My view on Gangham Style and K-Pop

PSY's Gangnam Style has broken many records, not only those on Youtube, but also in terms of chart/sales success for an Asian song. First of all, do I enjoy the song myself? Yes, I do. I particularly like how PSY sang that song on stage, as well as all the parodies and flesh mob clips related to that song on Youtube. However, for being a music fan myself, I can't help but take a moment to sit back and take a critic look of this phenomenon, and further share my view of that from a broader scope for a long time span.

These are my thoughts:

One hit wonder destiny- I think Gangnam Style is gonna be another one hit wonder from PSY in the Western music scene. Yes, he signed a label in the U.S., and he does have music talent. But, that's wouldn't change my view. Cuz, Gangnam Style reminds me of few other songs, the most obvious one is Macarena which was sung by unattractive singers (2 older Spanish guys), came with a set of dance (actually not as difficult or funny as PSY's), and it was a big hit in the U.S. to a point that even Al Gore danced along the song. However, does anyone remember the second hit from the singer of that song? No! because there was another one.

PSY's future - he will certainly be label as a spokeperson of K-pop for this generation and will be viewed as a 'living national treasure' in South Korea. Business wise, he will make a lot of money, that's no doubt about it. In the West, he will try his best to replicate his success in coming album, particularly the one that he signed for an U.S. label. He will have moderate success in sales (a quarter million or less in the U.S.) from an Asian artist perspective, but that's about it. No more number one song. The reason is because of many factors.1) Novelity - his success because he is considered to be coming out of nowhere, a completely new singer to the West that dance funny and sing in a strange language. When he starts to sing in English, that's not what his current Western fans wanna hear. 2) Genre - Gangnam Style is a K-pop with heavy programming and loops. PSY himself actually can and does sing in other genre, soften ballad or hip-hop. That's gonna be a tough sell to the Western audiences. They like what they hear, and if change the formula, they wouldn't buy it. If PSY stick to his current formula, he will still be viewed by the Western audiences as doing the same thing for being uncreative. It is no win situation for him.

K-pop in the West - It is no doubt that K-pop has captured a sizable trunk of fan base in the East Asia. However, with PSY and I'm sure few more fellow artists from South Korea who will certainly try to follow PSY's footstep, K-pop will become a bit more well-known in the West. However, I only think that it will only at best become a niche that few world audiences will really take into their heart to follow K-pop in the future. It is because K-pop itself is not really an unique genre. Music wise, it is a bend of dance pop, hip-hop, R&B, electronica, plus bunch of young singers/dancers with 'hot' but 'copycat' style appearance. If they don't have anything that 'exceed' what their Western counterparts have already done, I don't see how would Western fans will choose them over their native artists. For more, Western fans do look at things more than skin-deep. They like their idols to be individuals with unique views, talents, beliefs, or style. They don't mind them to do outrageous things, just to be different. When I see the whole bunch of K-pop artists, many of them do dance and sing well, but that's not enough. What are their background stories? life experience? how they were brought up? what odds that they have encountered and overcome? Have they done wrong and turned right? What are their inspirations? What are their contribution to the music itself? Western fans do care about these things. I'm sorry that K-pop artists wouldn't offer such, at least that's not what I've seen so far. Also, the language is an issue as well, if K-pop artists sing in English, they wouldn't beat their Western counterparts. Even if they are as good, that's still not enough. If they stay singing in Korean, they will have no chance for a long term career in the West. Korean is not Spanish or French, the speaking population of it is just too small. Just because someone buy Samsung or Hyundai, doesn't make him/her a fan of Korean culture.

Wild factor - what I mentioned above is far from certain. One wild factor is the power of MV. The fans these days are not MTV generation. They watch youTube. PSY succeeds because of youTube. It is still possible that his followers will do the same thing by using music video rather than just songs alone to capture fans. To make great MV, it takes money and creativity. These are things that Korean producers shouldn't be short of, at least for the short run. With the visual appeal of the K-pop artists, that would help a lot in that regard. So, there is still possibility that new generation of music fans will take the whole visual package as a whole to choose who they follow. With the growth of broadband, 4G, etc. Technology wise, it would help those K-pop artists in spreading their products to fans over the world.

Well, just some thoughts that I wanna share, feel free to comment if any.

Someone like you

This got to be my favorite song in the last 2 months or so....



A sentimental song that Adele's voice and interpretation are good enough to make you cry!

Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston, died on Feb, 11 at the age of mere 48.

Personally, I’ve never been really a fan of her. There is no doubt that she had a great voice and was a terrific singer, a true R&B star. However, back then when she first came out, her songs just didn’t catch me like others. Maybe, it was because I didn’t like R&B that much at that time, though I did like MJ, perhaps it had something to do with his song’s dance rthyhm plus his dance moves in MV, etc. On the contrary, Whitney was selling her voice which wasn’t good enough for me back then as a teen with relatively superficial taste in music. A few year later, I began to learn to appreciate R&B songs, but I was won over by Mariah Carey since her debut. So, I didn’t have an urge to revisit Whitney’s song to enjoy R&B.

‘I’ll always love you’ was a huge hit in 1992. To be honest, I hated that song very much at that time. Looking back, it couldn’t help for having that feeling to that song which was by no mean bad, it was really a great one indeed. I hated it because it was played so much on radio and everywhere I went that I couldn’t stand listening to that anymore. Particularly the showcase of her voice range at the end of the song, that was supposed to be admired but it became nuisance to me instead. On top of that, I didn’t like the movie Bodyguard neither. However, in 1998, she did sing a song that I consider to be the R&B diva duet of the century ‘When you believe’ with Mariah Carey that I love very much. Overall, in spite of all her success in artistic awards and commercial achievements throughout her career, I’m sorry to say that I’ve never really been drawn to her music all those years.

Don’t get me wrong that this blog post is aim to diss her or her achievement or whatsoever. I do feel sad for such a talent that died this young. What happened to her in her personal life is none of our business. Some people said that her marriage to Bobby Brown led to her downfall in her career as well as her life in general. I think that we have no position to judge what’s right or wrong about her choice. Cuz, who knows the truth? And does it really matter anymore?

Recently, I had the chance to sit back and listen to her works. Surprisingly, I began to be able to appreciate her songs unlike when I was young. I guess it is because I’m old enough to feel the emotion of her voice unlike before. I don’t feel bad to finally being drawn to her music. Cuz, her music, like many of other great singers can certainly pass the test of time.

At the end, I just wanna say “Thanks Whitney for the good works that you left behind and may you R.I.P.!”

Nostalgia...

I don't think it's because I'm getting old or what, I've grown to appreciate old music while I'm still open to listening to new stuff. Cuz, the contrast of the new versus the old is a way to deepen my appreciation of how the old affects the new. Also, music is like wine, the good old stuffs shows their staying power by the test of time. The following is by no a mean a top 10 in any order or anything, I would just say they are easily many people's and my favorites as well. They were tasted good back then, they are tasted good now, and I'm pretty sure they will still be tasted good for years/decades to come, as long as there is still music!

Frank Sinatra - My Way
I didn't listen to 'the Big Blue Eyes' until I was told by a female friend of mine more than a decade ago that, if you wanna have a romantic evening with a female guest, you can do that with a bottle of wine, candle light setting, and Frank Sinatra's music in the background. Then, I dig into a beat about this legendary singer, I got to say that, she is right!


