Last week, TVB aired a very interesting episode of Hong Kong collections, discussing whether the song “Chok” Raymond Lam is an indication of the death of Hong Kong music industry.

I pretty much agree that the overall environment has been changed. In the 80’s, HK dominated the Chinese music industry, providing songs to local, overseas and mainland markets. Talented people rushed in because here was where they could develop their careers. China at that time was still far from capable of having their own culture and rich enough to make its own. As center of attention, HK was always wealthy and stylish. The rival between Alan Tam and Leslie Cheung is still a legend today. Leave alone superstars like Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui who could easily sell millions copies of records, we have many classic names like Pricilla Chan, Danny Chan, George Lam, Sam Hui and etc. Even when it comes to the 90’s, when the industry has began to be perplexed by pirate CDs, we still had the “Four Heavenly Kings Era” with some other unique but stylish stars like Shirley Kwan, Sandy Lam, Andy Hui, Sammi Cheng….and many many other big names.

But when we have come to the late 90’s, suddenly it seemed that no one is willing to buy CDs. Every body turned to the internet to download new songs. This once highly profitable industry had struck into a dilema, and failed to produce best sellers or commercially successful mega hits. Superstars to hold a concert for a whole month had become a legend. People came and fell like shooting stars. Some even blamed the Karaoke culture had led popular songs more Karaoke oriented, which narrowed down lyrics of songs only focusing on love and relationship with similar kinds of melodies.

OK, should we put all the blames on K songs and illegal downloads for the fall of Cantopop? Think about it, songs what we call “pop songs” are actually easy to remember and sing, to express our emotions. It is not the first day love songs dominate in the area of pop songs. We just didn’t go to Karaoke in 80’s, which was considered only naughty guys would go. Only after the 90’s Karaoke has become so popular that kids would go after school. All record labels did not miss out any chance to share the market by releasing Karaoke LDs. The trend had been swung to cater the K lovers? May be. But on the other side, we learn and discover so many side cuts inside the K room, which is seldom plugged in mainstream media. (Well, still there are peoples who want to stand out by singing less popular side cuts.) Karaoke has become a new channel to promote new songs. Then a far more powerful channel appeared, which is called the internet. Back into the 80’s, although we could get illegal copies by dubbing tapes or recording songs from radio, it never had been this easy to access songs by downloading mp3. But don’t forget other emerging markets has been facng the same problems too. They still be able to make big money and even export their music to HK. As Taiwan drama, Korean drama has become popular in HK, this also arises our interest in their music. Yes, not only Cantopop, HK drama, movies are no more the center of the world. We are now facing keen competitions from other Asian regions. Those once can satisfy audiences no longer works. People are demanding something better and interesting. Facing the uncertainties, HK producers take a more conservative approach to make more love songs, K songs to secure the attention from majorities. They just can’t take the risk in such a fragile market. It has entered an vicious circle: Weak market > conservative approach > monotonous style to carter the majority > boring > audiences give up cantopop> weaker market > more conservative. (By the way, do you know which industry can attract the most talented and creative people? Finance of course. That’s why now the industry can provide so many creative financial products which is tempting but hardly to be understand.)

The arise of internet and new media have distracted some attention from the old types. I remember when I was small, every one in HK knew how to sing the most popular song at that time because the radio and TV aired it day and night. We received message and information very passively. Now we make our own choice by searching those we think suit our taste. Taking the song “hooking little fingers” as an example, I really have no idea of the song and the singers until one day when I watched JSG ceremony the song was awarded a whatever prize. Later I was told it is very popular among the teens. I was very skeptical about the fact but the hit rate of nearly 3 millions has convinced me. I think it’s like blogging. An extremely popular blog may be very influential but only limited to a certain type of audiences. There are so many different types of choices out there. Audiences will find their own taste. No one can take the whole piece of cake any more.

So how can an industry like this be able to attract talented new blood? I don’t know. But I think people who want to stay in the industry now have to be passionate enough to survive, especially for the new comers. The success of Kay Tse and recent come back of Shine has demonstrated that people wants more other than love songs that are playing safe. There is still something unreplaceable for Cantopop. What’s better than to express our emotion and love to Hong Kong? Of course it’s our mother language, Cantonese.