THE date was January 12 this year and the event was the annual presentation ceremony of Commercial Radio's Ultimate Song Chart awards. As the station's managing director Winnie Yu presented the top award to Jacky Cheung Hok-yau, she reminded him of a promise that he had yet to keep - that of spearheading a push for original compositions in Hong Kong.
Perhaps the fact that Ms Yu chose to voice that concern at an event attended by a live audience of 12,000, later to be broadcast to over three million television viewers, shows just how far Canto-pop has slid. More than half the songs released these days are cover versions of golden oldies, Japanese songs, Taiwanese songs, Western hits . . . you name it, they've got it - except for truly outstanding originals.
So, has the death knell sounded for the saccharine sounds of Canto-pop? Is the market too small to support its artists and has commercialism pushed out the last vestiges of creativity? Michael Au Ting-yuk, production manager of PolyGram Records, who has produced bestselling albums for singers such as Cheung and Priscilla Chan Wai-han, believes there's a lot of untapped talent in Hong Kong but said the talent needed to be harnessed and nurtured before it could produce anything of substance.
'It isn't something that can be done overnight,' Au said. 'The size of the market is a dominant factor here. At the moment there are too few composers to support the demand.' On average, more than 100 local albums are released each year, aimed at the limited markets of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and the Chinese-populated areas of Western countries, which adds up to a demand of more than 1,000 songs. 'Even though CASH [Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong] has a membership of more than 200, many of them are not writers of pop songs but people who do jingles and other stuff,' Au said. 'Hong Kong has no more than eight or 10 professional Canto-pop songwriters.
'And then, you have to remember that these eight or 10 also have to concentrate on music arrangement and sometimes album production. It doesn't leave them much room for creativity. It is like drawing water from a well that's fast drying up. For instance, even if Anthony Lun [Wing-leung] can write eight songs a month, he is still only able to produce less than 100 songs a year.' It is a view shared by Commercial Radio 2's creative director and well-known lyricist Thomas Chow Lai-mou. 'Hong Kong is a small place for such a music market,' Chow said.
'Record companies don't really want to invest time in the productions and they cannot afford to have too long a lapse between album releases. In the US, Michael Jackson can afford to release an album every five years because the royalties he gets from such a vast market can sustain him. In Hong Kong that cannot happen.' THE lack of polished musical talent also means that most producers are forced to work with a few singers simultaneously. 'It would be a hassle getting composers to come up with that many songs because it takes a lot of time,' Chow said. Au, who has opted for many cover versions in his producing career, agreed that it was sometimes easier to use cover versions rather than hunt for local compositions that were up to par. 'Listeners are used to hearing cover versions these days,' he said. 'If you look at the pop charts these days, most of the top 10 hits are actually cover versions.' Au and Chow realise that if trends continue this way, then Canto-pop can only travel in one direction - down. 'It's time to get back to basics,' Chow said. 'Each place needs its own music genre. Every place has its own people with their own message to bring across. Hong Kong is a very special place, so if we have the chance we should strive for this. Naturally we hope to have our own creative input but it will take some time.' Under the leadership of Ms Yu, Commercial Radio has been in the forefront of encouraging original composition in the past few years. CR2 started four years ago by declaring Monday a day of creativity, during which only local compositions would be aired. But the move fizzled out when audiences showed they liked a little foreign flavour with their musical diet.