1.
Album
–
Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves
2.
Jay Chou
–
Jay Chou is a Taiwanese musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, film producer, actor and director. In 2000, Chou released his album, titled Jay. He has sold more than 30 million albums and has received awards for his musical works. Chou has also songs for other artists whilst working on his albums. In 2003, he was the story of Time magazine, titled New King of Asian Pop. He has since held six world tours, performing in cities around the world to more than 10 million people. Chou debuted his career in the film Initial D, followed shortly by his role as the honorable son, Prince Jai, in the multi-nominated Mandarin Chinese epic. Chou also manages his own record and management company JVR Music, in 2016, he re-entered Hollywood to play a role named Li in the film, Now You See Me 2. Jay Chou grew up in Linkou, Taipei County, Taiwan, both his parents were secondary school teachers, his mother, Yeh Hui-Mei who was a music teacher, taught fine arts, while his father, Chou Yao-Chung, is a biomedical researcher. His mother noticed his sensitivity to music and took him to piano lessons at the age of four, during his childhood, he was fascinated with capturing sounds and songs with his tape recorder, which he carried everywhere with him. In the third grade, he interested in music theory. He was a child and loved to play piano, imitate TV actors. His favorite composer was, and still is to this day and his parents divorced when he was 13 and he was teased by his classmates, which caused him to become reclusive and introverted. He had no friends and preferred to be alone, listening to music, at Tamkang Senior High School, he majored in piano and minored in cello. He showed talent for improvisation, became fond of pop music, Chou was conscripted for mandatory military service after graduating from high school with inadequate grades for university. Meanwhile, he himself a job as a waiter. Chous mother initially inspired Chou to become a teacher, while Chou remained relatively clueless on what to do with his life. Without his knowledge, a friend entered both their names in a talent show called Super New Talent King in 1998, Chou played the piano accompaniment for his friend, whose singing was described as lousy
3.
Record producer
–
A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
4.
Pop music
–
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid 1950s. The terms popular music and pop music are used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular. Pop and rock were synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they were used in opposition from each other. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music. Pop music is eclectic, and often borrows elements from other such as urban, dance, rock, Latin. Identifying factors include generally short to medium-length songs written in a format, as well as the common use of repeated choruses, melodic tunes. David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, according to Pete Seeger, pop music is professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music, the music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs. Pop music, as a genre, is seen as existing and developing separately, pop music continuously evolves along with the terms definition. The term pop song was first recorded as being used in 1926, Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country, blues and hillbilly music. The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pops earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience. Since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the meaning of non-classical mus, usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles. Grove Music Online also states that, in the early 1960s pop music competed terminologically with beat music, while in the USA its coverage overlapped with that of rock and roll. From about 1967, the term was used in opposition to the term rock music. Whereas rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of music, pop was more commercial, ephemeral. It is not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward, and, in musical terms, it is essentially conservative. It is, provided from on high rather than being made from below, pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment, the lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions
5.
