Department of Cultural Affairs

When you think of Taiwanese pop music, what’s the first song that comes to mind? Which singer seems most iconic? Naturally, different generations will give different answers. 

In 2010, the Taipei City Government Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) launched a major project, “Oral Histories of Veteran Musicians: Audiovisual Recordings,” designed to make a complete record of the history of Taiwanese pop music before the older generation of musicians fades away. For over a decade, dozens of musicians and groups have been interviewed each year, resulting in the collection of more than 239 life stories of veteran musicians. Interviewees range from performers to behind-the-scenes production teams and people working at all levels of this huge industry. 

In 2022, the DCA commissioned director Hou Chi-Jan (One Day, Poetries From the Bookstores and Ode to Time) and the Clickmusic co-production team to produce two documentary shorts to promote recordings of veteran musicians. The two extremely thematically rich short films are: The Rise of New Taiwanese Songs (新台語歌繼續向前走) and Untold Stories Behind Music Hits (百萬銷售水很深).

Under martial law, Taiwanese Hokkien was strictly prohibited and suppressed in Taiwan. In The Rise of New Taiwanese Songs, the documentary initially explores the question, “When martial law was lifted, who told the young people singing in Taiwanese was OK?” The first documentary begins with Blacklist Studio’s first album, Songs of Madness, in the late 1980s and Taiwanese songwriters Lim Giong and Wu Bai in the 1990s. It continues with the T.K. Rock Carnival in the 2000s, which saw Taiwanese pop music start to chart its own course and influenced a new generation of bands such as Fire EX and Eggplant Egg, as well as younger bands such as the Sorry Youth and the Bisiugroup Amazing Show.

Untold Stories Behind Music Hits features records that exceeded one million in sales, including Sara Chen’s Dream to Awakening, Jody Chiang’s Words after Drinking, Jacky Cheung’s Kiss Goodbye, and A-Mei’s Sisters. The interviews bring together the perspectives of people involved in production, marketing, and sales, and even front-line staff at the record company, who share insights on both the mental and practical qualities that are needed to make a platinum record. 

The documentaries form a fascinating exposé of the rich heritage of the Taiwanese pop music industry. In the late 20th century, Taiwan became a key driver of the Chinese popular music (C-pop) market, with an annual turnover of over ten billion dollars creating tens of thousands of jobs. 

The Rise of New Taiwanese Songs and Untold Stories Behind Music Hits can be viewed online free of charge. Revisit the golden age of music in Taiwan and learn about the evolution and extraordinary history of the Taiwanese pop music industry.