Barbra Streisand - The Way We Were
I'm not a fan of her, but you gotta admit that this song is very good. I think I heard this song long times ago when I was really young, but didn't really get that in my head till Leslie Cheung sang that in his farewell concert back in 1989. Since then, I've linked this song with the concept of growing up and time passes.


Dusty Springfield - Look of Love
There are many version of this song. I learn this song from Diana Khrall. However, I've been seeing Dusty Springfield's name popping up here and there in some all time favorite list. After I listen to Dusty's version, I gotta say that I like that antique kind of sound quality in this song that those more polished one with modern recording technology. Just like old wine.



Louis Armstrong - What a wonderful world

This song is just timeless! When I was really young, I always thought good singers should have a clear, relatively high-pitched voice, like those 3 Tenors. However, since I opened my ears more, I listen to more kind of music, that changed my mind. Louis Armstrong's voice is old and rough, but man, how powerful and warm it is. This song is a prime example of how a great voice capture your mind with every words. I always think this song is a 'song of hope'. It is a very uplifting song to tell us that our problem is nothing, things will take care of themselves. Look, the world is beautiful, we just gotta look around.


Judy Garland - Over The Rainbow
This song, similar to the 'What a wonderful world' above, has been a favorite in singing contest. I didn't care too much about the original movie. But the original version of the song by Judy Garland is another story. I also regard this song as another 'song of hope', but this one has a bit more child's hymn kinda feel to it. Anyway, I love this song, so does my 4 years old son.


Nat King Cole – Unforgettable
I first got to know this song was already the hi-tech synthesized duet version of Nat King Cole and his daughter Natalie Cole. It was a nice duet in augmented reality. But, after digging in Youtube, I like the solo version by Nat much more. He is by no mean handsome, but with the great smile when he sang this song, how can you not like him and melted by his voice with lyrics?


Eagles - Hotel California
This song is one of the newest in this list. There are so many stories about this songs that I'm not gonna cite them here. You can google them if you want to. For me, I just love the guitar outro of this song and the feel of 70s in this song.


John Lennon – Imagine
Well, I like the lyrics of this song, but to me the best part is the piano sound which is so hypnotic. This song is regarded as 'song of peace', being a peace-loving person, this song can be a national anthem for any peaceful nation.


The Beatles - Yesterday
Beatles have so many good songs, it's hard to pick one. I can easily pick 'Let it Be' as another favorite. However, I think Yesterday sounds not only good, but only on a more personal way of expressing the passage of time and the missing of the good old days. The kind of young innocence that Paul sang is just priceless.



Elvis Presley - Love Me Tender
Same as Beatles, the King has so many good songs as well. However, I don't know why, whenever I think of his love songs, it will either be 'Always on my mind' or this one. Perhaps, the tenderness of this song that make it a bit stand out. I don't really like Elvis's image that much, but I've to say that his voice is magical.

My top 10 desert-island Cantonese songs

Not exactly in any order, these are my all-time top 10...

陳慧嫻 - 戀戀風塵


關淑怡 - 人生可有知己



譚詠麟- 幻影


張國榮 - 追


夏韶聲 - 結他低泣時


梅艷芳 - 似水流年


Beyond - 海闊天空


張學友- 李香蘭


葉德嫻 - 明星


林子祥 - 似夢迷離

Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse (1983 – 2011) died on July 23 of unknown cause (pending for autopsy for sure), though it is most likely drug related.

Personally, I don’t know her songs very well, I remember when I had her songs on my iPhone before, I was impressed by her amazing voice like coming from an old soul given that she was (is) in her twenties. I do also remember her song ‘rehab’, what an ironic title for a singer who has long been associated with substance abuse. Artistically, she is definitely gifted with a great voice which is usually associated with a 40 or 50 years old black singer living in Brooklyn or Chicago all her life. On the contrary, it came from a white Jewish girl from the U.K. That makes her more interesting than just music. I’m not gonna dig too much into her background as it can be found in Wiki and elsewhere. Her death to me is just another example of the worst outcome of a cocktail of youth, fame, wealth, artistic talent, drugs, self-discipline, mal-functioned family, and media, another poor soul following the footstep of Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and the alike.

It was said that ‘The good dies young’. I’m not sure she fits that 100%. But, who has the right to judge? However, I do have an impression that, it has been a curse or whatnot that ‘the more talented and gifted the one is artistically, the more likely he/she is damned in life in other extents’. I mean death, particularly dying young, is not necessary the outcome, that could also include broken marriage, miscarriage, jail time, health issue, childless, bankruptcy, rehab, etc. These have been linked to many successful artists that I can think of. For those who have been fortunate enough of not being linked to any of the above, they are usually not regarded as talented as those who are. I don’t know if that’s karma or else. Perhaps, it is because artistic talent itself is quite different from let’s say intelligence. Other talents, expertise, or skills can be attained by hard works, rote or repetitive exposure. Even for rocket scientist or brain surgeon, astrophysics or human brain structure are science that rules remain the same until is proved otherwise. With enough studying, hard-works and practice, skills can be obtained. However, artistic talents are different. Van Gogh or Picasso may not have the best skills in painting; other skillful workmen can mimic their works to even undistinguishable level. But their works will never be regarded as high as those from the masters. Similarly for music, you practice really well to become a very good musician, skill wise, but you will never play guitar as soulful as Eric Clapton. I think creativity is the key that distinguish an artist to a craftsman. Creativity is something that you either have or not. How artists create their works is definitely not science. They may rely on muse, something they dreamed of, or even referring thing from their subconscious. They just react to the same environment differently than we do, they create things that seem to be out of nothing in view of most regular Joes on the street. I think the tragic experiences that I mentioned above, though they are horrible to go through in life. They do have a positive side effect to artists that creativity are inspired or induced by walking on those horrific paths.

Anyway, I think only Amy Winehouse would know what she had gone through in her life and know how those had affected her personally deep down inside. To us, as music lovers, just wanna wish her can rest in peace and thanks for leaving behind the great works to us to enjoy and future generations to come.

Apple's new Data Center

Being an avid reader of Apple related news, I’m just fascinated by the function of the newly built back-up center in North Carolina. Yes, most of the articles in the net are usually covering predictions of iPad3 or iPhone5, their features, release dates, etc. However, I would say that the data center, though it is less sexy than the shinny polished gadgets that we can get our hands on, it is much more interesting and would have far reaching consequence to the Apple ecosystem than most consumers would think.

Before Apple made iPhone, people had predicted that Apple would make a phone. Before, iPad was release, people already know Apple was making a tablet. This time, when Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are drumming for the possibility of Cloud Computing, you think Apple will sit around and do nothing? Certainly not, I think the data center would the key for it.

