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| January 2000 Promoting original music No single policy wins By Tim Lui RELATED ARTICLES: Although CR2 claimed that its policy to promote original music would provide more room for composers, many composers said they did not see much improvement after the policy was launched. Mr. Jolland Chan, a local lyric writer, said the policy did not help bring new composers to the industry. Said he: “The market was dominated by certain well-known composers after the policy was launched. “The only difference was that those dominant composers tried to build up a better relationship with Commercial Radio 2 so that their songs would get more frequent airing on the channel.” He said the policy was providing the power to monopolize the industry instead of providing chances for new composers. A spokesperson for CR2 responded that the policy had nothing to do with personal relationships between music composers and the radio station. He said that the aim of the policy was purely to promote original pop music in Hong Kong. Mr. Chan said beside the policy of radio stations, the system of record companies is also related to the difficult situation of Hong Kong composers. According to Mr. Chan, many record companies hindered the releases of good songs. He said the probability of using a demo song sent by an unknown composer is less than 1 percent. Mr. Chan said that when the songs are considered unsuitable for publishing, the record companies dump the demo songs right away. And he said this was surely a waste of the composers’ talent. Mr. Tats Lau, a local singer-songwriter, agreed that the current policy of local record companies hinders the promotion of local original songs. He said local talents could hardly get a chance to publish their songs. He also said that the whole system of the record companies in choosing songs for singers was messy. According to him, there was usually nobody assigned the responsibility to take care of demos sent by ordinary composers, and therefore it was highly possible that none of the tapes would reach the management. “The talents need to establish a good relationship with the companies in order to get more attention,” said Mr. Lau. He said owners of most record companies lack music knowledge and aim only at making profits. He also said those owners do not intend to bring up new composers and this creates an obstacle in promoting original local songs. He said, “It is costly to foster a new composer. Record companies would rather buy foreign songs because they have a better sales guarantee.” He said the situation is especially true for international record companies that can easily get copyrights of the foreign songs. Miss Angelina Law, corporate communications senior manager for the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong Limited, agreed that it was difficult to promote local original music at the moment. Said she: “The local music industry is not prosperous and artists produce fewer albums than before.” The annual Cash Song Writer’s Quest is a contest to encourage more talented composers to produce their songs. Miss Law said the contest, however, could not help much in promoting local original music. “The number of songs that can be promoted in a contest is limited. Not to mention the fact that we don’t have enough resources to organize and promote the contest itself,” said Miss Law. Although the contest provides a chance for composers to expose themselves to the record companies, Miss Law said the Cash Song Writer’s Quest could offer only a little assistance. “Whether the talented can have the chance to publish their songs and get exposure still depends on the record companies,” said she. When asked what is the quickest way to promote local original music, Mr. Jolland Chan suggested asking popular artists, like Jackie Cheung, to sing original songs by local composers. However, Mr. Chan said the ultimate solution is education. Mr. Chan said that the general local audience has little or no knowledge about music. “Audiences should learn more basic music knowledge. This is essential to promoting local original music,” he said. He said the quality of songs is better in Western countries as most people in those countries have basic music knowledge. Explained he: “In Western countries, it is compulsory for all students to learn to play musical instruments and do reports on musicals. “And that is the reason why the music industry in Hong Kong is not as prosperous as in foreign countries.” Beside the lack of music education of the audience, Mr. Tats Lau pointed out that another problem is that the people in Hong Kong do not expect singers to sing well. All they care about is whether the singers look good. He said this incorrect attitude of the audience makes it hard for talented singers to survive. He said popular singers are usually not so talented and could not write songs of their own, so they have to turn to cover versions. Mr. Lau said a way to change this would be to make the local music industry more systematic. In Japan, for example, all new artists are well trained and they have music knowledge besides singing and dancing. Mr. Lau said the local music industry should learn from the singers in Japan. He also said record companies should take the initiative to invest money in promoting original music. “Record companies should not only play safe in choosing songs for singers. “They should have a mission to produce high quality music,” said he. |
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