Abstract
“KUSO” is a term originated in Japanese. After the introduction of this word into Taiwan’s internet world and several years of development, the meaning of “KUSO” in Chinese became different from its original meaning in Japanese. In Chinese, “KUSO” means a humorous work making fun of another work by parody or ironic imitation. In other word, “KUSO” is a process or product of re-creating one or more original works by juxtaposition or collage.
Obviously, before the term “KUSO” appears in Chinese, works with similar concept already exist. However, only after this term show up in Chinese, the academic world could finally develop a clearer definition for this kind of works. Previous study shows that the “KUSO” works often appear on the internet as words, images, music, video, etc. in the early days, and then developed into the form of performing art recently.
The members of the rock band “Dragon Family” are former technicians who worked for another band “Mayday.” Their main job was to help “Mayday” with musical instrument adjustment, sound check, rehearsal, etc. Since they have rock music background and are familiar with every song of “Mayday,” they often change the lyrics or randomly mix-up different songs to amuse themselves and others when working. This formed-by-technicians rock band held their first commercial concert in 2005, using one of Mayday’s concerts “Final Home” as the base to KUSO, wherein they mimic Mayday’s five members on the stage. After that, in 2010 and 2013, they held two more commercial concerts which are humorous adaptations of Mayday’s concerts “DNA” and “NOW-HERE World Tour.”
In the present research, the band “Dragon Family” is taken as an example to analyze the performer’s methods and attitude of adaptation, the style of re-creation, and the signs used in the works. In addition, this research also seeks to figure out the meaning potentials between the phenomenon of “KUSO” and the audience.
Keywords: KUSO, Dragon Family, audience