Vincent Fang (lyricist)
–
For the Hong Kong entrepreneur, please refer to Vincent Fang. Vincent Fang was born on 26 January 1969 in Hualien, Taiwan and he is a Taiwanese multi-Golden Melody Award nominated lyricist, best known for his collaboration with singer-songwriter Jay Chou. Fang won Best Lyricist at the 19th Golden Melody Awards for 青花瓷 sung by Jay Chou from On the Run, in 1997, he sent samples of his lyrics to record companies, hoping to find a new career that complemented his passion for writing. Record company owner Jacky Wu was impressed with his work and hired Fang to work with Chou, in 2000, Chou released his first album and since then produced albums in which Fang contributes the majority of the lyrics. Chou’s fame grew rapidly across Asia, pulling Fang into the limelight as well, fangs lyrics are noted for covering a wide of issues from family to war, beyond what is normally discussed in love ballads. He calls his style of lyrical poetry Su Yan Rhyme Poetry 素顏韻腳詩, born in 1969, Vincent Fang grew up in Taiwan and was raised in what he calls a blue collar family. He is a Hakka with ancestry from Yudu, Jiangxi, in his youth, he gave very little effort in school and received poor grades. After graduating from school, at the age of 20 he served his mandatory military service in the Republic of China Army. When he was off-duty, he spent his time reading and watching movies. Despite taking these jobs and having no formal training in linguistics. In 1992, he decided that his job would be a movie scriptwriter. After a year, he was no closer to his goal and he planned an alternate path to enter the film business, establish his stature in the entertainment industry by first entering music field as a lyricist, then transit into script writing. Over 2 years starting in 1995, he more than 100 lyrics. To contact record producers, he searched the CD liner notes of popular Chinese singers for mailing addresses and sent his entire lyrics collection to them. Of more than 100 mails sent, only a single person replied, Jacky Wu, in 1997, at the age of 28, Fang signed the official contract to work as a lyricist. Wu arranged Fang to work with Jay Chou, a newly hired composer who just graduated from secondary school, together they wrote songs for popular Chinese artists but neither acquired much fame. Fang’s talent was recognized after Chou began a successful career that was partially attributable to Fang’s lyrics. In 1998, Fang and Chou began to work together, initially using Fang’s collection of 100 lyrics, for their first song, Chou composed a tune for Fang’s You are happier than before which was placed in an album by Wu, their mentor
6.
Agent J (album)
–
Agent J is the ninth studio album by Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai. It was released on September 21,2007, by Capitol Music Taiwan and it was renamed Love Mission in mainland China. Tsais last studio album, Dancing Diva, not only brought her to the top of the charts, expectations were naturally high for the new record, and Tsai was upping the ante with eleven new tracks and her first ever music movie. The album is set to be as successful as Dancing Diva, the album has sold more than 2.5 million copies in Asia, with more than 200,000 copies sold in Taiwan alone, and became the best-selling album of the year in Taiwan. The eleventh track, Sun Will Never Set, reached number 1 on the Hit FM Annual Top 100 Singles, the title track, Agent J, reached number 14 on the chart. The second track, Bravo Lover, reached number 41 on the chart, the album earned Tsai an MTV Asia Award nomination for Favorite Artist Taiwan. To further promote the album, Tsai released her debut film under the title on September 5,2007. The film is directed by Jeff Chang, Sheng Kuang, and Wei-kang Lai and starring Jolin Tsai, Kim Jaewon, Stephen Fung, and Carl Ng, the film can be divided into three parts. In the first part, Tsai played a girl who traveled in Paris, France and she was taken away by a secret organization and got brainwashed, and she was selected as a special agent due to her lithe physique to help the organization to assassinate people. At the last, she was instructed by the organization to kill her boyfriend, because she lost all her memory, she was confused about the last smile the man gave to her, and she went to his apartment and found the old photos bearing witness to their relationship. In the second part, Tsai played a people in prison and was selected by an organization to carry out an assassination in exchange for her freedom. Her target, Blue Beard, received intelligence and sent two killers to assassinate her in London, England and she met a photographer named Hsiao-tung Lu, and she fled under the cover of the man. They started a relationship, but one day she found her boyfriend was also an agent sent by Blue Beard. On the night she went to kill Blue Beard, Blue Beard shot her boyfriend from behind, in the third part, she played an undercover agent who was instructed to save a fellow agent named Vince who approached a gang boss in Bangkok, Thailand. However, she found the Vince was her ex-boyfriend who was supposed to be died a few years ago was working for the gang boss, one day both of their undercover identities exposed, and they started a gun battle with the gang member. Vince took a bullet in the chest and was died, and he left her alone again
7.
Traditional Chinese characters
–
Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
8.
