When Will the Time Come for Chinese American Artists?

Although Asians account for the largest ethnic group in the world, surprisingly, they are seen only sparingly in the American entertainment industry. There have been the occasional extremely successful Asian film stars such as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Lucy Liu, but America has yet to see a breakthrough Asian American music artist. The Latin Americans have had their US Latin music craze with Ricky Martin, Enrique Inglesias, and J-Lo, but where do we stand?

Sony Music's Coco Lee is hot - but not hot enough for fans looking for a musical inspiration.

Recently, the Asian community has become more integrated into the music industry, with artists such as CoCo Lee, William Hung, and Harlemm Lee. CoCo Lee, the first Asian to break into the mainstream music market of the US with her American debut album, "Just No Other Way" in 2000 is making her comeback with the success of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon". The theme song, titled "A Love Before Time" was nominated for "Best Original Song" by the 73rd Academy Awards. CoCo became the first Asian American to perform at the Academy Awards.

America has also developed a taste for Asian reality TV show winners: William Hung and Harlemm Lee. William Hung, a student at UC Berkeley, studying Civil Engineering, is the American Idol reject who has become the latest musical phenomenon. Hung just released his full-length debut record titled, "Inspiration." Already, this album has reached sales between 30,000 to 40,000 copies, was on Billboards Top 200, and peaked to #14 on the U.S. sales chart. His face has appeared on a variety of merchandise and on almost every big TV show.

"Fame" winner Harlemm Lee disappears into obscurity without a hit song.

The winner of the NBC's special, "Fame" was also captured by an Asian American, Harlemm Lee, a singer formerly known by his real name of Gerry Woo. Lee had tried to make it into the music industry earlier in age with his album "Listen to My Heart." However, after many frustrating attempts and pressure from his family, Lee semi-retired and became an office worker in a hospital. At 35, Lee finally attracted the US music industry.

It seems that the Asian American community has at last caught the attention of the US music industry and the general public. However, many of these Asian American artists have yet to make the type of long lasting impact and "craze" that their other ethnical music competitors have in the world. We still are not hearing music by Asian artists played regularly in clubs, parties and on the radio. To add, most of these artists that have made it into the US public eye are not popular in the Asian music industry. The world has yet to see a true Asian American music breakthrough, one who can connect with all listeners around the world. Has our time come? It seems the world is craving for an Asian American music star, but the right one still has not surfaced. There are certainly many more equally or better qualified Asian artists who are not being represented. With hope, the recent influx of highly talented Asian American indie artists will pave the way for a long overdue music boom.

Vienna Teng

Among these indie artists is the 25 year old singer/songwriter/pianist Vienna Teng who quit her full-time software engineering job at Cisco Systems to concentrate on her music career. She signed with independent label Virt Records and released her debut album "Waking Hour." Not too long after, she was featured on NPR's Weekend edition, made her network television debut on the Late show with David Letterman, and CNN prime-time profile. She began opening for artists such as Shawn Colvin and her song "The Tower," was used in the NBC TV show, "Ed." Her album rose to #5 on Amazon.com's Best Seller List. Her music takes a unique combination of poetry and has a style resembling that of Nora Jones and Ben Folds.

Asian American rapper, Jin

Another name that we should be hearing a lot in the music news is 21-year-old Chinese American rapper, Jin. His rise into the circles of hip-hop began with weekly competitive freestyling battles on cable channel BET's popular program, "106 n Park," which helped him earn a record deal and spot on the Ruff Ryders squad. Starting in 8th grade, Jin practiced freestyling at school, in public, even in Times Square. His Ruff Ryders/Virgin debut album, "The Rest is History," anticipated by many in the music industry will be released July 13 of this year.

Independent success Kevin So

Kevin So, the most musically talented and the most sought after independent Asian American artist, still works the coffee houses in search of the right record and publishing deal. Despite his attempts to perform in front of record label A&R executives, Kevin feels the labels are not ready for an Asian American artist.

There is obviously no shortage in talent, so why is there still no major Asian artist in the world? There seems to be a few basic factors that breakthrough artists have that many Asian American artists are still missing. To be a hit artist, one must have a commercialized image and a hit song. In CoCo's case, her presence on stage has said to be far from inspirational or memorable. She's not daring enough to spark excitement or imprint a lasting image with her audience. For most artists, however, it is the problem of lacking a hit song. Many will agree that these artists have a series of racial stereotypes they have to breakthrough, before they can truly reach their listeners and create an impression. The first major obstacle is reaching out towards fellow Asian listeners, but it's such a hurdle when many of these artists' music do not fit in with the mainstream pop that's typical of successful artists from Asia.

"I'm not accepted by the Black culture because I'm Asian, and I'm not accepted by Asian people because I'm not 'Asian'. Let's face it, who is the racist here?" says Kevin So. "Asian American artists have to create a thing, [where] artists have to band together and work together to create a show worth seeing. The people who are complaining about it - they got to come out and support people. If you want to see change and you're too busy to do the change yourself, then you've got to do at least something."

Jin also agrees. In his music video remix interview, Jin said, "I encounter all different types of ethnicities who for the most part are like, 'Yo Jin, you killed it on [BET's] 106 & Park. I'm feeling what you're doing,' and when I do encounter the negative, it be other Asians."

Vienna Teng says that she tries to make her lyrics and music be as universal as possible. "We pass through each other's lives so briefly that it's easy to think of the people around us as mere objects, cold and removed. Writing songs is my way of breathing warmth into them. Attempting to tell their stories, however fictitious the results, reminds me of our common humanity."

So what is the verdict? Well, if Asian American artists like Jin, Kevin So, or Vienna Teng want to make their impact in the music industry, they must create music that has a cross-cultural appeal that fans can universally relate to. It's hard to say when that day will come; but, it's probable to say that we are heading in the right direction.