Apple’s strategy (non-financial wise) is to provide the best consumer experience in using personal technology to interact with information and consume entertainment. Desktops, laptops, phone, tablet, etc take care the physical part, the OS, itunes, app stores, etc are the software part. Apple still has to work on negotiation with content providers to get their contents on Apple’s platform to be delivered to consumers. Cables will be gone, wireless is the future, that’s where the cloud computing come into place. I’m no expert on this subject, but I read the article this morning and just love the analysis of what Apple’s data center would do. Just wanna share with you all:

What No One has Dared Think About Apple’s Data Center
Columns and Opinions by Adam Christianson and John Martellaro 2:29 PM, Apr. 20th, 2011
“When you are solving a difficult problem, re-frame the problem so that your solution helps you learn faster.” — Aza Raskin

There is a classic puzzle about a fellow in a rowboat who is rowing down a river and drops his hat overboard. The puzzle involves calculating how long it takes him to turn around and row back to the hat floating in the water. The problem is a lot easier to solve if one changes reference frame and works from the guy in the boat instead of from the shoreline view. It’s an example of how a change of reference frame is often useful for solving a problem. Another example comes from physics. Some problems in electromagnetism are a lot easier to solve in spherical coordinates. In other words, recasting the problem to make it easier to solve is a helpful technique. The quote above for this article extends that idea to not only re-framing, but also doing it in such a way that we learn faster.

It’s that recasting that I want to talk about with respect to Apple’s data centers.
A lot has been written about Apple’s new data center in North Carolina, but no one has been able to put together a coherent picture of what it all means. Most articles wax into lofty notions of a massive data center to deliver a better MobileMe experience, untethered iPads synced to the cloud instead of a PC — or a massive movie databank. And leave it at that.

Apple’s North Carolina Data Center
The problem arises when we start to formulate an idea about just exactly how the data center (and possibly more like the NC center worldwide) would be utilized. For example, if one takes all the assumptions about Apple’s DNA, it’s easier to re-frame the question about what Apple trying to achieve.

Let’s start with some easy analysis about Apple’s competition, Netflix. If Apple intends to out-Netflix the Netflix Corp., then how will Apple convince Hollywood executives to give them rights to a massive movie archive as Netflix CEO Red Hastings has done? (We know that Hollywood executives are alarmed at the prospect of Apple obtaining control over movies in the way Apple seized control of music.) We also know that Hollywood and the networks don’t want to upset the apple cart with the lucrative deals they have with cable and satellite carriers.

We suspect that buying Netflix, with its huge inventory of plastic discs and likely exclusive contracts with Hollywood, isn’t Apple’s style. (That is, Netflix’s contracts might not be inheritable if the company is bought.)

In fact, everywhere we turn, it seems like the problem is insurmountable and in desperate need of reformulation. The whole scenario suggests that we’re asking the wrong questions, making the wrong assumptions, and, worse, not analyzing the problem that Apple faces and imagining a next generation solution.

Seeking an Analogy
A good analogy comes from looking at the music industry and the development of the Apple iPod. The music industry in the 1990s was going strong and was all too happy to sell complete albums on a plastic CD. And we know how much they charged for that piece of plastic which forces us to buy all the songs in the album. It also forced customers into ridiculous collections, bookcases, boomboxes, and awkward CD players. Apple came along with a 140 gram iPod that could hold 1,000 songs and that changed the game completely. The labels’ obsession with money and the status quo blinded them to the next technological step, which was user choice, playlists, and massive storage in your pocket.

Asking a New Set of Questions
Let’s ask some new questions and see where it goes.

1. What if Apple’s analysis of the TV industry has led to the same kind of ground breaking, imaginative solution?
2. What temptations could Steve Jobs lay before Hollywood and the networks that would allow them to maintain the kind of control they want yet lure them into experimenting with Apple at a higher level?
3. How could a massive data center become, essentially, the next (super) iPod?
4. Apple recently made headlines by purchasing 12 petabytes of storage. One of our readers calculated that 12 petabytes would take up about 180 sq ft of floor space. Apple’s data center has more than 500,000 sq ft. We’re talking exabytes of possible expansion. More as storage continues to use less space over the lifetime of the data center. What service could use that kind of storage?

Some Assumptions
Let’s summarize our reasonable assumptions about Apple’s situation.
1. Apple doesn’t want to buy Netflix because it doesn’t want to inherit a mail order business of plastic discs. It may not be able to inherit the movie rights.
2. Apple doesn’t want to buy an ISP like Time Warner or Comcast and inherit the lousy politics, bureaucracy and customer service reputation of these companies.
3. Apple can’t reasonably replace the broadband infrastructure currently in place by telcos and cable companies. Apple would have to spends hundreds of billions, as AT&T has, to build a new, national wireless network. That’s not a good use of Apple’s money.
4. The Apple TV has taught Apple a lot about the home TV industry. It remained a hobby because Apple hadn’t solved the basic problem at hand.
5. Apple doesn’t want to own the newspaper, magazine, book, music and movie industry. Instead, they want a 30 percent cut, a piece of the action, on the delivery of all that content.
6. By the end of 2011, Apple will have 50 million TV sets, called iPads, in customer homes.
Some Guesses

The questions above are a completely different set of questions than we’ve have seen asked, and while we don’t have all the answers, we’ll try to make some educated guesses based on the questions and the assumptions.

First, we note that here are too many fragmented delivery mechanisms owned by different players and which use different technical delivery mechanisms. And each has its own unique library and UI for delivering content. Recall how, in the early 1990s, many of us had cassete players, CD players and VCRs. Now, we have DVDs/Blu-ray, Internet (Hulu, Roku, Apple TV, Boxee, Google) and cable/satellite. Vested interests lure us into buying physical media that’s constantly being made obsolete. Vested interests are keeping the industry from thinking about how to deliver all this content is a new, more convenient and coherent way.

Our chief complaint is that American households are constantly changing between these delivery mechanisms to get a better price for bundled Internet service plus content as they also wrestle with new hardware and pray for better customer service. It would be better to take content out of the equation and reduce the carriers to fast pipes by offering customers a superior content purchase and management experience.

In other words, the problem is not the content. Many movies and TV shows are terrific — once they get delivered. The problem is all the fuss we have to go through to get that content delivered (and stored, and backed up). What we need is a better channel. (For example, who uses Epix? Who has even heard of it?) What Apple could be building is the channel everyone wants to be on.

So, like the iPod, it seems that the key to all this is a simple, easy to use, dependable, customer friendly channel that delivers the content that Hollywood wants to deliver. To do that, Apple needs a modern, capable data center.

For example, here’s how content delivery happens for many people now:
[Comcast (etc), DIRECTV (etc)] -> DVR -> HDTV

Here’s how Apple is slowly introducing an evolutionary new channel. Each step is part of Apple’s plan, but it’s been one step at a time.
Mac (iTunes) -> Apple TV 1G -> HDTV
Apple Cloud -> Apple TV 2G -> HDTV
Apple Cloud -> iOS device (AirPlay) -> Apple TV 2G -> HDTV
Apple Cloud -> iOS device (AirPlay) -> (optionally) HDTV

The last step suggests the elimination of the Apple TV, and that’s why we’ve been hearing about Apple making AirPlay available to the TV makers. (Even so, Apple can keep selling the Apple TV 2G as part of a stopgap household solution.) This evolution could also explain why we’ve heard rumors about Apple making its own TV: to seed customers with an AirPlay capable TV to trigger interest in the technology, not to globally compete with, say, Panasonic and Sony.

