Low degree of satisfaction in working conditions
High degree of evaluation of contribution to the society
Mid degree of autonomy ( over 50%)
¾ More experienced, higher degree of autonomy
¾ Higher reputation, higher degree of autonomy
Conclusion
TW Documentary:
A Public sector funded industry
Documentary practitioners:
Governmental subcontracted workers
Stable but limited funding from Gov
¾ Poor working conditions
¾ Relatively high autonomy
[附件二]
Selling the imagined lifestyles: Rock festivals in Taiwan+ Chang-de Liu; Miao-ju Jian ∗
Abstract
Rock festivals in Taiwan emerged during the mid 1990s and were promoted mainly by indie rock artists and fans. Though being “club-like” popular music events in their initial stage, these outdoor rock concerts attracted growing attendance and became a newly significant trend of Taiwanese popular music in recent years.
However, investments from commercial corporations and subsidies from local governments have facilitated but also changed the characteristics of rock festivals.
This paper, firstly, attempts to describe and analyze the development of rock festivals in Taiwan during the last decade. As record companies have experienced the long recess since the late 1990s, the rising market of live concerts has eventually become a new chance for Taiwanese music industry. Secondly, we examine the commercialization process of Taiwanese rock festivals in recent years, and focus on two commercially exploited events—the Urban Simple Life (簡單生活節) in 2006 and the Taike Rock Festival in 2007. This paper explores the commodity chain of these commercialized rock festivals, and argues that the core of their commodity is the making of “an imagined lifestyle.” Interestingly, the lifestyles these two music festivals sold to their target consumers were totally different. While the Urban Simple Life sold the concept of “LOHAS” (lifestyle of health and sustainability), which is originated in Western societies, to white-collar employees in Taiwan, the Taike Rock Festival tactically exploited an originally discriminated term, Taike (台客), describing the oppressed ethnic group—people who dress, talk, and behave tackily, and most of them live in rural areas—and sold the spectacle to youth consumers in Taiwanese urban areas.
Keywords: Rock festivals; Pop music; Lifestyle
+ Presented in Liverpool, UK: IASPM (International Association for Study of Popular Music), 2009.
∗ Liu is Associate Professor of the National Chengchi University, Taiwan, email:
chadliu1971@gmail.com; Jian is Associate Professor of the National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, email: mjjian@gmail.com
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1. Introduction
1.1. The transformation of music festivals in Taiwan: From Clubs to Big Parties Rock festivals in Taiwan emerged during the mid 1990s and were promoted mainly by indie rock artists and fans. Being “club-like” popular music events in their initial stage, in the 1990s the Spring Scream Festival (春天吶喊) and the Formoz Festival (野台開唱) which were held by few rock bands and their friends attracted only hundreds of attendants although the festivals did not charge at all. In the very beginning, there were only 10-20 artists or bands participated in each festival every year (China Times, 2006/07/28, D3; United Daily, 2004/03/26, A12). Therefore, the cost of music festival at that time was relative low. For example, the total expenditure of Ho-hai-yan Festival (貢寮海洋音樂祭), one of the important music festival in Taiwan, was only US$170 thousand (NT$6 million) in 2000 (China Times, 2007/04/16, C1).
These outdoor rock concerts eventually attracted growing attendance and became a newly significant trend of Taiwanese pop music in recent years. For example, the Ho-hai-yan Festival attracted more than 300 thousand people in 2006, which was as 10 times as the number of attendants in 2000. The cost has also grown up dramatically to US$ 850 thousand (NT$30 million) in 2006, which was as 5 times as that in 2000;
in the meantime, the total income generated by the festival also reached to
approximately US$ 3 million (NT$ 100 million) (China Times, 2007/04/16, C1).
