By Mason Chen

Jay Chou. A-Mei. Sammi Cheng. David Tao. These are just the few of the most popular Mandarin pop artists in Taiwan as of this year. Mandarin music has evolved over the past years. Now, artist such as those listed above have started to incorporate different styles of singing into their music, such as hip-hop, rap, and pop. Taiwan R&B King David Tao finally came back with to his music empire with his long-awaited album "Black-Tangerine." It’s been two and a half years since David Tao has not released any new pieces. David mentioned the reason he used the name of "tangerine" as the album title was the fruit could only be found in Taiwan, where his music life began. An extremely popular male artist came to life once again in Taiwan to become an instant hit. Jay Chou's third album "8D Space" was released in mid-July where ten brand new tracks became instant hits in the hearts of all the Taiwanese fans. A powerful female artist also had a smash hit this year. Elva Hsiao released her fifth album, "Love Theme Song – Kiss" and it also became an instant hit. Her new album is mixed with many remixes and introduces an R&B style. Another great female artist is A-Mei. Extremely popular, A-Mei released her most highlighted project of the year: "Fever." "Fever" was expected to move her fans to make them dance or cry at the moment of listening to her new fast- and/or slow- tempo songs. A-Mei also invited another artist, Shunza, to produce new songs for this album.

In Taiwan, many people are also into the Japanese music industry. Having released her third album in her extremely successful career, Utada Hikaru has impressed her many fans. Producing "Deep River" by herself, the album rocketed to number one and proved Hikaru’s versatile capabilities in music, ranging from pop, R&B, dance to ballads. Utada Hikaru has definitely showed her continuous effort and energy in the J-POP world. Utada Hikaru also shocked Japan with her recent marriage this year. Because the marriage was so sudden, many people were surprised to find that Hikaru had married a man by the name of Kazuaki Kiritani, a photographer and director in most of Hikaru’s CD jackets and music videos. Japan’s 2002 promising star Mika Nakashima’s debut album "Truth" kicked off with a bang. Along with famous songwriters such as Towa Tei and Verbal from m-Flo, Nakashima has produced thirteen smash hits. This album is full of diversity, showing her incredible skill and talent to sing soul, 80s’, style, funk, and ballads. Another amazing female artist is BoA, although born in South Korea; BoA was raised in Japan, and developed an ability to speak both Korean and Japanese fluently. After releasing a few successful singles and albums, BoA, who is 16 years of age, became an instant star in both Korea and Japan. Releasing her newest Korean album, No. 1 and Japanese single, Valenti, BoA is becoming more and more popular as well as of course successful; many people say she has a very bright career ahead of her.

So, there were a lot of great hits this year, shocking news, and new artists. In the future, there is still even greater music to look forward to. Many new artists are rising and becoming as successful as the most popular artists in the Asian music industry. Music has become an extremely influential factor in teenage lives. Since artists have become idols and role models, who really do change the way, a teenager feels and thinks. Teenagers listen to music everyday and the words that they hear in lyrics are really what teach them to do the good or even bad things that they do. In reality, music is an extremely important in society to all ages.