Transcript of interview with Johnson Tay (conducted by Amanda Lee), 8 August 2016, 12 am, Gourmet East Kitchen.
Johnson is a male Chinese Singapore in his 40s and is the operations director of Sing Mui Heng Food Industries. He enjoys English pop music by bands like Maroon 5 and Westlife. However, he finds that Chinese music is more meaningful as it tells a story, whereas English music is more about the rhythm of the music than the lyrics or content. Johnson is indifferent towards Western classical music and says that he will not miss it if it were to die out, however it (and all other genres) should be preserved for those who enjoy them. Johnson also enjoys watching musicals. One of his favorite musicals is Cats (2015). Johnson enjoys the Chinese pop music from his era rather than the contemporary music as there is nothing new. He notes that contemporary Chinese pop reflects the current generation but dislikes the situation where artists become popular overnight and do not have a chance to grow, resulting in commercialized music. Although he did not enjoy the traditional Chinese music sample [instrumental ensemble] that was played, he enjoys Teochew opera as he grew up with it and thus this music brings back memories. He finds the contemporary intercultural experimental music sample to be soothing in a good way and likes it. Johnson also believes that we should not be categorizing artists based on their country of origin as it restricts creativity and imagination. However, he is supportive and happy when Singaporean artists are recognized and known.
“English [popular] songs is more – most of the time keep repeating, and repeating the same phrase. More, um, I’m more, um, caught up by the rhythm rather than the lyrics of the English songs.”
“Classical as in – you mean Beethoven and – I can live with or without them. It’s okay, ya.”
“Those – in fact for Chinese [popular] music, right, most of the artist that I love are all dead. Most of them are from Hong Kong. That’s where during my time, the Hong Kong pop was the golden ages of the Hong Kong pops.”
“When you’re talking about Chinese wayang [open-air opera performance], Teochew wayang, eh, it brings back a lot of memories when I was young.”
“Without looking at the instruments, without looking at the performance, I don’t know will I class[ify] – consider it as Chinese music, or English music. I guess, there’s a little bit more Chinese influence in the [contemporary intercultural experimental Chinese] music [sample].”
“Or we don’t have a group platform for [Singaporean musicians] to – to show their potential. Every time when we know them, it’s through overseas program.”
“If you want to frame it up as Singapore music, then it will be so restricted for them. Why would you want to restrict yourself to have that name – that framing inside. That restricts imagination and creativity of the whole thing.”
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