Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen

The following piece was published in the Sunday Times on 11 March 2007:

Sunday Times 7 March 2007
Sounding the same is unsound
by Colin Goh

In a few weeks’ time, our film ‘Singapore Dreaming’ will be premiering in the US, in Philadelphia, San Francisco and later in the year, New York. My cheerfulness was dampened, however, when a well-meaning Singaporean told me: “Congratulations! If only all the dialogue in your film were in perfect English, then an even larger audience will get to see your film and can learn what Singapore is about.”

I’ve heard this sentiment from a number of Singaporeans over the years, and, with great respect, it’s utter rubbish.  How can any film be authentically Singaporean if the characters all speak the Queen’s English, especially when this doesn’t happen even in the vast majority of British films? Let ‘em read our subtitles (which happen to be in perfect English), I say.

The relative abilities of foreign cultural products to penetrate the lucrative American market is a complicated issue that has fueled doctoral dissertations the size of phonebooks, and is naturally beyond the scope of this column.  But is it true we have to sound exactly like Americans if we want to be accepted by them?

The fallacy of this was emphasized last week by a story in the New York Times about the difficulties faced by Asian-Americans wanting to crack the US pop music charts.

While a number of Asian-Americans have made it as successful behind-the-scenes producers or as part of multi-member rock bands (such as Apl.de.Ap of the Black-Eyed Peas and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park), the only Asian pop singer with any significant name recognition in the US is, alas, American Idol reject William Hung. (It seems like not only ‘She Bangs’, but a lot of aspiring Asian artistes are feeling pretty bang themselves.)

Why is this the case?  There’s certainly no dearth of talent or potential. Is it simply racism? Are Asians trapped by their stereotype as nerds, geeks or inscrutable martial artists/dragon ladies? Some also say the Asian market is also too fragmented – we are less homogeneous than the Caucasian, Black or Hispanic markets.

But one compelling reason is provided by Andy Goldmark, a former VP for talent at Jive Records who’s now trying to market Natalise, a singer of Burmese descent: Asian-Americans tend to follow current trends rather than come up with their own unique sound. Anyone who’s had to endure Singapore Idol knows there’s some truth to this.

I also occasionally receive demos from Singaporean musicians, and while the vast majority is very talented and sincere, most songs also tend to be derivative. But then, Mando, Canto and K-pop are highly derivative too – just generic Western melodies with Asian lyrics. When the Korean superstar Rain did a concert in New York last year, the New York Times dismissed him as a 90’s nostalgia act.

Several years ago, a group of Singapore musicians were brought to New York to perform, one of whom chose to sing Sinatra-like showtunes.  The American friends I invited to the performance were puzzled at this. While they found his singing competent, they said his attempt to sound American reminded them of the old Black and White Minstrel show, which featured white folks in black makeup trying to sound like black folks. What was the point?

In other words, we can’t hope to create success in the West by simply replicating Western products, and just slapping on differentiated marketing. The copycat/reverse engineering strategy just doesn’t work in the art world, which seeks uniqueness, not commodities.

And if you look at the foreign acts that have made any headway into the US market, they’re all highly idiosyncratic and couldn’t care less what works on the charts.  That’s why J-pop idol Utada Hikaru couldn’t cross over, but Cibo Matto or Shonen Knife could. Also, look how Mandopop is ignored by the US, but hardcore indie Beijing musicians like Subs and Meihao Yaodian,are being watched with interest.

Recently, MP Chan Soo Sen talked about how Singapore needs to develop a cool image. Perhaps we can learn something from Iceland. (After all, nothing is cooler than ice.) With a population of barely over 300,000 and a language that is closest etymologically to Old Norse (and you thought Singlish was a problem), they have spawned global pop stars like Bjork and Sigur Ros, performers who can never be accused of pandering.

When it comes to culture, authenticity and sincerity are far more important, both at home and abroad. Trying to tailor your cultural product to fit the amorphous tastes of the Western public is a speculative exercise doomed to failure.

To be cool, we need to find our own voice, and then be unafraid to let it be heard.

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