Jolin Tsai
–
Jolin Tsai is a Taiwanese singer, songwriter, dancer, actress and entrepreneur. Known for reinventing both her music and image, she is cited as a role of popularizing dance music as mainstream music in Greater China. Born and raised in Taiwan, Tsai began her career by winning the champion at an MTV singing competition at the age of 18. Her debut album, released in 1999 and titled 1019, was a huge success and her fifth album, Magic, is regarded as one of her biggest successes so far, right after her album, Dancing Diva, which reflected her mature artistic statement. After several successful albums and dozens of hits, she released her latest album, Play, having sold more than 25 million records in Asia, Tsai is recognized as one of the best-selling artists in Asia. Her work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including six Golden Melody Awards, an MTV Asia Award and she has been acclaimed as an entrepreneur, particularly after she founded her own music production and management company Eternal in 2009. Forbes reported that she is one of the highest-paid Chinese celebrities, Tsai was born to parents Tsai Chu-chen and Huang Chun-mei in Hsinchuang, Taiwan, on September 15,1980. Her father is of Han Chinese descent, while her mother is half Han Chinese and her Papora maternal grandmother hails from Puli. Tsai was known for her grade, and frequently achieved top 3 in class since elementary school. Tsai was a 200-meter sprinter in school, but quit after she injured her ankle. Tsai later attended Hsinchuang Junior High School and Chingmei Girls High School where she and her friends formed a band Twister for which she sang, but the band quickly dissolved. In the second year of school, she made her performance debut on campus. In a different campus event, she sang Bette Midlers The Rose, in 1998, Tsai joined an MTV singing competition for a record of an extracurricular activity she performed in order to help her apply for colleges. However, she emerged champion at the competition where she sang a rendition of Whitney Houstons Greatest Love of All in the final round. It was a win that kickstarted her singing career and paved the way to her journey in becoming a teen idol. In 1999, she majored in English literature at Fu Jen Catholic University, after Tsai signed a recording deal with Universal, her debut single, Living with the World, was released in July 1999. She then started developing her album,1019, which was primarily recorded in Quad Studios in New York City. The album was released in September 1999, and she received positive feedback for the album, Tsai was named as the Teenage Boy Killer by media, and became an instant hit among teenagers in Taiwan
9.
Magic (Jolin Tsai album)
–
Magic is the fifth studio album by Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai. It was released on March 7,2003, by Sony Music Taiwan, Tsai managed to sign with Sony in February 2002, and got one of her biggest successes in her music career. A reinvention in her music and image gave her what she needed to make a comeback to the scene after being gone for almost a year. The highly anticipated album sold more than 1.5 million copies in Asia, with more than 360,000 copies sold in Taiwan alone, the opening track, Say Love You, reached number 3 on the Hit FM Annual Top 100 Singles. The title track, Magic, reached number 24 on the chart, the fifth track, Prague Square, reached number 65 on the chart
10.
Hit FM (Taiwan)
–
Hit FM is a pop music radio station in Taiwan. It broadcasts in Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung, Hit FM is owned by Music of Taipei Communications. It is one of the stations under Hitoradio. com. Hit FM is the highest-rated Top Ten radio station in Taiwan, the show, Fresh Release broadcast pop music. Hit Fm is one of the Chinese radio stations that broadcasts songs and their competitor, Kaohsiung-based Kiss Radio Taiwan, also broadcasts Mandopop as well as English top 40 songs. Each Weekend, two artists introduce music on air. Many Taiwanese/Mandarin Pop Music Artists, such as Jay Chou, Show Luo, A-Mei, Jolin Tsai, S. H. E, Leehom Wang, Stefanie Sun, everyday, Hit Fm introduces the No.1 song from different music charts throughout the world. This show broadcasts at 7,15,11,15,15,15,19,15,00,15, but now this feature has been abolished. Hit Fm Annual Top 100 Singles Chart is a yearly compilation chart since 1998, by Hit Fm of the top 100 singles by online poll, weekly charts,2005 Hito Top 100 Singles 2004 Hito Top 100 Singles Remarks, Timetable is as of March 15,2010. Times stated above are at local times, the names of the DJ are in parenthesis. Official website Source, Pinyin translated by CozyChinese. Com
