Taoism 5

Thank you so much guys for yr msgs -- cheer me up no ends ^__^ You know a mbr of the paparazzi wrote that David drew less ppl to his promo in Quangzhou than a HK series star whose name I dun even recognised. I wondered why it is always David who got crowd comparision. Do ppl ever compared the crowd that Twins & SHE draw? Anyway I was thinking to myself, it depends on the quality of the crowd. Some ppl may just turned up to see the current flavor of the day. But David will not draw the curious onlookers, his fans are the real thing. They are there solely because of his music, not his looks, his image, his clothes, his physique or hype. Drawing a big crowd is not such a difficult feat compared to drawing fans who come a long way just to shake his hand & said, "I love your music!"
However I do understand why ppl are so disappointed with this album. An interesting article here where he replied to criticism of Beautiful. Trouble is there really is nobody who can take on the mantle of 'serious Chinese musician writing songs that reflect today society". Lou Dayou came out with BeautIsland & he wasn't criticised for coming up with such a gentle, loving album cos David was around to release The Great Leap. I can sense dismay & disdain that David refused to carry on with the tradition of creating music for the conscience of all Chinese. But why should he alone carry this burden?
As he sang in Olio, the circus has left town but a lot of ppl who don't understand is still waiting. "Eighteen years the generation has changed." Yes, David is no longer in his 20s & the fire of rebellion has died down. Time for a changing of guard, the next generation. Is it his fault that there is no successor? He has said many times & is still saying that new young singers need to be encouraged to write music of substance. But still they kept rewarding & promoting those who only write music for entertainment. Those who dare criticised *including myself* are crucified for daring to speak out. Btw, I wanna laughed out loud at the critic who said Chinese entertainment needs an album like The Doors or Pink Floyd, or at the vry least Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, or even The Great Leap II but not Beautiful. But dear critic, you don't know what you miss till it's gone. So Beautiful could be David's way of saying enough is enough, please don't depend on me to raise the bar in Chinese music. He has his own dreams to chase, his movies to make, his life to live. That's why I love this man. He walks the walk his own way always, singing Walk On, love that song!
While I agreed from certain aspects Beautiful is a flawed album, but its also quite brilliant. I said that it was like a familiar friend cos that's how I felt & from the comments, most felt the same. Then I suddenly remembered that in his forum before the album was released, it was referred to as Taoism 5. Then it all made sense. He did went back to his 1st album but in such an original way. The girl he can't get outta his mind could be the stewardess in Airport in 10.30. In Our Love, he has a girl saying in Malay 'plse return to me my love' I think *plse help Msia fans*, in Chase he says 'where are you, my love?' in Spanish. Too Beautiful is continuation of I Love You. Then of cos who can forget Answering Machine at the end with its intriguing msgs. In Beautiful we got the mysterious phrase from Blade Runner. Btw David quite often inserts unusual noises & msgs in his album esp at the end, like the clearing of his throat & guitar tuning In Black Tangerine. So they can hardly be considered 'gimmicks' just onging part of his imitable style.
It takes an extremely bold musician, not to mention skilful one, to go back to the style of his 1st album & managed to avoid coming out with a carbon copy. Tai Mei Li shows his growth & development between the 2 albums. Actually I was surprised when ppl accused him of pandering to the market with this album, now I understand why. He hasn't changed at all, he has written many songs in what is now considered 'formulaic' style right from his 1st album. In fact he helped popularised this genre, love ballads with a touch of r&b. If his 1st album was released today, it will not galvanised the chinese music world the way it did 9 yrs ago cos it will not be unlike like 50% of the albums released now. They don't called him 'godfather of music' for nothing ^__~
David Tao is still David Tao, he hasn't changed. The market has change, people's taste for music has changed, sometimes they cannot even relate to a song without an mv. Indeed the highlight of an album can be who is invited to film the mv. The music is no longer so important. How sad is that. I like to applaud David's attempt to take it back to music. I remembered he said during The Great Leap for which he filmed the most mvs that in today's market, mvs are required to sell the song. I was actually quite disappointed he said that. With Tai Mei Li, the songs are the ones selling the mvs. He got us all curious to see Marry me today mv with Jolin, now we are anxiously waiting for Olio & eager to see which song he will film mv next. Maybe he will not film any more mv & just let the songs tell stories in our minds. Meanwhile some David on air here & here, the little kid is too just cute.