A Stage for Student Musicians

One summer’s evening back in 1979, a group of five young men at National Chengchi University who were out on the street struck up singing a song by the American vocal group The Brothers Four. Seized by inspiration, they hustled over to a place behind the women’s dormitory and began singing love song after love song, and from then on the campus had itself a new singing en­semble, the Brothers Five. Thereafter group members served as leaders of the university’s Chen Sheng Chorus and its guitar club, and, along with other musical partners, came up with the idea of a folk music competition for people at NCCU. The following year, the “NCCU Golden Melody Folk Music Competition” was held for the first time. In the more than three decades since then, the NCCU Golden Melody Awards (GMAs) have become a major event for musical performances by, and interactions among, university students.

Eric Chen began holding on-campus concerts starting in high school, and since graduating from university he has had a career in music.

Music: A youthful adventure

Popular musical styles differ from era to era, but people’s love of music remains the same. Back in the 1980s, when folk music was most in vogue in Taiwan, there was a group of long-haired students at NCCU (which was then a very conservative campus) who played in bands, one of whom was Eric Chen. Chen, who was a keen songwriter, got several friends to join him in entering for the GMAs, including Chang Yu-sheng (Tom Chang) as lead singer and Vincent Yao on guitar. There wasn’t much prize money, just enough to buy a celebratory meal, but their participation in the competition became a memory of youth that they will never forget.

Guitarist Eric Chen went on to pursue a career in music, and is today a well-known producer who is often invited to judge TV talent shows. When we ask him his memor­ies of the NCCU GMAs, he says with a smile: “In those days, very few of the award winners went into music as a profession, but the important thing is that the GMAs left us with beautiful memories of our student days. Now­adays when I share a meal with people who I used to play music with back in the day, like Taiwan’s representative in ­Sweden, Vincent Yao, we still mainly talk about music.”

“The main musical style when we took part was folk music. But now there are styles like hip hop and the music of the band ‘Your Woman Sleep with Others.’” Chen feels there is increasing diversity in the musical styles submitted by GMA contestants, and in particular the band Your Woman Sleep with Others (which was entered in the Original Composition category in 2016) expresses itself in a very unique way.

The lyrics of songs by Your Woman Sleep with Others include a lot of reflective thoughts on youth and critique of the educational system. On stage at the 2016 GMAs they performed their composition “Stable Life, Suffer Exams.” The song starts in a mournful tone, sadly recounting the heavy pressures on students. Then the band adds in the low moan of the cello and the pounding of drums to drive the emotion of the singer as the song builds to an intense crescendo, finally concluding with an instrumental flurry. That year they won the Grand Prize for Original ­Composition.

Every year many outstanding musicians sign up for the NCCU Golden Melody Awards, attracting record companies to show up in search of “buried treasure.”

A platform for musical learning

The following year, Your Woman Sleep with Others were invited by the GMA organizers to compose the theme song for 2017, which turned out to be “Teens Edge,” a number that plaintively describes the struggles of youth. Through promotion of the event, the band’s music became more widely known. In 2018, several band members had to do their compulsory military service, so they had to stop doing live performances for a while. However, during this hiatus their fame only grew. “When we came out of the military, the world seemed quite different,” they recall.

When the subject of the GMAs comes up it sparks intense discussion among the band members. Bassist Liao Jamine, who competed each year from his first year in university to his fifth, says: “When I was in university I would go watch the competition every year. Especially when I felt useless, I really wanted to know how good other people could be. My favorite part was the preliminary round for solo vocalists, because the rules require them to sing a capella, so you can hear which of the contestants really has talent.”

Lead singer Joshua Chang replies: “Also, even though some people don’t make it to the next round, the music is very interesting.” Speaking with his characteristic calm, drummer Jonathan Feng, who has served on GMA juries, sums up in one sentence what has always been the driving motivation behind the GMAs: “Our mission is to give students who normally don’t have the chance to appear on stage a high-quality stage to perform on.”

The members of Your Woman Sleep with Others feel that the main point of campus musical competitions is not whether you win or lose, but that you can meet like-minded people who also love music. “I often see people who place first or second in the competition go on to form new bands, or enter the next year’s competition in new bands formed by others,” says Liao, describing the competitive yet friendly relationships between participants.

