Transcript of interview with Marilyn (conducted by Amanda Lee), 11 August 2016, 11.30 am, Skype.
Marilyn is a 44-year old female Chinese-Indian Singaporean and is an educational psychologist. She does not listen to a lot of music but enjoys instrumental, gospel music and classic English oldies. She prefers listening to soothing and calming music, and dislikes music that is loud, such as heavy metal. She also dislikes pop songs as she finds them to be too high energy and stimulating. She enjoys English popular music by singers such as Nat King Cole, as she finds the lyrics to be meaningful and their voices soothing. She believes that music – regardless of genre – should be preserved. This should be done even if very few people listen to these genres, and even if there are people who do not understand it, because it is part of our culture and tradition. She thinks that traditional Chinese music is more of a cultural experience than a way to relax, and does not listen to it at all. She thinks it could be because she does not speak Mandarin, and thus is not part of her identity. She also does not listen to traditional Indian music. Her thoughts on the contemporary intercultural experimental Chinese music is that she will only listen to it if it is part of something else – for example, a movie or a play. She also says that she enjoys acoustic instruments over electronic music. She believes that Singaporean music should not always borrow elements from other cultures and believes that the composer Dick Lee is able to compose music that naturally brings out the Singaporean sound.
“I don’t – I don’t really listen to [English pop music], so ... er ... I only like to listen to music that calms me down, ya. That are more soothing and calming – calming, er, unless it’s a party and then it’s just for fun.”
“I mean I like songs by like Nat King Cole. Those very deep male voices, er, I do like those types as well.”
“If it’s just a cultural experience, I – I will probably just enjoy it for that moment. But [traditional Chinese music] is not something that I will actively seek out, er, you know, go – go all out to go and listen to it, no.”
“I don’t understand [Mandarin], so – so for Chinese pop also, if they sing too fast, I may not catch the lyrics. So it’s not much of a point, unless it’s a slow song. Which will be the oldies that I will probably be able to catch the lyrics, um, better than the Chinese pop, ya.”
“[Contemporary intercultural experimental Chinese music] has a lot of emotions, like I say, ya, but, um, the pitch is a bit high for me. But – but it’s okay, ya. You can almost visualize – it’s – you can recognize it to be a very Chinese music, and you can kind of visualize the setting, er, you know.”
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