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AND THE LOSER IS . . . AARON |
The local music industry awards saw the end of the stranglehold of the four 'kings' of Canto-pop. Read on .......
One would not be far wrong to say that January was the month of the year that local singers most feared, because it is one fraught with angst and worry: it is the month of local music awards ceremonies. Initial suspense had probably increased this year because Metro's Hit Radio finally declared itself a major player by holding its presentation in January instead of September as it had done in the past two years.
But local observers would know by now that Hong Kong awards ceremonies have to be taken with a pinch of salt - not one year passes by without someone screaming "fix!" for one category or another - but still, this year's gala performances have managed to uncurtain new directions in the musical arena.
All four awards ceremonies - TVB's Jade Solid Gold Best 10 Awards, Commercial Radio's Ultimate Chart Awards, Hit Radio's Hit Award '94 Presentation and RTHK's Top 10 Golden Songs Awards - gave a strong signal that the end was nigh for the collective reign of the four Canto-pop "kings" - Leon Lai, Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau, and Jacky Cheung.
Starting from the New Year's Day blast by Commercial Radio to the last ceremony by RTHK last Friday, media and fans might finally have hardened their hearts enough to show their belief that Aaron Kwok Fu-shing is not and never was really Canto-pop royalty.
It has been a dismal year for Kwok, despite his debut solo concerts at the Coliseum - something that usually guarantees a career "high" for a few months. He received no awards from CR; Hit Radio gave out a whopping 42 awards - and not one of them to Kwok; TVB, who "discovered " Kwok as a singer, justified themselves by presenting him one; and RTHK, which gave him the Best Newcomer award at the start of his career, named him as one of 10 "outstanding singers" and gave him another award for his song Iron Curtain Temptation.
Compared with the other three "kings" who went home with hauls of more than 10 awards each, Kwok's lean pickings put him very much on the bottom rung even though it is obvious to many that Kwok is a diligent worker who tries hard. Unfortunately this is a business that does not award points for trying.
The expected "disbanding" of the kings marks a healthy turn for the industry which in the past few years has held itself in a choking vice because they judged their awards not so much by the quality of the songs but by the reputations of these singers - a trend that was ultimately discouraging to many other talented ones.
The breaking of the stranglehold of the four kings also showed that the public was finally waking up to the fact that there was more to singing than being a pretty face. It used to be that singers who were not (a) handsome/pretty (b) young and (c) single, stood very little chance of climbing up to the rank of first string, regardless of how well they sang.
But over the past six months, there has been a gradual shift from idol singers to singer-songwriters, especially those from Taiwan, after repeated calls by CR for singers to "go original". As a result, singer-songwriters such as Emil Chau Wah-kin, Eric Moo Chii Yuan, Joyce Lee Lok-cia and Zhang Yu have suddenly found themselves in the limelight.
The greatest significance of this, perhaps, is the fact that, while all four "kings" would have us believe they did not even date for fear of upsetting their teenage female fans, the unworried Chau and Moo thanked the wife and girlfriend respectively on stage when they received their various awards.
With four ceremonies this year, there were well over 150 awards up for grabs for an industry with a little over 200 active recording artists. The efforts of TVB, CR, Hit Radio and RTHK to make sure that they make as many people as possible happy is of course noteworthy, but one is inclined to ask if a market as small as Hong Kong really needed that many awards, especially dubious sounding ones such as "Best Male/ Female Singer in the eyes of Tertiary Students" and "Most Popular New Generation Outstanding Performer" which Hit Radio and TVB gave out.
If any station had deigned to hand out an award for "Most Puzzled Singer", the votes would no doubt have gone to Emil Chau who received some really strange awards. In his 30s and having sung professionally for nearly 10 years, Chau could not hide his surprise when he was suddenly presented the "Most Popular New Generation Outstanding Performer" gold award by TVB. " Even though I have been singing for all these years, I would like you all to know that I am still very young," he told the audience, tongue in cheek.
Radio chiefs have said that awards were increased so that new or promising singers would not be disheartened, but with so many awards thrown around - and so many of them doubtful - what is one actually worth?
Little wonder than that Jacky Cheung has called for the four stations to unite and have only one joint awards presentation each year. "This will make it less strenuous on the singers and make the awards more meaningful," he said, after he was presented the media's top singer of the year. "I hope to be able to stand on stage next year in that one ceremony and win this award."
So far, only RTHK and CR have responded to Cheung's call and are in preliminary talks to study the feasibility of such a move. The prospects are enormous. For instance CR can take their worthy Grammy-style vision one step further by incorporating other aspects such as Hit Radio's Best CD Cover Design awards. With the collective talent in each of the stations, the joint move will give Hong Kong awards and a ceremony worthy of its unique music industry.
Source: Adapted from the South China Morning Post, 23.01.95
Vocabulary
// choking vice
- a situation which cannot change or develop. A vice is a device which is screwed to a workbench so that it is possible to work on an object which is held tightly. To choke means to be unable to breathe.Return
// limelight
- If someone is in the limelight a lot of attention is being paid to them because they are famous or they have done something very exciting or dangerous. Return
-jokingly Return
// stranglehold
- complete power or control over a person or a situation Return
- full of tension or anxiety Return
- taken not too seriously Return
// uncurtain
- point to, reveal Return
// end was nigh
- the end was near. The use of 'nigh' is old fashioned language. Return
// up for grabs
- on offer, for the taking Return
// dubious
- something that is of uncertain value Return