Cantopop

Cantopop (Chinese: 粵語流行曲) is a colloquial portmanteau for "Cantonese popular music". It is also referred to as HK-pop, short for "Hong Kong popular music". It is categorized as a subgenre of Chinese popular music within C-pop. Cantopop draws its influence not only from other forms of Chinese music, but from a variety of international styles including jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, electronic music, western pop music and others. By and large, cantopop songs are almost invariably performed in Cantonese. Boasting a multinational fanbase, Hong Kong is the most significant hub of the genre.China Briefing Media. [2004] (2004) Business Guide to the Greater Pearl River Delta. China Briefing Media Ltd. ISBN 9889867311]

History

1920s: Shanghai origins

Western-influenced music first came to the Republic of China in the 1920s, specifically to Shanghai.Broughton, Simon. Ellingham, Mark. Trillo, Richard. [2000] (2000) World Music: The Rough Guide. Rough Guides Publishing Company. ISBN 1858286360] Artists like Zhou Xuan acted in films and recorded popular songs, and was possibly the first Chinese pop star.

In 1949 when the People's Republic of China was established by the communist party, one of the first actions taken by the government was to denounce pop music as pornography. Beginning in the 1950s, massive waves of immigrants fled Shanghai to destinations like North Point in Hong Kong.Wordie, Jason. [2002] (2002) Streets: Exploring Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 962-2095631] As a result, many first generation Cantopop artists and composers hail from Shanghai.

1960s: Cultural acceptance

By the 1960s, Cantonese music in Hong Kong was still limited largely to traditional Cantonese opera and comic renditions of western music. Tang Kee-chan (鄧寄塵), Cheng Kuan-min (鄭君綿), and Tam Ping-man (譚炳文) were among the earliest artists releasing Cantonese records.

The baby boomer generation at the time preferred British and American exports, as well as Mandarin music. Western culture was at the time equated with education and sophistication, [Wiltshire, Trea. [First published 1987] (republished & reduced 2003). Old Hong Kong - Volume One. Central, Hong Kong: Text Form Asia books Ltd. ISBN Volume One 962-7283-59-2] and Elvis, Johnny Mathis and Beatles were popular.

Conversely, those who preferred Cantonese music were considered old-fashioned or uneducated. Cheng Kum-cheung and Chan Chai-chung (陳齊頌) were two popular Cantonese singers who specifically targeted the younger generation. Connie Chan Po-chu is generally considered to be Hong Kong's first teen idol, mostly due to her career longevity. Josephine Siao is also another artist of the era.

1970s: Rise of television and the modern industry

The previous decade laid the ground for the creation of Hong Kong's new pop music. Many local bands mimicked British and American bands.

Two types of local Cantonese music appeared in the market nearly concurrently in 1973: one type cashed in on the popularity of TVB's drama series and was based more on traditional music and lyrical styles. Yet the type of musical cross-overs that let foreigners recognize HK music as "Canto Pop" came largely from Polydor Hong Kong, a foreign label established in Hong Kong in 1970 by acquiring Diamond Music, the local record company that employed most of the 1960s Hong Kong artists. Notable singers from the era include Liza Wang and Paula Tsui.

Impact of television

Television was a new technological marvel, available mostly to the rich, and on-air content was highly valued and respected. Soap operas were needed to fill air time, and many popular Cantonese songs became TV theme songs. Around 1971, Sandra Lang, a minor singer who had never sung Cantopop before, was invited to sing the first Cantonese TV theme song, "The Yuanfen of a Wedding that Cries and Laughs" or "Tai Siu Jan Jyuan (啼笑姻緣)". This song was a collaboration between songwriters Yip Siu-dak (葉紹德) and the legendary Joseph Koo. It was ground-breaking and topped local charts. Other groups that profited from TV promotion included the Four Golden Flowers.

Samuel Hui, the lead singer of the band Lotus formed in the late '60s, signed onto Polydor in 1972. The song that made him famous was the theme song to the movie "Games Gamblers Play", also starring Hui. The recording produced by Ricky TC Fung was a giant success that paved way to a whole new genre of foreign sounding Cantonese language pop tunes for others to follow.Fact|date=September 2008

The star of TV theme tunes was Roman Tam, whose singing earned much praise. Two of the most famous TV soap opera singers were Liza Wang and Adam Cheng. The Wynners and George Lam also amassed a big fan base with their new style. Samuel Hui continued to dominate the charts and won the Centennial Best Sales Award in the first and second IFPI Gold Disc Presentations twice in a row in 1977 and 1978. Polydor became PolyGram in 1978.

