Q: Film, books, and music are all part of pop culture. We have many movie critics and book reviewers, but why are pop music critics so rare?

A: Taiwan indeed has no one who has been doing music reviews continuously for a long time, and there have even been few run-of-the-mill music magazines. If they do exist, they're like TV guides, and just cull stuff from the things put out by the record companies. It seems that for pop music people are only interested in the singer's manufactured image and whether the songs sound OK. They have no desire to know what the cultural implications, techniques, or primitive creative motives are within a given composition.

I think there are several reasons why no one thinks that pop music could be the stuff of written criticism. First, intellectuals look down on pop music, which is seen to be part of low-brow mass culture. Second is that media workers have never thought of pop music as something you could critique. They have always thought that it was enough to relay information like which pop star is adopting what image today, or who's in love with who.

In addition, let's take film critics for example. In the west they have academic film critics, with a curriculum in film criticism in Film Departments. There is no similar environment for evaluation of our popular music.

Lyrics recording ways of life

Q: You started a trend by publishing From Luo Ta-you to Cui Jian. What kind of significance do you think a book like this has for the music scene in Taiwan?

A: When I was writing, besides writing about occurrences, I also made criticisms, and raised my own thoughts about musical culture. I think that this kind of book has the functions of being constructive criticism and also a historical document. For example, fans of the Little Tigers will be able to look at this book when they are fifty and think back to when they really liked a band called the Little Tigers. When people look at this book after the year 2000, they will know how people lived at the time the book was written, and the songs that they enjoyed. So you could say this is a history of a way of life.

I hope that with my pen I can portray the mass psychology and their way of thinking, to serve as a bridge between generations. When writing the column I never get into theory; I just let the truths that I have observed come to life in the written word. I hope this type of article is both good essay-writing and also good reportage.

Q: Some people think that your evaluations are extremely biased. For example you criticize pop idol types more often, and place more emphasis on the works of more creative people.

A: If someone wrote an article telling me where the good is in the songs of Kuo Fu-cheng [a teeny bopper idol], I could accept that. I hope that every-one will express their opinions about popular music.

Biased objectivity

As for why I give more weight to creative types in my evaluations, this is because we can see their motivations through their works. If a producer finds some singer, then a lot of people help him or her to write songs, then there is absolutely no doubt about what is going on--commercialization pure and simple. The whole production process exists only to serve the needs of the mass market.

Add to this that the media only report superficial information about singing stars, and all we get are doctored up versions of the stars, so we can't see their real work. Naturally the result will be to appeal to the lowest common denominator in society.

With the media failing to provide real criticisms, the next generation will perhaps be unable to discern what makes a good song. They will think that whatever appears on TV or gets a write-up in the newspapers is all good. But in future years when we look back, we won't be able to see their glitter, and will only see them as being like models in a department store window--lifeless, without vitality.

I admit that my objectivity is a biased objectivity. But everyone should realize that criticism is not to tell everyone one standard answer, especially criticism of the arts, but hopes to express the critic's real artistic viewpoint, his value system, and his aesthetic perspective. It is not whether the object of the criticism is good or bad, or how high their value is. That's why I have always called on everyone to write criticism, in the hopes that people can understand that this type of product can be understood in many different ways, so that pop music evaluation will flourish.

Q: You have been writing for four years since beginning your newspaper column on popular music. In your view, has Taiwan's pop music scene changed?

A: Let me put it this way. The earliest focus in pop music was how to get people to think something sounded good. Now it's how to get someone to go buy the album. This is the change from musicality to marketability. But this type of musicality had never been raised to the level of an art, with only a few exceptions--Luo Ta- you, Simon Hsueh, Huang Shu-chun, Blacklist Workshop.

Today the record industry couldn't care less if something sounds good. They just make sure that the singer is handsome or beautiful. Because of advances in recording technique, even a person who can't sing at all can sound passable, or even pleasing to the ear.

Had enough of silly love songs

Q: You also have criticized the rampancy of love songs among pop music as revealing the misguided obsession of modern people with sentiment. Correspondingly, you encourage-ore social ly aware and critical music. But some people think--indeed Luo Ta-you, for example, has said as much--that critical or protest songs can only reflect a specific time and place, and the songs that really endure will probably be love songs. What do you think?

A:This way of thinking of course has its logic. But if creative work does not reflect its era and the individual's persona, I don't understand what the value is in the existence of such a work. It's like I say in my book--it's just like a can of soda pop: you open it, drink it, and then it's gone. Love songs can cut across eras, but the problem is that we don't really see love songs that truly move people to the bottom of their hearts. Luo Ta-you's love songs are among the few that I think are really well-written.

If a critical song is just a superficial reflection of some historical trend, it will definitely be swept away by the passage of time. If it is raised up to the level of art, it will be passed on. For example, many people now see the song "Rainy Night Flower" as a reflection of the condition of the Taiwanese people under the repression of the Japanese occupation period. "Repairing the Broken Net" and "Bitter Heart" are also songs of this genre.

The number of contemporary critical works that have really, in my view, been produced through deep comprehension are in fact not many. Luo Ta- you's criticism of education in his "Chih Hu Cheh Yeh," the reconsideration of childhood in "Lord of the Future," and the problem of race among Asians in "The Orphan of Asia" are among a very small number. Why do we give Luo such a position of high standing? Because he is not just a singer.

Chinese Rock 'n' Roll

Q: You have titled this book From Luo Ta-you to Cui Jian. What do you think these two men have in common?

A: The name of the book was decided by the publishers. Luo Ta-you and Cui Jian are both just symbols. Luo Ta-you represents pop music in Taiwan and Hongkong, while Cui Jian is the representative of mainland Chinese pop.

As for rock music in mainland China. Cui Jian has grasped the essence of rock and roll. That is to say, the scope of his concern includes politics, society, human nature, love, and so on, and not just a youthful sense of rebellion or challenge to authority. It also comes together with traditional folk music and poetry. He knows how to squeeze the spiritual content out of rock. But Cui Jian has to this point only produced the two albums Nothing to My Name and Resolution, and even with these some songs have been re-recorded. So it will perhaps still be some time before one can make a definitive assessment of his work.

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(photo by Vincent Chang)