Transcript of interview with Anthony Teo (conducted by Amanda Lee), 16 August 2016, 2 pm, Anthony’s residence.
Anthony is a 72-year old male Chinese Singaporean who is a retiree. Anthony enjoys listening to English pop music by Elvis Presley, Jim Reeves as he finds them to be sentimental, slow, and meaningful. He listens to music mainly at night to de-stress as he finds English pop music to be relaxing. He looks up music on YouTube and listens to music on Spotify, depending on his mood. He also thinks that a song is enhanced and better if the singer’s vocals are compatible with the themes and lyrics of the song. Anthony enjoys classical music by Andre Rieu and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and pieces such as Blue Danube (1866), and The Emperor’s Waltz (1889) as he finds them to be evergreen and relaxing. He also enjoys Chinese pop music by Zhao Peng, Cai Xinjuan, and Liu Gang, as he finds the songs to be sentimental and full of emotion. Anthony finds traditional Chinese music to be sort of lacking when it comes to expressing emotions. He finds traditional Chinese music to be monotonous compared to Western classical music with its crescendos. He does not watch getai and thinks it is silly and lacking in ambience. Anthony finds that the experimental Chinese music extract to be very similar to traditional Chinese music. He says that it is slow with no emotions involved, but he can tell that there are sounds of nature incorporated into it. Anthony brought up National Day songs when asked about Singaporean music. He thinks that the songs are designed for group sing-along, and that the lyrics are replaceable by any other country that wants to use the same songs. He does not think that there is anything characteristic of Singapore in those songs. He also thinks that music by Singaporean artists are copied off more famous musical scores, and are replaced with more relatable lyrics.
“I like old songs like, er, songs from, er, er, blues lah, songs sung by Elvis Presley lah. Have you heard of Elvis Presley? Yes, that one you know. And I like, um, songs by, er, Jim Reeves, lah. They are all very sentimental, slow, and, um, more meaning to it, lah.”
“Some of the [English pop singers], er, I don’t really know their name – most of their name, but I – I enjoy their music. Enjoy the song, the vocals, you see. It’s – it’s not all the singers from pops that I can listen to. Only those very sentimental, you know, you can feel, er, the – you see, the voice they put in, ah, actually goes with the songs they sing, you see.”
“And [English pop singers], er, and of course, if you have that kind of vocal that accompanies the song also enhance the pleasure you get from the music.”
“Blue Danube (1866) is probably one of the evergreen. I can listen [to] it over and over again, and if you are – close your eyes, relax, and play the music. You really feel like the wave of the blue. You know, Blue Danube is the river, the sea, is it? You can really – actually imagine the you know, the movement of the wave.”
“And you can see practically in the audience – people – they are almost like my age, you know – and they start to shed tears, lah. It’s so beautiful the way they play it and [Andre Rieu]’s very good at it, you see. So, er, that – that’s what move me, lah. Music.”
“They are actually singers from [mainland China]. Very good – very good sentimental song. Voice and, er, emotion that they put into the song, especially, Zhao Peng. Very slow, very – I don’t know how to describe. Is very vocal, very relaxing.”
“A good music, er, is actually what you call that, international language. You don’t have to know the – the language to enjoy the music, you see. You – you take an orchestra, right, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Chinese, you’re an Indian, or whatever nationality you come from. You just enjoy it.”
“Chinese orchestra don’t have that. That’s what I feel, you see. They’re very monotonous, you know, and they go – they play songs, you know. They don’t have some[thing] like a sudden drum beat that give you the crescendo, you know.”
“Er, most of [the getai singers] they can’t sing, alright. And the music that accompany them, and the stage also look very pathetic, alright.”
“I – I cannot … differentiate between contemporary and traditional [Chinese music].”
“There is, er, there is no emotion involved in [the experimental Chinese music extract]. Or there is emotion but all monotonous, very monotonous. It’s like you’re going to the Chinese courtyard, you hear the birds singing, chirping [every]where, water-fountain, with the water flowing.”
“There’s no character to that kind of music that can identify that, “Ah, this is Singapore music.” It’s a sing-along. It is designed for every Singaporean to sing it, you see. Does it show you the character of the, er, country? No, it doesn’t.”
“You – you will notice a lot of song that is sung by our local artists, they probably have the same musical score as some of the famous one. The only thing is they put it into words, they change the lyrics a bit, right.”
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