Channel 8 keeps playing the same Ai theme song

Posted on April 19, 2011 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Taiwan dramas spoilt by dubbing, translation’ 16 Apr 2011,Voices,Today

(Ho Qin Yuan): My friends and I watch the Taiwanese drama Love on weekdays at 7pm and we are fed up with how Channel 8 broadcasts it.

It repeatedly plays the same theme song, I Ask Sky. The opening images, as well as those seguing to and from the commercials, have not changed over more than 600 episodes – unlike Formosa TV and China’s CCTV network, which changes them frequently. Is there some rights issue involved?

Channel 8 should also remove the English subtitles from all the Taiwanese dramas it airs because when the translation of the dialogue is inaccurate it ruins the show.

We are tired of the fact the dramas are broadcast in Mandarin, rather than the original Hokkien or dual sound. Our greatest disgust is that the songs for the drama Life have been dubbed in Mandarin – the lyrics in Mandarin are all wrong. Can Channel 8 play the songs in their original Hokkien?

Considering that TV licence fees have been indefinitely waived, fans of Ai should count themselves lucky that this  immensely popular series hasn’t been discontinued since. Ms Ho should also realise that Ai is watched not just by the Hokkien-speaking alone, and if Mediacorp had catered exclusively to this group without considering viewers of other dialect groups or even non-Chinese, the limited scope of viewership wouldn’t justify the cost of televising it.  And before you can sing the empathic first two lines of ‘I Ask Sky’, Cantonese speakers would follow suit to demand that their serials be undubbed as well. Someone will have to drum the Speak Mandarin campaign into these people’s heads again to remind them that Mediacorp is far likelier to allow a sloppily censored Lust, Caution on national TV than a squeak of Hokkien in a drama serial that has a total running time longer than the average human gestation period. Note the complete lack of irony in the writer’s endorsement of a ridiculous title like ‘I Ask Sky’, which would be a more apt English translation for a pygmy rain dance than a contemporary Taiwan drama theme song.

To complain about English subtitles is not only selfishly depriving others of enjoying the series,  muted punchlines aside, but utterly absurd, since anyone who is able to detect inaccuracy in translation has no need to rely on them in the first place, and has no right demanding that they be removed. Most people have grown to settle for dubbed serials for decades, and as long as everyone is on the same page with regards to the basic plot, which is the essential social function of Ai at nursing homes and senior citizen corners, why ‘ask of the sky’ to un-dub them now? Most of Ai is dramatic face-slapping anyway, which means the same thing in whatever language you dub it in. Here’s a tip to the complainant, get someone to teach you how to log in to the internet, type Youtube.com, search for I Ask Sky, download it into your handphone, and listen to your heart’s content. Or better still, switch to cable or DVD, or belt it out at void deck KTV, instead of complaining about how Mandarin-dubbed theme songs are all wrong in a national paper.

About these ads

Filed under: 2011, Dialects, Music/music videos | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Rapping when singers are singing

Posted on February 26, 2011 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Original version is better’, 26 Feb 2011, Speakup, New Paper

(Tan Shao Ken): IN RECENT weeks, the music video for the song titled, Home, has been aired on national television. I appreciate the effort in having a new music video to commemorate Total Defence Day. But is it good enough to send a message? I doubt it.

It appears that Singapore wants a song similar to We Are The World. But there is no proper synchronisation of the elements in the video: lyrics, sound and visuals.

What is home to most Singaporeans? Is it not family? But there are no obvious scenes in the video which relate to a family.

Instead the scenes of skylines seem more touristy than heartland, which most Singaporeans can relate to.

Also, why is there rapping when singers are singing? How are listeners to concentrate on the lyrics and the message?

Compared with Kit Chan’s original version, this new version of Home does not send any message to listeners.

 

Baby you're on fire. Word!

For the noble cause of argument, I took great pains to decipher Sheikh Haikel’s ‘rap’ off the Home video since everyone in the video has accompanying subtitles except for him, and he actually has more lines than the composer Dick Lee himself (38 seconds of airtime, the most among all involved, apparently).  Here is his segment in its awful entirety.

