Recommend you some Chinese pop MUSIC

let’s take a tour of Chinese pop!

first of all it’s Jay Chou 周杰伦 , Taiwanese. definitely the king of Chinese pop, people born in late 80s and early 90s all grow up listening to his songs. Listen to his songs is a good way to know the feelings and emotions of this generation. He has been criticised throughout his early career that he doesn’t pronounce words clearly but that’s just his style. 

He made a music style very popular in China, it’s called 中国风 (Chinese wind), it’s a way to blend modern pop songs with heavy classic Chinese elements, either the lyrics or the instruments… oh many of his lyrics are excellently beautiful, written by 方文山, most famous lyrics writer in China. 青花瓷 千里之外 东风破 娘子  发如雪 those are his 中国风 songs, must try! 

highly recommend to listen to his music especially before 2007.

Also you can see his movie work: 不能说的秘密, a heart breaking love story

Secondly…  Leehom Wang 王力宏, he’s also in the category of Taiwanese artist but…. he’s an American, American born Chinese(Taiwanese), well, many people may not know that English is his first language and he only started learning Chinese seriously since he turned 18. He’s good at … pretty much every music instruments no matter western or chinese.  He created the music style he calls “chinked-out”. People accuse him of using the word “chink”, since it’s an ethic slur referring to Chinese. but apparently he wants to give a new meaning to this word. Anyway, you can also see many Chinese elements in his music such as 在梅边 花田错 盖世英雄 心中的日月, one of his most recent work is 火力全开, very interesting, people say it’s copycat version of ke$ha’s “blow”.  Personally I like him most now cuz he shows people a sunshine-like positive image. If you watch youtube a lot, you can find him working together with Wangfu production “the long lost member” etc. Also he’s been active on silver screen, romance comedy: 恋爱通告 etc.

JJ林俊杰, actually from Singapore, has very distinguishable voice, I used to listen a lot.

David Tao陶喆 .. hm… what can I say, he’s also American! He even worked as a police officer in U.S when he was young. Anyway, he’s always been compared with Jay Chou, but he’s quite different from him. He works on his music really slowly and carefully, his fans usually have to wait years for a new album… to me his music sounds more serious. He also does something like 中国风: 苏三说.  Anyway, he’s one classic character in Chinese pop, don’t miss it.

Now… some more that I didn’t mention last time:

陈奕迅

孙燕姿

S.H.E (three girls’ singing group)

方大同

苏打绿

……

honorable mention: 后弦

very original, doing almost all his music in a 中国风 way. His lyrics are using ancient phrases and words massively, pretty cool, too bad he’s never been main stream.

hm, in case you wonder are they “Chinese” Chinese music? because these artists are from U.S, Hongkong, Taiwan, Singapore, what about mainland chinese (all those I mentioned, only 后弦  is from mainland China, southwest)??? well…. that’s the problem, Chinese pop culture is dominated by Taiwanese and Hongkonger, people consider south as cool, north as peasant. I guess on the one hand it’s because south China and Taiwan is more open to the world, on the other hand it also due to the fact that southern dialect tend to be very tender and soft, while northern dialects and accents are very … either too formal or too vulgar.  

you can find all the music on youtube I think.

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this is originally a letter I sent to my friends who study Chinese. Considering I'm born in 91, my taste might be very different from other generations, however the selections here pretty much represented the majority of my generation.
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btw, see me singing Chinese pop and my friends guessing the emotion of the songs!
click here