The song “Stable Life, Suffer Exams” by the band Your Woman Sleep with Others really resonated at NCCU, where many people take the civil service examinations. (courtesy of the NCCU GMAs)

A high-quality, diverse contest

Having an annual theme song is one of the special features of the NCCU GMAs, which express the passion of the younger generation towards music through compositions by contestants. In addition, the GMAs are on a much larger scale compared to music competitions on other campuses in Taiwan. Also, before the competition the organizers hold the NCCU Golden Melody Music Festival as a warmup for the main event. The planning team invites bands that have competed in the GMAs for a collective performance, enabling participants from the previous year to appear on stage alongside artists who have already spent some time in the music profession.

The NCCU GMAs combine “unplugged” music with “plugged-in” music. In addition to folk songs performed on acoustic guitars, there are also shows that use plugged-in instruments and gear such as amplifiers, effects pedals, and synthesizers. Your Woman Sleep with Others, who have taken part in a number of campus music competitions, say: “At a lot of schools the events are organized by the guitar club, so the contestants tend to play in a uniform style, but the GMAs at NCCU are planned by an independent organization and there is a greater variety of genres.”

The members of Your Woman Sleep with Others are all recent university graduates. From left to right they are lead singer and guitarist Joshua Chang, drummer Jonathan Feng, bassist Liao Jamine, cellist Shao Chia Ying and guitarist Tung Wei Shuo.

Behind the scenes

The organizing team is in fact a school club whose formal name is the “National Chengchi University Golden Melody Awards Preparatory Committee.” It has subunits with distinct responsibilities, including teams for public relations, visual design, engineering, marketing, judging, and planning. During the year-long preparatory ­period, committee members (nicknamed “laborers”) will ­undergo professional training. In particular, the sound engineer­ing team must learn from experienced professionals in the business how to handle a live show on site.

“In the planning team, for example, we have to handle all the information about contestants that comes in during submissions week, and we have to listen to all the audition demos for the solo vocalist category to make sure that the experts on the shortlisting jury don’t have to listen to poor-quality recordings.” Committee vice chairman Chen Usong recalls that when he was head of the planning team, they received recordings that students had made in their bathrooms or outdoors, so that there was some background noise underneath the singing. But one person who submitted these was not willing to re-record their songs, and even posted complaints on Facebook. It was only when Chen called them up and explained the situation that he was able to resolve this issue.

The planning team is like a bridge between the competitors and the judges; the team members have to go back and forth communicating with them all, and ensure that the two sides are mutually compatible. “When inviting people to serve on the jury, we have to consider the shortlisting auditions and whether the candidates have the ability to listen to a large number of demos in a short time. Also, we will consider whether or not potential judges have been keeping up with the newest and widest range of music, so that we can avoid having a bias towards any particular musical style among the award nominees,” explains this year’s committee chairwoman, Chen Rong.

In 2020 the NCCU Golden Melody Awards performances were held off-campus for the first time, on a scale comparable to a pop concert.

A chance to know yourself

With the rise of musical trends like post-rock, shoegaze, and hip hop, the GMAs have hoped to attract submissions from all kinds of bands rather than be limited by NCCU’s “hipster” image. The preparatory committee set change in motion starting from the selection of judges and the special guest artists invited to the competition. Last year, for example, performers included the band Yellow (whose style blends jazz, soul, funk, and R&B); singer–songwriter Yo Lee; Manic Sheep (who have never publicly declared a style); and Finding NEO (who wrote last year’s theme song). The event welcomes submissions from young people working in all musical genres.

Addressing students who feel a strong desire to participate in competitions like the GMAs, Eric Chen encourages everyone to create their own personal style, and not try to second-guess the preferences of the jury. “You should want to give us the feeling that your music is different as well as sounding good, and that you have brought something new to the table that we haven’t thought of before.”

No matter what the time or place, through music perplexed young people can, it seems, see a ray of sunshine. This is why in every time period there is always a group of young people who are completely devoted to music. As the lyrics of the song “Teens Edge” by Your Woman Sleep with Others say: “Let’s move on / I’ve got plenty of time / In future days / I don’t want to cry alone and be unable to move forward.” The NCCU Golden Melody Awards have given participants more than just prizes, but also a chance to courageously try to do something in their youth.      

Some student members of the preparatory committee for the NCCU Golden Melody Awards decide to go into the music industry after graduation. (courtesy of the NCCU GMAs)

More than just a music competition, the NCCU Golden Melody Awards offer a stage for young musicians to prove their worth. (courtesy of the NCCU GMAs)