Crap on Jay Chou
Since recently I often filled my little free time by listening to songs in Jay Chou’s latest album…suddenly think of writing a post to express my own opinion on Jay Chou, a very popular and top songwriter-singer in our Chinese pop music industry…
First of all, I must state that I am not his hard-core fan…and I am trying to write on him from a fair side… and since I don’t have any knowledge and experience bout the aspect of commercial promotion and artist and album’s appearance which often play a role in determining the popularity of an artist in current pop music industry, so I will only talk purely bout his music and his making of music that enable him can be accepted by so many music lovers… However, from my observation, normally when talking bout Jay Chou, there will be two very extreme sides…first group likes him very much…likes everything of him…while the other group don’t have good impression on him, keeps on criticise everything of him…
Ok…for me, I just like his music…ya…his music, not songs…song is a piece of music with words which are sung…while music can be considered as a melody that without lyrics but played by musical instruments…Jay Chou is a very different composer if compare with other composers in Chinese pop music…Therefore, I think we must listen and judge his songs from a different perspective but not directly decline his music just because it is not in the common and familiar popular style…
I prefer to label his music style as ballad R&B…his R&B is very unique…Today’s R&B and Hip Hop normally has very strong beat, strong rap and loud accompaniment music (which don’t impress me a lot)…but Jay Chou’s music is able to give me the pleasure…his songs have very nice rhythm but without extensive strong beat…and maybe added his soft rap and singing…I feel pleasant and relax when listening his music…
Most importantly, I must highly compliment Jay Chou on his superb ability in doing background music arrangement for the song…I think the main point that makes his songs very nice is his great arrangement for the songs…He uses many relevant instruments in the accompaniment music…the drum rhythm is outstanding and bringing lively sentiment into his music…and a thing that attracts me the most is that his music accompaniment actually have a different melody than the song’s melody, unlike most pop songs that always just use chords and same melody for accompaniment…Some of his music arrangement has reached the world-class standard…I think if filling lyrics to his background music, it should be another good songs…This special feature can be easily noticed…try to listen for his songs’ music accompaniment and ignore his singing…
Let’s point out some obvious weaknesses of Jay Chou in music… one of the main weak points of Jay Chou is of course, his poor singing skill…Critics on his disability to sing the words clearly are very common already…I think the main reason is he don’t open his mouth when singing and this cause most of the sound still stuck in his mouth…and I think another weakness is his range of singing pitch is very limited…and this cause him frequently use so-called ‘fate voice’ to sing high-pitch notes…but then due to his poor skill in singing, such voice make some of his songs sound very weird and uncomfortable to me… ok…I don’t have much knowledge and understanding bout singing technique…so don’t want to analysis much on his singing… Normally I won’t mind much bout the vocal part…I just listen and emphasize more on the melody and music…
Often, I believe that Jay Chou is a special message of encouragement brought by the God to us…He don’t have ability to sing well, don’t have powerful voice, don’t have typical good-looking as what most hotshots in entertainment have and though he has great talent in producing music but the style of his music is very different than what is hit in current pop song ground ( I think if you have a different style in music, your music will not necessary easily accepted by listeners). He has many disadvantages in today’s music industry…But his success shows that it is not necessary that the person who has greatest knowledge or ability can only achieve greatest success...God decides our brain, capability and talent, but God also decides our future…What we can do are only have self-confidence and dare to keep on trying…Jay Chou still have confidence and courage to sing to the world on stage with a poor voice… A person with no vocal skill but has great ability in song writing and arrangement should be an established songwriter and producer who acts at back stage for other singers…but Jay Chou still can make the difference… and amazingly, now most of his fans like his songs because his ‘unique’ vocal… Life is like an unexpected dream…
When we criticise and question the success of Jay Chou, where are us and where is him?? Sometimes I like to compare Jay Chou with Wang Lee Hom, another great composer singer in chinese music, though I know such comparison is not very good…Lee Hom has prominent powerful singing skill, much good looking than Jay Chou and Lee Hom’s love songs are much better and touching, etc.…but why in fact, Jay Chou is more popular and well known, has much higher album sales and profit per year?...Success is really indefinable…
I watched an interview on Jay Chou one time ago…When asked bout one of his songs sound like a bit imitating from other music, I was stunned but impressed by his answer: “ In music, I won’t be influenced by anyone, I will only influence others…” Wow, his confidence and insistent in music are so astonishing…and notice that he mentioned ‘in music’ in his answer, I think he is not very arrogant of his accomplishment in music, he knows he still needs to learn in many other aspects of life…
Jay Chou is certainly not my idol ( I think I don’t have any idol in music, I support every good music, and I think that like everything of a celebrity is not very correct..)…but his achievements will always remind and inspire me to continue my journey to my dream though I am not the smartest, the most talented people…
