Father's day with the King
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David Wong performs at MTV-MOTO ROKR concert. File photos |
It was the first of three MTV-MOTO ROKR concerts staged around China over the weekend.
Chou, 28, has been the most popular male singer in the Chinese-language pop scene for nearly a decade. He combines Chinese and Western music styles to produce songs that fuse hip-hop, R&B, rock and pop genres. Cui, 45, is the pioneer of Chinese rock and the first to break away from conventional forms and incorporate Western rock styles into his songs.
Though Chou and Cui differ greatly in age and style, they share the same love for live performances.
As there has been gossip about the collaboration of these two most influential stars in today's Chinese pop music scene, their appearance at the concert attracted special attention from music fans nationwide.
"This is the first time that I have seen Cui Jian's live performance. It is really powerful," said Chou after the concert.
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Cui Jian has been considered as the pioneer of Chinese rock. |
"I'm very happy to perform on the same stage with such an excellent musician."
Despite the onstage success, Chou denies any future collaboration plans.
"I haven't thought about collaborating with Cui, for we play quite different styles of music," he says.
When asked the same question about collaboration, Cui did not answer directly and said he would not speak through the media before he had any actual communication with Chou.
"There are three types of communication for musicians," Cui said. "The first, and the one that I like the most, is personal communication between musicians.
"The second is communication between musicians' agents. The third and the one I dislike the most is communication through media, for the media often distort the original intentions."
During the concert, Cui and his six-piece band rocked the stadium, while the multi-talented Chou sent the crowd to fever pitch with his performance that included piano, Chinese drum and dance.
The fact that Chou played the finale seems to indicate that "Taiwan's king of pop" is more valued by concert organizers in terms of commericial appeal than the "father of Chinese rock 'n' roll".
"It had been a question for me whether I should take part in this commercial event, but I decided that this would be an
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Jay Chou has been the most popular male singer in the Chinese-language pop scene for nearly a decade. |
He was referring to the fact that before rock concerts were possible in China, he used to sing his rock songs at gala concerts of pop and light music.
Cui's signature work Nothing to My Name (Yiwu Suoyou), which is considered by many as the first Chinese rock song, debuted at "Fill the World with Love", a pop concert held in Beijing in 1986.
Besides Cui and Chou, there were many other rock and pop musicians brought together by MTV China and Motorola, including Zheng Jun, Yang Kun, Lao Lang, Wang Feng, Yuan Quan, Elva Siu, Huang Yida, David Wong, New Pants, Catcher in the Rye and Jin Haixin.
"There is no need to separate one music from another," said Yang Kun, one of the most popular mainland pop singers.
"Pop and rock musicians can certainly perform on the same stage and to the same audience.
"I hope we will have more opportunities to exchange with each other, and it'll be even better to combine the two styles in music."
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Yang Kun |
About 50,000 fans attended the concert in Qingdao. The second and third MTV-MOTO ROKR Concerts were held in Hangzhou of East China's Zhejiang Province on Saturday and in Chengdu of Southwest China's Sichuan Province on Sunday.
The audience of the three concerts total nearly 100,000.
The theme of the concert series, "Back to True Music", was making a point.
In choosing the line-up, organizers wanted to emphasize "original work, original singer, and original sound" and fight the lipsyncing trend, which they say is plaguing the Chinese pop scene.
"I'm a singer, and singing is my vocation. Performing with one's real voice is the basic morality for singers," said rock singer Zheng Jun.
The concert in Qingdao was broadcasted live by seven websites, including sina.com, sohu.com and tom.com, and will also be broadcasted on MTV China's 24-hour Channel and Zhejiang TV.
(China Daily 06/26/2007 page20)
