Recently Taiwan held its Golden Melody Awards, which is the Taiwanese equivalent of the Grammies. I have to admit I haven’t been following current popular music in Taiwan closely because I’ve been too busy researching the older stuff. I was familiar with many of the artists and musicians nominated, but there were many I didn’t know as well. I have the albums that several of the aboriginal artists were nominated for, and I’ve heard some of the stuff that was nominated in other categories, but not really enough to pass judgment on most of the awards, though I can recommend the albums by Suming (舒米恩), Ado' Kaliting Pacidal (阿洛．卡力亭．巴奇辣), Sangpuy (桑布伊), Takanow (達卡鬧) and Kao Chou Ching (拷秋勤), though I've only heard a few songs from the latter two's albums. When I have the chance, I will listen to more of the nominated music (and hopefully at least some of the better music that didn’t get nominated), but until I do so, I can’t really say if the ones who won are the ones I would have given the awards to.
However, the little bit that I’ve seen of the award ceremonies and related reports and commentary have recalled to mind some general issues about these music awards, and for that matter those in other countries, such as the Grammies in the US. For instance, one ignorant reporter named 陳于嬙 complained about too much of the ceremonies featuring “non-mainstream” artists and claimed that the ceremony only got interesting when pop idol Jolin Tsai won an award. This reminds me of complaints in the past from some fans when the awards were won by less well-known performers, instead of the usual pop superstars. What people like this fail to understand is that the point of music awards is to recognize the best music, not the most popular. Of course which one of a given batch of songs or albums is the best is always going to be somewhat subjective, but it is possible to objectively show that many mainstream pop songs are highly derivative and unoriginal, and so not deserving of recognition as the best in their field, no matter how popular they are. In any case, when it comes to judging the relative merits of different songs, albums, or artists, it is necessary to listen with an open mind, rather than dismissing some music out of hand because it is not “mainstream”. Anyone who does that isn’t qualified to have an opinion on the awards and they certainly shouldn’t be paid to write reports on them.
This year’s Golden Melody Awards were also notable for numerous artists taking the opportunity to express their opinions on various social issues. Several artists expressed their opposition to nuclear power, and when the award for Best Aboriginal Singer was given out, all the nominees went onstage together and Sangpuy (桑布伊), the winner, gave a speech in which he talked about several issues of concern to the aboriginal people of the Taidong area, such as the Taidong government’s attempt to move the graves of his people to make way for commercial development, the use of the island of Lanyu to dump nuclear waste, and the building of a resort on one of the best beaches in the Taidong area despite local opposition. His fellow nominees held signs with slogans relating to these issues while he spoke. Many people commented positively on their actions, but others, like the same idiot reporter mentioned above, complained that award ceremonies were not the place for political activism. While there are reasonable arguments both for and against an artist incorporating a lot of political activism into their music, it has common for artists and actors at award ceremonies such as the Grammies and the Academy Awards to raise political and social issues that concern them in their acceptance speeches, and there is no reason for Taiwan to be any different. This is all the more true for aboriginal artists such as these nominees from the Taidong area. While most Taiwanese are aware of the nuclear issue, many don’t know anything about what is going on in Taidong. If your home was being ruined by out of control development and bad government policies, then of course you would seize such a great opportunity to publicize your plight.
The article in which the reporter made these ridiculous criticisms irritated me enough that I intended to leave a comment. However, like most other news websites, this one requires you to register in order leave a comment. I wasn’t interested in registering, so instead I’m pasting my comment below. It’s in Chinese (probably less than perfect, though at least understandable, Chinese), but the main points are the same as those discussed above.
這個記者真是無知，還講「反核、拆美麗灣及捍衛東海岸等訴求數度出現在金曲獎的紅毯及舞台上，把紅毯當成凱達格蘭大道，把舞台視為宣示場合，保護台灣、訴求環保的立意良好，卻忘記對本應滌淨心靈、超越政治的音樂殿堂的尊重。」這種話。如果有人來摧毀妳的家鄉，難道你不會全力反對，用每一次發言機會讓人知道這個事情嗎？美國、日本長久一來有藝人用這種頒獎典禮當作針對社會議題發言的機會，台灣為何不行？基本上記者的意思是藝人不該關心社會發生的事情，要「乖乖」唱歌就好。這是什麼邏輯？
其實看得出來這個記者也不懂音樂，一直講什麼「主流」，抱怨什麼「冷門」。金曲獎主要的目的應該是鼓勵好音樂，不是頒獎給最「主流」的音樂。「最佳流行音樂」不等於「最流行的音樂」，關鍵字是「最佳」才對。如果獎只是要給「最流行的音樂」，就不用評審，可以直接頒獎給賣最多專輯的人。
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