On 26 June 2002, it was announced that Chou would be releasing a new album in the summer to compete with other prolific artists such as
Andy Lau,
David Tao,
A-Mei,
S.H.E and
Vanness Wu. In early July 2002, it was announced that
The Eight Dimensions would be released on 18 July. On 10 July 2002, the
single "The Final Battle" premiered simultaneously on 20 radio stations across four continents to an audience of 500 million listeners around the world, reaching as far as
London, Australia and New Zealand. On 11 July 2002, Chou attended a pre-order event for his new album in
Taipei. Chou held a
press conference for his new album on its release date; at the event the record company hilariously arranged for seven women in bellybands to appear as
Jolin Tsai.
The Eight Dimensions was sold out on the first day of its release; fans complained that they could not buy the album and the record company said that the album's sales had reached platinum figures. On the first day of the release of the album, its sales accounted for more than 70% of the sales of Taipei record stores. On 18 August 2002, Chou held a press conference for the album in
Beijing.
Title and artwork The inspiration for the album
The Eight Dimensions comes from some movies and
music videos that Chou usually watches. Therefore, the songs in the album are like movies, and the plots of each part are different. The literal
Chinese name for the album is named "Octave Space" because Chou wanted to create his own music in the space of the Western octave scale and show the eighth art in the field of music. The
album cover is a futuristic looking graphic, which includes a superimposed model of Chou's skull/head.
Singles and music videos , Italy In 2002, Chou served as the spokesperson for
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne in Taiwan. The song's
music video, which was directed by Kuang Sheng, uses the beautiful scenes from the game as the background, with Chou interspersed in the background. In early March 2002, Taiwan Chinese Culture Enterprise Co., Ltd. launched the book "Peninsula Ironbox." The book was written by Chou's lyric partner
Vincent Fang, and Chou starred in the book. Although the book contains more than 200 pictures of Chou's life, many people still call it an alternative "photo album." Soon after, Chou wrote his own lyrics, using the box to fill with memories of his lover, and created the song "Peninsula Ironbox." The song's music video was directed by Kuang Sheng, which revolves around scenes of weird items/characters in the ironbox as Chou whizzes pass through each of them. The music video for "Secret Code" was directed by Zhang Hengtai, and features Chou and his love interest being playful with one another as what couples usually do, and also scenes of Chou singing over a hanging microphone. The music video for "Dragon Fist" was directed by Richard Ouyang and revolves around
martial arts. The music video for "The Train's Destination" was directed by Kuang Sheng and revolves around scenes of Chou singing in a
train carriage, reminiscing the past. The music video for "Split" was directed by Kuang Sheng, and contains scenes of Chou in two persona: one who is attending university whilst another who is a dropout. The music video for "Grandpa's Tea" was directed by Zhang Hengtai, and depicts an old man
brewing tea gleefully, along with Chou rapping and singing against a traditional Chinese home background. The music video for "Back to the Past" was directed by Zhou Getai and depicts the intense infatuation of a girl towards the boy (Jay Chou), whilst Chou is singing in the school yard. Kuang Sheng directed the music video for "Little Blacksmith in Milan," which contains scenes of Chou roaming around the city of
Milan, with Milan's unique architecture featured dominantly in the video. The music video for "The Final Battle" was directed by Kuang Sheng and was shot on a
battlefield. The tracks, "Secret Code," "Back to the Past," and "The Final Battle" are listed at number 1, number 5, and number 42 respectively on the 2002's
Hit FM Top 100 Singles of the Year chart. ==Critical reception==