1.2. Research questions and methods
The growing size of music festivals has attracted more investments from businessmen and the political sector. However, we find that investments from commercial corporations and subsidies from local governments have facilitated but also changed the characteristics of rock festivals. As the change of organizers and goals, the main focus of these festivals has also been transferred from “tastes of pop music” into “performances of lifestyle.” For example, Landy Chang (張培仁), who is one of the major organizer of the Simple Life and the Taike Rock, said, “every genre of music based on a specific lifestyle.” “ [Taiwanese music industry] has to employ music to format lifestyles.” (Young, 2008, p. 39; 王一芝, 2007)
This paper, attempts to describe and analyze the development of rock festivals in Taiwan during the last decade. We focus on two commercially exploited events—the Urban Simple Life (SL, 簡單生活節) in 2006/2008 and the Taike Rock Festival (TK, 台客) in 2006/2007. The core of commodity that these two festivals produced is the making of “an imagined lifestyle.” By analyzing festivals’ texts, participatory
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observing, and interviewing with organizers, attendants, and artists, this paper explores two research questions: (1) how did music festivals in Taiwan construct the
“imagined lifestyles”? and (2) how did the practices of these festivals contracted to the concepts of constructed lifestyles?
Firstly, this paper analyzes “how” and these two festivals construct concepts of the lifestyles. We explore the concepts each festival attempted to create or construct, through three dimensions: (1) the lifestyle claimed; (2) the aesthetics claimed; and (3) the music genre claimed.
However, the practices of these festivals were not as the same as they claimed.
Thus the following section, secondly, will demonstrate the contradictions of the three dimensions between the concepts and the practices by examining artists’ and
attendants’ responses.
Finally, through the view of political economy, this paper demonstrates the reasons “why,” as well as the consequences, the festivals need to sell the imagined lifestyles rather than music.
2. Constructing the “imagined lifestyle” and the contradictions 2.1. Basics of SL & TK
Table 1 Briefs of the Simple Life Festival and the Taike Rock Festival
SL TK
When 2-day event (2006/12, 2008/12)
2-day event (2006/4, 2007/5) Where Taipei (台北)
The biggest city in TW
Taichuang (台中) A city locates in rural area Organizers Businessmen Businessmen &
Local Government Budget Over US$ 0.6 million
(NT$ 20 million)
-- Attendants 30 thousand, (24.6-2007)
most aged 20-35
70 thousand Fees US$ 40 (NT$ 1500) US$ 25 (NT$ 950) Income US$ 1.3 million
(NT$ 42 million)
US$ 1.1 million (NT$ 39 million) Source: Official websites; SL, 2006, p. 21; Wang, 2007; ET Today, 2007.04.22; interviewing with Landy Chang
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2.2. How to construct the concept
In this section, we analyze three dimensions of the concepts that the festivals attempted to construct, including:
(1) Lifestyles: mainly by analyzing the slogans and organizer’s claims.
(2) Aesthetics: mainly by presenting the official products and the design of stages.
(3) Music: mainly by analyzing the lineups.
2.2.1. Simple Life (1) SL Lifestyles Slogans:
Urban Simple Life/ Simply Smile/ Be Happy Everyday/ Peace & Free/ Create the simplest happiness in your life/ The most beautiful ones in Taipei/ Taipei people, unplug everything & be simple
Organizer’s claims:
Landy Chang:
It’s LOHAS (lifestyle of health and sustainability)
Taipei’s lifestyle is simple, polite, and convenient, and people here appreciate beautiful things. The city is full of pleasure. (Wang, 2007)
The logo—a smiling face—represents creativity and energy. We hope the festival can empower young designers and music artists, and enable everyone find their own simple-life. (CNA, 2008.12.06)
(2) SL Aesthetics
Official products: T-shirts & File folders
Stages: Sky Stage: Music flowing in the water/ Breeze Park: Urban folk blowing in the wind/ Music of Freedom: Music as young as you/ Greenhouse Life: Music in the city’s woods
(3) SL Music
Prototype artist(s): Cheer Chen. The characteristic of her music and image is as simple as “water flowing quietly.” （Wang, 2007）
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Lineup:
Table 2 The Lineup of the Simple Life Festival (By country and language) SL 2006 SL 2008 SL Total
(1) TK Lifestyles
Slogans: Taichung is fascinating/ Experience the madness of Taiwanese way/ Be Taike, be stronger, be bigger/ You are the one who must be a Taike/ Taike is
unstoppable
Organizer’s claims:
Taichuang is the centre of Taiwanese subculture. (Wang, 2007)
The target attendance are teenagers, blue-collar workers, local habitants living around Taichuang. The entrance fee is inexpensive because Taikes love things that are cheap.(Young, 2008, p. 69)
(2) TK Aesthetics
Official products: T-shirts & File folders Stages:
Colorful: Neon lights,
Mixed style: Behind: Mazu (媽祖), the ocean Goddess in Taiwan and south-eastern China; Front: Statue of Liberty.
