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2014 in review: Exciting times for music lovers

SINGAPORE — 2014 was pretty exciting for music lovers in Singapore.

SINGAPORE — 2014 was pretty exciting for music lovers in Singapore.

Our weekends were packed with live music events, from major music festivals such as the first edition of the Singapore International Jazz Festival, the inaugural Y2K14 International Live Loop Asia Festival Singapore and the second Spring Wave Singapore, to concerts by international megastars including the Rolling Stones, Mariah Carey and Jay Chou. And we haven’t even begun counting the number of K-pop acts who came to our shores, such as PSY, BIGBANG and 2NE1 for the YG Family 2014 Galaxy Tour, as well as EXO and FT Island for their own concerts. (Unfortunately, Lee Min-ho’s concert last month was postponed and eventually cancelled, amid reports of poor ticket sales.)

The local music scene didn’t do too poorly either. We saw a revival of interest in Singapore’s indie music, as the nation geared up for SG50, led by acts such as Gentle Bones (aka Joel Tan), Wiltay, rock bands Caracal and Monster Cat, all of whom released new material this year. In pop music, we also saw a whole slew of new EPs and albums by new and not-so-new artistes alike, such as JJ Lin, who won Best Male Singer at Taiwan’s Golden Melody Awards, Stella Seah, Bonnie Loo and Kelly Poon — who was the only Singaporean to win at the Global Chinese Music Awards held in Guangzhou. And of course, our very own Stefanie Sun swept four awards at the Singapore Hit Awards for her new album — Kepler — her first after re-signing with a major label. She also became the first pop act to hold a concert at the newly-minted, pre-grass-controversy National Stadium in July.

2014 was also the year more audiences slowly changed the way they consume music. Amid the worldwide Taylor Swift versus Spotify debate last month, more musicians experimented with new ways to connect with their audiences. Were you one of the 26 million people who downloaded U2’s free album on iTunes? More people, in return, tried different ways to gain access to their favourite music. Since Spotify set up shop in Singapore in April last year, for example, listeners here have created 1.7 million playlists and listened to more than 1,000 years’ worth of music back to back.

Who knows what will happen next year? HON JING YI

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