CHC youths singing about ‘The Greatest Place’

Posted on July 30, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘City Harvest youths record song in support of Pastor Kong Hee’, 30 July 2012, article by Jeffrey Oon, sg yahoo news.

23 youths from City Harvest Church have recorded a music video to express support for their congregation and its embattled  leadership. Titled “The Greatest Place — City Harvest Church” , the 4-and-a-half-minute video begins with an opening sequence of several youths proclaiming their love for “this place”.

The video, which was recorded earlier this month on 15th July, also describes how the music video came to be. “23 youths from different zones and cellgroups came together to record a song in support of our church and our leadership,” says an opening message in the video.

Several lines of lyrics call City Harvest the place where the youths — who by their looks range from early teens to mid-twenties –  found their “home”, “freedom” and the “greatest place I have ever known.” Although church founder Pastor Kong Hee is never directly mentioned,  he is shown preaching in several sequences while lyrics allude to him as “the greatest man that I have ever known“.

The Passion of the CHC

This tribute ends with a shot of the lines ‘The Greatest Place. I love this place (Heart)’, a couplet which wouldn’t have looked out of place in an NDP song (Someone take notes for next year). Half of this song is dedicated to a man who saved many youths with his brand of Christianity, and despite his brush with the law and alleged siphoning of funds to turn his wife into a superstar, here are 23 youngsters returning the favour, though it remains to be seen if this musical tribute/protest would save Kong Hee and his band of Christian brothers from the cold, atheist hand of Justice.

The history of music is filled with songs dedicated to the male species and masculinity including friends, fathers, grandfathers, brothers, boyfriends, ex boyfriends, husbands, ex husbands, sons, grandsons, kings, princes, cowboys, dictators, gods, Jesus, Satan, Superman, Mohammed Ali and Micheal Jackson. I can’t for the life of me think of any song dedicated to a pastor (the closest is Dusty Springfield’s Son of a Preacher Man), and one that heaps as much idolatrous praise as this, regardless of whether Kong Hee’s maintenance of integrity stands in the face of hard evidence. This feel-good hit of the year is set to be sung by more mouths in rapt unison than our current NDP fodder track ‘Love at First Light’. I can imagine people actually weeping to this, and then breaking into ungodly, ecstatic fits during the ripping guitar solo. Still, this ain’t no Bohemian Rhapsody, and thank God for that.

So let’s look at the lyrics referring to the Greatest One of All and compare it to this solemn but epic tribute to Mao Ze Dong titled ‘People Unite’, summoning whatever limited powers of translation I have when it comes to the Chinese language.

MZD: He is the People’s Great Saviour
KH: He’s a world changer and a History Maker (I don’t see Steve Jobs in the video, still this line is nerve-cringingly cheesy)

MZD: Chairman Mao. Loves the People.
KH: Of all things his love’s undeniable (especially towards Sun Ho)

The lyric of contention in this fawning Ode to Kong Hee (some insist it refers to Jesus Christ) is ‘The greatest man I that have ever known’. What about the actual FATHERS of all 23 boys and girls in the video, especially those toiling night and day for years to raise their Christian kids who are happier in a home away from home, now having to grapple for attention with another man who’s likely to be better looking and more charming than themselves? MM Lee, looks like someone has officially beaten you to it. It’ll be a long while before anyone sings a song about you, our founding father, a man who actually makes it into the Annals of HISTORY. If Kong Hee’s found guilty, this would be waxing lyrical about a JAILBIRD, and that would be, well, awkward. Wait, has any Singaporean man been sung about, ever? You mean we’ve never had a loving tyrant or a folk hero? Not even for our grandfather soldiers who died so we may live during the Japanese Occupation? You mean all these years we never cared about the real heroes of Singapore and all of a sudden we have an opus magnus about some fancy preacher man? Jesus!

But seriously, there are less controversial, more tongue-in-cheek, yet equally fanatical things to band together and sing about other than megachurches and their leaders. Take sports: In 1993, our Lions rapped to ‘The Dream Team’ song. Seeing Jang Jung go ‘I’m Jang Jung and I will TAKER you out’ always raises a chuckle. The sport has never been the same since, and maybe in a good way because we’re left with a touch of zany, fuzzy fondness just thinking about how great we used to be. The Greatest TEAM we’ve ever known.

Well dedicating a song to your church is fine and dandy if you can afford it, and having a man-crush and making your old man jealous is your own prerogative and all, but how about the cause of Gaia protection for a change? Why sing to save one man when you can, well, SAVE MY WORLD? The Greatest Kids in Weird Bee Costumes we’ll ever know.