The overall idea here is to make the user experience with its family of iOS devices so superior that customers will naturally want to opt for the Apple channel rather than the old, obsolete technologies the cable companies have been delivering.The overall idea here is to make the user experience with its family of iOS devices so superior that customers will naturally want to opt for the Apple channel rather than the old, obsolete technologies the cable companies have been delivering. After all, these companies have been modestly successful delivering bandwidth, but have been terrible at delivering mobile technology devices with modern UIs. With hundreds of millions of iOS devices in consumer hands in the near future, customers will naturally opt for these devices rather than the sorry, disjointed services, UI and equipment the cable companies have been able to muster.

Apple hopes the content delivery services of the bandwidth suppliers will dry up and blow away thanks to customer demand for Apple iOS devices and technologies. At the very least, Apple will surge to the top when it comes to customer choice for delivery, making it very difficult for Hollywood and the studios to avoid doing a staggeringly large business with Apple.

The associated step is to point out to Hollywood and the studios that links to this content are everywhere. Every movie, every song, every book has a URL. The embedding of those URLs is everywhere in the web. Apple has 200 million customers with credit cards on file who are always just two clicks away from buying content from their iPhones and iPads, etc. That’s the leverage Steve Jobs will have, along with the insame popularity of the iPad, to lure content developers onto the Apple channel.

Apple will have bypassed the content from the cable companies without building its own network. And Apple gets 30 percent of all the action.
________________________________________
John Martellaro is a senior scientist and author. A former U.S. Air Force officer, he has worked for NASA, White Sands Missile Range, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Apple Computer. During his five years at Apple, he worked as a Senior Marketing Manager for science and technology, Federal Account Executive, and High Performance Computing Manager. His interests include alpine skiing, SciFi, astronomy, and Perl. John lives in Denver, Colorado.
You can follow John on Twitter at twitter.com/jmartellaro.

One year later / iOS4

Michael Jackson died one year ago on Jun 25. Reportedly, a billion dollar were made of him since his death. People flocked to buy his music, saw his movie 'This's it!', etc. I sometimes disprise the usage of dollar figures in terms of measuring the influence of art. However, I understand that it is one of the most popular and efficient way to gauge the impact of an artists. Anyway, what matter is that a lot of younger people kinda discover and enjoy MJ's performance since his death. I guess his body of works will certainly stay and I can't wait to hear the backlog of unreleased tracks that MJ had sung throughout his career, which is rumored to be released later this year. As I wiki that, I was so surprise the number of unreleased tracks that have been confirmed for their existence. Anyway, just gotta stay tune for that.

Since I downloaded the iOS4 just an hour after it was released two days ago and got that installed in my iPhone 3GS. I just love this upgrade very much, particularly the multi-tasking and folder management features. Also, it has since triggered my interest in discovery of more apps in AppStore as I now have more space to install apps on my phone. However, the bad effect is that I'm very closed to hit the monthly limit of my free MB usage which is a total of 200MB for both upload and download. I found that to be ample in past months, but I've already reached 150MB today and still have 10 days to go before next reset. Gee, that's something I gotta watch out. Otherwise, I may have to upgrade my service plan in order to avoid paying hefty charges of every extra MB. Other than that, I'm happy with iOS4 so far. As a side track, Apple really deserves its success in iPhone. The most popular mobile phone in my previous and current workplace is iPhone, so does my wife's. With such intuitive and simple UI, it is so easy for most folks to learn its navigation and once you got use to it and hook on it, it is just too difficult for them to leave this platform to learn another. As I blog separately before, only Android will have a chance to edge iOS4. Others? forget it. Also, Apple is cloning its success in iPhone with iPad, I think its head start so far has been very successful - 3 million units sold in 80 days. Just 6-9 months ahead of any Android tablet release really make a big different. Kudos to Apple! Though I've yet to convince myself to buy an iPad anytime soon, I can't rule out my purchase in 1 or 2 years down the road, just like my purchase of my iPhone. Just wait to see what more is up in Steve Jobs' sleeves in next 2 years then.

Is this the future of Music?

I came across this clip today on Youtube. I don't know about it man.....She is cute and talent, but I don't know if I wanna pay to see a concert in future if musicians in future are all doing what she has done. I love iPhone....playing music with it is a nice gimmick....but....well, it is better you see it yourself.....

Korean Beyonce....

Korean Lady Gaga....

Lady Gaga

As a ‘veteran’ of music fan, I’ve glad to be able to live through the modern pop music era with the monumental event of the birth of MTV. I enjoy music video as a natural metamorphosis of music in the form of visual elaboration and interpretation of lyrics, usually with the aid of artist performance. In terms of pop female artists, it is no doubt that Madonna is the Queen or Mother of all. With her as the pioneer, dozens of follow up (Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Christina Agurlera, Kerry Clarkson, Beyonce, etc) have been blossoming along the way in the last 20+years of so. They all have their ups and downs, nonetheless, the continuous pop-up of these Madonna protégés definitely show that how successful Madonna’s formula of success is.

Few years ago, when Madonna performed on an award show with Britney and Christina as guests, it was deemed that Madonna had kinda ‘officially’ passed the baton to them. Of course, Madonna didn’t retire since then and had still stolen all the thunder in her every high-profile appearance. With the relative ‘tanking’ of both Britney and Christina, it is kinda given Beyonce the crown of pop female artist in Madonna’s absence. Then, in 2008, here came Miss. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta aka Lady Gaga.

I didn’t pay much attention to Lady Gaga till last year. For me, I thought she is just another Pink back then. I listened to her albums – Fame and Fame Monster. She sings alright, the music is of the genre of electro pop with some sonic engineering. Beats and rhythm are catchy. However, my experience as a pop music fan told me that her music will come and go, just like the others. So far, she sold more than 10 million albums and won awards as well, so far so good. I’m no social critic, but her surge in popularity does raise some eyebrows of the generations older than her and her fans.

I can’t dissect how she gains her popularity. Music wise, she is ok. I think she gained her fame above the others from her outrageous appearances and images. Those smoky eyes makeup while she met Queen Elizabeth II, the lobster face mask? I don’t know what to call it, etc. She reminded me of a female version of the young David Bowie and Elton John. I’ve never really caught a glimpse of her music video until last night on Youtube. The debut of her new song with Beyonce – Telephone with a MV of 9+ minutes long was the first time I really see what kind of image she is presenting in her performance. Well, I’m an open-minded person. I think for my age, her image and performance are absolutely fine with me in view of the freedom of artistic expression and all that. Certainly, parental guidance should be granted to children for watching her. Actually, after seeing Britney’s womanizer video, Lady Gaga’s outfit in Telephone doesn’t really shock me. To be honest, she is not pretty. To me, she looks like to me a female version of Marilyn Manson. Provocative? Yes. Attractive? Definitely Not.

I would say that Lady Gaga’s image is definitely a further development building upon the success of Madonna. Unlike Britney or the others who are more like copycats that can’t really exceed what Madonna has done, Lady Gaga certainly further push the envelope. Does it a ‘good’ further development or not? Well, since I don’t see anyone has push to another direction, I can’t say she is good or not. However, I’m not sure why I just can’t see Madonna would do the same things that Lady Gaga does. Maybe, I think what Lady Gaga does are a bit ‘dirty’. I’m not sure if that’s the right word, but it is like…you can act dirty but still retain a certain level of ‘grace’, but Lady Gaga to me is downright dirty without that ‘grace’. Perhaps, it has something to do with herself that she is just not pretty.

