Seven Castles

Fahrenheit

                                      

December 27, 2007

 

Fahrenheit is a Taiwanese boy band that consists of four members: Aaron Yan, Wu Zun, Calvin Chen and Jiro Wang. It is often associated with their seniors, S.H.E, and commonly referred to as the most successful Taiwanese boy band after F4.

 

Derived from the definition of Fahrenheit, each of the four members represents a season or temperature that corresponds with their different personalities. Calvin represents spring, warm; Jiro summer, hot; Wu represents autumn, cool, and Aaron winter, cold. Each also has his respective temperature represented on the Fahrenheit scale: Calvin is at 77 degrees, Jiro 95 degrees, Wu 59 degrees and Aaron 41 degrees.

 

Wu (born on October 10, 1980) was born and raised in Brunei for most of his life, later graduating with distinction at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia. He was introduced to the entertainment industry during a trip to Taiwan. A television producer discovered him during this trip, and recommended him to play the lead male role of Tokyo Juliet, which Wu accepted.

 

Aaron (born on November 20, 1986) moved to New York, USA at a young age but later returned to Taiwan for high school and college, currently attending Chinese Culture University. He has special talents in music, especially in singing and piano. Around early 2005, HIM record producers had been searching for elite bloggers around the Web. They discovered him, who, at that time, was really popular online, and thus recommended him to go casting for a role in a drama. He thought it was a fraud at first, but after several tests, he realized that it was true.

 

After Calvin (born on November 10, 1980) graduated high school in Taiwan, he further pursued his college education in Canada, where he completed his Master degree in Economics at University of Victoria. He then further continued his life in Canada by joining a pageant-like competition in Vancouver, where he won first place with a free ticket to Taiwan and a contract with a music company, as well as a role in a drama.

 

Jiro (born on August 24, 1981) graduated in Taiwan's Fu-Shin College. He, who started off as a model, was first asked to join the entertainment business because of his good looks and singing talent that he showed at a singing competition. Because of company difficulties, he failed to release an album, so decided to continue his career in the industry by working backstage, mainly in charge of fashion designing and other designing necessities, as well as commercial modeling. He was approached again around 2004, when his acting career began.

 

Although unstable at first, Fahrenheit first gained minor recognition around late 2005 when its first all-together series, KO One, was broadcasted on television in Taiwan. Because it felt awkward to have only three members in a boy band, Wu joined the group in late 2005. In December 2005, Fahrenheit officially became a vocal quartet boy band.

 

All four members of this group have contradicting vocal ranges to complement each other when harmonizing. Wu's voice ranges from within the bass-baritone to the upper-baritone. Therefore, Wu usually harmonizes as the supporting voice but sings more in songs when they are intended for a lower key. Wu's voice can be easily distinguished from his accent. Jiro's vocal ranges are less wider than Wu's, but Jiro has a higher voice, closer to a more tenor approach with vocal belting techniques. His voice is the easiest to distinguish out of the four because of its nasal sound. Calvin and Aaron are the baritone to tenor vocalists of the group, and therefore are the predominant voices in most of their songs. Although their voices are difficult to distinguish at times, Aaron's voice has a richer and higher voice and usually does the harmonizing with a vibrato while Calvin's deeper and clearer voice usually does the supporting vocals. Ultimately, Aaron has been acknowledged as the member with the most impressive vocal ability.

 

Fahrenheit released their self-titled debut album in September 2006 and their popularity immediately rose after the soundtracks were released, but was only limited to Taiwan and Chinese mainland. The album includes the up-tempo dance number "I Have My Young", bringing out the dynamics that only young people possess and the themes songs for KO One and Tokyo Juliet (with Hebe of S.H.E.). The album also contains expressive ballads such as "Summer Snow" and a more kinetic piece "Love Comes". After their first album was released, their fan base had extended to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and the rest of Southeast Asia. Overseas fans such as from North America and Europe are also getting more familiar with them.

 

Similar to their seniors F4, each member of Fahrenheit has first gained recognition in participating in certain idol dramas. Jiro was the first discovered among the four, appearing as a small character in The Pawnshop No. 8 and a supporting role in It Started with a Kiss. Closely tracing his popularity that It Started with a Kiss has given him, his company decided to give him the lead role for KO One as well as Calvin and Aaron for they were discovered around that same time. Wu, however, was heading toward a different road. The last to join Fahrenheit, Wu starred in a separate drama with Ariel Lin, a manga-based drama titled Tokyo Juliet. Following the success, he was soon chosen to star in Hanazakarino Kimitachihe along with fellow band member Jiro and S.H.E member Ella.

 

With the help of starring in popular dramas, Fahrenheit has been the fastest moving boy band. In 2006, the band vaulted to the forefront of the entertainment scene and in 2007, the boys have concentrated more on their acting careers, winning over even more fans with the success of idol dramas Hanazakarino Kimitachihe, The X-Family and Romantic Princess. After dominating television ratings, Fahrenheit is setting their sight back on music in 2008 with their second album, Two-sided Fahrenheit.

【作者: zhangliping】【访问统计:】【2007年12月27日 星期四 05:37】【注册】【打印】