Gene Lau Explained

Gene Lau is a Cantopop lyricist. Since the late 1980s, he has written lyrics for over 300 songs. He has written more than ten hit songs for Beyond, contributing much to the rock band's reputation, with "Lovers"《情人》, "The Great Wall" 《長城》, and "The Earth" 《大地》, all of which have become band classics. He was known as the Queen lyricist of Beyond,[1] after writing 23 songs for the group. He has also collaborated with other artists such as Jacky Cheung, Eason Chan, Leon Lai and Danny Summer.

Early life

Growing up, Lau read political magazines, watched Western movies, listened to rock and roll music, and developed an understanding of the history of modern China. In the 1980s, he lived in a public housing estate in Hong Kong.[2]

Music career

After graduating from secondary school, he became the editor of entertainment magazine Modern Teenage Weekly《現代青年人周報》.[1] He also set up a music production company in Foshan and participated in the production in the songs "Nothing"《一無所有》and "I Understand' 《不是我不明白》by Cui Jian.[3]

In 1986, he participated in a Cantopop lyrics competition, held by the RTHK and sponsored by Taiwanese producer Shou-Chuan Lee. Lau's entry, "The Unspeakable Future" 《說不出的未來》, won the competition and the song was given to singer Danny Summer to perform.[4] Shortly before he had interviewed the band Beyond in 1983 after it had won a band competition held by Guitar Magazine《吉它雜誌》.[5] Given his newly found fame, he offered to write the first song for Beyond, "Modern Stage" 《現代舞台》, but it did not gain much traction. However, Lau's second song for the band, "The Earth"《大地》 topped the RTHK charts and brought the band the 1st Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award.[6]

In 1990 he founded a Chinese record company called Earth Records (大地唱片).[7] He took on the role of producer and coordinator, with his duties including the selection of songs, writing of lyrics, arranging of songs, and recording and remixing of tracks. He produced many songs for famous singers in China. Folksongs in campus《校園民謠》was released in 1994 and set off a wave of folk songs in China.[8]

In the 2000s, due to the influx of capital in the music industry, there was not much room for small and medium enterprises. Meanwhile, Lau did not want to co-operate with other record companies, so he retired to Zhuhai for five years. Currently, he has been devising a website to prompt the development of music by the Internet.[7]

Life as a lyricist

Lau said he wanted to be a rock guitarist when he was young but accidentally became a lyricist.[8] Writing lyrics has given him a steady income over the past 20 years.[9] Being a lyricist is a part-time job for Lau because for each song, a lyricist usually only receives HKD$1500–5000. This is only for those who have taken the advance payment, meaning that taking $5000 before receiving the rest of royalties.[3] He tried not to receive “advance” for two years but realized he could not earn a living by writing a song for a few hundred dollars.[1] Unlike famous singers, lyricists cannot count on the royalties from several classics while they have to produce a large number of songs.[3]

Reaction to the Tiananmen Square massacre

At an early age, he often read biographies of political figures, and had a positive impression of the Chinese Communist Party. The violent dispersing of the crowd of students in Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989 caused Lau to become disillusioned with the party. Taking part in a demonstration in Hong Kong supporting the students in China before June 4, he felt defeated in their effort to reform the government and hence, lost faith in political demonstrations as a means of activism.[3] Instead, he began to write more political songs. Many of his later works revolve around a political theme including "Time Flies" (歲月無聲), "The Great Wall" (長城) and "Never Forget it-June 4" (漆黑將不再面對). These songs are still sung during the annual Memorials for the 1989 protests in Hong Kong, and were also used during the Moral and National Education protests and the Umbrella Revolution.

Second book

輝常傷感 is a collection of his essays on his moments with Beyond, Cui Jian, He Yong, Lo Ta-yu, Su Rui, and Donnie Yen. It also details the life of being a lyricist and reflects on the changes of modern China and other social issues. The book starts with how he views nature and role of being a lyricist. He mentions that he cannot write lyrics only for his own entertainment and quite often he has to compromise with producers of record company concerning the style and diction. Later on, when writing lyrics becoming part of his income, he has to struggle even more between his own thoughts and the market needs.[10] He frequently emphasizes, in the book, that he has little love experience and thus writing love is a challenge for him. Yet, he does have a few times of having a crush into some girls and so he managed to write a few songs for Jacky Cheung about it. The last session of the book is written by many other musical worker who talk about Lau, including the style of his lyrics, the supplementary information of being a lyricist, comparison between different lyricists, and Lau's contribution of bringing songs from prospective mainland singers.[11]

Style and influence

Due to his teenage experience and exposure, he cares much for society but developed a little sense of melancholy in his political view. This can be seen in most of his works and also leads to more criticisms on politics, show business, and life. As a result, there are relatively fewer collections for other topics, though he had a few well-noted love songs like Always Be There《只想一生跟你走》,Cantabile Years《歲月如歌》, My Darling《我的親愛》. This attitude or orientation has influenced Beyond heavily. Previously, Beyond wrote songs more about personal matter and their frustration on their music path, but Lau's ideas broadened their range of themes.[4]

Lau says that love songs dominate the market of Hong Kong, with Albert Leung and Wyman Wong being two major lyricists after the 1990s, especially songs that focus on being lovesick.[12] However, except most of his rebellious and rock songs with Beyond, Lau still possesses his distinctive signature style in his love songs such as Cantabile Years《歲月如歌》and I Come from Beijing《我來自北京》.[12] He demonstrates his personal style by incorporating cultural and political sense in both songs respectively. In an interview, Lau admitted that he was not the kind of lyricist that he would write anything for singers as long as they wanted but what he wanted to convey.[13]

Lyrics written

1980s

1988

1989

1990s

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000s

2000

2001

2002

2003

2005

2008

2009

2010s

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 連. 劉. 還我歲月如歌. Apple Daily. 25 October 2015.
  2. Web site: 阿離. Beyond填詞人劉卓輝：歲月如歌卻無聲 點看全文 . life.sinchew.com.my. 25 October 2015.
  3. Web site: 歲月無聲又如歌——專訪填詞人劉卓輝. 馬高. 麥. inmediahk.net. 25 October 2015.
  4. Web site: 「从Beyond到现在」 刘卓辉、虞洋、王硕、音放对话. 百度貼吧. 25 October 2015.
  5. Web site: TOASTIES MONSTER. 香港著名音樂人劉卓輝談黃家駒. Beyond Music. 25 October 2015.
  6. Web site: BEYOND历年荣誉. QQ.com. 25 October 2015.
  7. Web site: 寧 . 李 . 劉卓輝，從小清新到老搖滾 . 數碼多 . 25 October 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304224602/http://www.soomal.com/doc/20100005097.htm . 4 March 2016 .
  8. Web site: 亦非. 郭. 明星导师许愿. 大地網. 25 October 2015.
  9. Web site: 卓辉. 刘. 辉常伤感. Amazon. 25 October 2015.
  10. Book: 卓輝. 劉. 輝常傷感. 2014. 譯林出版社. 南京. 10–14. 第一版.
  11. Book: 卓輝. 劉. 輝常傷感. May 2014. 譯林出版社. 南京. 218–254. 第一版.
  12. Book: 耀偉. 朱. 歲月如歌－－詞話香港粵語流行曲. 1 Jul 2013. 三聯書店(香港)有限公司. 北京. 9789620428807. 235.
  13. Web site: 刘卓辉 写作从小清新到大白话. dadinet.com. 25 October 2015.

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