Music of Singapore
It has an urban musical scene, and is a center for pop,
Popular music
Singapore has been a regional centre of music industry for a long time. Recordings of Chinese and
In the 1960s, local bands in Singapore were inspired by Western groups such as
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Stefanie_Sun_20100404.jpg/170px-Stefanie_Sun_20100404.jpg)
Singapore also emerged as a centre of local Chinese recording industry in the 1960s, producing Chinese pop music in Mandarin with local singers.[7] From the 60s to the 80s, local stars such as Chang Siao Ying (張小英), Sakura Teng (樱花), Rita Chao (凌雲), and Lena Lim (林竹君) were popular in Singapore and Malaysia.[7] A few, such as Lena Lim, also had some success outside the region.
The pop music industry thrived by the 1980s, with several recording companies producing Chinese records by local as well as Taiwanese singers. Starting in the mid 1980s, a genre of Mandarin ballads called
There are also a number artists from Singapore who work primarily in the English language, some such as singer-songwriter Sophie Koh are active outside of Singapore. In the 2010s, Singapore has seen a rise in home-grown acts like Charlie Lim, The Sam Willows, Gentle Bones, The Steve McQueens, Pleasantry, MYRNE, HubbaBubbas, Sam Rui, Leon Markcus, Scarlet Avenue and Nathan Hartono.
Ethnic traditions
Chinese
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Teochew_Opera_in_Pulau_Ubin%2C_Singapore.jpg/290px-Teochew_Opera_in_Pulau_Ubin%2C_Singapore.jpg)
There are speakers of various dialects amongst the Chinese population, such as
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Nanyin_performance_at_Thian_Hock_Keng_temple.jpg/240px-Nanyin_performance_at_Thian_Hock_Keng_temple.jpg)
Many music organisations and ensembles devoted to Chinese music or
Malay
Music genres popular in neighbouring
Indian
Peranakan
The
Western classical music
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/NUoSSO_in_Vienna01.jpg/240px-NUoSSO_in_Vienna01.jpg)
Western classical music plays a significant role in the cultural life in Singapore, and at its center is the
There are a few opera companies that present Western operas in Singapore:
Well-known classical musicians from Singapore include Lynnette Seah, Lim Soon Lee, Siow Lee Chin, Abigail Sin and Mikkel Myer Lee. Some, such as conductor Darrell Ang and Vanessa-Mae, are expat working overseas, there are however an increasing number of local musicians who are actively involved in the classical music scene of Singapore.[25] Some of these classical musicians have ventured into other genres and taken their music to public places, such as the Lorong Boys, who sometimes perform in MRT trains.
Rock music
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Alternative and indie rock music influenced bands in the 1990s such as Concave Scream, Humpback Oak, The Padres, Oddfellows, Astreal, and Livionia. In the Pop/Rock genres were "KICK!", Lizard's Convention & Radio Active. According to a 1992 Straits Times report, in that year, 15 other albums were released on independent labels and around 200 local bands were writing their own music. The following year, songs by The Padres, CU1359, ESP and The Oddfellows were featured on Multitrack 3, a British Broadcasting Corporation radio programme.[27]
Recently, alternative, metal, grindcore,
Metal
Metal has a small but not insignificant presence in Singapore's music scene. Many metal bands such as
There have also been many notable local metal bands from many varying subgenres in the growing underground scene. Special mention includes:
- Black metal stalwarts Impiety,
- Extreme Metal veterans Rudra who created a new metal genre called Vedic Metal and a cult following worldwide. The band has also attracted the attention of Musicologists. Several papers have been published about Vedic Metal and the band.[28]
- Bastardized: Pioneer Doom Melodic Death metal band existing since 1993. "With Love, With Hate, With Grief, With Pain." EP released under Valentine Sound Productions 1994. Poetry styled album "The Over Burdened" expected release in 2016.
- Funeral Hearse signed by prominent American Metal Label Redefining Darkness Records, owned by Thomas Haywood of Aborted and Abigail Williams fame.
- Wormrot have been signed to the UK record label Earache Records since 2010.[29]
- Local Death Metal "Assault" band new album "The Fallen Reich" features current Taiwan member of Parliament & "ChthoniC" Frontman Freddy Lim and Maldive metal band "Nothnegal" Guitarist Fufu.
There is however little support for metal in Singapore's mainstream media. The heavy metal scene in Singapore therefore has established its own ways of disseminating information by utilizing popular internet based social mediums such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs.
Some Metal music of this generation may be featured occasionally on Brader Bo's show, Vicious Volume of RIA 89.7fm.
Experimental/Improvised
Two Singapore rock bands of the 1970s and 1980s, Heritage and Zircon Lounge, showed tendencies to create music beyond conventional rock idioms. In the late 1980s, Corporate Toil baited audiences with noisy electronic performances influenced by industrial/new wave bands like Suicide or Einstürzende Neubauten. In the 1990s, Kelvin Tan produced literally dozens of albums of avant folk and improvised guitar, as well as assembling the short-lived Stigmata featuring bassist Ian Woo and saxophonist Kelvin Guoh. Zai Kuning, largely known as a visual artist and dancer, lived for a period in Japan and collaborated musically with Tetsu Saitoh, a famed Japanese cellist. Zai also created his own form of Malay folk and gypsy blues music, singing incantations in his deep tenor while playing a loose form of open tuning guitar.