‘It’s where we’re not alone/For this is our home/This is my home truly/No matter where I’d be/I love you dearly/I keep you close to me/I’m there for you sincerely/Like you’re always there for me/You’re always there for me/Together you and me’…’I know it’s home cos I’m never alone/Together we’re strong/I call home cos you’re always there/I can’t compare/This is where/This is home baby, yay-aah’

The lyrics alone seem more at ‘Home’ in a Wheels on a Bus DVD for toddlers than a call to arms theme like Total Defence Day. To call such wimpy drivel rapping is an insult to the genre, which was traditionally about ‘sticking it to da Man’ , narcissistic ranting and rising out the ghettos into a decadent lifestyle of guns, girls, money and plenty of bikini pool parties,  not proclaiming your love for the homeland through bland Mother goosing. In any case, rap has in recent years morphed into the commercial behemoth that is ‘hip hop’ and anyone can vocalise in a flat monotonous tone these days and make tons of money without having to don oversized jerseys, bling or even be black, i.e. Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber.

So the writers of the new ‘Home’ could argue that ‘rapping’, or as they would say ‘Hip Hop’ elements, are perfectly natural inclusions to give the new theme a more contemporary, funky vibe. The complainant, however, seems to think that Sheikh Haikel just bumbled into the studio to shoot his hip hop mouth off interrupting other people while they’re singing lines with proper melodies, which suggests a fuddy duddy mindest without the slightest clue about how rapping works.  Haikel, good intentions with unfortunate lyrics nonetheless, is probably the only potential cyber-warrior among the supergroup who can play an actual part in national defence other than pummeling enemies with sick rhymes, having a Twitter fanbase and the power to intimidate by dropping Tweet bombs like U Kiss My Ass! on anyone trying to be funny with our homeland, or his rapping for that matter. Take that, enemy!

Singapore has little to offer by way of ‘We are the World’ supergroup videos other than skylines, as evident in our Shanghai Expo promo last year, where someone thought getting 4 Mandopop giants to come together and sing a song of Singapore would be a great idea. To be specific, skylines filmed from a slow bumboat under bridges, instead of doing  more impressive vista sweeping with a helicopter, which is probably also cheaper and easier than getting 39 superstars together to sing a composition redone to death at NDPs because nothing truly original has emerged since. My sympathies to celebrity Kelvin Tan Wei Lian, who had only 5 words  (as my senses tell me) in his contribution, though I must say those few seconds were at least sung more emphatically and joyously than Sheikh’s Big Daddy, Positivity sweetened posturing and some of the old worn-out tobacco chewing Joe Cocker wannabe croakers in there. Well of course Kit’s original version was better, as it’s been the case for all the versions of We are the World trying to emulate the 80′s original. Sure, we could do without the rapping, but the recycled skyline motifs, which we’re supposed to defend with our very lives, are sadly here to stay.  What message the video is trying to deliver though, is rather questionable, since it appeals merely to the softer side of our sense of belonging, as it was intended to be in the first place. For a more effective, and cheaper campaign to make Singaporeans bear arms to protect their soil, playing snippets of army training videos to the theme for Top Gun (no rapping there) would probably do the trick.

Where the river flows. Left:Home video. Right:Last year's Expo video

Filed under: 2011, Campaigns/Elections, Local music/bands, Music/music videos | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

U-Kiss My Ass

Posted on November 24, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Haikel slams Korean boyband on Twitter’, article in 24 Nov 2010, Life!

…He (Sheikh Haikel) let his fingers do the talking on this Twitter account, insulting Korean boyband U-Kiss which had performed at an event he co-hosted…At 10.30 pm, after the concert, he tweeted: ‘U-Kiss my Ass!!Bunch of shit stabbers’.

