Singing has a long history in China, but traditionally people did not stray far from home and kept to their own dialects and local songs. The cultured elite had classical Chinese music to listen to, while others preferred popular folk songs or their high-brow equivalents. What we now call "pop music" dates from the 1940s in Shanghai.

Unforgettable Shanghai: From 1931 onwards when the talkies took over from silent movies, the demand for film scores became a stimulant for song composers, who at that time all came from recognized academies and produced a high standard of songs. Songs like When Will You Return? by composer Liu Hsueh-an, and Shangri-la by lyricist Chen Tieh-yi, were endlessly popular. A Russian exile in Shanghai who was former music master at the tsarist court wrote scores for the popular music of the day, while a recording studio was designed for the city by a French recording engineer. A combination of such factors boosted the careers of singing stars Chou Hsuan and Yao Li, helping popular music to break through class barriers and become an entertainment for all levels of society.

Many of those songs from the 1940s are still played on radio and television today. They may be oldies, but plenty of people in their fifties stubbornly cling to the belief that only the old songs are real songs, while today's efforts are little more than words being spoken. It was the golden age that is now looked back on with nostalgia, and was also the source for modern pop music.

We Sing Our Own Songs!: With the Communist takeover at the end of the 1940s, much of the talent in popular music moved to Hong Kong, so the mainlanders who moved to Taiwan with the government continued listening to songs from the Shanghai era right up to the 1960s, or theme music from contemporary Hong Kong movies. Song halls sprang up in the area of Chunghua Road, Chengtu Road and Hsining South Road, and are now known as "old people's song halls." The clientele consists mainly of older generation mainlanders, who come to enjoy favorite oldies with a cup of tea and plate of melon seeds at their side.

By the 1960s, fashion-conscious modern youth began to develop a taste for Western music in preference to Chinese songs. Chinese stars of the day were becoming popular in South East Asia, however, like Yao Su-jung. Her numbers were written by Chuang Nu and composed by Tsuo Hung-yuan, and together the three became known as the trinity of the record business.

Standards of living rose with the surge of Taiwan's export industry during the 1970s, boosting the record business and the market for musical instruments, radios and hi-fi equipment. The withdrawal of the ROC from the United Nations and severing of official relations with Japan, along with the establishment of ties between the US and mainland China, stimulated nationalist consciousness in the educated, and helped the trend for on-campus folk song activities. The songs that came out of the campuses had simple melodies and fresh lyrics, and quickly began to appeal throughout society. Tao Hsiao-ching, a radio presenter, organized a folk concert at the time and gave it heavy promotion through her program, earning the moniker "Folk Song Mama" in the process.

Once the record companies latched on, however, considerations of profit and market taste began to take over, and the movement lost its freshness and original meaning. "Campus songs ended up as a new version of the same old thing," says music critic Weng Chiah-ming. For a while, campus folk music shared popularity with sentimental movie tunes from films based on the books of author Chiung Yao.

From the 1980s on, with society in Taiwan becoming ever better off, the former campus folk singers became the new crop of Mandarin pop stars. The pop of our time is already fully commercialized, with the accent on planning, packag ing, promotion and marketing in order to launch songs and singers on the public.

In the opinion of Weng Chiah-ming, the packaging and singing of today's pop idols, like David Lee, Wang Chieh, Chang Yu-sheng and the Young Tigers, is certainly more slick and sophisticated than that of the stars of yesteryear such as Feng Fei-fei and Liu Wen-cheng. On the other hand they have gone back to the sixties and seventies, aiming their songs at teenage youth, at junior schoolchildren and even at preschoolers.

According to Weng, "pop music has turned into a form of mass culture that cannot be ignored, in particular because of the close ties between business and the media." We can see what he means when we hear politicians quoting from songs like Who Knows the Heart? and I'm Ugly But I'm Gentle to portray themselves.

Sing Along and Everything Is OK: The satisfaction and pleasure of singing has been greatly magnified for many people by the spread of karaoke machines and centers, which enable you to sing along with full accompaniment, your voice improved and amplified by the microphone. In 1991, it is very common for friends to get together and sing karaoke as a relaxation. The boss sings with the staff and they all feel as one; politicians belt out a number that everyone knows and can join in with, to draw themselves closer to the public. Pop music seems to have become a sort of social lubricant.

What effect will this have on the direction that pop music takes? The future is both bleak and bright. With the vocal range of music narrowing, it is ever easier to sing and ordinary people are better able to enjoy the pleasure of hearing songs in their own wonderful voices. Pop music's resources are more abundant than ever.

[Picture Caption]

From 78s to the latest CDs, Mandarin pop songs cover half a century of mass culture.

Taipei's Hsimenting district is filled with "oldies" spots like this. The clientele is strictly "post-youth."

Taipei's Hsimenting district is filled with "oldies" spots like this. The clientele is strictly "post-youth.".