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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Pop hub to incubate talent: Ko
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je yesterday prays at a ceremony to bless the construction of the southern part of the Taipei Pop Music Center. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
ROOM FOR GROWTH: Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said that he hopes the Taipei Pop Music Center would showcase Taipei’s urban aesthetics through its unique design
By Sean Lin / Staff reporter
The Taipei Pop Music Center would help the nation market popular music to a larger audience by serving as a hub to incubate talent and promote the industry, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je （柯文哲） said yesterday at a groundbreaking ceremony for the center’s southern site in Taipei’s Nangang District （南港）.
Taiwan has a competitive edge in the Asian popular music market thanks to its pluralistic and liberal culture, Ko said, adding that they are essential elements for creating popular music.
Ko said the purpose of the center, whose operations and construction have been commissioned to the Taipei City Government by the Ministry of Culture, is to establish a national hub for popular music.
Located in the east of the city, the center is an important part of the city’s East District Gateway Project, with a mission to promote cultural development as well as boost Nangang’s economic development, he said.
Ko said that he hopes the facility would also showcase Taipei’s urban aesthetics through the center’s unique design.
Taipei Public Works Department Deputy Commissioner Huang Chih-feng （黃治?） said that two buildings would be built on a 5.4 hectare site, which is shaped like a strip.
Huang said that on one end of the strip would be a hall of fame featuring a spiraling staircase adorned with pictures, records and biographies of singers; popular events in the nation’s “campus folk songs” era that began in the mid-1970s; and what he called the “pop superstars” of the present day, documenting the development of the Taiwanese popular music scene.
On the other end, a building housing recording studios, rehearsing rooms and three live music venues with capacities ranging from 200 to 1,600 people would serve as an incubator for artists, providing them with musical education and technical know-how, he said.
The two buildings would be separated by a plaza that would be leased out to stores and food and coffee stands, Huang said.
It would also host weekend bazaars and mini-concerts where artists can promote their music, he said.
Construction on the site is scheduled to be completed by July 2018, he said.
Together with a building under construction at a northern site, which would house a larger venue with a capacity of 6,300 people, the center would cover 9 hectares, Huang said.
Deputy Minister of Culture Chen Yung-feng （陳永豐） said that the nation’s movie industry has an annual revenue of NT$20 billion （US$619.27 million）, while revenue generated from the pop music industry is less than NT$14 billion, indicating that there is room for growth.
Chen said that the center is a major pilot project drawn up by the ministry, for which it had budgeted NT$4.55 billion.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