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(3) TK Music
Prototype Artists: Wu-bai (伍佰) & Jeannie Hsien (謝金燕) /Pole dancers (鋼管 女郎)
Lineup:
Table 3 The Lineup of the Taike Rock Festival (By country and language) TK 2006 TK 2007 TK Total
2.2.3.The concepts of the two festivals
Interestingly, the lifestyles these two music festivals sold to their target consumers were totally different, and thus the “concepts of lifestyle” were nearly opposite. The Urban Simple Life sold the concept of “LOHAS”—lifestyle of health and sustainability—which is originated in Western societies, to white-collar
employees living in urban area. By contrast, the Taike Rock Festival tactically exploited an originally discriminated term, Taike (台客), describing the oppressed ethnic group—people who dress, talk, and behave tackily, and most of them live in rural areas—and sold the spectacle to youth consumers in Taiwanese urban areas.
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Table 4 Comparing concepts of the Simple Life Festival & the Taike Rock Festival Lifestyle Aesthetics Music SL Young white-collars or SOHOs
Urban habitants who love LOHAS
Simple, Urban Folk TK Blue-collar workers
Young gangs living in rural areas
Exaggerating, Vulgar
Local/Ho-lo Techno Hip-hop
Table 5 Comparing the Lineup of the Simple Life Festival & the Taike Rock Festival
% SL TK 2.3. Contradictions between practices and concepts
We point out the contradictions between the concepts and the practices by examining the responses of artists and attendants.
2.3.1. Lifestyles
In the official pamphlet, the organizer ask all artists a question: “How to do one-day simple life?” Lin Sheng-Xiang (林生祥) is one among the artists. He is a protesting singer, environment protecting activist, and local-culture reviving activist.
He said,
Why do we live in the simple life way “only one day”? I am the one who live everyday in the simple way. This is weird. Are we living in the simple way just because we wanna attend the one-day festival? This is ridiculous.
Attendants: “Starbucks and 7-11 are everywhere…” Major sponsors of the two
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festivals include many transnational corporations, such as 7-11 (both), Starbucks (SL), Barcardi (TK). For SL, the mass consumption that represented by transnational
corporations is opposite to the concept of LOHAS; for TK, the international products imported by transnational corporations are also harmful to the localism of the TK’s concepts.
Attendants: “The majority of the TK’s attendants are college students rather than
“real” Taikes. Most of them wear T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers, rather than colorful shirts, bell-bottom trousers, and slippers which are thought to be typical Taike’s dressing.”
2.3.2. Aesthetics:
The Instant performing/consuming the aesthetics of the two concepts.
Attendants: “I found the many attendants in the Simple Life are the urban young bohemians who love arts (文藝青年). “ “Many attendants dressed up in a special way for attending that festival. They came to SL to perform their styles. And it’s not simple at all.”
“It’s very crowded and thus uncomfortable. Not simple.”
“I went to Taike Festival wearing slippers. But I don’t wear slippers very often. I wear it because I thought it’s appropriate in the festival. I was only a temporary Taike.”
2.3.3.Music
The Confusing arrangements of artists. (Wu-bai in SL; Cheer Chen in TK) Attendants: “Although they emphasize “be unplugged” over and over again, many artists performed electric instrumentals in the festival.”