Also, with the envelope that Lady Gaga has been pushed so far, it is certainly outrageous. I’m not sure how far she can further push. If she is going back, she will most likely cover some grounds that Madonna has already been there done that. Certainly, younger generation of fans might have not seen that before, so she will still be fine. However, she would not be considered as a trail brazer in terms of pop persona. Nevertheless, after view her video, though that hasn’t converted me as a fan of her, I will definitely check out her next chapter down the road for the sake of entertainment.

The Legacy of Michael Jackson....continue...

Since MJ’s death last week, everytime I put on my headphone of my ipod. I would listen to his songs. It is weird that we don’t pay attention to someone when they are alive than after they are gone. Yes, I’m a fan of MJ, I also a fan of many musicians as well. That’s why my limited music- listening time have always been allocated among many artists. I think I’m the biggest fan of MJ’s music during the time of his Thriller and Dangerous albums. Perhaps I had more free time to listen to music back in those days. Anyway, during the past weeks, as I listened to his songs more, I begin to appreciate more of his songs than before. For those fast tunes, those dances beat, I love time for sure. But even for the slower tunes, and particularly the lyrics, which was usually overlooked by me, I began to pay more attention, and I have renewed a deeper appreciation of his music and talent. There was a song in his Dangerous album, called ‘Gone too soon’. The title of which really fit the tragic end of his life. I usually skipped that song before, but now, I just found out how good that song is.

With the recent flood of news and comment about what he was planning to do, just full of ‘what ifs’, it seems so sad….I’m not a shrink to comment on his mental state and all that, also there is no way I can understand the truth about his real life, what he had been through as a person day to day. However, I am entitled to my opinion that he is a genius with artistic talent. He is a king on the stage and in studio, but he is tragic figure in many other aspects in his life.

Of course, with his passing, there will still be news about his life and death in the coming weeks and months. As a passive fan like me, I don’t really care too much about how much money his children or his family gonna get, what is the cause of death, who’s gonna be blamed and all that? Cos, he is gone. That’s it, just as his never materialized concert’s title as. For us, what matter is his music (and his visual performance as well). That would have two aspects of it: the songs that alright out, and those that will be released in years to come.

As most fans do, I will definitely pay attention to more of his music in the vault. Though, it is believed that MJ had chosen to release those songs that he thought were the best in his album, it doesn’t mean that those in the vault were bad at all. They are just hidden gems that pending to be heard and I’m sure many of them could be very good as well. We will just have to wait and hear…

Just like other past icons: Elvis, Beatles, etc. They are already bigger than life and become part of our culture. I’m sure MJ are joining them. Fans of Elvis and Beatles are largely older. Yes, every now and then, we would watch news and see eight or ten years old kids would dress like Elvis and singing Jailhouse Rock, etc. However, the commotion from MJ’s fans would be even larger in years to come. Cos, his fans are younger, more diverse, and have a bigger base. With the abundant records of his songs and performance, and the aids of visual recording and technology, he will have a wider and deeper impression to more fans to come in future. When I listened to his Billie Jean, and Beat it last week, the beat and rhythm doesn’t get old though they were recorded more than 25 years old. It really proves that his music has been tested of time. I think the aura of his works will stay for decades to come. Cos, in the world today, it becomes very hard to have artists that can achieve and get that big these days. The closest one is Madonna, who got famous around the same time as MJ and often viewed as able to achieve a female version of MJ. Other than her, who else? Nobody! Not Britney, Justin, Eminem….I think as a fan of pop music, we do all thank God for MJ for all he had done for the world of entertainment and culture.

Michael Jackson R.I.P.(1958 - 2009)

Whenever celebrity dies, especially those of larger than life figures, it always invokes the ‘mental stamp’ that we will remember where were we when we first heard of the news. When Princess Diana died, I got that through TV news at night when I was reading novels with TV on. 10 days later when Mother Teresa died, I was at work and got that news via CNN.com. Today, I learned Michael Jackson died on news.google.com this morning at work.

I was shock by the news. Well, that’s normal, cos he was not known with long term sickness like cancer or something. So, at the age of 50, he was reportedly died of cardio arrest. As of this moment, the exact cause of death is still pending for examination.

Michael Jackson is definitely one of my favor entertainers. His rise of fame basically took place during my teenage years. Yes, I owned a cassette of ‘Thriller’, one of the first few American pop music album that I listened to back then, along with Billy Joel’s Innocent Man album and few others. His dance move was simply amazing. I didn’t know people can dance like that with beats and rhythm. Before him, my impression of dancing to modern music was those images of folks in disco dancing along Saturday Night Fever or some ABBA’s songs. Namely, simply body swinging left and right, back and forth, nothing fancy. Michael Jackson changed all that. He even made zombie looks cool with his Thriller video. Of course, subsequent facial and skin color changes were unexpected as well. However, to audience of his performance and listener of his music, including me, those are not important stuff, let alone other allegations, or scandals of his private life. What matter to me was his performance, whether his dance move still got the groove or whether his songs still catchy, and they all did.

Well, his death became another footnote of our growth and maturity. It just reminded us that time always on the move and history has been making all along. I think artistically, Michael Jackson has done pretty much most he could. It would be close to impossible to overtake what he had done for the world of entertainment, not even by himself if he would still be alive. I think for audience like us, all we can do is to listen to his songs and watch his performance back in his hey days every now and then. For me, I will definitely show his videos to my son when he is older, to show him that there used to be a great entertainer called Michael Jackson that his dad had admired very much.

My all-time favorite top 10 songs

If I can only bring 10 songs with me before being sent to desert or an island by myself for the rest of my life. These 10 would be it. They are not in any order. Just my all tiime favorites.

Only An Ocean Away - Sarah Brightman

Nothing Compare To You - Sinead O'Connor

Over the Rainbow - Eva Cassidy

Angel - Sarah Mclachlan

You look so fine - Garbage

One - U2

This Love - Craig Armstrong (featuring Elizabeth Fraser)

Hotel California - The Eagles

Here with Me - Dido

Road - Portishead

Classical Music

I've a very broad taste in music. I would say, other than Drum&Bass, Peking Opera, Japanese Opera and Country Music. I listen to pretty much all kinds. However, I think there are certain types of music that would need 'effort' to appreciate. Classical music is one of them. Music has been composed throughout history, those that can still remain to be popular or recognize certain are the best of its kind in many ways. As the composition, structure, and interpretation of Classical music is so different from the 'modern music'. It takes time to 'learn' to appreciate.

