Taiwanese love music. It’s part of their celebrations, it’s a large part of their entertainment, it’s a huge part of their economy. Holidays are usually celebrated with concerts. I’d say over half the shows on TV are ones where people just come on to sing songs. If you are a celebrity singer here than you are pretty much guaranteed that you will be a celebrity singer in china as well.
However the reason music is such a large part of the culture is because it’s pop music, i.e. because it’s bland. Almost all songs are about love or romance or heartbreak. However there are reasons for this. One is because the radio had a big impact on people’s lives. This is partly due to the fact that there were curfews and that people were not allowed to meet in groups in public. So you basically spent your time at home listening to the radio. The radio that the government controlled, so songs could only be about love and not anything deeper.
This type of music continues to be most of the music in Taiwan because it’s viewed as relaxing. I think that a friend best summed it up when I told her that a song I was listening to was about the horrible history of Sudan and what led to the formation of the world’s newest country. She said “yuck, who would want to listen to that, that’s so stressful, how can you relax?” she also went on to say that she liked pop music because since it’s never any serious stuff it shows how life in Taiwan is so good and without problems.
But this leads me to a point that I’ve begun to realize more and more. It’s that Taiwanese are not passionate about music. Yes they love it, but they aren’t passionate about it. What I mean is I never see anybody really “feeling” the music, I never see anybody being moved by the music, or affected in any way. But how could they? If the music isn’t about anything, then they have nothing to react to. It’s almost like they are being taught to not really listen to music.
What made me realize this? Smart phones. I noticed that why everybody will say they like music, I have honestly in my whole time here met anybody who has more than 1gb of music on their phones. Which then lead me to ask how much music they have on their computers and it’s usually the same. Music here is to just be listened to and forgotten. If somebody likes this song from band A, they may listen to more of their music, but they won’t go to find out the inspirations on band A. Music here is sought out, it isn’t researched, it’s something that is just given to hear and move on.
It seems like I’m being judgmental but I’m not. There is no “right” way to listen to music. And as much as I wish that many more people could really feel and be moved by music, as I said before people do love music, even if it’s only as a distraction. It would also be hard to change this. Pop sells here, and more serious songs don’t. And even songs from other countries are enjoyed for their “pop-ness.” Which is understandable because when you are a not a native speaker, it’s really hard to really understand what a song is about in another language. Which means that many groups that are considered not pop music, but are still popular here, are popular because of their melodies and not what the songs are about. Which I often have to remind myself of when somebody tells me they like band B and I immediately get excited and start talking about how powerful one of their songs is, only to be met with a blank stare.
