Mayday is a rock band from Taiwan that was formed in the late 1990s with five members, namely Ashin (vocalist), Monster and Stone (guitars), Masa (bass) and Guan You (drums). Formerly making music under the name of So Band, they officially came to be known as Mayday in 1997, with the name originating from Masa's online nickname.
Mayday's songs are written mostly in Min Nan (Twnese dialect) and Mandarin. They are popular for capturing the zeitgeist of Twaneese youth in the 1990s which was an era of dreams, growing up, loneliness, love and disaffection.
Mayday has made no secret of its admiration of the Beatles whom they cite as influencing their ideals of rock music. ) The eighth track of their fifth album has a track called John Lennon where the band espouses its dreams to become the "Beatles of the Chinese World"and one day, to become better than them. Other diverse musical influences include the Irish band U2, the British band Oasis, the Japanese pop music artists Mr. Children, Sting as well as the Chinese rocker Wu Bai and China Blue.
In lyrics on recent albums, Ashin has alluded to several cultural icons notably the Chinese mythical monkey-god Sun Wu-Kong, Mickey Mouse, Superman, Neil Armstrong and Che Guevara. Ashin has also cited movies and novels as inspiration for his songs including "Viva Love"which was inspired by avant-garde Twnese director Tsai Ming Liang's 1994 movie, Vive L'Amour and the song "Armour" which was influenced by a Chinese drama Crystal Boys and Haruki Murakami's novel, Kafka On the Shore.
译文:
五月天----一个来自中国台湾的摇滚乐团（摘自维基百科）
五月天是一支来自中国台湾的摇滚乐队，由主唱阿信、吉他手怪兽和时候、贝司手玛莎以及鼓手冠佑组成。早期以So Band（所便）的名字开始制作音乐，他们以五月天这个名字被大家认识是在1997年的时候，这个名字来自于玛莎的网名Mayday的中文翻译。
五月天的歌曲基本上是用台湾方言闽南话以及国语来创作。他们受欢迎是因为他们抓住了九十年代台湾年轻人对于梦想、成长、孤独、爱和不满的时代特征。
五月天从不掩饰他们对披头四的喜爱与欣赏，披头四被他们视作对于他们理想中的摇滚乐产生了巨大影响的人。他们的第五张专辑中的第八首个名字叫做约翰蓝侬，这首歌表达了他们想成为华人世界的披头四的梦想，在未来胜过他们。其他在音乐上的影响还来自于爱尔兰乐队U2，英国乐队Oasis（绿洲），日本流行乐手Mr. Children （孩子先生），Sting（斯汀）以及同样来自中国的伍佰和China Blue（菜篮哺乳）。
在最近几张专辑的歌词创作上，主唱阿信融入了一些不同文化和历史上的人物形象比如中国的美猴王孙悟空，米老鼠，超人，阿姆斯特朗和切格瓦拉。同时，阿信还将电影和小说带来的灵感引用在他的歌曲创作中，比如爱情万岁就是由于台湾先锋派导演蔡明亮的电影，爱情万岁带来的创作灵感，而武装则是受到了中国戏剧《孽子》和村上春树的小说海边的卡夫卡的影响。