This angered Straits Times reader, Ms Daphne Tan, who wrote in to say: ‘He did not respect the artists, the event, the organisers from Aljunied GRC, and the guest of honour (Minister of Foreign Affairs George Yeo)

It was a pun waiting to be made, and would have been cleverer if not for the scathing ‘shit-stabbers’, a bewildering term which calls to mind people poking faeces with pointed sticks (it actually means having anal intercourse). Even more puzzling is why people even follow Haikel on Twitter at all, knowing that the only insight one gets from his tweet history is ghetto posturing and exclamations such as Booyah! and Peace! which even Vanilla Ice in his ‘Wassup wassup’ prime would refrain from using. Funny pun, no doubt, but bad mistake to incur the wrath of legions of boyband fans, even worse when you’re being paid to humour their idols on stage. Frantic apologies are useless, Haikel, no one is going to believe a ‘homeboy from the hood who keeps it real, yawww’ broadcasting remorseful tweets about how U-kiss, clean cut pretty boys who have as much stubble as their armpits have hair, actually produce good music. It’s a shame really, because people are just starting to forget you once asked a radio listener to ask a girl if she wears white panties.

They stab shit

Filed under: 2010, Foul language, Local radio DJs, Music/music videos | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

I’m not loving the ride

Posted on September 15, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From ‘地铁宣导曲“幼稚”？　受访搭客大多不排斥’, 14 Sept 2010, article in omy.sg (Lianhe Zaobao)

…陆路交通管理局及公共交通理事会，在本月6日推出新一轮公共交通优雅行为宣传，这次请到歌舞剧团体“点心宝贝”来唱宣导短曲，提醒公众要排队。

宣导短曲在地铁站播放后，在网上掀起讨论热潮。有网民批评，宣导短曲“幼稚无知、把大人当小孩看待、听起来很烦人”。

也有网民说：“这显示新加坡人还长不大，需要一再地提醒要排队，简直如家丑外扬，很丢脸。”

Translation: The Dim Sum Dollies jingle ‘Love your ride’ blaring in MRT stations, in a bid to remind Singaporeans to be gracious commuters, has been deemed by some to be childish, annoying and an embarrassment to outsiders.

Funny no one complained about the Malay accent mocking in the ‘Makcik’  sequence of the video. Really, anything played for prolonged periods at MRT stations will be grating on the ears, and getting the less recognisable, but thankfully less irritating, Dim Sum Dollies to follow up on the PCK rap just goes to show that our commuters haven’t learned anything all this time. Jingle or no jingle, one has to admit that some Singaporeans need to be treated like kids because they actually behave like kids, though I wonder who would take a boa-flipping Dim Sum Dolly seriously, and  whether the ad would have the contrary effect of more people rushing into the trains out of desperation to escape it. The only way for anyone to have a pleasant experience on a train or bus is if they are seated and the aisles are clear of passengers so that they don’t have to agonise over which is path of least resistance to take on the way out. With the alarming population boom and overcrowded trains, ‘dolling’ up the commuting experience and putting a carnival, burlesque spin on it is like making funny faces at a torture victim waiting to have his toenails pulled out in an attempt to alleviate the pain. Not clever and not funny.

Filed under: 2010, Advertisements, Campaigns/Elections, Local actors, MRT, Music/music videos, Noise, SBS Buses | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

YOG TV hosts act cute

Posted on August 22, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From ‘He was disrespectful’, 21 Aug 2010, Speakup, The New Paper

(Sebastian Tan): …His (Sean Kingston) no-show last Saturday night left the other four artistes – Steve Appleton, Jody Williams, Jessica Mauboy and Tabitha Nauser – to sing the first YOG theme song, Everyone.

If this is true (skipping YOG to join Justin Bieber on tour), I think he was being very disrespectful to both the International Olympic Committee and Singapore, the host country of the inaugural YOG. Kingston should be taken to task for this.

Perhaps, he could be banned from singing any future Olympic theme songs or any theme songs of major sports meets in the future. Better yet, could his part in the YOG theme song be ‘deleted’ and replaced by another worthy male singer? It would be insulting to have that video clip include him for posterity.

His face dropped

According to Sean Kingston’s twitter,

Due to circumstances beyond my control I was unable to attend the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Youth Olympics is Singapore….

