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This study centers on musical analysis of rock music in Taiwan. The specific subjects for musical analysis are divided by year and each single is seen as a unit. The main subjects for musical analysis in this study are the better-known works which created by Taiwanese bands from 1990 to 2005 selected from the book called Taiwan Popular Music — 200 Best Albums (1975~2005). The reason why this study focuses on analyzing the music works composed after the 1990s is not represent that rock music started during this decade in Taiwan. This study, on the contrary, considers “rock music” defined by this research appeared in many Taiwan popular music creations before the 1990s. However, based on the existing relevant literature, it is easily noticed that the 1990s mark a significant watershed in Taiwan popular music. There are many perspectives observed in this and the most commonly seen factor is that Taiwan was then politically “liberated”. Since Martial Law was lifted in 1987, there has been more freedom in language, threads of thought and artwork creations in Taiwan. Such a freedom also led to the diversified developments in the popular music industry after the 1990s. Therefore, the music works composed after this era are selected as the main analysis subjects and it could be said that there are more samples (of musical notation) served as the basis for the views presented in this study. Currently, there is abundance of academic studies on Taiwan popular music or rock music from the perspective of sociology, economics and politics all over the island; nevertheless, there is very little research on the music itself. Hence, this study aims for musical analysis on Taiwan rock music as the research focus and integrates the development history of rock music in Taiwan to discuss how this music genre was rooted on this island. Furthermore, what’s the specialty of rock music in Taiwan compared to that in the West and the world?
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