centralcatchment
New member
I think having said some stuff about the local music scene maybe I can go on and talk about what we are missing.
I think that in Singapore when you want to think of a band, usually it’s for entertainment at a pub. There’s nothing wrong with that but it doesn’t make very much for an indie scene. Then you got to examine what kind of a pub scene we have in order to make sense of what music comes out of it. Who is the audience? Expats. (I was going to say “angmohs” but let’s be fair, nowadays not all expats are angmohs.) What do you play to them? Well if those chaps really want to be Singaporean they would be hanging out at your neighbourhood kopitiam, so we can assume they’re not that interested in local culture. So is this a conducive environment to forge original music with a strong Singaporean identity? I dun loveloveloveloving think so.
Now, dun get me wrong. I like pub rock. Pub rock has spawned such songwriting greats like Elvis Costello, Graham Parker and Nick Lowe. But it’s a very rooted, traditional kind of thing, and rather foreign to Singapore. If we get something out of that scene that didn’t need to cater to foreign tastes, well and good. Otherwise, if you want local flavour, you got more of a chance with your getai outfit or your mat rock / death metal set-up.
Then there is indie rock, and there are a lot of people who get together as hobbyists to form bands. I’m sure that there’s something there, there are talented people in Singapore. But can they last? You see all those people who quit their Shenton Way day jobs to pursue music as a career? They make the front pages because everybody thinks that they’re crazy. Is it a financially viable option? No.
Let’s put it this way. Music bands operate on something that is to our PAP government even worse than the lovelovelovelove word. It’s called “welfare”. Ever notice that places like Manchester, which created so much fantastic music 20 years ago, was a rundown place with high unemployment? Ever realised that Detroit became ground zero for house music because it’s a totally loveloveloveloved up place? That’s the problem. Singapore is not loveloveloveloved up enough.
We lack performance venues. We have youth parks, but SCAPE is pretty much let’s say it’s a bit of a joke. Prime land, to be sure, but a concentration camp. Why don’t we have concerts at Hong Lim Park? Why not school halls on weekends? Nirvana showed us 20 years ago that school halls are great venues for rock concerts. The problem is that Singapore is too small, and it’s very very difficult to have concerts in places without ppl complaining. I know that ACDC said that rock and roll ain’t noise pollution but that’s not true.
It’s not true that cities that have high pressure environments cannot come up with good music. Case in point: NYC. So we need to think about what NYC has that we doesn’t. Today, Brooklyn is some kind of a hippie commune where a lot of rich kids use their parent’s money to make indie music. Welfare. Yes, bands need to get funded. Is there a place where we can set up music labs on cheap(er) land so that ppl can work on their stuff? I think that Johor Baru would fit the bill, but a lot of work needs to be done before that happens.
Something that we lack is music journalism. As we all know, journalism is the first draft of history. We don’t have enough fanzines. All we have are blogs that were run by. 20 years ago we had BigO. But, true to its name, it folded before the magazine founders got old. It was a useful platform for bands like the OddFellows, Covent Garden, Padres, Opposition Party and a lot of other familiar names from you +65 compilation to get noticed, and they were putting out stuff in an environment that was harsher than anything that youngsters today have to put up with. Do you know why Singaporeans have to search so long and hard in order to come up with good stuff? Because we don’t have good music magazines who tell us where the good stuff is, to hype up good bands. It would also not be useful if there weren’t good stuff to hype up. But people do have to start talking, start the conversation, start the ball rolling.
And the other thing is that the music scene is not very literate. If you want to talk about what a great band is, what it represents, you have to get people talking about them, talking about what they mean. You need music critics who are willing to devote their time, energy and brain juice to sort the chaff from the wheat. We don’t really have a lot of good music critics. And speaking as somebody who has a Grade 8, even though we have a lot of technically good people, having good taste in music is a different skill. Grade 8s only certify that you know how to play music properly, that you know music theory. You can have a grade 8 and lousy taste in music. You need people discussing – arguing with each other, if necessary – about what makes songs good. And my stand on this matter is precisely the opposite of our poor soft moderators who are sick and tired of bickering that takes place here: arguments are necessary in order for progress to be made.
I know there is this aspect of the Singaporean mentality. Keep your head down and practice your instruments. Don’t think too hard about the vision, the big picture. Words are only words. Anybody who is too good with the language is necessarily only hot air, all talk and no substance. I don’t agree at all. I think this attitude is going to cost us dear.
If people need to speculate on whether Michael Stipe has AIDS (no), so be it. If people need to wonder about whether Bob Mould is gay (yes), so be it. If we need a Blur and Oasis to go head to head with each other and slag each other off in an immature and unseemly manner, guys, this is what rock and roll is all about. You need to have bands who polarise opinions, like half of the world thinks that Coldplay are great songwriting geniuses, and the other half thinks that Chris Martin is a pussy whipped faggot. That is great, because in business speak, branding is the story and controversy makes great stories.
It’s a little embarrassing when if you want to make it big in Singapore, you have to do what Stefanie Sun did, which is go to Taiwan, pretend to be Taiwanese, and then make it big in Singapore. As my sergeant would say, lovelovelovelove you understand.
And another thing, the recent general elections have shown that Singapore is politically liberalising. It might be OK to start writing songs that say “lovelovelovelove”the PAP. Just a thought.
On another note, I do not think that academic excellence is necessarily any hindrance to being a rock star. Remember that Iggy Pop was the top student in his high school. FACT. If he were a Singaporean, he would have been the recipient of a government scholarship.
