Taiwanese

Rock Music

Words by Ricardo Hu (Senior Music Critic)

The Beginning: U.S. Army Forces in Taiwan Base Period

Heading back to the mid-1950s, at a bar full of American soldiers drinking all around, a twelve year-old teenager was imitating Elvis Presley’s performance on stage. When the show came to an end, the boy took a bow while the soldiers were cheering and their applauses couldn’t be louder. This period was the first few years of the stationing of U.S. military in Taiwan. On June 25th, 1950, the Korean War broke out, and president Truman stated that the U.S. Seventh Fleet would help defend Taiwan to prevent any possible attack. On Jan 1st , 1950, United States Pacific Command (美國太平洋司令部) set up United States Taiwan Defense Command (美軍協防司令部) in Taipei, bringing nearly 10,000 American soldiers and their families to Taiwan. These soldiers had not only contributed a lot to Taiwan’s national defense, they also brought American cultures in, including rock music and social dance, which were highly popular in the States then. The “US Military Clubs” built at some Taiwan cities became the root of American rock music in Taiwan. Besides, AFN (American Forces Network, which transformed to ICRT Network in 1979), the radio network that came along with the American Forces, had also played an important role in transmitting rock music culture.

It was remarkable that there had already been western pop music scenes in local Taiwan. Ping Shin-Tao (平鑫濤), the founder of Crown Magazine (皇冠雜誌), started to host a 30-minute western pop music program on Air Force Network every Saturday since 1958. It was quite popular at that time, and the Mandarin phrase of “Pop Music (熱門音樂)” he created is still used nowadays. Since he was able to gain music information directly from the U.S., he had become one of the key men who made huge influences on pop music development in Taiwan. These people and music scenes that we mentioned all had the ability to influence the taste of Taiwanese audience, and they were also the key points for the development of rock music culture in Taiwan.

In the meantime, there were two young men, David Tao Sr. (陶大偉) and Johnny King (金祖齡), who started a band called “Lei-Mong (雷蒙樂團)”, becoming the pioneer for numerous 70's Taiwanese rock music performers. The bands which were able to cover western pop songs in American Force Clubs, night clubs and Anglo-American cuisine restaurants had all become the carriers of pop music and rock music. In general, The 60s were the incubation period for the earliest rock music in Taiwan.

"There Was a Boy", a song recorded by Johnny King in 2000. He had been famous for organ playing skills and soulful vocal style.

Rock Music in Martial Law Period

In the early 1970s, many youngsters gained information about rock music from extremely limited foreign sources and music publications, such as the news and reviews of pop artists/bands, classic albums listening guides, and the trends of different music genres and styles. Some of these rock youths who had access to the music information from the UK and US would start practicing music instruments and forming bands. When they felt their skills had reached the level to perform, they would start seeking opportunities to perform in western restaurants. Most bands covered well-known English songs, and few tried to write their own. The latter ones include bands like Lei-Mong, the Sunshine (陽光合唱團), Thunderbirds (雷鳥), Electric Stars (電星) and Goldmen Four (四金人合唱團).

Since these young musicians mostly listened to and imitated the songs and music styles on American pop music charts, therefore, those genres that were still popular on charts in the 70s such as hard rock and folk rock became the major music styles. Later the rampant gramophone records piracies in Taiwan had directly introduced various different music styles to Taiwanese audiences. It not only influenced the genres that young Taiwanese’s chosen when they wanted to form a band for decades, it also influenced the creative mindset of later bands.

The youngsters recognized Billboard and Cashbox as the main pop information source. Thus, in the mid-70s, under the influence of these media, the rising campus folk songs and disco had become a favorable music genre and social dance style respectively for the young student generation . In this period, Simon Hsueh and the Starry Eyes (薛岳與幻眼合唱團), The Youth (青年合唱團), and few bands were trying to find a way to combine the styles of pop rock and Taiwanese pop music. However, the development of the whole Taiwanese rock music only had further change after the end of the martial law period.

Simon Hsueh was one of the most recognized singers who combined pop and rock music styles. The song "If There's Still a Tomorrow" was recorded before he deceased of liver cancer.

The Rise of Indie Labels and Revolts of Punk in Post-Martial Law Period

In 1986, Crystal Records was founded and the martial law period ended a year later in 1987. This was also the year when Crystal Records first introduced “New Music”, a term used to describe the non-mainstream music which was in its ascendant at that moment, to Taiwan. It also brought in the concept of underground bands. In August of the same year, Crystal Records held the first “Taipei New Music Festival” to pass on the rock music information from the UK and US. Through the music scenes of the festival, the label created a stage for the earliest underground singers and bands, such as Double X, Groupie (骨肉皮), Bone n’ Teeth, LTK Commune (濁水溪公社), Sissey Chao (趙一豪), and Wu Bai (吳俊霖 a.k.a. 伍佰), allowing these performers to keep making a living through performing in pubs and bars.

From 1987 to 1992, pubs and live houses had contributed a lot to the cultivation of band scenes. In 1992, Rock singer Wu Bai and his band China Blue left Crystal Records to join the Taiwan subsidiary of Japanese company Pony Canyon (波麗佳音), and then officially released their debut album It’s Good to Fall in Love (愛上別人是快樂的事). This record has since made him become one of the most important rock stars in Taiwan. From 1992 to 1994, Wu Bai and China Blue performed in several pubs in Taipei, leading a new live performing culture.

