Let’s continue talking about the reasons behind the demise of Hong Kong’s music industry.

Lack of training, poor standards

There was a time when pop idols and groups were extremely successful in Hong Kong, even if their singing wasn’t quite up to par. As long as they had cute faces and stage presence, their records would fly off the shelves. It was forgiven even when pop idols were painfully out of tune, simply because they were beautiful. But as these stars age and their singing skills started to go, even their most loyal fans gave up on them. I do not blame these pop idols. Between being in films and commercials, performing and of course recording albums, how many of them had time to really focus on their music skills, when they didn’t even have enough time to sleep?

Until one day they are no longer famous, their value to their record labels are next to none, and they’re just cast aside. Many record companies do not have long-term development plans for their artists. They certainly wouldn’t consider the future of Hong Kong’s music industry as part of their business strategy either. What they care about is season’s commercial numbers, but at the expense of the reputation of Hong Kong’s singers. So the quality of Hong Kong singers gets worse and worse. Once listeners listen to a poor performance for the tenth time, they will abandon the star in total disappointment.

The role of the media

A lot of analyses of the decline of Hong Kong’s music industry ignore the role played by media. In fact, before the 1990s, the media and entertainment industry enjoyed a relationship of mutual respect. Many reporters of the last generation were friends with celebrities. But things took a drastic turn with the launch of Next Magazine in 1990. It was a catastrophe for the entertainment industry, as the media industry started to unscrupulously expose celebrities’ private lives. These celebrities came crashing down from the sky in the eyes of the public.

The more famous you were, the more of a target you became, until you stopped being famous. Entertainment news also became more and more vulgar. It didn’t matter whether you were good at singing, at the end of the day the media were only interested in whether your rumoured girlfriend went to your concert. Of course, celebrities depend on publicity. But once the media decides to take away your halo, no good looks or singing skills can make up for it. As a result, after 2000, there were no true superstars anymore. The most famous of them, like Pakho Chau and Shawn Yu, could not hold a candle to the Four Gods of Cantopop of the previous decade. I’m very suspicious that superstars on a par with Andy Lau and Leon Lai can really happen again in today’s media landscape.

But things have started to change in the last year or so. The media started digging up less dirt on singers, for three reasons. First, these sorts of tabloid magazines are no longer attractive to young readers; second, people are taking a greater interest in politics and politicians, more so than in celebrity news, and finally, people are so unfamiliar with singers today that they can barely register any interest in their private lives. Today, Hong Kong singers are so devalued that they aren’t even worth being trampled on by the tabloid press. (To be continued)