Matthew Lien has some interesting words on No Talen? Be A Superstar . . . the current trend in Taiwan popular music to create false idols with very little real talent.

Matthew has some interesting points. I am also bemused, befuddled, and confounded by the importation of hiphop as something Taiwanese appropriate into high fashion and pop. Many of my students will listen to rap and hiphop with no real concept of what the lyrics mean – ex., I once asked students to bring to class their favorite English song and one girl brought in what she thought was a love song but which was clearly from the almost unintelligible to locals lyrics was about a guy who taught his girlfriend a lesson for disrespecting him by beating her and then having his buddies get together to force her to peerform gang fellatio . . . love song? I think not. Musical styles to eventually travel beyond borders and influences do occur that become new styles (certainly early Rock and Roll was a result of just such a mix) but the hiphop crossover is something very different. It is based upon an idolization of something that the worshippers of the cash cow don’t truly understand.

– Brian