv_uvWJ5v74)
Nor do they properly understand how to use hooks or chord progressions. Compared to the big Korean companies, whose founders all studied in the US, Chinese producers just don’t know how to do it.

One major flaw of the “system,” though, is that the usual state organs harvest the talented singers, dancers and musicians away from pop music. Last week, I went backstage of a performance by the China National Ethnic Song and Dance Ensemble in Melbourne. The show was all very “traditional” in that CCTV way, as you’d expect. But, backstage, the performers were all in T-shirts and jeans, playing with their iPhones. Tall, good looking, talented. They would have made good popstars…had they actually been in the pop industry. (It kind of makes me wish I had a blog so I could write about that experience).

But while Korean entertainment companies run parallel in practices with the Chinese state sports administration, training them from childhood and whatnot, Chinese companies have to wait until aspiring singers in their 20s come third in television singing contests before signing them. The level of artist development ridiculously is low. And because nobody is buying music, most of the profits in the industry come from live performances, which means it goes to the artist, not the companies. The companies then can’t justify spending $250,000 on the next album because they won’t get it back. The Korean system works because the companies get all the money, and the artists get none. But at least the companies treat their artists as products and improve on them.

Oh, and don’t get me started on this Chinese obsession with self-composed music. Congratulations, you’ve reached the same level of musical development as a high school garage band! For most of them, it’s rarely ever good. I blame Jay Chou for that one.

By: Chinese Netizen

Chinese Netizen — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 04:04:07 +0000

White guys roaming the streets in armbands? Must be Germans…

By: The Tao

The Tao — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:21:56 +0000

Isn’t the question, “Why are they inept?”? I’d say “the system” is very much the problem (including censorship, etc.), though no one really has any good ideas about how to effectively change it.

When your eggs are plastic and the bun is black, I don’t have a joke here except to say the picture makes me want to puke.

By: Jess

Jess — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:10:41 +0000

You only ever hear politically correct answers to the Evan Osnos question. It’s the censorship; it’s the system’s fault. The more blatant answer is that Chinese pop music producers are, as a whole, largely inept.

Then again, we only make the comparison between China and Korea because of geography and race. Based on wealth, nobody asks why Ecuador or East Timor aren’t cranking out viral pop hits.

I’d also put a large, bolded question mark on the suggestion that China “cranks out more singers and dancers in a single city than Korea does nationwide.” I don’t think that’s true at all.

Also, why not put the egg ‘inside’ the hot dog bun?