In 1987, record label MWIC (Mandala Works International Communications, 真言社) was founded. The artists under the label included Lim Giong (林強), Wu Bai, Pigheadskin (aka Jutoupi, 豬頭皮), Will Lin (林暐哲), Chang Chen-Yue (張震嶽), and Luantan Ascent (亂彈阿翔). When it came to the dissolution of the company, the singers were nearly all transferred to Magic Stone Records. As an indie record label invested by major label, Magic Stone had set a rather great record by promoting its signed artists and bands through a series of albums.

In 1998, a small record label called Haine Records (恨流行) changed its name to “Taiwan Colors Music (台灣角頭音樂)”. It released a compilation called Taiwan Independent Compilation 1999 (ㄞ國歌曲) that included the original songs of some rising underground bands like The Chairman (董事長), Mayday (五月天), Quarterback (四分衛), and The Clippers (夾子), creating a new phase for the publishing of indie record labels. In 1999, Mayday was signed to Rock Records (滾石) and became the most popular Taiwanese pop rock band of young ages. Thus, the media called the phenomenon of bands rising “The band era has come”.

Taiwan Independent Compilation was the Taiwan Colors Music's first release. More than half of the artists and bands included here were just starting their careers then but later became very significant in the Taiwanese rock history.

In the late 90s, the globalization of the music industry had a great impact on Taiwanese labels. Multinational record labels started to acquire local labels. The only local large-scale labels left were Rock Records and its subsidiary Magic Stone. This was also the period when original rock music was mostly played in the form of a band, or also known as the band era, and indie music started to move forward to the next stage.

The Coming of Band Sound Trend

At the ceremony of Golden Melody Awards in 2000, Luantan Ascent raised his arms and shouted, “The band era has come!” officially stating the fact that the era of rock music band had finally existed in mainstream music market. The iconic and pioneering musician of this era was Wu Bai, who had led a brand new “New Hokkien Songs Movement (新台語歌運動)” through his own pop rock music style. Under the influence of the movement, the number of original Hokkien rock songs had gradually increased. It also opened up a new path for the later underground bands that were trying to get signed by major labels.

From 2000 to 2006, the number of underground bands had gradually increased, and major labels were willing to offer record deals to rock bands. Bands like Quarterback (四分衛), TOLAKU (脫拉庫), and The Chairman (董事長樂團) successfully got the attention of mainstream audience in this period and thus made their breakthrough. In this period, indie bands started to replace underground music scenes and the phrase “underground band”. Indie bands had also become the general name of non-mainstream rock music.

"Phone Call from You", released in 1999 by the Tolaku band and pop singer Pauline Lan (藍心湄), was a hugely successful pop rock single.

The Influence of the Indie Bands and the Impacts of Internet Era After 2006

Being restrained by related government laws and regulations, many bars and live houses all around Taiwan had difficulties running. What’s worse, the impact of illegal online music downloads and the unfavorable development of many bands made the bar business decline. Music festivals started to replace bars and have become the music events young people attended most frequently. Thus, lots of indie bands need to attend music festival events to seek more performance opportunities as well.

In terms of music genre, pop rock, brit-pop, dreampop, post-rock, and folk rock are still the main genres that bands are playing now. As for heavy metal, bands mainly play black metal, death metal, and folk metal. As the local culture develops, more and more rock bands are willing to add elements related to Taiwanese local culture into their songs, and one of the most significant examples is Seediq Bale (賽德克巴萊), the album of ChthoniC (閃靈). The album fully combined the historic stories of indigenous peoples in Taiwan with metal music style. In addition, more and more guitarists have found a way to combine blues scales with traditional songs with minor keys, allowing Taiwanese rock music to have more local characteristics.

As digital equipment popularized, the cost of recording has decreased and the technical threshold has become lower. A lot of new bands had also tried to produce their albums through home recording, and the most famous case is Goodbye the Kingdom of You and I (前王子), the album released by the band 1976 in 2014. Besides the traditional love songs and the youth praising rock songs, many new bands are also searching for new themes for their songs. In 2016, a group of young people formed a band called No Party for Cao Dong (草東沒有派對) and independently released an album called The Servile (醜奴兒). They successfully caught the students’ attention through campus tour. In 2017, Golden Melody Awards presented two major awards -- the Best Musical Group and Song of the Year to No Party for Cao Dong. The winning results surprised the mainstream media and brought people’s attention back to the band sound again.

No Party for Cao Dong has been famous for their breathtaking live performance. They even had numerous sold-out concerts before the release of their debut album.

According to the statistic of 2017 Golden Melody Awards, it has received more than 10,000 applications ever since the eligibility of digital releases was approved. The result shows that in spite of the impact of Internet, the creations of Taiwanese rock music are still flourishing. In all, when it comes to dealing with new social issues and thoughts from different generations, traditional rock bands tend to keep on releasing a certain amount of new songs; new bands on the contrary, will try to add new styles into their music, intending to open up new international market, such as Russia, Thailand and Singapore. These international opportunities allow Taiwanese rock music to be heard by more people.