Is local music in Singapore dying or coming to life again?

[therealslim]

Hi there,

I am doing a paper as well as research on the local music scene in Singapore.

Do you guys think the local music scene is growing or dying?
Any views?

Will be cool if you have some links to resources as a reference.

Local music can range from local bands, or local artistes gone international.
As long as "Made in Singapore".

Go ahead shoot!

yes? no?

 

[soft]

therealslim, you want to tell us more about yourself and what is the research for?

 

[drownedout]

I would say local music is growing but still needs a substantial amount of time before it becomes "big". You can see this if you go to baybeats.

 

[therealslim]

Research

Hi there,

I'm studying on music cultures in Asia. I'm right now doing a commercial music degree in L.A. Not Commercialised music, commercial music as in music thats sold. I know that "commercial" is a taboo word used to say that a band has gone commercialised "sold out" i.e. The old Green Day and what it is now.

I'm Singaporean, and i am comparing the Western and Asian music cultures and what works where.

I'm also covering Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Hongkong and Indonesia to cover Asia too.

But wanna research my own country well first, hopefully can bring about some good insights to bring to surface what can really help our local music culture grow.

Would appreciate any feedback on what you think about local music scene.

I went to Baybeats and i must say that the crowd is doubled since Baybeats 2002.

A good sign? Tell me!

 

[therealslim]

I would say local music is growing but still needs a substantial amount of time before it becomes "big". You can see this if you go to baybeats.

Bro,

Needs substantial amount of time before it becomes big?
What do you think needs to be matured or cultured into?
and what is "Big" to you? Asian? or International?

Thanks for the feedback! This is good.

 

[soft]

looking at the number of bands and number of gig happening in singapore, i would say it is growing. it is the quantity that is growing.

quality wise, still need to work on.

more crowd doent mean better local music. you can see the number of local bands versus overseas bands. but more crowd is always better than no crowd.

 

[DoubleBlade]

Re: Is local music in Singapore dying or coming to life agai

I am doing a paper as well as research on the local music scene in Singapore.

Hey dude my project topic is entitled "Government and Music Development in Singapore"

Basically my project is centred around Music Development in Singapore and the Singapore Government.

I'm trying to find out through various interviews conducted what is lacking in the government's bid to promote the local music scene.

 

[Mobius]

Well if u look at the local chinese music industry,it is much better than before. The likes of Sun Yanzi, Ah Do, Lin Junjie, Huang Yida making it big in the region. Even though they are commercialised pop, they are still "local music", I guess.

As for the english music side, the overwhelming response to the "school of rock" competition by the straits times is an indication that the scene is growing.

 

[seekz]

i agree wholly.

 

[therealslim]

Re: Is local music in Singapore dying or coming to life agai

Hey dude my project topic is entitled "Government and Music Development in Singapore".

Hey bro!

Cool! Thats part of my research too, comparing what the Garmend has contributed, over the past 10-20 years.

Exchange notes!! Hahaha! ( Feels like back in sch,all copy here copy there)

I agree bro soft, the quantity IS growing. But i get many different responses to whether quality has grown.

Quantity growth can also be a question mark too. Are they really here for the music? Yesterday, as Surreal was playing, i looked around and many people were sitting around talking and chatting instead of watching the band. Are they here to hang out? Or really here for the music? I saw an OBVIOUS crowd reaction between Surreal and Brandtson's ( The US band ) performance.

Quality? I think Singapore is still a young country as compared to giant asian countries with such long history like Japan, Taiwan, Hongkong. So music heritage seems missing. Because of that, maybe Singaporean's a still discovering their musical prowesses, only to be benchmarked with famous international artistes. Some call this effort a wannabe.

But then again, as i was readin up on all these countries, i am again reminded that Singapore doesn't have an original culture. What i mean is, we a re a "come-together" of many races. Look at Japan, Taiwan, Philipines, Indonesia.Malaysia,Vietnam etc.....
They are countries where their race IS their country. ( Sigh, dunno how to say ) i.e. Japanese race frm Japan. Taiwanese frm Taiwan.
But, we have to say " I'm Singaporean, chinese" or "I'm Singaporean,malay" or "I'm Singaporean,Indian" or "I'm Singaporean, ah-beng?" JOKE AH. Dun sensitive hor. :lol:

( back to music ) And i feel that maybe Singapore had to start music from scratch, with no forefathers in music. So we had to measure ourselves to wat the world's kinds of music were.