This music industry is all business but I refuse to let my singapore fans suffer I LOVE U ALL And trust me Being Apart Of The YOG Ment A lot

So he admits that his absence was a business decision (but of course it is, he’s a megasuperstar for god’s sake, and who could resist tagging along with Justin Bieber on his tour). In the first place, his willingness to be a background singer to Singapore Idol Tabitha Nauser was dubious, this coming from someone with international hits like ‘Beautiful Girl’ and the awful porn-sounding ‘Face Drop’. Let’s be realistic here, as much as Sean loves his fans as he claims, his real job as dictated by his agents and producers, is to make records, go on tours and make tons of money, not attend an event where he’s merely a footnote and not the headlining presence that he deserves.

From ‘TV presenters should be more professional’, 21 Aug 2010, Speakup, The New Paper

(Ye Moxing):…They (YOG TV presenters Divian Nair and Candice Miller)will do well to cut back on the overly informal camaraderie.

First, cut out the incessant banter, the ribbing and nudging. Bear in mind, folks, you are on national TV, not on a programme like Teens Central or over the radio. All the gesturing is distracting to viewers.

Divian, in particular, is annoyingly casual: He even sat cross-legged on the sofa in the opening ceremony segment. Did he think he was at a campfire or a club meeting?

Second, there’s the overly positive spin given to the Games, particularly for the members of Team Singapore. Perhaps, the presenters were briefed to do so to spur our youth to aspire and excel.

However, their always positive spiel is surreal and too saccharine. Take the taekwondo final in which Christopher Lee lost 1-12 to his Korean opponent.

Divian’s comment was that it was ‘unfortunate’. If you ask me, the 1-12 loss was more than merely unfortunate – it was a drubbing.

…Candice’s nightly ‘rah-rah’ to viewers – to cheer on our YOG athletes – can be irritating, schoolgirlish, even.

Warming up for the Oh yeah oh yeah cheer

I don’t take too kindly to people who start their sentences with ‘Bear in mind, folks’. But despite not following the antics of these presenters myself, and seeing how the YOG was intended from the beginning (manga mascots, YOG cheer) to be an elaborate exercise in juvenile behaviour, is such act-cute posturing any surprise at all? As for the ‘unfortunate’ comment, Divian is free to use whatever euphemism he likes in place of the more accurate ‘thrashing’.  Bear in mind, Moxing, that the athlete’s parents and grandparents are watching,  that these are kids under dual pressure of sports and studies, and that this is just the first YOG ever, so just cut the presenters and kids some slack already.  You can’t expect Singaporean hosts to be coldly neutral when they announce gaping scoreline margins, and credit must be given for their enthusiasm, mock or not, to rev up an event with an already flagging viewership.

Filed under: 2010, Local radio DJs, Local TV shows, Music/music videos, Sports | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

NDP songs pointless

Posted on July 29, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Pointless to have new ones every year’ 29 July 2010, ST Forum

(Victor Khoo) Is it necessary to compose new National Day songs every year?

My sense is that these new compositions seem to be written to promote the artists singing them rather than as a song that Singaporeans can truly connect with.

There is nothing wrong with the two classics, Count On Me Singapore and Stand Up For Singapore, which are inspirational and tug at the heartstrings.

It would be wrong if the organisers’ intention is to cater to the young generation because this would suggest that older Singaporeans are left out.

It would be better if the creative sparks organising this year’s National Day Parade re-record a fresh, uptempo version of the two classic songs. Then they will be recognisable and easy for all to sing or hum along to.

With the kind of criticism thrown and enormous pressure faced by National Day song performers, e.g Electrico, what on earth makes Victor Khoo think that our local artistes would use this as a platform for stardom? Bland lyrics, boring videos, limited overseas appeal, people watching it for free on TV and not buying CDs, not being able to perform the song at concerts because it’s lame. It’s practically career suicide! And not all uptempo remixes of Stand up for Singapore are easy to hum to, as you can see from this clip of a rap entourage taking a classic, pulverising it with phony hip hop grooves, disemboweling it of all meaning and nostalgia, and scrapping its bloody innards on the ground off the sole of their Timberland boots.  As for its exclusive appeal to youth, don’t you know it’s totally not cool to listen to National Day songs? If anything, NDP anthems like the irrepressible Stand up for Singapore belong on the mixtape of any Line Dancing tournament.

