Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
Luo Dayou or Lo Ta-yu （羅大佑）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 recognized as a major cultural icon in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China.
Stylistically, Lo Ta-yu 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.
Biography
Lo Ta-yu 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 in Taichung, but he showed his rebellious spirit by deciding to abandon a career as a physician to pursue a singing career.
In 1982, Lo Ta-yu released his debut album Zhī hū zhě yě (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, Lo 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 (蔡琴), Chyi Chin ( 齊秦), Chyi Yu (齊豫), Sarah Chen (陳淑樺), Eric Moo (巫啟賢), Fei Yu-Ching (張彥亭), Angus Tung (童安格), and Jonathan Lee (李宗盛).
Lover/Comrade (愛人同志) was Lo'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, Lo Ta-yu 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," Lo said.
Discography
* 之乎者也 (1982)
* Master of the Future 未來的主人翁 (1983)
* Home 家 (1984)
* Youth Movement 青春舞曲 (1986)
* Lover-Comrade 愛人同志 (1988)
* The Year to Say Farewell 告別的日子 (1989)
* Brilliant Days 閃亮的日子 (1989)
* Queen's Road East 皇后大道東 (1991)
* Hometown 原鄉 (1991)
* Love Song 2000 戀曲二〇〇〇 (1994)
* 再會吧！素蘭 (1995)
* 寶島鹹酸甜 (1996)
* 昨日至今 (2002)
* Beautisland 美麗島 (2004)
Articles
* The Voices of Successive Generations in the Lyrics of Taiwan Pop Songs by Culture.tw
* Songs You Can't Play on Beijing Radio by Joel Martinsen (April 3, 2006)
* Beijing Days, Beijing Nights by
Geremie Barmé
* Pop Star's Return Sign of Freer China by The Strait Times
* Pop Singer Gives Up US Citizenship by Taipei Times
* Luo Dayou in Concert: Taiwan Singer-Songwriter an Inspiration to Mainland Musicians by Lisa Movius
* The Red Carpet Rolls Out for Golden Melody Awards: The Chinese pop music industry's equivalent of the Grammy Awards was full of stars despite cloudy weather and some rain by Max Woodworth
* BeautIsland - Latest Album from Luo Dayou by CRIENGLISH.com
* Fifty Influential Public Intellectuals by Nicolai Volland
* China 'Gray Lists' Its Intellectuals: Recently the rising stars of popular magazines, intellectuals are now being charged with 'elitism.' by Robert Marquand
* The Political Meaning of Hong Kong Popular Music: A review of sociopolitical relations between Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China since the 1980s by Wai-chung Ho
* 從＜鹿港小鎮＞到＜東方之珠＞ -- 論羅大佑的音樂創作與其在兩岸三地所引發的文化效應 , 國立成功大學碩士論文 by 傅舒洨
* 從亞細亞的孤兒到台灣的主人──破除「漢人＝中國人」之錯誤迷失 by 張正修
