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GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
IS THE U.S. READY FOR ASIAN AMERICAN POP STARS?
ime was when we saw literary fame or Hollywood stardom as the final frontier for Asian acceptance in the U.S. More recently the frontier shifted to pro sports and national politics.
A year into the 21st Century we see Asian lights going on in the literary world, Hollywood and pro sports. We even see Asian Americans in two cabinet posts. But one arena remains starkly devoid of Asian stars -- the pop music scene.
James Iha, Smashing Pumpkins guitarist/backup vocals & solo recording artist
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Classical stars like Yo-Yo Ma, Seiji Ozawa and Vanessa Mae are old news. We've noted Japanese imports like Shonen Knife, Keiko Matsui and Pizzicato Five. We've marveled at the unlikely hit "Sukiyaki". Many of us have spotted James Iha in Smashing Pumpkins and Jeff Lin in Harvey Danger, or maybe even heard of Asian American bands like Seam and Versus.
But where is pop music's Chow Yun-Fat, Ichiro, Chang-rae Lee, Norman Mineta?
One indication of our lack of presence in pop music is the fact that Ming-Na and husband Eric Zee have even financed a record label (Innovazian) in hopes of promoting an Asian American pop/R&B boy group -- a sort of private Head Start program for pop music. Few of us even know its name (At Last). Its first CD sold all of 3,000 copies.
Those of a paranoid or cynical bent will postulate conspiracies among racist, short-sighted heads of major record labels. The sociologically inclined will see pop music as the inner sanctum of American culture and Asians as the perpetual outsiders.
But for purposes of this page, put on your music critic/historian hat and prognosticate the most likely path by which an Asian star will ascend to the American pop firmament. Will it be a Canto-Pop, J-Pop or K-Pop star storming the U.S. via the import route? Will it be a surprise chart-topper by an AA artist (say James Iha with another, more successful solo album)? Or will there be a frontal assault by a wave of AA groups/artists currently playing the club and auditorium circuits?
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Discussions posted during the past year remain available for browsing.
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:57:35 PM)
Oh yeah I left out one more thing,
Something that an Asian artist who plans to make it big in the states, is to never exactly try to replicate an American CD, perhaps a couple of tracks is OK, but anything like the Coco Lee CD with a combination of both wanna be POP and R&B is big mistake...Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Coco Lee fan too, but her english debut was clearly a disappointment. An asian artist should try to incorporate some Asian elements into their music, for example, Asian ballads are much different from American ones, and there's many other aspects. It is only in this way, that an Asian artist can really stand out, why do I say this, well think of it this way...usually the most successful vocalists have thick voices, of course there's always some exceptions, ex. Janet jackson and Aaliyah, but most often they all have strong and powerful voices, which many Asian singers don't seem to have. Asian singers get a lot of help from the studio, and generally their voices are quite thin, with the exception of a couple like, Jacky cheung, Andy Lau, Amei, and a couple more. In the rolling stone magazine of Coco Lee's CD, they said that her voice was flexible but it was nowhere near as soulful as Kelly Price's her duet partner on one of the tracks. Kelly Price is only more of a backup singer who only recently "kind of" established herself. And when it comes to R & B, an Asian female vocalist would be hard pressed to challenge the likes of Whitney Houston, Faith Evans, Blu cantrell, see what I'm saying? Asians aren't known to sing soulful music, until that happens I don't see an Asian doing R & B on the road to success. Then there's the next issue of singing "live". There aren't a lot of Asian singers that can sing live. this includes, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hk. Only a small handful, and not all of them have good english. Most performances in Asia are clearly lip synched, how do I know? Well I learn music studio production from a producer, and second, well it's not that hard to figure out, if you sing live, it will never "I mean Never", come out like the CD, many times the performances an Asian artist gives is too good, obviously pre-recorded.
I'm not saying only Asians are guilty of this, but think of all the handful of great artists in the states, that can sing out live.
Lastly, I think that the mainstream road is definitely the most difficult route to succeed in. Something like Japanese techno, or something might be easier. And a note on the side...Mainland chinese music will nEVER make it in the States.
