Transcript of interview with Jonathan Lee (conducted by Amanda Lee), 24 August 2016, 7.30 pm, Jonathan’s residence.
Jonathan is a 32-year old male Chinese Singaporean who works as a medical writer. He enjoys listening to rock music as it tends to have more emotion and rawness to it as compared to pop songs. He likes bands such as The Cranberries, U2, Coldplay and Metallica. He listens to pop music every now and then and likes artistes such as Lady Gaga and The Spice Girls. Jonathan also does parodies of songs for fun in his spare time. Jonathan does not listen to any Western classical music; the only crossover exception is Metallica’s cover of the Star Wars Imperial March (2010) with the Berlin Philharmonic, which he found interesting. He associates classical music with the stereotypes of it being snobbish and for the educated. Jonathan enjoys musicals and his favorite is Les Misérables (2012) as the story resonates with him. Jonathan does not listen to Chinese pop music as he is monolingual but he listens to some Japanese pop music from anime shows. He did not enjoy the Chinese pop music extract as he thinks that the singer should stick with one language instead of throwing in English words into the song. Jonathan does not listen to traditional Chinese music. He does not think that it expresses his ethnic identity as he does not identify as such. He thinks that while traditional Chinese music should be preserved, he would not personally bear this responsibility. Jonathan recognized some traditional Chinese instruments in the experimental Chinese music extract. However, he finds the music strange, like abstract art. He does not think it is something he can connect with. Jonathan does not go out of his way to find Singaporean music and only listens to it when it comes on the radio. He thinks that he does not have enough exposure to it, and that more publicity is needed for local artistes. He enjoys the parodic songs by Singaporean blogger Mr. Brown as it is catchy, funny and current. He does not think that music by local artistes and bands like The Sam Willows or Jack and Rai are representative of Singapore as they are influenced by the West. For him, songs by Mr Brown or comedian Hossan Leong are more representative of Singapore.
“I think there’s more emotion or more – more feeling to the rock songs as opposed to pop – which seems to be a very, oh – bubbly, feel-good kind of thing, or latest fads. Er, rock tends to be a more raw, raw thing for me so, um, that – that’s been the main appeal.”
“English being my – my primarily language, um, there is a lot of – of wordplay that you can have, and puns and all that. So that bit of, er, complexity built into it is – is what – I think that appeals to me in terms of English – English music, and English rock in general.”
“The only exception was when Metallica did a cover of the Star Wars Imperial March (2010), er, with the Berlin [Philharmonic]. That was – that was an interesting mix – you have the electric guitar coming in over the – the – the, er, orchestra. But apart from that, not really, no.”
“Maybe I stereotype but, you know, the – it’s a bit of, er, snobbish feeling listening to [Western classical music], more, um, you normally see it in – in movies. All these educated sorts – really educated sorts listening to this, to classical to unwind.”
“Like Les Mis[érables] (2012) – Les Mis is still my all-time favorite because I think the story just resonates with me. The whole, you know, self-sacrificial thing. And the songs – the songs are quite easy to pick up, it’s a – it’s a consistent tune throughout.”
“Nope, I’m effectively monolingual, so it wouldn’t make [any impact on me if I listened to Chinese pop]. Um, that being said, er, I have listened to bit of Japanese pop that was linked with my anime days when I was watching a lot of anime, there are some catchy songs. So I did – so I do have a couple of mp3s for those.”
“Er, I’m a bit of a purist, so one of the things that really gets to me is – when they start, if it’s going to be Chinese music, stick with Chinese all the way. Don’t start throwing in like English words. Don’t try and make it more popular.”
“So you have all these Western influences, the beats – pop, a bit of rap coming in as well, you see that with, um, the whole, um, Western gangster rap sort of theme. So in this case, I mean, when you talk about Chinese pop music, I guess it still draws very heavy influence from the West.”
“I guess ... ya, there is a place for everything out there. Um, even if it’s just a few people and for that reason, [traditional Chinese music] should be preserved. But if you were to ask me to actively preserve it, I’ll probably say no.”
“Um, but for – I mean, like my generation I don’t personally know of very – many people who listen to such [traditional Chinese] music growing up. So I’m – I’m not sure how many would be able to identify with it.”
“Er, because I don’t identify myself as ethnic Chinese to begin with. Ya, so – I mean, trying to identify with anything ethnically Chinese is – is I’ve never – I’ve never felt that – that way so especially for music which has never been much of a draw ... for me.”
“[The experimental Chinese music extract is] a very weird mish-mash of everything coming together. I mean, I think I heard some of the traditional instruments? But it’s one of these – it’s like interpretative dance, you know. Like people are just playing how they feel, and it’s not something I can connect with.”
“So, er, if I were to try and put myself in the shoes of someone who grew up listening to traditional Chinese music, er, unless they are very ... have a affinity for the arts, I think [experimental Chinese music] would seem – this is – this new genre of music would be very alien. So it would be very hard to find that new connection with it.”
“I guess one of the reasons [why I don’t listen to much Singaporean music] is perhaps, er, maybe not enough exposure to it. So part of it is me not knowing what’s out there, what’s available. Um, I mean – ya, you hear them on the radio once in a while but unless you know, they say these are local artistes, ah, it just comes across as, oh this is just another song playing on the radio.”
“It’s [Mr. Brown]’s wordplay, again, I think, um, taking songs and he can – he can kind of write in, you know, incorporate your feelings with these songs, and make it funny at the same time. So that’s the same inspiration that I have when I’m doing parodies of songs, um, in my – in my own spare time.”
“Um, what – if you – if you ask me what’s representative of Singapore, for me it’s again things like Mr. Brown or – or when Hossan Leong did that [cover] version [in 2006] of [Billy Joel’s 1989 song] We Didn’t Start The Fire, [as part of the IndigNation event] Talking Cock In Parliament. [IndigNation is a series of events held in Singapore in August annually to celebrate LGBTQ culture.] Ya, um, so it incorporates like local – local happenings, that to me is more Singaporean music, I guess.”
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