- Taiwanese pop
Taiwanese pop is a
popular music genre sung in the Taiwanese language (Min Nan ). It is referred to asTai-pop and sometimes Hokkien pop. The genre is not the same as Mandarin pop music from Taiwan. However many Mandarin pop singers from Taiwan also cross over into Taiwanese pop genres as well, and there is increasingly more Mandarin pop influence in Taiwanese pop. Taiwanese music development took a setback during the years of Martial Law in Taiwan. Upon the lifting of Martial Law in Taiwan, multiple artists began to produce Taiwanese song tracks and entire albums in Taiwanese.Terminology
While Cantonese, Mandarin and Taiwanese are all derived from the same
Sino-Tibetan languages family,Taiwanese pop is not classified withinc-pop . The historical origin of Taiwanese pop comes from a Japaneseenka base instead of a Chineseshidaiqu baseTaiwanese Pop Songs History. " [http://home.comcast.net/~tzeng2/TaiwanPopSongs/in_english.htm Taiwanese Pop Songs History] ." "Article." Retrieved on2007-05-02 .] Broughton, Simon. Ellingham, Mark. Trillo, Richard. [2000] (2000) World Music: The Rough Guide. Rough Guides Publishing Company. ISBN 1858286360] . Music of this category are sometimes called "Aboriginal Taiwanese pop" to distinguish it from Mandarin pop music in TaiwanTime Magazine. " [http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/heroes/amei.html Time Magazine] ." "Asian Heroes: Both sides now." Retrieved on2007-05-02 .] .History
Origin
While Taiwan music have existed before the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, the "father of Taiwanese pop" or "New Music" is considered to be Chang Fu-hsing in the 1930s.
1950s: Political interference
After the
Kuomintang relocated from mainland China to Taiwan, the phase ofWhite Terror would began. The process started in1949 with the proposal of amartial law . All facets of Taiwanese culture that were not ofHan Chinese origin were under scrutiny. In particular, the KMT government discouraged use of the Taiwanese language, See here. As a result, native Taiwanese pop music was no longer in development.1960s: Censorship
In the 1960s,
Taiwan Television station for example could air no more than 2 Taiwanese pop songs a day.1980s: Lifting of martial law
The
Republic of China would lift martial law in1987 and allow native Taiwanese culture to reintegrate into society. When Taiwanese music was no longer restricted, the gap between old enka-style Taiwanese pop and modern 1980s mandopop songs was tremendous. Because of this, Taiwanese pop was thought of as music for the older generations. This is unusual since popular music is almost globally associated with youth.Taiwanese culture has often been overshadowed by Mandarin main-stream culture confusing outsiders with the stereotype that "Taiwanese" is "Mandarin". As far as music sales online Taiwanese pop is often clumped with "Mandarin" music and often mislabeled as such confusing many Chinese and Taiwanese Americans, and those who can't read Chinese.
Blacklist Studio would release the first native Taiwanese album in a mandopop-dominant market in1989 .One famous male singer from the 1980's is
Long-Hong Hong (洪荣宏) who is famous for his Taiwanese "One Umbrella" song (一支小雨伞) and also produces TaiwaneseChristian song albums too.Feng Fei-Fei (鳳飛飛) is a famous Taiwanese singer from the 1980's who is a Mandarin pop singer, but also has albums in Taiwanese too.Jody Chiang (江蕙) is Taiwan's most famous singer and is often referred to as the Queen of Taiwanese pop music. She has many albums and compilations that date from the 1980's to the present. She can be referred to as the Taiwanese equivalent of Teresa Teng (below).Stella Chang (張清芳) has produced albums entirely in Mandarin and entirely Taiwanese. She made her debut singing Taiwan's ming-ge (National, ROC) songs and is a Mandarin pop singer, but branched out into contemporary Mandarin and Taiwanese songs to reflect her heritage.Teresa Teng (鄧麗君), although of Taiwanese mainlander heritage, is also known to have songs in Taiwanese. Unfortunately, these songs have not made it to CDs like her Japanese, Mandarin, and Cantonese songs have. Although Teresa Teng is better known for her Mandarin albums, her songs were also influenced by Japanese Enka style and by older Taiwan ming-ge songs.Chen Ying-Git (Chen Ying Jie) (陳盈潔), is a famous female singer of TaiwaneseHakka heritage, who has also produced albums from the 1980's through the 1990's like Jody Chiang. One of her famous songs is 海海人生. She sings a famous duet called 酒醉黑白話 with Taiwanese male singer 余天 (he also sings in Mandarin as well).Other famous Taiwanese singers include Zhang Xiu-Qing (Jhang Shiou Ching) from
Pingtung , Taiwan, who is famous in the early 1990's for her song "Che Zhan" (Train Station).1990s: Re-Integrate
In
1990 Lin Qiang launched the first successful Taiwanese album underRock Records . It also broke away the tradition by having a new-ballad style instead of the old-enka style.In
1993 , Taiwan's government opened up the broadcasting of TV or radio programs to languages other than mandarinReed, Barbara Edith. Davison, Gary Marvin. [1998] (1998). Culture and Customs of Taiwan. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313302987] .Chang Yu-Sheng would also discoverA-mei (Note: A-mei has Taiwanese aboriginal heritage, but her music is predominantly mandarin and is actually classified as Mandarin pop, not Taiwanese pop).Present
2000s
Recently, native Taiwanese pop have been re-integrating into c-pop.
A-mei would be labeled an Asian hero worldwide for promoting cross-trait pop music representing aboriginal Taiwanese pop with mandopop success. Her popularity however was criticized by theCommunist Party of China for promoting any sort ofTaiwan independence [News BBC. " [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/761908.stm. News BBC] ." "China bans Taiwans Madonna." Retrieved on2007-05-03 .] .The most popular Taiwanese female singer to date is
Jody Chiang (江蕙) fromChiayi , Taiwan, who has numerous Taiwanese albums dating from the early 1980's. She is the equivalent of Teresa Teng, except for Taiwanese music. Another famous singer in Taiwan also known for her ballads is Chen Ying-Git (陳盈潔).Current Taiwanese pop music is becoming more influenced by Mandarin pop. Artists such as
Phil Chang ,Jolin Tsai ,Eric Moo and Mayday are known to have Taiwanese songs in their albums.Artists
*
Wu Bai
*Jay Chou
*Eric Moo
*Blacklist Studio
*Jimmy Lin
*Long-Hong Hong (洪荣宏)
*Jacky Wu
*Jolin Tsai
*Jody Chiang (Jiang Hui, Jodi Jiang 江蕙)
*Chen Ying-Git (Chen Ying Jie 陳盈潔)
*Chen Ya-Lan
*Chang Hsiu-Ching
*Fei-Fei Feng (Feng Fei-Fei 鳳飛飛)
*Julia Peng (彭佳慧)
*Phil Chang (張宇)
*Jeff Chang (張信哲)
*Stella Chang (Zhang Qing-Fang 張清芳)
*Mei-Feng Chen References
ee also
*
Music of Taiwan External links
* [http://www.asianpoptv.com AsianPopTV.com - Social Network for Asian Pop Fans]
* [http://home.comcast.net/~tzeng2/TaiwanPopSongs/in_english.htm History of Taiwanese pop]
* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3072143/ msnbc taiwan history]
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