Peace
Chinese21
Sunday, December 23, 2001 at 19:06:13 (PST)
I think that if a Asian singer ever made it big in the states, the first will most likely be a Female. And he/she will most likely be from Japan, Korea, or taiwan. I'm pretty sure it won't be hong kong, because hong kong music is not too diverse, taiwan slightly better, and japan and korea having the most diversity. Coco Lee failed because her record label epic didn't promote it properly, not to mention her songs sucked really bad, a lot of it which I could write in less than 10 minutes, and that's what rolling stone magazine gave her, a one star rating, and called the CD cookie cutter. My guess is, if an asian male singer made it in the states, it would probably be a group, and doing hip-hop genre, and most likely from Korea because Korean hip hop stands out the most from Japan, and Hong Kong. Anyone who thinks HK rap is worth listening to doesn't know music, Americans don't want to listen to no LMF shit.. and about all these singers, first of all they need to have good english...all these artists people are listing, can't speak english good ex. Joey Yung, Kelly Chen, Leon,
The only ones which I can think on the top of my head are the ones which were from America and went back to the States, like Lee Hom Wang, Yoo Seung Jun, Jinusean, Utada hikaru, Edison Chen. Edison hahah...will definitely not make it in the states, and I think it's very obvious why, and if it's not obvious, then feel free to send me an e-mail and I'll tell you exactly why.
chinese21
Chinese21
xrayray17@hotmail.com
Sunday, December 23, 2001 at 18:46:27 (PST)
CoCo Lee seems to have done OK in the American market last year.
Of course "Coughing Tiger Hidden Dragon" helped a bit. You think :)
hmmmm...i guess coco lee is okay.just wish that she would be herself rather than imitating mariah carey. she's got a nice voice, but she really has to have her own image.
i dont think the taiwan music sscene haas many talented singers. you might argue jay chow is awesome,buut besides him ,who else?faye wong sounds horrible with her zombie style and music.ah-mei is too poppish.there are various other male and female singers who are chessy looking but all of them sound rather quite the same.you can't tell who is who.
jordy
Friday, December 21, 2001 at 16:30:24 (PST)
Maybe it's just me, but is Faye Wong living off of her own reputation? I mean, she is at the sucking point, but she used to be really great! Lately, she has been going for the "Bjork meets The Cranberries" style that makes her sound silly. If she went back to doing R&B, she could take America. Until then we have Sandy Lam (who lives in Canada, I think) & Sammi Cheng.
AsioPhile 81: What ever happened to Sally Yeh?
Friday, December 21, 2001 at 16:13:20 (PST)
i need to check that TAk Matsumoto out, sounds like a cool guy.
yeah, and i've also heard that there's a growing punk rock, hard rock scene in beijing. that's cool. but too bad, most of them will not be appreciated in our time, since china is still a developing country. but they will become a strong foundation of chinese music 20 years later.
do u guys also know thatright now, some of the world's top classical musicians are asians! be it violinists, pianists, celloists, etc. our future will come!
having great deciplanary is good, but having great ambition is the key!
we need to some how come up with OUR OWN GENRE of music instead of blindly imitating western music! keep experimenting!
dan
Friday, December 21, 2001 at 15:50:17 (PST)
20 years ago, jimi hendrix was underrated.... 20 years later, he is now, overrated. glad that i have gone through that stuff. i learned almost every single song of his. yeah, he's cool and visionary. but after all, he's recieved more than enough attention in the past 10 years. believe me.
dan
Friday, December 21, 2001 at 15:40:28 (PST)
hong kong's fashion is like...
it's supposed to be pretty cool. but why do all cantonese dress tight stuff? when most of them don't even have the physiques.
dan
Friday, December 21, 2001 at 15:37:20 (PST)
-besides japanese electronic, techno music...
-korean raps sound pretty cool, they should definitely focus on that aspect!
-Faye Wong is good, but overated.
-jay chow can really sing, and he writes good music too. i haven't really supported any taiwanese musicians in the past. but honestly, jay chow is pretty cool.
-btw, when it comes to defining identity.taiwanese are the least patriotic! so i don't say anything subjective! almost every singer from any country has had great success in taiwan. we are probably the most tolerant people know on earth. if it's good music, it's good music.
-pick any random taiwanese! he/she will name every single major stars in japan, korea, hong kong, and any other countries!
dan again
Friday, December 21, 2001 at 15:32:10 (PST)
Hey guys! check this out!
A new guy frome Korea is now on the horizooooooon at long last!
Plz check out his hot, yeah very hot RnB, 'Hello Goodbye Hello' by BSK
cinooco
Friday, December 21, 2001 at 08:08:48 (PST)
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