Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago at 11:09 pm. 0 comments
I hardly give any leniency of mine to censorship imposed by the Chinese government, but it didn’t occur to me to write something about censorship in other countries mostly due to the fact that this is not politial blog. However today I take my stand agaisnt censorship done in a democratic country, UK, but with a catch.
The new Manic Street Preachers’ album portaited a battered kid’s face on the cover, and this caused a huge problem for the supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda. Now the albums have been put into a slipcase so that the cover doesn’t show. It’s clear that in this case the censorship is not exercised by the government, but rather corporates in the name of a noble cause. It makes me wonder, as showed in the title, which is worse, state censorship or corporate censorship.
When the government bans or censor something, I am sure that there is way around, be it proxy or illegal copy, but when it comes to corporates, I bet that every establishments of theirs strictly follow the rules. They might be even on the higher moral ground preaching the righteousness to the public. Now another case comes to my mind, the ban on Dixie Chicks in the states.
When almost all the county radio stations banned Dixie Chicks, when their single Landslide fell out of the chart like a landslide, it was upsetting and outrageous.
If it’s possible to fight agaisnt government, can we also fight against corporates?
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago at 7:19 pm. 0 comments
How could I skip this young English bloke? He might be the next best thing, and you know what? He could be the actual next best thing who came to Shanghai before the stardom. Yes the picture here shows him standing at the bund in April this year.
His debut single Dirty Punk is out this week and now it’s inside the top 75 UK singles chart according the mid-week report. Way to go Steve. The album is due later titled When The Sun Comes Up, which runs against Arctic Monkeys’s When The Sun Goes Down. Is this a deliberate act?
Well Steve Appleton music is, especially his debut single, is the fusion of drum n bass and punk. His profile on MySpace goes with pop, acoustic and punk. I don’t know how he pulls that off, but punk meets drum n bass? Sounds peculiar and interesting.
He keeps the typical drum n bass beat at minimum, but the feeling is still there. Sampling his other music, I have to say that his music is really appealing and his vocal is decent. In general I do see potential in him and hopefully his single will stand inside the top 75 this week.
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago at 12:06 am. 0 comments
Usually I don’t go to those obscure indie bands, because there are thousands of them. You never know who is better than who. I am making an exception today.
Gliss has been touring with a lot of famous bands already such as The Editors, Smashing Pumkpins, etc as listed on their MySpace page. I know that they are from LA and Morning Light comes from their second album Devotion Implosion released back in April. I know the lead singer is a girl. I don’t care about other info on them for now, because I am in love with Morning Light.
To be exact, I love the instrumental of the track. It’s all new wave and alternative mix. The vocal is OK and it grows as the song progresses. The song has left a pernament scar on my mind.
Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago at 10:27 pm. 0 comments
It looks like justice will prevail in the end. The now-hardly-mentioned Daft Punk scam will have a happily ever after. Isn’t that great? I am not one of the victims, but to see perpetrator got apprehended somehow makes me very excited. According to a post from Shanghaiist.
It’s reported that the identities of the scammers have been found out and they turned out to be French. Now it leaves up to the French police to do their job. I can’t wait to see the ending of the story and a TV feature of the episode.
Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago at 12:22 am. 0 comments
When you can listen to whatever music you want, who needs radio? But from time to time you might find a song that you like, by a casual tuning to a radio station, which could be old or brand new, then there is the surprise or even some kind of sublation.
Out of curiosity I listened to BBC Radio 1 for a couple of minutes today and this song which was played on Scott Mill’s show caught me attention. The singer definitely is not new. He was already featured on several tracks. His debut was released months ago, but this is the first solo track for him. His last single Change was decently good, but the rapping seems to me a bit out of context. Now Red is a perfect song for him, a ballad, a accoustic soul song, which will be the flagship of his musical talent. You can see James Morrison or even Glen Hansard from Once in it. His folksy voice roughs up the song a bit with a strained emotion.
His album will be released at the end of May. I am so looking forward to it.
Posted 2 months ago at 6:08 pm. 2 comments
By writing this post, my blog has been officially reactivated. Though I bought my Macbook Pro a long time ago, it’s the first time I write a post on it. It feels different, much better to be exact. My blog was neglected for some time. I even didn’t notice the failure of the database until a week ago or so.
Keeping this blog is now my priority along with setting up my another official homepage.
Music scene is very dynamic these days. A lot of things happened and some big names are going to drop their albums very soon including Green Day’s brand new album, but somehow I am still lagging behind. I have several major releases pending to listen to. It will probably take me a week to get back to the current trend.
The content of the blog has been a perennial issue here. Restructuring the blog is as much imperative as the case with US automakers.
The cafe that I am in is playing Rihanna’s Pon De Replay. I just saw her battered image, which seems to be a big deal gossip-wise.
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago at 3:54 pm. 0 comments
Let me put this straight. What makes you have good taste in music?
Very often I hear people say that so-and-so has excellent taste in music and that makes me wonder what he actually listens to. However, if you listen to pop music, then you are destined to be denied the entry to good taste. I hear heavy metal is tasteful, and I also was told that classical music is tasteful. OK, I get it. Objectivity is the word I was looking for.