One of my little 'regret' is that I don't have time to really get into the learning part of Classical music. Yes, there are so many popular names, popular tunes in the modern media - movies, TV series, or commercials that Classical music has been living among us all the time. However, in order to know how to appreciate it, I think it should require some readings of the history of the Classical music. Namely, knowing who is who, who composed what, who affected whom, etc. Also, I think being a beginner of Classical music learner is like learning wine-tasting. It takes time and effort to learn 'slowly'. I'm interested in how those classical musics are composed. How to they broken down into pieces and how they links together. Which instruments play what roles. Also, the interesting part will be learning how to compare and appreciate the different 'interpretation' of the same piece of music, then we will know how one is more 'advanced' than the others. Besides all the technical things, certain Classical music is piece of art. It shows human feeling. How does the composer transfer its emotion into the music and how the musicians put his/her grain of salts in it is not easy to tell the difference unless you know more the background of the music itself. Those knowledge can help a person to learn how to 'feel' the music in a more profound way.

After expressing what I think of Classical music, someone may think that I know something....actually I think I'm saying how I think, but not what I know. I wish I know, just don't have the time to put my belief into practice. Don't know what I said really make sense to those who really 'know' Classical music. Hopefully, they won't think that I'm just bullshitting! Ha ha!....

懷念家駒

As I don't have the patience to write in Chinese, that's why it is sometimes hard for me to talk about some of my views on Chinese stuff, like Chinese movies, music, books, etc. However, there is a Chinese band that has an English name that I love dearly since I first listen their music. The band's name is 'Beyond'. The soul of Beyond - 家駒 died in 1993 at the peak of their popularity. It has been 15 years since his departure. His music never get old to my ears.

Recently, his brother 家強 released a new CD of demo from his vault of 家駒's incompleted songs and the refurnished version with lyrics and full production. Even though there are only 5 songs. I can hear that his new (old) songs are still full of live. If I don't talk about this latest release. Just Beyond's songs that I have in my possession (I think I own maybe 80-90% of songs that they ever release). They are good enough for me to enjoy for the rest of my life.

Though I fully respect Beyond in the post-家駒 era, 3 guys had stood on their own for 7 more years before they separate. They did have some very good materials released during their time together. However, the time that I still miss the most is when 家駒 was still alive. Cos, he is the 'soul' of the band. When he was alive, 80%+ of their songs were written by him, such a remarkable source of music creation. Actually, the more I know about 家駒, particularly after his death, the more I could appreciate the songs that he wrote. I would compare him to John Lennon. A modern poet with such as unique view in music, live and our world in such a narrow-viewed, money-minded local showbiz environment. His music is like a spring pouring fresh water on surrounding mud.

I don't have idol, there are many musicians that I like very much, both in local music scene or foreign. However, I don't think there is a local band/musician's music affect me more than Beyond/家駒. They wrote ALL their music in their 20 years together, no other bands/singers have done that in local scene with such an accomplishment. Their songs did have something to say, they have messages, wide range of them, not just about love among lovers, but love to parents, to children, anti-war, equality, youth anger, social injustice, Nelson Mandella, separation, criticism of China, homeless people, etc. The more I listen to 家駒's music, the more I think about what if he is still alive, how much more good music will he be able to release. So much 'what if'.....

Among all the great dead musicians/artists, 家駒 is definitely the one that I wish he could live the most. Died at an age of only 31, he is definitely another example of the so-called 'The Great always die young'. He is forever young in most of his fans' heart and his music does able to stand the test of time. His songs are always on my iPod's active playlist. It has been that way since I got my iPod, and it will continue to be that way on and on.........

New CDs

Who will buy CDs these days? I used to buy 50+ new/used CDs every year in my college days. But now, I don't do that anymore. Cos, (1) I got other priorities, just don't have the time to dig out new and exciting stuffs to entertain my ears like I used to do. (2) Rather spend money on other more important things. (3) Generally speaking, new music are not much better than old stuff. It is hard to get excited on those so called 'new' stuffs from an old folk like myself who has listened to different types of music for decades, let alone that I need to pay for it (4) Download!!! what else? ^_^ Nonetheless, I still love to listen to music, but there are so much free stuff out there, why bother going to a store to pay for the physical stuff. I only listen to my iPod these days anyway.

Still....there are exceptions every now and then....and lately that happens. I bought 6 new CDs in the last month or so. There are Portishead – Third, Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree, Sarah Brightman – Symphony, Moby – Last Night, Morcheeba – Dive Deep, and Katherine Jenkin - Rejoice. To be honest, they are all loaded in my iPod now. I don't think I will listen to the CD itself often. However, iTune doesn't operate here yet. Also, I was not known to any downloads for them before I really wanted to have them. So, I went to get them from HMV. Nevertheless, these are musicians that I really like (there are others as well). I don't feel bad about these purchases. I own their CDs before, except Katherine Jenkin. So, I know what to expect from them. I've not got time to listen to them all yet. Just piece here and there when I've time such as on transportation. So far, none of them has been found to be disappointing and I think that they are all recommendable depending on your tastes. Anyway, I like them all......

Music Appreciation

I love music. I don’t sing and don’t know how to play an instrument. But I’ve to say that listen to music is really something that I love very much. There is no good or bad music, it is just a matter whether you like it or not. I think there are only two kind of music, one is with human voice, and the other is without. For me, I like both, it really depends. For songs, I don’t care too much about lyrics in most cases, certainly there are exceptions, like some raps or some songs that has great and meaningful lyrics. That’s why I have such a broad taste of music, regardless what language the songs are in. I care the most is how the songs make me feel, what kind of mood that the songs put me in. That’s why I may listen to certain type of music because I feel certain way, but sometimes I would choose to listen to certain type of music to make me feel certain way.

I don’t have idols but I do have some favorite musicians. I care the most is whether they make great music, unlike many folks who will care what kind of person the musicians are. I think music is an art, good artists are either gifted or molded through time. That’s why there are prodigy like Mozart. In modern times, many great musicians are not normal people, they may be ill, crazy in some ways, addicted in drugs, or been doing times. I think these kinds of ups and downs in life can mold a musician to produce masterpieces. Great music has to come from their heart and mind, not exactly by commercial calculation, or plagiarism.

For the musician that I like, there are so many of them, I can cite a few of different genres.
Classical – Mozart
Hiphop – Enimen, Wyclef Jean, Fugees, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z etc.
R&B – Michael Jackson, Sade.
Pop – Madonna, George Michael, Justin Timberlake, Dido
Triphop – Portishead, Massive Attack, Morcheeba, Goldfrapp, Craig Armstrong
Dance – Faithless, Moby
Rock – U2, Garbage, Cranberries, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Beatles, Santana, Eric Clapton, Prince, Mark Knopfler
Softrock – Sarah Mclaughan, Tori Amos, Carpenters
Metal – Linkin Park, Metallica
World music – Enya, Sissel, Kitaro, Secret Garden, Sarah Brightman, Katherine Jenkins
Jazz – Mile Davis, Diana Krall, Sarah Vaughan,
Blues – BB king, Eric Clapton
Etc, etc.

I think I listen to pretty much all types of music, as my old CD collection over a thousand and current 10xGB of MP3 collection has shown. However, there are still fill type of music that I just can’t get into, such as Country music like (Willie Nelson, Alan Jackson, Alabama, etc, can stand the wait they sing, kinda boring), Japanese Opera (can stand the tone), traditional Indian music (the monotone of string sound), and Drum & Bass (the beat is so boring, even worse than elevator music or call-waiting music).

One thing that I would like to do in my spare time if I have, is to find a book or two to read more about Classical music and Jazz music, so I can learn their structure and know how to appreciate them more besides the natural feeling that I have torwards them.