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Filed under: 1990s, 2012, Music/music videos, Religion | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Another Home spoils image of Singapore

Posted on August 2, 2011 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Video spoof of S’pore causes stir online’, 2 Aug 2011, article in Asiaone.com

A VIDEO clip taking a fresh spin on Dick Lee’s classic National Day song, Home, has caused a stir online. The seven-minute clip entitled Another Home, produced by Singapore Independent Films Only (SINdie), gives an irreverent twist to Singapore’s key talking points in the past year. SINdie is a website dedicated to independent films here.

The pro-bono video project has garnered about 45,000 hits since it was posted online last Saturday. It was put together by a production team and cast of about 60 people.

…The video also features the Singapore Democratic Party’s bear mascot in a pair of swimming trunks, similar to those worn infamously by members of the national water-polo team last November.

SINdie founder Jeremy Sing, 34, told my paper he feels that Singaporeans are “mature enough to laugh at ourselves”, especially after the recent watershed General Election. He declined to reveal the video’s production costs, saying that the video was intended to “stir conversation”, while stressing that it was not politically driven.

Chua, who plays the NSF in the clip, said: “It’s like a review…of what Singapore got up to as a 45-year-old. It’s like those videos that one has to watch at a wedding banquet.”

There were mixed reactions from netizens, though. Netizen Jacksonlcq said that the video “spoils the image of Singapore”, while a few others said that it was embarrassing.

This image creeps me out

Considering the high production values invested in this clip, it would be waste if it were not featured on national television. Not exactly a montage of the last 45 years of our history, but rather a compilation of sly references to the most talked about cultural memes over the past year: NSF and his backpack-carrying maid, Tin Pei Ling, Nicole Seah, national water-polo team swimming trunks, election mushrooms, YOG Oh yeah Oh yeah cheer, Fun Pack Song (at the end credits). You could say it’s almost like a Noose musical version, but judging from the crop of musical tributes from past NDPs and its generally low tolerance of satire and obsession with bland patriotic fluff, it’s unlikely that you’ll see this featured in this year’s celebrations, though it may score higher in terms of Youtube hits than any other NDP song in history.

This is where I MUST be

In fact one could detect a sense of restraint from going totally off the cuff with the inside jokes here, though that would mean it would be banned outright for being, well, simply too Singaporean for the NDP organisers’ liking.  The SDP bear in obscene waterpolo trunks is probably the funniest thing here, while using a bizarre doppleganger in the form of Tin Pei Ling was  a bit too obvious and predictable. Still, at least there’s no pesky rapping going on, unlike the ‘We Are the World’ version of the exact same song featuring Sheik Haikel. There’s so much potential in this to be something wildly magical, and you get the feeling that it was created half-heartedly for mass appeal without offending anyone too much in order to get a rare shot at the NDP. Nothing wrong with playing it safe, but there’s this gnawing feeling that Chua En Lai and gang are capable of so much more than just 7 minutes of cheesy dancing, Tin Pei Ling pouting and bad synchronised swimming.

Still, spoofing is always preferable to what our past NDP songs have been doing all this while: Recycling. I present to you now the most over-used word that is not ‘We’  in the history of NDP songs:

‘We are told no dream‘s too bold that we can’t try for’ – Count on Me Singapore, 1986

‘Where my dreams wait for me, where the river always flows’ – Home, 1998

‘Where dreams come true for us’ – Where I Belong, 2001

‘Our dreams we’ll all achieve’ – Reach out for the Skies, 2005

‘Your dreams and hopes will all come true’ – Shine for Singapore, 2008

‘With our hopes and dreams, imagine what tomorrow will bring’ – What do you See, 2009

‘Live our wildest dreams’ – Sing a Song for Singapore, 2010

‘I have a dream of starting a life’ – In a Heartbeat, 2011

Filed under: 2011, Local actors, Local music/bands, Music/music videos, Public holidays | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

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 »

Brutal music videos

Posted on February 22, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From Music video clips showed brutality and cruelty 29 march 1986 ST Forum

Perhaps the most revolting of all the video clips was the one by Greg Kiln, Jeopardy. ..It showed couples handcuffed to each other …the bride’s face turning into a skull, lightning striking the church, and a strange tentacle reaching out to grab the groom by theneck.

Such interpretations of the concept of marriage should not be promoted in Singapore. It is shocking that SBC broadcast such a sordid and hideous video clip.

People will be prompted to behave violently and horrendous crimes, brutality and cruelty…will increase.

Here’s the nasty clip in full uncensored glory, thanks again to Youtube. Cute tentacle.


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

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