Give JJ Lin a Chance!
Charlene Says: Whenever homegrown talent JJ Lin pushes his artistic boundaries, he’s bound to receive flak. From mutilating a girl in his MTV to kissing A-do on the mouth, JJ has sold as many copies of his album as he has been called controversial. The latest incident is his riot-of-colours plaid look on the cover of his new album Sixology.
The 27-year-old singer, who has been honoured with awards such as Hong Kong, Taiwan Best Composer 2005, seems to be received with mixed feelings in Singapore. People can’t decide whether to celebrate his regional success or chide him for thinking a pictorial book with a picture of him on the toilet bowl (with his pants down no less) is humourous.
But I say: Singapore, give him a chance. JJ should be applauded for stepping out of the box and daring to be different. Besides, the guy is feeling hurt. He recently posted on his blog that he is especially hurt by negative feedback from his “home country”.
Perhaps we’re just not used to seeing him be so daring, thanks to his boyish, clean cut image. But boys do grow up. And I think it’s time the public does too.
Tell Us: Do you think JJ Lin is daring in his artistic choices? Or do you think he is trying too hard to be different and failing? What do you think of the plaid look on his new album cover?
You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg. Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.
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Found nothing wrong with JJ Lin’s new look. It is refreshing.
If all album cover is with 3pc suit, and the usual type, then the album cover will be like uniform in school. Are we so square?
Mary Ho
JJ’s a clown? I totally don’t agree with the comment that some singaporeans gave. To me personally, as a malay guy and a big fan of JJ, he actually dresses well la. I adore his clothings la. This shows that he is daring to do differently,rather than appear in sleeveless top which other artiste love to do, which i find it boring and lame. In overall,he’s taste of fashion is superb. And no matter what he wears he will look good. So to those who say his a clown. Look yourself at the mirror.
Khairy AK
December 4th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
‘mutilating a girl in his MTV ‘
I haven’t watched that video, but I would say that generating ‘controversy’ over such a thing is something to be thankful for… don’t you think it should be castigated instead? Easily misinterpreted as misogyny, glamourisation of violence, lack of taste, lack of creativity to have to resort to something so crude in order to be different.
Maybe it’s true, maybe we should give him a chance in that all our criticism should be constructive. At the same time, this doesn’t mean that we should accept, condone encourage everything he tries his hand at. Doing something that is different from what all the other singers are doing doesn’t necessarily mean it is good… maybe original, if only because the idea’s so trashy no one else wants to take it up. People shouldn’t be haters, but they can still say less than complimentary things.
As for kissing A-do, did he expect everyone to simply think, there he is giving someone a kiss, or, what a lovely piece of experimental art? In a society that has not accepted homosexuality as normal yet, any pictures, novels that involve a homosexual element, any actions that can be construed as such, cannot be expected to be taken at face value. They will always be expected to contain a message. And if it doesn’t, it simply becomes gratuitous, and like gratuitous sex, gratuitous violence, it should be criticised.
If his action contained a social message, maybe controversy is good. It is attention and it also shows that his message is worth something. If it didn’t, maybe he deserves the controversy also, trying to use a social problem to generate attention for himself.
As for the album cover, I don’t like it. But my criticism of it ends there.
With regards to the poster above ‘So to those who say his a clown. Look yourself at the mirror.’
The comparison doesn’t work; most of us are simply dressed to slouch around at home, go to work, attend a private function… we aren’t dressed like this to promote an album.
There is a difference.