Luo Da You

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Luo Da You, or Lo Ta-yu (TC: 羅大佑, SC: 罗大佑, PY: Lúo Dā Yòu) is an influential Taiwanese singer-songwriter who, during the 1980s, revolutionized Chinese pop and rock music with his melodic lyrics, his love songs, and his witty social and political commentary that he infused in his more political songs, often to the point that some of his songs were suppressed in Taiwan and China during the 1980s. He is considered by many to be the "Godfather of modern Chinese rock music" and is recognized as a major cultural icon in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China.

Stylistically, Luo Da You defies classification. His early music in particular shows strong folk roots, and many of his songs tap into native Taiwanese cultural influences. Some songs are reminiscent of 1950s American diner and soda shop rock, and others exhibit a 1970s lounge lizard growl. What captured the hearts of a generation, however, were his lyrics, touching on issues of life, attitudes, social responsibility, and the political problems of both China and Taiwan with an underhandedly critical strain of dark humor. The lyrical style is not particularly artsy or complex, but rather conversational; the cleverness comes in the meaning, not how the words are put together.^[1]

1 Biography
2 Discography
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Biography

Luo Da You was born in Taiwan on 20 July 1954 to an upper-class family. He complied with his family's wishes to finish medical school by graduating from the China Medical University (ROC) in Taichung, but he showed his rebellious spirit by deciding to abandon a career as a physician to pursue a singing career.

In 1982, Luo Da You released his debut album Zhi hu zhe ye (之乎者也), the title of which consists of particles from Classical Chinese. A groundbreaking album that broadened the horizons of Chinese music and set a new model for Chinese songwriting, it spun off hits including not only the title song, but also Lukang, the Little Town 鹿港小鎮, Love Song 1980 戀曲1980, and Childhood 童年. Singing songs infused with brazen commentary on the social scene of Taiwan at that time and sporting sunglasses, his debut sparked buzz and heated discussion about the issues that his songs raised in Taiwan, such as Confucian pedantry and urban emptiness.

He followed with his next album in 1983, Master of the Future 未來的主人翁, which features several songs: the title song which warns the listener of a future run by children without morals or humanity and 72 Transformations 現象七十二變, and Orphan of Asia 亞細亞的孤兒 which shares its title with Wu Zhuoliu's novel about the Japanese occupation of Taiwan.

In 1985, inspired by the success of the charity single We Are the World by USA for Africa, Luo wrote Tomorrow Will Be Better 明天會更好, a highly successful charity single of his own to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Taiwan's independence from Japanese colonial rule. It was ultimately performed by over 60 different artists from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, including Tsai Chin, Chyi Chin, Chyi Yu, Sarah Chen, Eric Moo, Fei Yu Qing, Angus Tung, and Jonathan Lee.

Lover/Comrade 愛人同志 was Luo's next album, released in 1988. In addition to the title song which uses political slogans in the context of a love song, the album also included Love Song 1990 戀曲1990, one of his most famous love songs that was written 6 years after he had written Love Song 1980.

In 1991, he wrote Pearl of the Orient 東方之珠, regarded as one of his most famous songs which sings praises to Hong Kong as a symbolic haven from the perils of the Pacific and implores Hong Kong not to lose its Chinese identity in the face of rapid modernization and British colonization at that time. He also wrote Queen's Road East 皇后大道東, a Cantonese song that satires the impending Hong Kong handover in 1997 and mocks the absence of a palace on Queen's Road in Hong Kong.

In 2004, Luo formally relinquished his US citizenship to protest the introduction to the US House of Representatives last week of a resolution regarding the deployment of Taiwanese marines to Iraq. "[W]hen US representatives introduced a resolution requesting that Taiwan send marines to Iraq, I realized that while the US often stresses peaceful negotiations across the Taiwan Strait, the US government is the third party that stands in the way of truly peaceful negotiation," Luo said. ^[2]