The cultural text that I have chosen is a live concert album named “DNA World Tour in Live DVD” from a Taiwan Band called Mayday. This album was released in 2010 and it recorded Mayday’s live concerts throughout that year in different places.
Star images are inter-textual constructed. Mayday had been recently building up their star image after their returns in 2003 due to the force of temporary disband in 2001 because of the military called up of the band members. I am not saying that they did not have their star image before the split up, but the image of being a “star” is comparatively stronger than that time, one of the evidence in proving such changes is the package of their album. When comparing this newest DVD to the past concert album, like “168 Performances “, their first large sold-tickets concert album, and “where are you going?” which is the last concert tour before their temporary dismiss, the style of the cover has been changed from five sweating performers to five better looking stars. In comparison, the package of this D.N.A album is far more luxurious then those in the past. For instance, the box is made up of iron with the protruded picture of a Robert and the members. In my perspective, the images of the members are better looking than before which they have a smarter posture and they had the shooting in the studio with nice clothes on.
"168 Performances" concert album
"Where are you going?" concert album
Mayday has becoming more and more popular in Hong Kong as their concerts are holding every year in May since 2006 and Hong Kong People have a lot of chances to watch their performances on stage. Concert is one of the ways to let people getting to know more about stars.
Some people criticized the variety of song in Hong Kong music industry is so limited which usually focus on the sweetness or bitterness in a Love relationship. Therefore when some songs from other places are able to bring out messages other than romance could attract some other people especially youngsters who are still studying or already been working for several years. One of the main reasons why their song could attract youngsters is because when we look at the lyrics of Ashin, who is the band vocalist and song writer, we can easily find many messages that he wrote are related to our daily life. People are easily fall into the emotions of the songs. Unlike other band, they do not have any anger towards the world, instead they are promoting messages of peaceful, having positive attitude in the unhappy moments, and staying real in this cunning society, etc, therefore from the effect from the messages of the songs fans also seen the members’ image as optimistic, energetic, truthful, passionate, and playful.
The concept of the entire D.N.A concert is “Re-alize your dream, Re-alive your life”. Refer back to the list of tracks in this D.N.A concert album; we can see the concert producer had tried to convey messages through designing different themes in different section of the concert.
Like in the track 08 Re-A-Life 生存>尚未崩壞, the message that Mayday wanted to transmit is telling their audience that life will not be ruin by the society, hoping they can find back their pureness in heart that might been lost and choose the way of living that they wish to be. In track no.15 Exchange Our Dream 吶喊 > 基因不死, the message in this part is reminding us not to forget our own dream. In track 24, I Believe You Can 起來>夢的天使, is giving confidence to their audience that they can be succeed to pursue their dream. Last but not least in track 30, Never Ending 無限放大> 金剛不壞 , it is to encourage their audience not to give up their dream easily and do not stop fighting for their future.
Music can exhibit emotional realism; audiences identify the songs and use them as guiding fiction. The reason of why messages that Mayday wanted to spread out attract a lot of hopeful youngsters mainly because while students might find the resonance in Mayday songs since they are pursuing their dream at this moment; and the people who are working for several years could recall back their dream that they dreamt before which once was the happiest moment in their life. As music also helps people establish a sense of identity, fans who love listening to Mayday’s music regards themselves as positive, hopeful, energetic, passionate people and they try to gain power from the songs and bring it to their real life.
Some people criticized that Mayday is not really a Rock Band. As Ashin said, Rock N’ Roll is not simply about shouting and complaining, rather it is a kind of attitude. Their songs are direct and easily touched by the melody and lyrics. A famous Hong Kong pop star Eason Chen praised: although Mayday did not owe a brilliant voice, the touching part of their songs is far more important than the skills of singing. Listening to their songs did bring a lot of energy for me and their concerts are enjoyable and we cannot simply feel the atmosphere from the DVD. More or less my Mandarin skills also been improved by listening to their songs.
By Carman Ho, #10460031
You have conducted a concise review of the selected concert album, and also a precise analysis of the (changing) star image/persona of Mayday and the cultural implications of their work. I agree that the recent albums witnessed a dominant and irresistible marketing strategy, which is transforming a group of “young blood” to more “mature men”. In reality, Mayday is growing with us too.
ReplyDeleteMany valid examples are cited to describe the main themes of the team’s songs (e.g., pursuing one’s dream, bearing passion towards life), and some possible readings (of audiences in different age and with different background) are also identified and discussed.
The present article is very comprehensive but also a bit lengthy. Perhaps you can focus more on the identification process of audiences (the last few paragraphs), which reflects the existing cultural and social values circulated among the younger generation.