Eason Chan's Albums Listed Under "Taiwan Popular Music - 200 Best Albums"

Top of the pops
A new book offers the first list of Taiwan’s best pop and rock albums from the past 34 years

By David Chen

In the age of MP3s, the album isn’t dead — at least not as an art form. This idea partly inspires a new book that aims to canonize the finest in Taiwanese pop and rock with a list of the 200 best albums released since 1975.

Taiwan Popular Music — 200 Best Albums (台灣流行音樂 200最佳專輯) is one of the first attempts to cull together a definitive list of classic Taiwanese pop and rock albums, complete with background information on each album and artist.

The book, a project conceived by a group of National Taiwan University (NTU) students, is divided into two parts: the first half is a revised edition of a book first printed in 1994 that ranks albums released from 1975 to 1992, and the second half ranks albums released from 1993 to 2005.

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SELECTION CRITERIA

For the 1975 to 1992 list, the top albums were chosen, submitted, then voted upon by over 100 voters consisting of Taiwanese music critics, writers, industry representatives and musicians.

For the 1993 to 2005 list, the voting panel was whittled down to 26 people chosen by the Association of Music Workers In Taiwan (中華音樂人交流協會), a music industry advocacy group, which organized and produced the book.

The criteria for selecting albums were: the album had to be full length (EPs and singles were not considered); the songs had to have lyrics; the language had to be one of the major languages spoken in Taiwan, which include Mandarin, Hoklo, Hakka or an Aboriginal language.

Voters included musical luminaries such as Jonathan Lee (李宗盛), Tsai Chin (蔡琴) and Ma Nien-hsien (馬念先).

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Under the time frame of 1993-2005, Eason Chan's album Special Thanks To... (released April 2002) ranked number 61 and Black White Grey (黑白灰, released April 2003) ranked 79.

Also worth mentioning is that only three other Hong Kong artists made the list. With Sandy Lam making both time frames, 1975-1993 with Home Without You (愛上一個不回家的人, released December 1990) ranking 51 and 1993-2005 with Clang Rose (鏗鏘玫瑰, released January 1999) ranking 91. Under 1993-2005, Jacky Cheung makes the top 20 with Goodbye Kiss (吻別, released March 1993) ranking 19 and Karen Mok's Karen Mok on the Twelth Floor (十二樓的莫文蔚, released October 2000) ranking 60.

For the entire list: musicman.org

Sources: musicman.org 02.06.2009 & taipei times 04.06.2009