The word "frustration" simply doesn't exist in Johnny Duan's dictionary. He never frowns even in a year in which only a few of the 100-plus albums his company releases make money. "Doing business involves taking risks," he says. "Sometimes you make money; sometimes you lose it. Things happen and you deal with them, find a way to resolve problems. You can't just sit there waiting to die."
Perhaps it is this fearlessness in the face of disappointment that has enabled Duan not to fret about Rock Records' fall from glory. "No matter how bad things get, you can't just moan about your fate; you have to get back in the ring," says Duan. "Me, I just like making music."
Though the mainland Chinese media has referred to the company as "fallen aristocracy," Duan rejects that characterization.
While he understands that the criticism of Rock grows out of people's love of the label and their desire to see it survive, he has never thought of his company as an "aristocrat," and doesn't believe it is in decline. Duan observes that Rock wasn't born into a position atop the other labels and doesn't hold any kind of title. "We started out as a small company with just six people. Over the course of 30 years, we grew from poverty to prosperity." As for being in decline, he says, "The problems Rock has encountered are shared by the entire music and content business."
Some people lay some of the blame for Rock's decline on a loss of control resulting from excessive expansion, but Duan disagrees. He says that international record labels poured into Taiwan when the local market opened up, and notes that Rock's rival for a decade, UFO Rec-ords, was purchased by Warner Music. Those changes in the local terrain left Rock with no position to fall back to. Duan argues that if Rock hadn't expanded rapidly, its problems would have been larger, more numerous, and even more intractable.
At its peak, Rock had 12 subsidiaries around Asia. Duan says that the expansion itself wasn't a problem, but admits that it definitely resulted in some loss of control over operations. "Our development of staff didn't keep up with our output," he explains.
Rock's frustrations have continued, but Duan remains unperturbed. He was inundated with interview requests from domestic and foreign media as the company set up its 30th anniversary concert. When a journalist asked him whether he was comforted by the thought that he'd had a good run, he snapped back: "I've never thought that our run was over. I'm battling on."
Neither does he waste time reveling in victories past. The moment the concert ended, he headed back to the office. "The war's still on," he explained, "and I've got to keep fighting."
Those who've visited Rock's offices have seen the line "I'm at Rock and I'm important" plastered all over the inside of the building. It dates back to Jonathan Lee's tenure as the company's music director and was meant to inspire employees. The line still echoes through Duan's mind today. One of the keystones of his self-respect, it gives him the strength to keep making pop music, no matter what kind of adversity he faces.
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