DIARY: All you need to know about ... The Creatives' Song

When you're short of inspiration, only one thing can get the creative juices going: some stirring sounds. We asked Asia's top creatives what music inspired them to come up with their best work. Singapore: Undoubtedly the trendiest of the bunch, our friends in the Lion City came up with the abrasive sounds of Rage Against the Machine and Radiohead's scrambled miserablism as their ideal soundtrack to help the ideas percolate. Certain creatives also seem to find that the soundtrack at the local pool halls helps to concentrate their minds even further, apparently. Kuala Lumpur: Singapore's neighbours in Malaysia, on the other hand, are far more mainstream, with the lightweight charms of Jennifer Lopez mentioned as a favourite. Hong Kong: A soulful bunch, these, with the thought-provoking strains of John Lennon's Imagine named by one agency boss as his top choice. Clearly, beneath the commercial exterior of the city lurks a sensitive soul. Manila: Filipino creatives' tastes are pretty wide-ranging, but in the end it comes as no surprise to find that the stand-on-a-clifftop-with-the-wind-in-your-hair pomposity of Irish rockers U2 gets the thumbs-up for inspiring new work. Beijing: Of all the big Asian cities, it seems that creatives in Beijing are enthuastic about the greatest range of music. Jazz, classical, cantopop - you name it, they like it. Western pop music was the only genre that didn't meet with much enthusiasm. "I don't pretend to understand Western culture as well as Chinese," says one agency bod. "Singing Western songs doesn't really rouse my emotions." To be honest, we'd be surprised if Jennifer Lopez and U2 roused many people's emotions.

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