To the (few) readers of this blog, I know I've been absent for a long time, and I hope to be able to resume regular updates soon (I have a few rough translations languishing in my hard drive). Sorry for going missing for such a long time though (I've been very busy these few months, sorry!).
What I would like to talk about today would be the Golden Melody Awards held yesterday. Mayday swept the awards, taking Best Band, Best Composer, Best Song, Best Album, Best Producers and Best Arrangement. As a sodagreen fan, I have to admit that I'm very disappointed with the band's not clinching any nominations beyond the two they were given, and from a personal point of view I feel that Tsing-Fong deserved at least a Best Lyrics nomination for 'Bird's Nest'. However, the results lie before us and have to be accepted.
On China's Baidu Tieba forums there was a flurry of discussion on Mayday's seven awards. Netizens were split over whether they deserve them or not. Lots of uncivil words were thrown at and from the Mayday fandom. Admittedly, some non-Mayday fans posted unkind comments saying that 'the judges are mad' or 'Mayday sucks' and things like those, but I was disappointed at most of the pro-Mayday comments I saw that accused even the more rational non-Mayday supporters of being 'trolls' and 'unreasonable'. They countered arguments that Mayday did not deserve their awards with words like 'Have you not seen the hard work they've put in over the past three years' and 'Mayday did not perform at the Beijing Bird's Nest Stadium for nothing!'. But as someone pointed out, 'everyone works hard'. I'm not disclaiming the fact that Mayday have put a lot of effort into this album though.
I am not a hardcore Mayday fan. However, I appreciate their songs and I appreciate them. Some of their songs have cheered me up a lot and
quite a few are personal favourites. I love 'Fool (Gong Lang)', 'Embrace (Yongbao)', 'Ga Chia', 'Zhiming and Chunjiao', the 'Time Machine' and 'People Life, Ocean Wild' albums, 'Like Smoke (Ru Yan)'. My love of sodagreen has never gotten in the way of me liking Mayday as well. I think that 'Second Life' is a quality album. I think it's the best thing they've done since 'Time Machine'. I eagerly awaited it's release and I nearly cried the first time I heard 'Starry Night (Xingkong)'. And as hard as it is for me to admit this, it's a stronger album than 'What Is Troubling You', which is also a quality album in my book.
'Second Life' has a cohesiveness that is present throughout the music of the entire album. With interwoven themes sewn into both the music and the lyrics, it is one of the better Mandopop albums out there. 'Starry Night' and 'Noah's Ark (Nuoya Fangzhou) are beautiful songs (although the drum arrangement in 'Starry Night' is
rather lacking, sorry Guanyou). I reiterate- 'Second Life' is a delightfully cohesive album, but can the tracks stand on their own? It is one of the better albums out there, but is it the best album of 2011 in Mandopop?
I would say that the Best Album award is well-deserved. But this is if you consider only the nominees. Could I suggest that the judges made a big mistake leaving out sodagreen's 'What Is Troubling You', 19's self-titled album, Tizzy Bac's 'The Tell-tale Heart' as well as Eason Chan's '?' and the Life Journey's 'Wonderful Day', among the other quality albums that were released last year? Granted, I'm not sure about Life Journey's eligibility (they're a mainland band), but I'm sure the others merited nominations alongside Wei Ruxuan's 'No Crying' and Yoga Lin's 'Perfect Life'. If the GMA judges actually included stronger albums among the nominations, I'm sure 'Second Round' would have had a harder chance winning.
The Best Song award is well-deserved. Although I'd like to add that 'Those Years (Na Xie Nian)' is the better known one where I'm from (largely owing to it being a theme song and being overplayed on local radio stations, which is why I'm pissed off at that song now).
I'm sorry Masa, but Desserts Chang's 'Please Give Me a Better Rival in Love (Qing Ni Gei Wo Yige Hao Yidian de Qingdi)' and Tanya Chua's 'Sing It Out of Love (Shuo Dao Ai)' both trump your 'Noah's Ark' in composition, in my opinion. I find them both more musical and soulful. Don't get me wrong- I really like 'Noah's Ark'. When I first heard the crescendo in the final coda of the song, I was really moved. But the effect just wore off after a few (okay, maybe too many) listens. I realise that a song does not have to be musically intricate or use more chords than the four you used for most of the song, but I feel that your melody, without the arrangement, did not amount to as much as the two examples I listed. A billion times better than the meaningless pop many other artists put out nowadays though.
Ashin should have been given the Best Lyrics award for ' Noah's Ark'. Beautiful stuff. Why doesn't he ever get the award? Enough said.
The Best Producers' Award. Does this reward the producer(s) who bring(s) out the
quality and polish of the album or the
cohesiveness and feel of the album? If it is the former, Tanya Chua or Wei Ruxuan should have won. Tanya Chua is a brilliant producer. If it is the latter, I have no qualms with Mayday's win. It seems to me though that the GMA judges have different ideas on how to judge every single year. But then again, after so many years of Mayday being slighted (Ashin's TWO lyrics nominations in 2008), one may feel that they deserved more than the 'Best Band' award.
The Best Band award. Tizzy Bac and sodagreen are both very good bands. It's bad luck they were up against Mayday this time. As a sodagreen fan, perhaps my post can be attributed to sour grapes, and it is true I feel sore, but I'm trying to be rational and objective here, or as we say in Chinese,
ke guan. Quite suspicious, you may feel, as what sparked this post was my fury at comments at the Baidu boards. Sodagreen themselves didn't even attend the awards- they were performing at Chengdu. The sodafans on Baidu seem rather nonchalant, and that's good.
'Noah's Ark''s arrangement really drove the song forward.
That's about all I have to say really. If you're a Mayday fan, please don't be angry at me! If you're a sodagreen fan, tough luck for all of us I guess! We had our fun in 2007 and 2008 (when we were robbed!), but I'm sure our favourite band will bounce back next year.
24/6/2012 Update: Just read that Mayday's planning to release only two more albums. Missed that out while listening to yesterday's acceptance speech. I've got to say that I feel that's a bit of a waste. I hope their wish to 'follow in the footsteps of the Beatles' does not involve breaking up after the ten albums (touch wood). Hope they would continue to tour and occasionally release new material after that, like China Blue.