Portishead

Portishead, is the name of town in Bristol Britain. It is a also the name of a band which was the pioneer of a new music genre called Trip-hop back in the mid 1990s. I was first introduced to this band when their second album ‘Portishead’ was released in 1997. My ex-coworker Nelson who was also very into music back then swap my ‘Homogenic’CD from Bjork. I didn’t pay too much attention during my first listening, but I remember vividly during a long rainy evening while I was looking for parking spots cruising around in Harvard Square. My mood of loneliness mixed with Portishead’s music, it affected me deeply. Since then, I listen to that album wholeheartedly and bought the CD my own.

Then, I began to search more about the group, just like what I did with all the music that I like. I found from other people’s comment that their debut album, ‘Dummy’ was even better than their second one. Dummy won the highest music prize of UK, the Mercury award, in 1994. I instantly bought that CD and just can’t put that down. The music is so unique and the group’s vocal – Beth Gibbon’s voice is just so sad but mesmerizing that it made me dive into the Trip-hop genre for almost the next few years. Certainly, there are so very good Trip-hop groups out there, like Massive Attack, Morcheeba, Goldfrapp and others. But, Portishead has always a special place in my heart.

Fast forward to this year, it has been TEN years since they release anything new. Just a hunch to check Amazon, and surprisingly found out that their third album ‘Third’ is gonna be release in April this year. Oh…MY….GOD….That’s amazing! I know I’m gonna buy that CD though what I did most these days are downloading. I just have to get the CD to show some support to them, though I doubt that they will know or they need it. I’ll just buy that CD, rip it and listen to that in my ipod. I’m so excited about it, hopefully they won’t disappoint me.

Evolution of my hobby - Music Listening

Listening to music has been my interest since I was a kid. When I was in my junior high, I spent most of my pocket money on 2 things: comic books/music magazines and pre-recorded cassette tapes. I love music since my early age: theme songs from TV series, cantopops from Sam Hui, Alan Tam and Leslie Cheung, foreign pops from Michael Jackson, Madonna, British bands, etc. When I was young and poor, I really cherish the 'bullets' that I had in my pocket, so I had to choose this cassette over that cassette whenever I found there are multiple targets in record store. LP was more expensive and took too much space. It was difficult to hide that from my parents, cos I didn't want them to know how much I spent on this kind of hobby which is not financially approved. As I had a very large urge and drive to possess all the music that I like, so I spent a lot of time to acquire them, especially when I began to be able to afford them after I began to work. I remember that when I was still a student, I spent a lot of time to copy CDs to cassettes or cassettes to cassettes to create my favorite collection. When I began to work, I went to CD shopping like crazy, because I think that CD sounds better, more durable, and it is something that I will enjoy with repeat listening. So, I spent a lot of time to track down the CDs contain music that I used to own in cassettes when I was a kid. As a result, my CD collection grew non-stop. As time goes by, my taste of music was getting so broad that, I could say that, other than opera and country, I listened to almost all genres of music and possess at least one of two CDs in most genres. Certainly, for my favorite musicians and artists, I own like dozens of their albums, also include some CD singles and compilations. Well, I did enjoy owning those CDs and listening to them. Whenever I discovered some great CDs from some musicians that were new to me either from friends or by I, I would be very excited, especially when I was alone during my days in the States. I don’t know exactly how many CDs do I own, during my few previous house-moving, my heaviest items are my boxes of CDs. I guess I've own over 700 CDs.

However, 2 changes have tremendous impact on my hobby in the last 2 years.

The first one is getting married. Even before Cora and I got married, we had spent so much time to prepare this and that. Certainly, when we were together go out, dining, movie-going, shopping, etc. I couldn't listen to music. When I got home, I do have other interest like surfing internet, reading news, listening to radio, watching movies, etc. They took away my time of listening to music. Then, I got married and living with Cora. We don't have similar music taste and there are other priorities between us, so I don't really play much of my music collection at home......

The second change began with my Ipod. Thanks to Cora, she gave me an Ipod per my request as my birthday gift more than 1 year ago. It is a 5G 30GB Ipod. I love it so much; I spent a lot of my time loading my CDs in Itune and load them on my Ipod. Well, you might think that I would listen to more music........Ha.....it is not exactly true.....cos there is something very attractive.....called 'podcast'...after I discover podcast, I have been download them every week, podcast from NPR, Businessweek, CNET, CMM, RTHK, National Geographic, etc. They are my favorites. So, with the limited time that I listen to my Ipod (mostly to/from home/office), I listen to podcast 80% of the time. So, music just become for filling in scrap time, like....if my podcasts are 8 minutes long each, and I only have 2 minutes left between last podcast to my office, then I will switch to 'shuffle' to play a song to fill the time gap….

So, what happen to my current feeling/attitude about music. There are 2 aspects:

First, I collect digital format of music file like crazy if you know what I mean. There are so many 'generous' people in the world that like to 'offer' and 'share' with the rest. I love to be a beneficiary of their generosity. As this format is different from CD, since it is so easy to get, I do admit that I don't cherish the music as much as I was in the old days. As a result, my collection of music in my hard drive counts in thousands, total size in tens of GB! Honestly, I really don't know how many of them I've ever listened to before....

Secondly; I almost stop buying CDs, except in rare occasions. I used to buy like 50+ Cds a year in the States, now I may only buy 5 at most in a year, only those that I couldn't find 'anywhere'. So, finally the growth of my CD collection finally halts.

As the aftermath of this, now I began to feel the 'pain' of owning so many CDs, especially since my latest apartment move. Sometimes, I told myself, 'IF' I know there is something called 'Ipod' back then, I wouldn't spend so much money on CDs, now they don't worth much and it is waste to throw them away. Considering that, moving them and storing them is a pain (when you need space for other things, like baby stuff), and I don't have much time to listen to them anyway. So, I try to comfort myself that 'maybe' I can share my CDs with my son in future when he discovers what a collection his dad has. He may cherish them as treasure. However, come to think of it, he may disses his dad's CD as antique and with the way technology goes, MP3 is the way to go now, God knows what new format will come up when he grows older. So, I can only think that my CD collection is part of my youth and good old days. Hopefully, I will continue to have space to store them, and someday they will be become valuable somehow.

My Favorite Albums (Western)

In some other people’s blogs, I’ve come across something like ‘Desert Island Albums’ or similar names which are really about the favorite albums of the bloggers who claims that if they are trapped in desert or on remote island for the rest of life, they would love to bring those CDs with them….I just wonder where the hell you get the power (AC/DC) to listen to those CDs anyway after batteries are dry up…

Certainly, in these days and age, people are downloading individual songs like crazy. However, artists still release albums as CDs are not yet dead. I think albums still have its place in music, as artists usually consider an album as a project, especially those concept albums that many western musicians produce. To me they are like a nice salad, with different taste and texture, but somehow with a theme that linked together and the music flow smoothly throughout the albums. It is very much unlike many (but not all) local Hong Kong ‘so-called’ artists who only release album by tossing a mix of songs together, but they are ‘no-salad’, just imagine a salad bowl with spoiled fish, uncooked chicken, with watermelon, lots of pepper, and dumped all shits together….they just make you sick.