I think that in Singapore when you want to think of a band, usually it’s for entertainment at a pub. There’s nothing wrong with that but it doesn’t make very much for an indie scene. Then you got to examine what kind of a pub scene we have in order to make sense of what music comes out of it. Who is the audience? Expats. (I was going to say “angmohs” but let’s be fair, nowadays not all expats are angmohs.) What do you play to them? Well if those chaps really want to be Singaporean they would be hanging out at your neighbourhood kopitiam, so we can assume they’re not that interested in local culture. So is this a conducive environment to forge original music with a strong Singaporean identity? I dun loveloveloveloving think so.
Now, dun get me wrong. I like pub rock. Pub rock has spawned such songwriting greats like Elvis Costello, Graham Parker and Nick Lowe. But it’s a very rooted, traditional kind of thing, and rather foreign to Singapore. If we get something out of that scene that didn’t need to cater to foreign tastes, well and good. Otherwise, if you want local flavour, you got more of a chance with your getai outfit or your mat rock / death metal set-up.
Then there is indie rock, and there are a lot of people who get together as hobbyists to form bands. I’m sure that there’s something there, there are talented people in Singapore. But can they last? You see all those people who quit their Shenton Way day jobs to pursue music as a career? They make the front pages because everybody thinks that they’re crazy. Is it a financially viable option? No.
Let’s put it this way. Music bands operate on something that is to our PAP government even worse than the lovelovelovelove word. It’s called “welfare”. Ever notice that places like Manchester, which created so much fantastic music 20 years ago, was a rundown place with high unemployment? Ever realised that Detroit became ground zero for house music because it’s a totally loveloveloveloved up place? That’s the problem. Singapore is not loveloveloveloved up enough.
We lack performance venues. We have youth parks, but SCAPE is pretty much let’s say it’s a bit of a joke. Prime land, to be sure, but a concentration camp. Why don’t we have concerts at Hong Lim Park? Why not school halls on weekends? Nirvana showed us 20 years ago that school halls are great venues for rock concerts. The problem is that Singapore is too small, and it’s very very difficult to have concerts in places without ppl complaining. I know that ACDC said that rock and roll ain’t noise pollution but that’s not true.
It’s not true that cities that have high pressure environments cannot come up with good music. Case in point: NYC. So we need to think about what NYC has that we doesn’t. Today, Brooklyn is some kind of a hippie commune where a lot of rich kids use their parent’s money to make indie music. Welfare. Yes, bands need to get funded. Is there a place where we can set up music labs on cheap(er) land so that ppl can work on their stuff? I think that Johor Baru would fit the bill, but a lot of work needs to be done before that happens.
Something that we lack is music journalism. As we all know, journalism is the first draft of history. We don’t have enough fanzines. All we have are blogs that were run by. 20 years ago we had BigO. But, true to its name, it folded before the magazine founders got old. It was a useful platform for bands like the OddFellows, Covent Garden, Padres, Opposition Party and a lot of other familiar names from you +65 compilation to get noticed, and they were putting out stuff in an environment that was harsher than anything that youngsters today have to put up with. Do you know why Singaporeans have to search so long and hard in order to come up with good stuff? Because we don’t have good music magazines who tell us where the good stuff is, to hype up good bands. It would also not be useful if there weren’t good stuff to hype up. But people do have to start talking, start the conversation, start the ball rolling.
And the other thing is that the music scene is not very literate. If you want to talk about what a great band is, what it represents, you have to get people talking about them, talking about what they mean. You need music critics who are willing to devote their time, energy and brain juice to sort the chaff from the wheat. We don’t really have a lot of good music critics. And speaking as somebody who has a Grade 8, even though we have a lot of technically good people, having good taste in music is a different skill. Grade 8s only certify that you know how to play music properly, that you know music theory. You can have a grade 8 and lousy taste in music. You need people discussing – arguing with each other, if necessary – about what makes songs good. And my stand on this matter is precisely the opposite of our poor soft moderators who are sick and tired of bickering that takes place here: arguments are necessary in order for progress to be made.
I know there is this aspect of the Singaporean mentality. Keep your head down and practice your instruments. Don’t think too hard about the vision, the big picture. Words are only words. Anybody who is too good with the language is necessarily only hot air, all talk and no substance. I don’t agree at all. I think this attitude is going to cost us dear.
If people need to speculate on whether Michael Stipe has AIDS (no), so be it. If people need to wonder about whether Bob Mould is gay (yes), so be it. If we need a Blur and Oasis to go head to head with each other and slag each other off in an immature and unseemly manner, guys, this is what rock and roll is all about. You need to have bands who polarise opinions, like half of the world thinks that Coldplay are great songwriting geniuses, and the other half thinks that Chris Martin is a pussy whipped faggot. That is great, because in business speak, branding is the story and controversy makes great stories.
It’s a little embarrassing when if you want to make it big in Singapore, you have to do what Stefanie Sun did, which is go to Taiwan, pretend to be Taiwanese, and then make it big in Singapore. As my sergeant would say, lovelovelovelove you understand.
And another thing, the recent general elections have shown that Singapore is politically liberalising. It might be OK to start writing songs that say “lovelovelovelove”the PAP. Just a thought.
On another note, I do not think that academic excellence is necessarily any hindrance to being a rock star. Remember that Iggy Pop was the top student in his high school. FACT. If he were a Singaporean, he would have been the recipient of a government scholarship.