… my interest in contemporary Asian music. But if someone is curious, it began with disappointment about much recent Western contemporary popular music due to its generally dismal quality. The search for something better led to contemporary Japanese, Korean, and Chinese music that I found so much more interesting. Of course, the inability to understand the lyrics may have been a positive!
Initially, I wondered if this meant that Asia had overtaken the West in contemporary music, as in so much else. Then began to ponder the alternative possibility that Asia’s more appealing music is because they are in reality still far behind – harking back to the kind of era when the West had magnificent show tunes and Frank Sinatra.
Possibly irrelevant point in support: back in distant 1958, when Elvis Presley was probably the best-known contemporary musician in the world, he was drafted into the US Army. (Hence the musical “Bye Bye Birdie”). In 2023, in accordance with South Korean National Service obligations, the members of South Korea’s internationally-popular boy band BTS were drafted into the South Korean military – even though most of them look like the kind of individuals with whom self-respecting soldiers would rather not share a foxhole. Is the contemporary Asian music scene more interesting because it is decades behind the degenerating West?
Let’s not over-egg the pudding. I do not understand the popularity of South Korea’s BTS band, and a lot of contemporary Asian music is as painfully bad as its Western counterpart. There is even – perish the thought! – Asian rap music. But I find the best of contemporary Asian music to be quite listenable, perhaps because the greater involvement in Asia of young people in learning musical instruments has led to a higher overall level of musicality.
Here is an example of what I, for one, find admirable in contemporary Asian music – two Chinese ladies giving their all to deliver the definitive version of a song whose title can be translated as “I don’t ask anyone to understand”.
And as an example of the range of Asian music, here are two Youtubers singing their hearts out on a spirited performance of the song “Bridge of Fate” from the Sinified version of the 2016 Matt Damon movie “The Great Wall”. This almost has a traditional Irish music feeling to it.
Notice that the two singers were obviously in different physical locations, yet their separate performances and the Mandarin lyrics were merged seamlessly. There is clearly a lot of talent in China, technical as well as musical. Perhaps that is to be expected when a country has four times the population of the United States, 1,400 Million residents, with an average IQ above that of the West and a very effective educational culture. One might think it would be a smart idea to try to be on friendly terms with such a country?