Posted: Sunday, February 4, 2024
A week later, it is already the second month in the year. Time is passing by quickly. The world turns and seasons change whether we mortals are ready or not. The light is fading and soon it will be night time again.
There are new music videos released this past week. Shi Shi is the name of an emperor of the Later Zhao, and also the name of courtesan from the 11th century A.D.
Currently, Shi Shi is the name of Korean-Taiwanese pop and R&B singer with a sexy number Too Many Times, featuring Sean Ko from the Rock Records label mate U:NUS.
The boy band U:NUS released their music video, The Guide, two weeks ago. It has scenes in colour and black & white of the band members rehearsing, being there for each other, and individual artistic pursuits. They released their album, Lost in the Future, in December 2023.
Also on Rock Records are Ayal Komod X Star Chasers. Star Chasers is the name of a reality show of young musicians going through an artist bootcamp, leading to their collaborative upbeat beachside music video released two weeks ago, 等待南風.
Photo: Wikipedia
Posted: Sunday, January 28, 2024
After so many years hearing music from East Asia, I find myself listening to the same artists all the time. I am stuck in a rut and don’t know what is out there beside the staple Hong Kong pop stars I have grown to love over the decades.
While it is good to listen to the oldies, time to branch out, try new sounds.
An artist I stumbled onto through the mysterious algorithms of the internet just today is someone who has been around for a long time, but I have not heard before. Her name is Stefanie Sun, a singer-songwriter from Singapore. Her most recent video was released in January. It is the theme song to a drama called Love Endures. The Chinese title is 要久久愛. The drama is the latest to feature Yang Zi who had a successful summer hit with the costume drama Lost You Forever.
Listening to her 20th Anniversary video from two years ago, Stefanie Sun has an intimate sound and look that can be performed in a cafe or restaurant. Starting with a quiet song, she slowly reveals a sound that is raw and striking, with a bluesy sound from the back-up band.
The story of Love Endures follows two individuals who met during their high school years. They live in a place called Aerospace City. After taking the university entrance exams, something happens that take the two in different directions. They meet again twelve years later when they are 30 years old. The show started airing on January 20, 2024 and will continue until February 6, 2024. It is on Youku, as well as on YouTube.
Ella Chen released a new music video at the end of December, then another in mid-January. The former is called Wishes and has the look of a trek in the arctic to see the Northern Lights. The latter is called The Moon and takes place at a gas station.
She has performed in the Taiwanese band S.H.E. for a number of years. The new videos are part of her effort as a solo artist. For the longest time, I have had in my possession a compilation CD of songs from the girl band era. I play it once in while. I bought it when in Chinatown, but did not listen to it for the longest time. Then one day, I found the CD again in my collection, played it and found myself enjoying the songs on the disc.
I have heard music from another band member, Hebe Tien recently, but did not listen to anything from Ella Chen until her name popped up just while listening to videos online. Sometimes it takes awhile to dig around before finding again something more to the music heard before.
The Moon is available as a single on iTunes as of January 22, along with a series of singles all made available on January 1, 2024. She released her solo album back in 2015.