The problem that I have is with those people who believe they have good taste, but I beg to differ. Looking into there playlist, I don’t even know half of the artists they listen to. Some people would acknowledge their excellence not want to admit their ignorance, but I want say that listening to weird music doesn’t prove that you have better taste. So you can’t impress me with those obsure bands and stuff. You also have to elaborate telling me why you think their music is good.
There are also people who in, order to show that they don’t lack any musical taste, will lie about music. They will pretend to listen to certains, which are not commercially successful, but have a huge loyal following. For example, it’s consider to have taste among xiaozi listening to Jazz.
This is my last.fm account. Like it or not, I don’t care if I allegedly have good taste or not.
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago at 2:17 pm. 0 comments
Grammy Awards is not a popularity contest. If a popular song doesn’t win the award, it doesn’t mean that Grammy sucks. That’s my biggest lesson learned this time.
I failed at almost all the major categories except for Lil Wayne. My instinct actually went for Alison Krauss, but I chose other nominees for my predictions. Why? Because I like them better. It’s a pity that Jason Mraz didn’t win and I love him so much. However the fact that he lost doesn’t mean that he was a loser or something.
I watched the whole ceremony. As usual it featured some weird collaborations and surprising moments. For example, Whitney Houston presented the award to Jennifer Hudson after the ordeal she’s been through (Did she lip-sync this time?). The performances sometimes are spectacular and sometimes are down-right cheap and tacky. It delved into serious boredom at the second part of the show, which is OK, because that’s what it should do.
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant is everything that Grammy wants. I can say that Alison Krauss could have won alone had if not been for Robert Plant. Grammy have their rules and stereotypes, which make some artists hard to win. Going commercial or going conservative is the perennial debate about Grammy. I think giving three awards to Lil Wayne is a compromise, because Lil Wayne is anything but Grammy-ish.
On the other hand, Grammy, as much as prestigious it is, is not the final judgment for any artist. Those who revere Grammy as if there were nothing else are just plainly ignorant, i.e., some Chinese critics and websites.
It disgusts me every year this time that the whole nation starts to pay attention to western music, if not listen to it per se. Naive critics and writers come out to tout their annual feature on Grammy on their websites. Votes are cast and polls are made. They think well it’s time to listen to some English music other than crappy C-pop. They might listen to all the nominations, but they are still as ignorant as ever.
Grammy is important and should be made a big deal, but it should not, in any way, be the only guide when it comes to English music. It barely represnts the while English music industry for God’s sake. If you care about music, you should listen to music much more often than just once a year event. Instead of looking for nominee’s music, you should have your instant opinion when the nomination gets out. Awards are retrospective. It can serve something of tutorship, but when it becomes a symbol, you know how dire the musical situation in China is. It not only shows how short-sighted those campaigners and promoters are, but also how pathetic the mass become, a problem mostly caused by radio editors, DJs, government regulators.
The silver lining here is the booming of personal music blogs who are doing a greatly immense job for the music in the name of music in a very altruistic way.
Radio is dead in China. Blogs are the new media.
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago at 11:52 am. 0 comments
Image by Adam
It first came to my attention when my friend posted a picture he shot using iPhone onto his Flickr. The photo above pretty says it all. And then I started seeing my friends talking about this on Facebook. All of a sudden, this hidden concert came out of his closet.
Anyway, I am not going to pay 500 rmb for a Daft Punk show, which might not be much better than some clubs playing Daft Punk. After all I am not a huge fan of Daft Punk.
And today Pitchfork posted an article debunking the whole Daft Punk show in Shanghai calling it a scam. If it turns out to be a hoax, I will say it’s the best scam ever pulled in Shanghai. Everything looks real here, the flier, the website, etc. How come it’s not real?
I called the number showed on the flier, but nobody answered the phone, nor was it off, which is quite weird.
Well, in the end I still can’t be too sure about the whole thing. Is it real or not? We’ll see.
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago at 9:52 am. 0 comments
I was asked by one editors from a major portal website about my predictions on the GRAMMY outcomes. Here is the list.
(Record Of The Year）
Paper Planes M.I.A
(Album Of The Year)
Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends》Coldplay
(Song Of The Year)
I’m Yours Jason Mraz
(Best New Artist)
Duffy
(Best Female Pop Vocal Performance)
I Kissed A Girl Katy Perry
(Best Male Pop Vocal Performance)
I’m Yours Jason Mraz
(Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals)
Viva La Vida Coldplay
(Best Pop Vocal Album)
Long Road Out Of Eden Eagles
(Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance)
Gravity John Mayer
(Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals)
Rock N Roll Train AC/DC
(Best Rock Song)
Sex On Fire Kings Of Leon
(Best Rock Album)
Death Magnetic Metallica
(Best Alternative Music Album)
Evil UrgesMy Morning Jacket
(Best Female R&B Vocal Performance)
Need U Bad Jazmine Sullivan
(Best Male R&B Vocal Performance)
Miss Independent Ne-Yo
(Best Rap Solo Performance)
A Milli Lil Wayne
(Best Rap Album)
Tha Carter III Lil Wayne
I sort of did the work quite unthoroughly. It’s a mix of my opinion and my predictions as well. I did it just for fun. At the end of today we will know if I hit the bull’s eye.