Question: Do you feel that local bands have a local music sound?
Is the word "Emo" sounding more and more like a local sound?

Comments!

 

[dhalif]

lets face it.. we dont have a local sound.. everything is influenced by the west..

 

[seekz]

actually about a year back, i was under the impression that the scene was dying. People complaining that bands sucked, kids looking the that 5 mins of limelight on that tiny stage, crowd being not enthu enuf. Localscene being crappy bullshit music.

But i think its a very stupid thinking. Arent WE oursselves the scene that we're talking about? Well done is much better than well said.

thats why i really take my hat off to Anthony from Heartrock and Jamie from the third place, and of cos James from Soft for their contribution, it has been very very very very very very valubale to ALL of us here.

I was an Audioreload convert, i dont really know why it died, but i tot it was a good attempt, (nothing personal james, but just wondering) maybe a comeback can induce some frenly competition and make the atmosphere more HOT! and alive and kicking!

yeah the scene is definelty moving

 

[AgingYouth]

Re: Is local music in Singapore dying or coming to life agai

( back to music ) And i feel that maybe Singapore had to start music from scratch, with no forefathers in music. So we had to measure ourselves to wat the world's kinds of music were.

Chris Ho started Zircon Lounge in the 80's playing New Wave... that torch was carried on by Patrick Chng (of the Oddfellows), Joe Ng (of Corporate Toil which became The Padres), Suhaimi (of Stomping Ground) and Francis (of Opposition Party) in the late 80's. The latter 4 influenced and inspired many young bands in the early 90's. These 5 ppl can be hailed as the forefathers of the scene, be it indie, hardcore or punk.

Sorry man. I find it highly disturbing to find out ppl to write theses about Singapore music when their knowledge and understanding of it is rather minimal. Instead of finding out more, they start making claims like these.

If there's a current forefather of the local music scene, it'll be Patrick Chng, not Anthony Kan (sorry doode, you know this to be true.) Pat has played in the scene when there was nothing back in the late 80's. The Oddfellows were signed by BMG back in the 90's. He carried on in different bands. In the past 3 years, he set up Music For Good which raises money for the Children's Cancer Foundation thru organising gigs and events.

He owns a day job, plays in 3 or 4 bands, goes for sitar lessons and runs a charity organisation. I dunno about you. I'm awed by this guy and the passion he has for Singapore music rather than any guy in the scene. You gotta respect the 18 years he put in...

 

[AgingYouth]

lets face it.. we dont have a local sound.. everything is influenced by the west..

Everything except for Force Vomit perhaps.... Theirs is a combination of surf music and Malay wedding tunes which should have originated from up north...

 

[seekz]

yeah man, what happened to them man? I really liked their songs man... Theres was one about Siti. haha. I heard they went over to malaysia or something.

very enlightening AginYouth!!! thanx!

 

[fraggot]

yeah props for giving credit where credit is due agingyouth.

oh and dun forget kk.wong. good old ah boy was prob there right from the beginning as well putting out bargin basement mixtapes with his old 8-track.

 

[rottenramone]

..

Not forgetting that there was a huge boom in the 60s. When the beatles went big, every goddamn person in the world wanted to be like them, from japan to mexico. singapore was no exception, esp when it was still a brit colony that time. the more famous local bands during that time were the quests, pests infested etc...

linkage: http://60spunk.m78.com/singaporean.html

but as the hippie culture grew in the late 60s, the govt took steps to clamp down on anti-establishment culture and shutting down pubs/bars and effectively killed the english music scene.

i don't think our scene ever recovered from that.

 

[HeartRockSingapore]

Re: Is local music in Singapore dying or coming to life agai

ha ha ha, Aging Youth, where did you get that thing about Anthony Kan being the forefather of music? Was it written somewhere here or in another thread?

As far as music is concnern, you are right doode. Pat plays a guitar and I hear he sings too. He raises funds and he has a day job. I have none of those, so how to compare lah? Patrick is always the best, as far as I am concern.

 

[wangdexian]

As far as I am concerned, Singaporeans need to be more open minded for the music industry to grow.
Currently, they are sticking to their usual dose of candy pop on the radio.

 

[HeartRockSingapore]

WDX, what do you think we should do? How can we go about doing it?