By the late 1990s and into the 2000s, a group of experimental laptop artists appeared: George Chua, Yuen Chee Wai, Evan Tan, Ang Song Ming, and Chong Li-Chuan, the last having received the bachelor's and master's degrees in music at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Straddling the world of digital effects and acoustic instruments was the duo aspidistrafly, who eventually gained an enormous following in Japan, producing their own music and running their Kitchen. Label. The Observatory, a supergroup formed from the ashes of Leslie Low's folk rock Humpback Oak trio, have been widely regarded as one of the best bands in Singapore, with Yeow Kai Chai of The Straits Times writing, "No other Singapore band, past or present, has captured the imagination quite like The Observatory."[30]
Musical outsiders Engineered Beautiful Blood (Shark Fung and Wei Nan) blazed a hot trail of no wave improvised rock, then stopped playing in 2009. However, their members eventually formed a larger improvised rock ensemble, I\D, which itself would splinter off into smaller groups and configurations. Shark Fung himself has been a key figure in the musical margins, with his idiosyncratic solo drums-and-electronics noise outfit Awk Wah, and forming the collective structured improv group BALBALAB with Wu Jun Han, Dennis Tan and Zai Tang in late 2014. Around the middle of the 2000s, another grouping calling themselves Under the Velvet Sky wowed audiences with their performances that evoked prog rock, free jazz, traditional Malay and Chinese music, and more. Again, the loose nature of the collective enabled them to create other projects such as Gulayu Arkestra, Five Leaves Left and Cactus - not to mention the solo efforts of members Jordan Johari Rais and Imran Abdul Rashid.
The independent record label Ujikaji has been credited for helping to promote experimental music. It has also promoted experimental music events at local venues, with some held in collaboration with The Observatory.[31][32]
Music venues
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/The_Esplanade_%E2%80%93_Theatres_on_the_Bay.jpg/220px-The_Esplanade_%E2%80%93_Theatres_on_the_Bay.jpg)
The historic Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall was first constructed as a town hall in 1862. In 1905, the Victoria Memorial Hall was built as an expansion to the building; the two separate buildings would be linked by a clock tower, with the project formally completed in 1909. The venue would go on to host performing arts events such as music and theatre, as well as civic and political events. A multi-year refurbishment and reconstruction was completed in 2014.[33][34]
Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay opened in 2002, succeeding the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall as the main performing arts centre of Singapore. The complex includes a 1,600-seat concert hall, which became the new home venue of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 2003.[35][36][37]
The Singapore Conference Hall is used as a base for the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.[38] There are also many clubs and music bars that offer live music in the city, particularly in the Clarke Quay area.[39]
Music education
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Yong_Siew_Toh_Conservatory_of_Music%2C_National_University_of_Singapore_-_20070108.jpg/220px-Yong_Siew_Toh_Conservatory_of_Music%2C_National_University_of_Singapore_-_20070108.jpg)
In Singapore, music as a subject in education was first introduced in 1935,
Music education is also offered at other institutions such as Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, LASALLE College of the Arts, Raffles Music College and the School of the Arts.[25]
National Day songs
Of particular note to the Singaporean music scene is what are often collectively known as "National Day songs"—a category of patriotic music originally written and composed for, or otherwise performed as part of Singapore's National Day parade. They are promoted by the government during the lead-up to the parade via schools, and the songs being broadcast on radio and television by the state-owned media outlets.[45][46] The tradition stemmed from "Operation Singalong", a project conducted by the National Folk Songs Committee to help bolster the solidarity of Singapore's citizens by encouraging communal singing.[47]
The tradition of a National Day Song started in the 1980s, although there may not be a song every year, for example in 2014 when older songs were reprised.[48] The first examples of National Day songs were composed by Hugh Harrison, including "Stand Up for Singapore" (composed to mark the 25th anniversary of Singapore's independence), "Count On Me, Singapore" (1986), and "We Are Singapore" (1987), which glorified the development of the country's economy and national identity. Beginning in 1998, the songs began to have a more popular sound, being performed by local musicians. That year's song, "Home" by Kit Chan, carried a theme of encouraging overseas Singaporeans to return to their homeland, and has been considered one of the most popular National Day songs.[49][50]
A survey conducted by the Lee Kuan Yew Centre For Innovative Cities in 2021 found that the most popular National Day songs usually had themes of nation-building, aspirations, and national identity.[48][46]
An ad-hoc offshoot of these National Day songs are the songs specially composed for major events. A prominent example was the song "Moments of Magic", written by Hype Records CEO Ken Lim specially for Singapore's millennium celebrations towards the end of 1999. It was performed by three notable singers - Fann Wong, Tanya Chua and Elsa Lin. The music video was directed by Singapore filmmaker Eric Khoo.
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