Taiwan Today

Taiwan’s pop industry is churning out a new generation of innovative artists with the help of wide-ranging government initiatives.

As anticipation reached fever pitch inside Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium July 15 for the FIFA World Cup final between Croatia and France, a collection of boisterous songs in a babel of languages blared out across the venue. Amongst them was the 2005 anthem “Stubborn” by acclaimed Taiwan rock group Mayday. The song was chosen as the sole Mandarin entry on the playlist from four contenders. Of those considered by international soccer’s governing body, three are by artists who launched their careers in Taiwan.

“The country’s democratic, pluralistic society is highly conducive to the development of cultural and creative sectors like pop,” said Hsu Yi-chun (徐宜君), director-general of the Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development (BAMID). For decades, Taiwan has been a leading global hub of the Mandarin pop sector and the bureau under the Ministry of Culture works to ensure the nation’s talent production line keeps rolling.

“Many superstars that got their start in the last century like Mayday still shine brightly today,” Hsu said. “But if we want the pop industry to continue thriving, we have to be proactive in nurturing the breakout artists and innovative music brands of tomorrow.”

Setting the Stage

The highlight of BAMID’s year-round schedule of promotional activities for emerging acts is the Golden Melody International Festival. The event is staged in June each year on the eve of the bureau-organized Golden Melody Awards (GMA), Taiwan’s equivalent of the Grammys. Featuring a host of live shows and industry forums, the festival has proved a magnet for concert organizers and talent scouts from home and abroad. “It’s our most important platform for building connections between local industry figures, their overseas counterparts and promising Taiwan performers,” Hsu said.

Among the eight rising stars showcased this year was No Party For Cao Dong. The indie outfit has taken the local music scene by storm since releasing its debut album “The Servile” in 2016. The following year, the group won the GMA honors for best new artist, best musical group and song of the year for grunge hit “Simon Says.”

According to Hsu, BAMID is stepping up efforts to shine a spotlight on creative performers like No Party For Cao Dong. A major focus has been scaling up the Golden Indie Music Awards, an event staged annually in October since 2010 to highlight artists outside the mainstream. “Previously, this was just an awards ceremony, but this year it’ll be a four-day festival featuring performances by musicians from across Asia,” she said. “Our aim in expanding this awards show is to consolidate Taiwan’s status as a pop music hub.”

BAMID is also providing more opportunities for local artists to demonstrate their talents overseas. Since 2016, it has established collaborative ties with the organizers of three foreign music festivals: Live at Heart in Sweden, Tokyo International Music Market and Big Mountain Music Festival in Thailand. The bureau recommends Taiwan acts and facilitates their participation. The most recent edition of the Thai event last December featured four Taiwan performers, including Crowd Lu (盧廣仲), winner of the 2018 GMA prizes for best composer and song of the year. According to Hsu, such multifaceted, internationally focused promotional campaigns are essential for building stars in the modern pop music industry.

Digital Transformation

The revenue structure of Taiwan’s contemporary music sector would be unrecognizable to a turn of the century record industry mogul. In line with global trends, physical sales have fallen off a cliff. According to BAMID data, revenues plummeted from their peak of NT$12.26 billion (US$408.7 million) in 1997 to NT$991 million (US$33 million) in 2016, the latest year for which statistics are available.

This collapse was kick-started in the 1990s by growing internet access and cemented by the launch of Taiwan’s first streaming site KKBOX in 2004 and the various platforms that followed. With consumers increasingly embracing the online space, the revenues of these services doubled to NT$3.18 billion (US$106 million) between 2011 and 2016, BAMID figures show.

While digital sales have yet to reach the dizzy heights of late 1990s CD purchases, a surge in the popularity of concerts has provided the sector with a new cash cow. The painful transition of the early 2000s is now firmly in the rearview mirror. Industrywide production value, including concerts, licensing, talent management fees and other revenue streams, grew 11 percent year on year to NT$17.88 billion (US$596 million) in 2016.

Abby Hsieh (謝婉萍), vice president of the Content Creation Division of Rock Records Co., said digital platforms have turned pop into a borderless industry. Founded in 1980, the enterprise is the first homegrown label in Taiwan, boasting a huge catalog of works available online at home and abroad through services including KKBOX and Apple Music. “CDs exist today mainly as collectibles, while vinyl has made a comeback over the past three years for the same reason,” she added.

Online dominance is evidenced by BAMID’s decision in 2017 to start accepting GMA nominations for digital-only works. The bureau received 6,047 submissions of this kind in 2018, triple the number of the previous year.

“In the Internet age, novice musicians have so many avenues to showcase their talents, but this also means competition is fiercer than ever,” solo star Haor (許書豪‬) said. The 31-year-old was nominated for best Mandarin male vocalist at this year’s GMA for his second album “How,” for which he wrote the majority of the music and lyrics. “Nowadays, a good singing voice simply isn’t enough. You’ve got to express your individuality,” he added.

Live Music Landscape

According to Hsieh, the decline of physical sales has changed the manner in which success is judged. “New album releases used to be big events, but now they’re peripheral,” she said. “What defines an artist today is the quality of their live shows and their ability to fill top venues like Taipei Arena.”

Jamie Hsueh (薛忠銘), director of the bachelor’s degree in pop music program at Taipei City University of Science and Technology, similarly said that stage charisma is central to modern artists’ appeal. “Today, you’ve got to know how to conduct yourself in front of large audiences if you want to make it big,” he noted.

Despite initial concerns from experts that internet platforms would shrink ticket sales, live shows have taken off since the music sector moved online, said Paul Wang (汪聖柏), chief financial officer of Taipei-based concert and event organizer KHAM Inc. From 2011 to 2016, revenues in the live music industry increased 22 percent to NT$4.44 billion (US$148 million). This figure rises to NT$6.19 billion (US$206.3 million) when concerts arranged by record labels, categorized separately by BAMID, are taken into account. “Actually, we’ve seen that greater access to music promotes fan engagement and boosts interest in attending events,” Wang said.

The rise in popularity of live shows coincided with the opening of Taipei Arena. Launched in 2004, the 11,000-seater facility is the nation’s top-performing venue, drawing the likes of Namie Amuro, Celine Dion and Katy Perry this year alone. Its establishment has helped facilitate the rapid expansion of the concert sector over the past decade.

Taiwan’s live music industry is poised for a major boost thanks to two much-anticipated local government facilities: Taipei Pop Music Center and the Maritime Cultural and Pop Music Center in the southern city of Kaohsiung. Scheduled to open next year, they each house performance spaces accommodating some 6,000 attendees. “The industry is crying out for mid-sized indoor venues in the 3,000 to 10,000-seater range, and these locations will plug this gap perfectly,” Wang said.

The facilities are expected to boost the artistic and commercial development of breakout stars like No Party For Cao Dong. In early June, producer Lee Hsiao-tzu (李孝祖‬) was busy working on the group’s second album as band members prepared to depart on a world tour, with stops planned in at least 30 cities including New York, Seoul, Tokyo and Toronto. “They’re always trying to be really creative with their new tracks,” Lee said. “And in time, as they accumulate more life experience, I believe they’ll further develop their unique voice.”

Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw