jay chou

he's one of those people that I'm rather amazed by. The range of musical style used in his songs his huge, and I thought (since I've been obsessed with his music lately) that I would go check him out on wikipedia. Personally, I liked jay chou, but I actually fell in love with his music in secret. Granted, it's not the most complex score you'll see in your life, but for a musician of his age he's pretty amazing. I don't think I'm good enough to describe to you hos his music is like, so I'll just name a few examples:

Herbalist's Manual--makes use of techno/electronica

Red Imitation--uses Spanish style music (especially guitar at the beginning)

Reverse Scale--listen for the strings in the background, adding a bit of classical music

Rosemary--a Brazilian style of music called Bossa nova, I think. It's completely different from the kind of music that he usually does

Perfection and Sorry--(two of my favorite songs from a mix cd that I did after my dad accidentally downloaded a few of his songs) use counterpoint (background--although it's more apparent in the piano in perfection)

Wounds of War and Twilight's Chapter 7--use uhh....polyphony. I'm not sure how to describe it to you, really...it's like...these two opposing melodies in a song....but not exactly opposing because they...sort of harmonize? in a welrd sort of way. One's usually more dominant than the other. I think it's more evident in Twilight's Chapter 7 than it was in Wounds of War.

the last two are styles that are hmm...not common in music that you hear in everyday life. according to wikipedia, it's common in renaissance and baroque music styles? I'm not sure since I don't have a classical music training (<--fail!)

As a director, he produced a moie (his only one) that surpasses a lot of movies I've seen here, and I find him amazing (though not as amazing as Darren Aronofsky). You should watch Secret because it's a really good movie. If I haven't mentioned it above, this is the movie that caught my attention to his music (though some songs in my mix cd did that, too--I spent most of my time listening to those and fantasizing about what I can transpose for sax rather than really listening to his music) and made me really, really fall in love with the style. I'm a firm believer (I argued in class about this once on film adaptations of books) that without music and sound effects in film, it would be nothing not words. I believe that films that are emphasized with music catches the audiences' attention an lot more, involved their brains a lot more int eh experience and makes the viewing process complete. I gave the example that the illusionist was a movie with a bad plot because instead of having what's on screen working in harmony with music, the music caught more of my attention.

Anyway, one of the videos that has caught my attention for the moment in terms of how it's been directed is Far Away. The song itself also included...uhh...I'm not sure what that style of singing is called. Chinese opera, perhaps...idk? In case you watched the video and thought that the guy put in there was fake or whatever (yes, yes I did think that because I didn't know who he was) then here is a video of the song at the World Tour. I think it's great how he mixes different styles into his songs.

Also in the world tour version of Fa Ru Xue an instrument that I like a lot was used. I'm not sure what it's called....but you'll be able to recognize its sounds especially if you're asian. My grandmother knows how to play that and used to when she was younger. I want to learn someday.

If you haven't recognized the trend by now, I'm on a "world tour craze" because this next video for Nocturne is just to emphasize that it's nice that he doesn't sound bad live. I want to go to one of his concerts soon (before he stops being able to do this on a large scale and before he--or I--gets old). Yes, yes...those girls are hanging off of him one by one. I think at this point I feel inspired to go to the concert tonight.

On to World Tour--Secret. And what is it with asians and glow sticks!??!?!

Dandelion's Promise--also from the movie Secret, only as an instrumental. I suggest you go watch that movie :D Here he is, playing and singing. He composed all of the music for his songs, though he might not have written the lyrics.

And I'll end my string of videos with this lovely note. Jay Chou/Yu Hao duet--and what Gabe Whaley (NCSSM class president 2008) and Justin Huang did at Asia Fest called Dragon's Heel which I'm guessing is the song's name. Strings were Yify Zhang, Sophia Han (NCSSM concert master), Reid Huffman (sp?) on viola, Sunny Huang and Adam Collins (cello) Lucy Owen (timpani) and Apurva Oza (drum set)

What I'll also be attending tonight is the Jazz Concert with Joey Calderazzo as the guest pianist at our 3rd Annual Fine Arts Weekend at NCSSM. Here's where you can listen to some of his music, on his myspace, I think....I wouldn't know if there is any since I can't access myspace. But I'll take a chance anyway and say that he has samples for you to listen to. I'll have photographs on my flickr account which I think was linked right....idk because I can't check on here since flickr is ALSO blocked at NCSSM. Meanwhile...that is my shameless plug for my photos.