王力宏 心中的日月
This album marks the beginning of Wang Leehom (Wang Lihong)'s "chinked out" phase. In order to introduce this concept, he includes a small letter to the listener on the inside cover of his CD, the version that I have. As would be very logical for a CD sold in Taiwan, it's written in English with no translation. In it, in handily numbered points Wang Leehom outlines several things. 1. Although Chinese people are more accepted in the world, there's still lots of prejudice against them. 2. Chinese music copies the West and is karaoke driven. 3. Therefore Wang Leehom has coined the term "chinked-out" for a new style of music that he has invented, in which he hopes to meld popular music with more traditional Chinese sounds, thereby creating a new type of popular music. In his album, he has tried to borrow the sounds of minority peoples in Mainland China.
I'm a literature major. I deconstruct things. Sue me. Anyway, a number of things strike me about this statement. It's a ambitious statement, and I certainly admire the sentiment. Not that many Asian people seem to be aware sometimes that people in the West still look down on them. Of course, Wang Leehom is an ABC and would probably be more aware of this than other people. However, there are plenty of Asian Americans who don't admit this either. Kudos Wang Leehom! Furthermore, it's intelligently written and so it's clear that there's more going on here than just empty pop music, he's clearly thought about this. However, on the other hand. These brave sentiments are only written in English with no translation. It's pretty clear that unless his Taiwanese or other Asian listeners are fluent in English, they're probably going to pass over this manifesto without a second look. And also, there's a certain lack of logic in going back to traditional roots by going to the periphery of China and to people who possibly don't consider themselves to be Chinese in order to attain a "chinked-out" feel.
Anyway, musically, in my humble opinion it's a fairly decent album. He's not really hip hop per se, but he does sort of dabble in it and generally does it fairly well. Accusing other pop stars of being karaoke driven seems a little like the pot calling the kettle black, since it's loaded with slow, soulful KTV songs. The lyrics seem decently written generally, it's mostly about journeyings and discovering far away places that in the title track 心中的日月 sometimes smacks faintly of imperialism or even orientalism. However, the lyrics do seem to occasionally reference Chinese culture, although they often touch on other stuff too, like zodiac signs. The eastern influences on his music are present, although surprising not as ostentiatiously as I would have expected. Jay Chou and JJ Lin and various other people have used Chinese instruments just as much as he has, they may not have made a concept album based on it though.
I'm actually rather grateful that Wang Leehom stays away from more conventional hip hop topics, especially after the howler "Not Your Average Thug" on his Unbelieveable album. It lends the whole thing a bit of dignity, which somehow it really needs.
I'm a literature major. I deconstruct things. Sue me. Anyway, a number of things strike me about this statement. It's a ambitious statement, and I certainly admire the sentiment. Not that many Asian people seem to be aware sometimes that people in the West still look down on them. Of course, Wang Leehom is an ABC and would probably be more aware of this than other people. However, there are plenty of Asian Americans who don't admit this either. Kudos Wang Leehom! Furthermore, it's intelligently written and so it's clear that there's more going on here than just empty pop music, he's clearly thought about this. However, on the other hand. These brave sentiments are only written in English with no translation. It's pretty clear that unless his Taiwanese or other Asian listeners are fluent in English, they're probably going to pass over this manifesto without a second look. And also, there's a certain lack of logic in going back to traditional roots by going to the periphery of China and to people who possibly don't consider themselves to be Chinese in order to attain a "chinked-out" feel.
Anyway, musically, in my humble opinion it's a fairly decent album. He's not really hip hop per se, but he does sort of dabble in it and generally does it fairly well. Accusing other pop stars of being karaoke driven seems a little like the pot calling the kettle black, since it's loaded with slow, soulful KTV songs. The lyrics seem decently written generally, it's mostly about journeyings and discovering far away places that in the title track 心中的日月 sometimes smacks faintly of imperialism or even orientalism. However, the lyrics do seem to occasionally reference Chinese culture, although they often touch on other stuff too, like zodiac signs. The eastern influences on his music are present, although surprising not as ostentiatiously as I would have expected. Jay Chou and JJ Lin and various other people have used Chinese instruments just as much as he has, they may not have made a concept album based on it though.
I'm actually rather grateful that Wang Leehom stays away from more conventional hip hop topics, especially after the howler "Not Your Average Thug" on his Unbelieveable album. It lends the whole thing a bit of dignity, which somehow it really needs.
posted by lovelesscynic at 6:44 AM
3 Comments:
Would one of you please do a review for 5566, I'm just curious as to what you would say about them. That would be awesome, thanks.
if you want to provide me with a copy of one of their CDs I would be,uh, willing to do so.
I can't afford to buy the actual cds. All I got is some links to where you can download their music. The problem is that you're suppose to delete them after 24 hours because they're only for trial purposes, but I'm positive no one will want any 5566 music in their computers for that long.
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