My close friends would know that I love listening to music. While I try not to restrict myself to listening to particular genres of music, it is also unrealistic to expect myself not to have some likes and dislikes right? Let's start from the likes.
Since my generation belongs to the age where pop reigns over others, this fact has somewhat shaped my appreciation for music as a whole. I'm quite partial to boybands like Westlife, Boyzone and Backstreet Boys just to name a few. In addition, I'm a great fan of singers who have a powerful voice (at least in my opinion) like Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. It's quite unbelievable how high and crystal-clear their voices can reach. However, these songs have rapidly moved towards being categorized as the old-school kind. The evidence is that they can no longer be heard on so-called hippier radio stations and heard mainly on Class 95FM. (I really do like that radio station) On that note, I also like evergreen groups like the BeeGees, ABBA and The Carpenters although they belong more to my parents' generation.
For Chinese music, ny influence has undoubtably be my sister. She started the trend of listening to 93.3FM and I started to really listen to Chinese music. Since then, names like Cao Ge, JJ Lin, Guang Liang have become "household names". It was also this time that I realised that Chinese music and English music are quite different. It could be the lyrics or the music itself, but both language songs require different kinds of appreciation. (not sure if I've adequately explained it :-)) Still, my favourites are Joi Chua and the above few I've mentioned earlier with the list growing larger and larger.
Unbelievably, my brother introduced me to Korean music which have got me addicted. Not to mention that I already love listening to Japanese songs (anime-inluenced), Korean music brings a different kind of mood and style. Most songs are upbeat with catchy tunes and some awesome dance moves. Some popular groups include SNSD, Wonder Girls, Da Vichi, Big Bang, SS501, DBSK and many more. With the K-wave hitting Singapore, it would not be too much of a stretch to see a rapid rise in the number of Korea language learners. (One of my main gripes about J- and K-pop is my inability to understand the lyrics and this prevents me from fully appreciating the music)
(to be continued...)