First of all, I must state that I am not his hard-core fan…and I am trying to write on him from a fair side… and since I don’t have any knowledge and experience bout the aspect of commercial promotion and artist and album’s appearance which often play a role in determining the popularity of an artist in current pop music industry, so I will only talk purely bout his music and his making of music that enable him can be accepted by so many music lovers… However, from my observation, normally when talking bout Jay Chou, there will be two very extreme sides…first group likes him very much…likes everything of him…while the other group don’t have good impression on him, keeps on criticise everything of him…
Ok…for me, I just like his music…ya…his music, not songs…song is a piece of music with words which are sung…while music can be considered as a melody that without lyrics but played by musical instruments…Jay Chou is a very different composer if compare with other composers in Chinese pop music…Therefore, I think we must listen and judge his songs from a different perspective but not directly decline his music just because it is not in the common and familiar popular style…
I prefer to label his music style as ballad R&B…his R&B is very unique…Today’s R&B and Hip Hop normally has very strong beat, strong rap and loud accompaniment music (which don’t impress me a lot)…but Jay Chou’s music is able to give me the pleasure…his songs have very nice rhythm but without extensive strong beat…and maybe added his soft rap and singing…I feel pleasant and relax when listening his music…
Most importantly, I must highly compliment Jay Chou on his superb ability in doing background music arrangement for the song…I think the main point that makes his songs very nice is his great arrangement for the songs…He uses many relevant instruments in the accompaniment music…the drum rhythm is outstanding and bringing lively sentiment into his music…and a thing that attracts me the most is that his music accompaniment actually have a different melody than the song’s melody, unlike most pop songs that always just use chords and same melody for accompaniment…Some of his music arrangement has reached the world-class standard…I think if filling lyrics to his background music, it should be another good songs…This special feature can be easily noticed…try to listen for his songs’ music accompaniment and ignore his singing…
Let’s point out some obvious weaknesses of Jay Chou in music… one of the main weak points of Jay Chou is of course, his poor singing skill…Critics on his disability to sing the words clearly are very common already…I think the main reason is he don’t open his mouth when singing and this cause most of the sound still stuck in his mouth…and I think another weakness is his range of singing pitch is very limited…and this cause him frequently use so-called ‘fate voice’ to sing high-pitch notes…but then due to his poor skill in singing, such voice make some of his songs sound very weird and uncomfortable to me… ok…I don’t have much knowledge and understanding bout singing technique…so don’t want to analysis much on his singing… Normally I won’t mind much bout the vocal part…I just listen and emphasize more on the melody and music…
Often, I believe that Jay Chou is a special message of encouragement brought by the God to us…He don’t have ability to sing well, don’t have powerful voice, don’t have typical good-looking as what most hotshots in entertainment have and though he has great talent in producing music but the style of his music is very different than what is hit in current pop song ground ( I think if you have a different style in music, your music will not necessary easily accepted by listeners). He has many disadvantages in today’s music industry…But his success shows that it is not necessary that the person who has greatest knowledge or ability can only achieve greatest success...God decides our brain, capability and talent, but God also decides our future…What we can do are only have self-confidence and dare to keep on trying…Jay Chou still have confidence and courage to sing to the world on stage with a poor voice… A person with no vocal skill but has great ability in song writing and arrangement should be an established songwriter and producer who acts at back stage for other singers…but Jay Chou still can make the difference… and amazingly, now most of his fans like his songs because his ‘unique’ vocal… Life is like an unexpected dream…
When we criticise and question the success of Jay Chou, where are us and where is him?? Sometimes I like to compare Jay Chou with Wang Lee Hom, another great composer singer in chinese music, though I know such comparison is not very good…Lee Hom has prominent powerful singing skill, much good looking than Jay Chou and Lee Hom’s love songs are much better and touching, etc.…but why in fact, Jay Chou is more popular and well known, has much higher album sales and profit per year?...Success is really indefinable…
I watched an interview on Jay Chou one time ago…When asked bout one of his songs sound like a bit imitating from other music, I was stunned but impressed by his answer: “ In music, I won’t be influenced by anyone, I will only influence others…” Wow, his confidence and insistent in music are so astonishing…and notice that he mentioned ‘in music’ in his answer, I think he is not very arrogant of his accomplishment in music, he knows he still needs to learn in many other aspects of life…
Jay Chou is certainly not my idol ( I think I don’t have any idol in music, I support every good music, and I think that like everything of a celebrity is not very correct..)…but his achievements will always remind and inspire me to continue my journey to my dream though I am not the smartest, the most talented people…
“Long-life Good Music!”
|