Has anyone had any anecdotal experience of the music industry in Asia, particularly Malaysia?

I'd be interested in hearing the board's views of how piracy affects sales and discourages artists from touring in the region. It seems the 'newer' acts don't go there as it's too prohibitive in cost and there are bigger markets to crack in Europe and the States.

Many thanks.

Griff

When I was out there it seemed like the place for Western pop acts to "try out", like they do in Japan (if they still do).

I'm fascinated by this topic and would love to know more about music tastes and exposure all over the Orient.
When I went to China in the 80's, everyone was crazy about a hit from the Sixties - Rhythm of the Rain.
Except the Chinese cover substituted Pitter Patter with Peely Pally.
When I asked why, they said it sounded more like rain falling.
Strange race!

Haha! That's a great story.

Well what I know about Malaysia is that the hotel I was staying in (Kuala Lumpur) hosted a few "concerts". I managed to see about half of one for free because coming out of the lift (to go to dinner) I was swept along by a mad crowd into the hall! These were actually Malasian, a pop duo, male and female. The guy had bleached blonde hair like Eminem I recall. They mimed to some absolutely cringe-worthy songs but the crowd went nuts for them, apparently they weren't even that popular at this stage.

There was another concert of a UK pop band. Can't remember who they were, hadn't heard of them then or since. Again though, they seemed to have zillions of screaming fans.

I'm sure Japan was the "training ground" for pop acts a few years back. Atomic Kitten started off out there and I'm pretty certain quite a few other Pop acts did too.

I remember looking into it to find why they seem to go mad for unknown UK pop acts. The answer seemed to be in a particular marketing machine, get in with them and you're laughing.

Veteran rock star group The Rolling Stones will most likely follow the beat of China's censors when they perform in China in April 2006



The Rolling Stones plan to make its debut in mainland China in an 8,000-seat stadium in Shanghai on April 8, 2006, as part of its "A Bigger Bang" tour, said their promoters, Emma Entertainment, on its web site.

The band was set to give concerts in Shanghai and Beijing in spring 2003, but those shows were canceled because of the outbreak of the SARS epidemic.

Even before their April 2003 concerts were scuttled, the Stones had run afoul of China's culture commissars, reports Associated Press and Reuters. The Chinese Ministry of Culture told the band in 2003 it could not perform four songs: "Let's Spend the Night Together," "Brown Sugar," "Honky Tonk Women" and "Beast of Burden." No reasons were given, but the songs are among the most sexually explicit of the band's hits.

"This time, they also probably will not play those songs," an Emma Entertainment spokesperson surnamed Gu told Reuters.

I love asian pop. Artists like Japanese: Namie Amuro, Korean: BoA and Chinese: Jolin Tsai are all worth listening to. If you can figure this out, tracks 3,4,6,7,8 and especially 12 are ace.

www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail.asp?sku=1926047

nathan