Filed under: 2010, Local music/bands, Music/music videos, Public holidays | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

Oh yeah oh yeah

Posted on May 13, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From Random tweets on YOG cheer, 13 May 2010, Twitter

Shout it out loud

Well, we got used to the Great Singapore Workout didn’t we? Your baby would probably be entertained by the ‘hand-jaw’ action, otherwise, some would be so bold to declare this a work of malevolent, viral genius. More on YOG mascots here.

Filed under: 2010, Campaigns/Elections, Local music/bands, Music/music videos, Sports | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Iron man music

Posted on May 13, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Cinema ads’, 13 May 2010, My Point ST Forum

Last week, I patronised the Golden Village cinema at Plaza Singapura to watch Iron Man 2. The screening was slated to start at 6pm. But when I entered the cinema at the time, I was struck by loud heavy metal music from the film’s soundtrack for a good 10 minutes. This was followed by an interminable series of advertisements which lasted for 20 minutes. I was kept waiting for half an hour before the movie was screened…30 minutes is ridiculously long.

Here’s a taste of Ac/Dc’s Back in Black from Iron Man 2 that so traumatised Mr Bryan Ong in the cinema. Half an hour of ads is the standard delay before any blockbusters these days, likewise the soundtrack prelude which surely isn’t as scathing on the occipital lobe as any song out of a Jack Neo movie, or a marathon of YOG cheer songs. Next thing you know the man would be complaining about subtitles.

Filed under: 2010, Advertisements, Film, Music/music videos, Noise | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Too many stars, not enough Singapore

Posted on May 8, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From ‘从世博主题曲看新加坡特色’, 7 May 2010 article in omy.sg

如果拿歌词对歌词，真的感觉不到我们的这首歌凸现了新加坡的什么特色。再看画面，没错，我们真的很难跟地大景多的台湾相比。要命的是，还很硬性地的融入一些多元种族的画面。

所以我们为世博而作的歌，真的可以不要绿色蛋糕、鱼尾狮、摩天轮、繁忙的机场和海港、组屋楼下的聚会点、咖啡店的kopi siu dai、各种族的寺庙、pasar malam、跳蚤市场、地铁、圣淘沙的排球沙滩…？ （还有很多吧？）

The music video for the Shanghai Expo looks like a We Are the World Singapore version, with at least 4 artistes competing for face-time, leaving little showcase of what we’re actually supposed to present at the World Expo. The article says there’s nothing uniquely Singaporean about the video, and pales in comparison to Taiwan’s entry, which happens to have a nicer melody and features real people, not mega-artistes ( and there’s only one singer, Jolin Tsai, behind it). Obligatory shot of a spouting Merlion and the riverside aside, at least half the video is shot indoors: Ah Du in an office, Tanya Chua frollicking in different ethnic costumes in a studio, JJ Lin in a study looking contemplative. Only Stefanie Sun is outside doing experiments with orchids, or rejuvenating under a waterfall (there’s a waterfall here?) looking like a stooge for some spa-botanical-natural-extract commercial , all of which, sadly, doesn’t say much about why people should visit at all. The worst sin is that there are no images of food at all! Heavily sanitised and starstruck, the ‘Every Touching Moment’ video is a symptom of a country fast running out of ideas and losing its identity. Even the first stanza of the song sounds like a rip-off Christopher Cross’s Arthur’s Theme. And the latter sounds much better even without the trudging and tiresome Jay Chou RnB riffs and beats. If there’s any consolation, there’s no Little Durian Star in the video. That’s Your Singapore for you.

 

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Filed under: 2010, Campaigns/Elections, Local music/bands, Music/music videos | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Kids sing the darnedest things

Posted on February 23, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From Songs not meant for children 25 Jan 1982 Letters to ST

Instead of educational and children’s songs, romantic songs such as More Than I Can Say, Woman in Love and The One that you Love were played at the request of young listeners.

Children are a little too young for such songs.

Wait till you hear young tweens twirling their ipods singing Rihanna’s So Hard, yeah yeah yeah, So Hard.

Filed under: 1980s, Music/music videos | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

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