The song “Chok” which is sung by Raymond
Lam, has won the Golden Music Awards in TVB. This result has caused controversial debates in society, because most people believe that Raymond Lam
has not enough experience and power to gain this high value awards. Raymond is
an actor in Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) when he first showed his
performance. He has had big support from TVB and has obtained more and more
opportunities for his career in a short period. He also released his first
album in 2005. Because of his fast but abnormal development, public always criticize
him and ridicule his strength. For example, people use ‘chok’ to describe his
acting as he always cares his facial expression but not the acting
technique. Therefore, ‘Chok’, this song is to satirize the public opinion of
Raymond Lam.
Why there are artists grow so fast without
strength and potential in entertainment industry? According to Hesmondhalgh
(2002, p. 28), cultural economics is the branch of economics devoted
specifically to culture and to the art. It is not concerned with determining
human needs and rights, nor with intervening in questions of social justice;
instead it focuses on how human wants might be most efficiently satisfied. Audiences
like watching smart and pretty face in the television screen. Sometimes, they
ignore the other elements, like acting or singing skills and become fans of
those pretty stars. The market has been created by this situation. To seeking
profit, the media enterprises keep pushing idols that have not enough training
to the market. The quality of the entertainment industry is getting worse if so
many idols have pretty face but weak performance. “The equation of human
happiness with the optimizing of economic satisfactions, but provides a poor
basis on which to proceed in assessing the cultural industries” (Hesmondhalgh,
2002, p.28). That is the reason why Raymond can gain the Golden Music Awards
easily and makes controversial debates from the public.
Take a look at the lyrics of ‘Chok’, it
talks about no matter what Raymond himself did, what he talked or what he wear,
he got discrimination finally. Then, what should a super star need so that he
or she can obtain the support and acceptability from the public? Actually, to making
stardom, “Strength is not a guarantee to make a star to be famous. Visual,
verbal and aural sign are needed to create star text. Star text is a product
which should conform to the ideology in the capitalism system successfully”
(Leung, 2006, p.141). Although Raymond Lam has acted on TV since 1998, when we
talk about visual, verbal and aural sign of him, we cannot find any specific
details about them. The most expressive image of him is ‘chok’ which means he
has only got one facial expression in front of the camera. Therefore, this can
explain Raymond still cannot reach the super star level and people dissatisfy Raymond’s
appearance and the result of the Golden Music Award in TVB.
Factually, I really appreciate the lyrics of
‘Chok’. The lyrics reflect that Raymond just wants what he wants to do and
ignores others’ opinion. People who have self-confidence are always charming. However,
I don’t think Raymond can handle this charming song as it seems he is still
fresh for his careers. Not only Raymon, but lots of artists in Hong Kong also
need time to prove that they are really a star with their real strength and to
prove that they are not a product for the market.
Reference:
Hesmondhalgh, D. (2002). Approaches to
cultures. In The Cultural industries.
(pp. 27-48). London: Sage.
Leung, W.Y. and Yiu, Y.N. (2006). The
chameleon performance: An analysis of Anita Mui’s image. In C. Yau (Ed.), Politics of Gender. (pp.139-159). Hong
Kong: Cosmos Books Ltd.
No comments:
Post a Comment