English as an ‘alternative’ language in Hong Kong popular music

Phil Benson & Alice ChikEnglish Department

Hong Kong Institute of Educationhkpop@ied.edu.hk

Hong Kong pop = Canto-pop?

• 50s: Mandarin pop from Shanghai– Grace Chang, Yao Lee

• 60s – mid-70s: Mandarin + local English pop– Mona Fong, Koo Mei, Chang Loo; Rebecca Pan,

Teddy Robin & The Playboys, Joe Jr. & The Side-Effects, Sam Hui & The Lotus, The Wynners, Teresa Carpio

• Mid-70s: Canto-pop + Taiwanese Mandarin pop– Sam Hui, Roman Tam, Teresa Tang

• 80s – present: Canto-pop + band sound + indie music– 4 Heavenly Kings; Beyond, Tat Ming Pair; LMK,

Anodize

Hong Kong indie music

Indie bands performing in English

• Rockit06: 90 local indie bands auditioned

• 04-present: 100 acts appeared at Underground

• Live Life, No Rules: ~120 local bands

• By our estimate: 60-70% indie bands (>150 bands) performed and/or recorded in English

Research design

• Ethnography and participant observation– Interviews w/ bands, indie labels, show

organizers, audience– Web-search for band/label pages and sites– Attending live events at different venues– Listening to CDs and demos

English in HK indie music

• Push factors for not using Cantonese

• Pull factors for using English

• Online distribution of music

Push factors for not using Cantonese

• Tonal nature of spoken Cantonese– 4 bands mentioned explicitly

• Gap between written Chinese and spoken Cantonese – Oliver

• Using Cantonese = Canto-pop– BFSH from 89268

Pull factors for using English (1)

• Music influences– Oliver

• Music styles– Ketchup – The Train

Pull factors for using English (2)

• Freedom to be linguistically creative– Unixx – Stealstealground

• Feels natural to write and sing in English– Innisfallen

• Reaching out to a global audience– Ketchup

Online distribution of music • Extent of online distribution

– Of 20 interviewees, only 1 we couldn’t find their webpage

– BFSH from 89268– Chris B

• DIY publicity– Marshmallow Kisses– The Unixx– The Pliable

Concluding thoughts:• English-speaking members in the bands

– At least 6 bands have native English speakers

• ‘Hong Kong’ indie sound– Luke Chow– Hard Candy – My Little Airport– Chris B

English as an ‘alternative’ language

• What is ‘alternative’? – Production and consumption– Who is making the music?– Who is consuming the music?

• ‘Alternative’ as a conscious choice

Oliver

I don’t like writing lyrics in Chinese. It’s old-fashioned to use written, standard Chinese, weird to use colloquial Cantonese and simply difficult to write Chinese because of its tonal nature.

BFSH from 89268

The local radio, CR2, with their Chinese songs movement, may have sent out the wrong message to some bands that writing songs in Chinese is the same as making local music. And some people might think that writing Chinese songs is what making HK music is all about.

Oliver

You can’t find many alternative, non-karaoke songs in HK, Taiwan and China. If you want to listen to this music, you will have to look for it from the foreign music scene, in which English is the dominant language. You write what you listen to.

Ketchup

Language is sound, and singing is an instrument. It is easier for me to ‘feel’ the music when singing in English.

The Train

Singing our music in Cantonese is like singing Cantonese opera in English.

Unixx

We don’t care about grammar, or what others think of my English.

Stealstealground

The level of English proficiency is not a problem. Bad English could be a style and you can still sing beautifully with broken English, musically.

Innisfallen

It’s easier to express in English, the same for communicating feelings more freely and openly. We have always listened to English songs, so it’s natural.

Ketchup

HK people regard singing in English as alternative. This may hold some truth in Hong Kong but when view globally, singing in English is a very common thing.

BFSH from 8926889268 is trying to reach out to those people who like indie music through myspace, icq, yahoo, msn etc.

Chris B

The internet probably has helped singing in English make a comeback because English is just the language of communication. Practically every band has a myspace page and fans from all over the world. Also, maybe the bands feel like people can understand them better and they want people to listen to them more. English seems to be the only common language.

Marshmallow Kisses

Now the music scene is different. With the internet and the technology nowadays, people can make their own music at ease and with greater accessibility.

Unixx

The local music scene is not supportive. We want our music to go further in the world. Through internet distribution, we can reach out to a larger group of audience. Some may look at us as a minority, but English is an international language. We are more outward looking. There is only a very small market for Cantonese songs, only in Hong Kong and a small part of China.

The Pliable

The media are paying more attention to indie music, e.g. more indie bands are getting publicity in newspapers, the internet + myspace pages where everyone can upload their music for the world to hear. Not sure why the media is paying more attention to indie music now. It could be that they can't ignore the phenomenon on myspace and internet.

Luke Chow

From an English speaking point of view, when Chinese people sing/write in English, the broken English and the grammatical mistakes give a nice sound; it has its own sound.

Hard Candy

Broken English actually gives a local flavor to HK indie music.

My Little Airport

Non-standard English pronunciation is the uniqueness of HK indie music.

Chris B

When bands (with Cantonese as their L1) sing in English, when their English is not that good, it brings up something weird and quirky.