Anyway, it is actually very difficult for me to choose (out of 700-800 Western CDs that I own), the following are my favorite CDs (not in any order) of Western music (certainly, I will share my choices of other music in future):

Achtung Baby – U2
I didn’t really like it very much at the beginning, but ‘One’ is really my all time favorite song from U2. ‘Love is blindness’ is tragically good’. ‘Until The End Of The World’ and ‘Mysterious Ways’ continue the band’s guitar riff tradition. Though the band has many good songs in their other albums, but ‘One’ really wins me over.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wpfyxq95ldde

No Angel – Dido
I started listen to Dido even before she became famous. I used to listen to her brother’s group – Faithless, and like their music quite a lot. Then, I checked out the guest vocal of their albums and found Dido. I bought that CD in 1999 and love it upon the first listening. Almost all songs in the album are good. Actually, I like this CD more than her follow up album ‘Life for Rent’ which is more or less an imitation of the first one, but not as good.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:w9fuxqtkldfe

Space Between Us – Craig Armstrong
I get to know this musician through Massive Attack. In their CD – ‘Protection’, Craig Armstrong played few songs and I like them a lot. He is particularly good in mixing sound of string instruments and down-tempo electronics which create musical atmosphere that fit in many film noirs. I think that’s the reason why he did quite a few movie soundtracks. There are only 2 tracks in ‘Space Between Us’that contain vocal and both of them are great: ‘This Love’ with Elizabeth Fraser from the disbanded group – Cocteau Twins is absolutely stunning! And the other lesser known song ‘Let’s go out tonight’ by a man’s voice is also very charming. This album is very ‘moody’, I would think.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:axfexqljldje

Kind of Blue – Mile Davis
I bought this CD just because of the name of Miles Davis who I then knew not much except that he is supposed to be one of the greatest Jazz artists of all time. I didn’t listen to this CD very often except in few occasions when Cora was in my home (before we got married), She doesn’t share much of my broad taste of music, and she is not much into song with vocal neither. So, music CDs became the natural choices. She found many classical or new age music ‘sleepy’, and I was surprisingly found out that she was ok with this Mile Davis CD. Actually, I began to listen to this CD more in later days and strangely like to put this on when I’m mopping the floor. That’s weird, but hey I like it, that’s all that matter.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3ifrxqegld0e

So Far... The Best of Sinead O'Connor – Sinead O’Connor
Sinead O'Connor is one of my favorite singers; because of her, I began my interest in Irish music and musicians. Actually, the first live concert that I paid to see when I was in the States was her concert. Her voice and the emotion that she put in her songs is simply captivating. I like most of her songs, so I’m a bit greedy to pick one of her compilation as a favorite, but most of the songs in the album are very good. My favorite got to be ‘You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart’ written by Bono from U2. Actually, I own the CD single of this song with different versions. Other songs like ‘Don't Cry For Me Argentina’, ‘Troy’, ‘Success Has Made A Failure Of Our Home’ and ‘Fire On Babylon’ are all wicked good.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wpfpxqrjldde

Dummy – Portishead
This album was release in 1994, but I didn’t know this group until 1997 when I borrowed Portishead’s second CD from Nelson Rocha, a colleague of mine. At first, I thought this band’s music was weird, but I remember I really fell in love with their music during a rainy evening when I was listening to their songs and was driving by myself in Harvard Square trying to find a parking space. I paid a lot of attention to the music, combining with the environment and atmosphere at that time; somehow I found that combination of environment and my feeling….so memorable. I couldn’t explain exactly how…but the mood and everything is just…..deep. Then, I began to find out more about this band afterwards and everyone on the web saying that their first album: Dummy is even better. Then, I bought it and listen to it….WOW, it is an amazing CD, the sound is sooo…..unique, Beth Gibbon’s voice is so eerie and sad which make the songs so depressingly good. Most songs in Dummy are great, particularly ‘Roads’, it is one of my all-time favorite song. Others like ‘Wandering Star’, ‘It’s a fire’, ‘Sour Time’, ‘Glory Box’…..just perfect. I don’t need to skip any song on this CD.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:hifixqthldde

Stars: The Best of the Cranberries, 1992-2002 – the Cranberries
Out of the favorite CDs that I mentioned here, this one.….I actually don’t own. Then, how come I claim that this is my favorite? It is because I love the Cranberries very much. I own ALL of their albums and this one is a compilation of their best songs, so I choose this one instead. I like them so much so that actually, I have seen their concert….twice!: one in Boston and one in Hong Kong. I first heard of the Cranberries…..nope not from Faye Wong’s Chinese cover version of ‘Dream’, but from my friend Edward who happened to have their first CD. Certainly, I began to like them, who just happen to be another Irish band. Dolories’voice is powerful, considering her small physique. My favorites are ‘Zombie’, ‘Ridiculous Thoughts’, ‘Just My Imagination’, ‘Promise’, ‘Salvation’, etc.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fifixq8aldae

Absolute Garbage – Garbage
Similar to the Cranberries, I also don’t own this compilation, but I own most of their albums. When I was in the States, though I didn’t go to as many concerts as I wanted to, Garbage’s concert in Rhode Island got to be my all time favorite concert. While standing all the way in the concert to watch the band playing in a club during a cold winter night, I had a great time there with Nelson, his g-f (forgot her name), Helen, and Kathleen. People were moshing, jumping and raising their hands, etc. So natural hight! Lead singer, Shirley Manson’s voice was simply powerful. I still vividly remember her skin was actually very silky like 10 feet away from me. I remember how much I enjoy the gig that they play most of their hit songs in their first and second albums. My favorites from this band are ‘Only when it rains’, ‘Milk’, ‘Push it’, ‘#1 Crush’, and ‘You look so fine’, etc.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fnfrxzr5ldte

Eden – Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman was introduced to me by my friend Nelson Tam. The first CD that I owned from Sarah is ‘Dive’. She is the first soprano that I know, with such a wonderful voice, how can I resist. Also, I think that her CDs really well-meshed her opera training voice and electronics synthesizer programming together, very good crossovers of classical singing and pop. I own quite a few of her CDs, but Eden is my favorite. Songs that I like include ‘Dust In The Wind’, ‘Deliver Me’, ‘Il Mio Cuore Va (My Heart Will Go On, From 'Titanic')’, ‘Scene D'Amour’, and ‘Only An Ocean Away’.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:anfoxqejldfe

Big Calm – Morcheeba
I get to know Morcheeba when I was very into the trip-hop music when I was in the States. I think this CD was introduced by my friend Helen who was also into this type of music at that time. There were many so called trip-hop groups, like Massive Attack, Portishead, Mono, etc. But, in terms of trip-hop album that I listened to most often, besides Dummy, it got to be this one. It is not as dark as Dummy, but the voice of the female lead of Morcheeba is so sultry that it just makes you feel soothing when you listen to her songs. My favorite songs are ‘Part of the Process’, ‘The music that we hear’, ‘Blindford’, etc.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:kxfyxqljldae

Certainly, these 10 albums are by no mean the only ones that I like, there are #11, 12, 13, etc that I would really love to recommend to anyone who seriously like music. Maybe, I will talk about that more in future. Enough said for today.