Cheer Chen was one of the important artist in 2006 Taike Rock Festival. She said on the stage, “I am not a Taike. I have no idea why I am here”（Yang, 2008, p. 106）
3. Conclusion
3.1. The political economy of music festival in Taiwan
After about fifteen years of expansion in sales following the introduction of the compact disc, music corporations all over the world claim that the music industry has been encountering a serious crisis due to illegal digital piracy through peer-to-peer technology, which became popular in the late 1990s (Leyshon et al. 2005: 177-180).
Taiwanese recording market has declined constantly since 1998. The peak of CD sales
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reached NT$ 12.33 billion in 1997, and since then has decreased constantly to NT$
1.96 billion in 2007 (IFPI；cf Yang, 2008, p.89).
As record companies have experienced the long recess since the late 1990s, the rising market of live concerts has eventually become a new chance for Taiwanese music industry. The music industry has extended its territory so that “music business”
is not confined to “record business” only. For large music corporations, the value of music can be increased by linking it with other cultural products and advertising. The result tends to be the cross-selling of music, as well as the merge between music and other media conglomerates. The synergy of music-media conglomerates helps both the sale of media products and the promotion of records and music artists (Leyshon et al. 2005; Kusek and Leonhard 2005; Jenkins 2006: 79).
Under such circumstances, in Taiwan rock festivals—especially those focusing on lifestyles rather than music per se—have grown eventually. The development of rock festivals has helped music industry to deal with the decline of CD sales, as well as other industries to promote products (Chiu, 2009). Besides, Taiwanese government, which has been in the crisis of legitimacy due to the long recession and the rise of China, also contributed to the development of music festivals as politicians need such relatively easy projects to show their contributions to citizens.
3.2. The neo-tirbes festivals and its impact on music and lifestyles
The “neo-tribes” in the sense of post-subculture indicates the new forms of contemporary “sociality.” (Maffesoli, 1996; Bennett,1999; 2004; Malbon, 1999) It is precisely this network which binds, as I have said, the group and the mass. This bond is without the rigidity of the forms of organization with which we are familiar, it refers more to a certain ambience, a state of mind, and is preferably to be expressed through lifestyles that favor appearance and ‘form’. It is a case of a kind of collective unconscious (non-conscious) which acts as a matrix for the varied group experiences, situations, actions or wanderings. (Maffesoli, 1996:98)
This ‘affectual’ nebula leads us to understand the precise form which sociality takes today: the wandering mass-tribes…..In fact, in contrast to the stability induced by classical tribalism, neo-tribalism is characterized by fluidity, occasional gatherings and dispersal. Thus we can describe the street scene of modern megalopolises: the amateurs of jogging, punk or retro fashions, preppies and street performers invite us on a traveling road show. Through successive sedimentation, the aesthetic ambience
mentioned earlier is constituted. It is within such an ambience that we can
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occasionally see “instantaneous condensations” which are fragile but for that very instant the object of significant emotional investment. (Maffesoli, 1996:76)
Through the concept that Maffesoli (1996) called “Neo-tribes,” we identify the characteristic—selling lifestyles—of Taiwanese music festivals as a business strategy that attempts construct the bond of the image of products and consumers by
occasional/temporary basis, and thus this strategy has negative impact on the development of pop music and also those who live in such lifestyles.
References
Central News Agency [中央社] (2008). Simple Life Festival starting this weekend.
Online news.
Chiu, L. [邱莉玲] (2009). A new age of the music industry. Commercial Times, July 8th.
Ho, T. [何東洪] (2008). Taike rock and its discontent. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies.
Maffesoli, M. (1996). The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society (trans. D.Smith). London:Sage.
Simple Life Festival (2006). Briefs of Simple Life 2006 (簡單生活節成果簡介).
Taipei: SL 2006.
Wang, Y. [王一芝] (2007). Enlarging your creativity—Interviewing with Landy Chang. Online article.
Young, C. [楊鎮吉] (2008). On Taike Rock: From the perspective of Post-colonialism and sub-empire theory. (論「台客搖滾」的後殖民與次帝國意涵). Unpublished thesis, National Chung-cheng University, Taiwan.