1980s: Beginning of the Golden age

During the 1980s, Cantopop soared to great heights with artists, producers and record companies working in harmony. Cantopop stars such as Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, Alan Tam, Priscilla Chan and Danny Chan quickly became household names. The industry effectively used Cantopop songs in TV dramas and movies. Some of the biggest soundtracks came from timeless film such as "A Better Tomorrow". In part, the success came from progressive economical development. Sponsors and record companies became comfortable with the idea of lucrative contracts and million-dollar signings.

One great endorsement of Cantopop was the crossing over from the most successful Chinese female recording artist so far, "Queen of Mandarin songs" Teresa Teng. She achieved in both artistic strides and great commercial success by her original Cantonese Hits under the Polygram Label in the early '80s.

As Cantopop gained large followings in Chinese communities worldwide, Hong Kong entrepreneurs' ingenious use of the then new LaserDisk technology prompted yet another explosion in the market, leading to domination of the karaoke market by Cantopop.

1990s: Four Heavenly Kings era

In the early 90s, a number of Cantopop stars decided to semi- or fully retire. Those Cantopop stars included Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung, Samuel Hui, Priscilla Chan and Joseph Koo. These retirements came as they decided to emigrate from Hong Kong after the uncertainty caused by the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

Cantopop needed new talent to fill the gaps left behind. This led to the emergence of the "Four Heavenly Kings" (四大天王): Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai. They dominated all levels of media from magazines, TV, cinema to music. New talents such as Beyond would also emerge as contenders. Successful crossing over alternative music elements by Sandy Lam, Shirley Kwan and Faye Wong were also important to the era.

The tension and economic instability from the 1997 handover also created a culturally challenging atmosphere for the industry. Establishment of Basic Law and language ordinances made the adoption of Mandarin official. [ [http://cd1.emb.hkedcity.net/cd/scolar/html/finalreport_en.pdf "ACTION PLAN TO RAISE LANGUAGE STANDARDS IN HONG KONG"] , Standing Committee on Language Education and Research. Retrieved on 2007-02-25.]

After 1997, following the gradual retirement of the Four Kings, there emerged the "New Four Heavenly Kings": Leo Ku, Hacken Lee, Andy Hui, and Edmond Leung. A new generation including Miriam Yeung, Sammi Cheng, Joey Yung, Eason Chan and Kelly Chen began their stardom and continued it into the 21st century.

[
thumb|right|200px|Faye Wong, an artist known in all of Greater China and overseas Chinese-speaking communities. After the release of this 1999 album, she was recognised as Best Selling Cantopop Female. [According to Guinness World Records, Faye Wong had sold 9.7 million copies of her albums as of March 2000, giving her the title of [http://web.archive.org/web/20021023184715/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=54458 Best Selling Cantopop Female] . Retrieved 2 Nov 2006 at Internet archive. ] ]

2000s

At the turn of the century, Cantonese is still dominant in the domain of Chinese popular music.Donald, Stephanie. Keane, Michael. Hong, Yin. [2002] (2002). Media in China: Consumption, Content and Crisis. Routledge Mass media policy. ISBN 0700716149. pg 113] Though the deaths of stars Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui in 2003 rocked the industry. The Four Heavenly Kings of Cantopop performed a tribute at the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRf17HN4IEo Four Heavenly Kings performance on Youtube] . Retrieved on 2007-04-07.] Along with the downturn of the economy, few can deny cantopop was at a low point in the early 2000s.

The industry was mostly in a transitional phase with overseas-raised Chinese artists such as Sally Yeh, Nicholas Tse and Coco Lee gaining recognition. As a result cantopop is no longer restricted to Hong Kong, but has become part of a larger Pan-Chinese music movement.

Since 2005 the industry has began a new upswing with many of the newer artists gaining in popularity. The two major companies that drive much of the Hong Kong segment appears to be East Asia Entertainment & Amusic and Emperor Entertainment Group. The more veteran singers like Andy Hui, Joey Yung, Denise Ho, Eason Chan along with newer artists like Janice Vidal, Twins, Justin Lo have played a major role in the upswing. Many are also on the rise including Hins Cheung, Vincy Chan, Stephanie Cheng, Kay Tse, Charles Ying, Jill Vidal. The new era also saw an explosion of groups such as at17, Soler, Sunboy'z, Hotcha. As this became a new trend in promoting groups, often many of the artists later end up going solo such as Kary Ng or Kenny Kwan.

Edison Chen photo scandal

In January 2008, Twins won the "Asia Pacific Most Popular Artist Awards" from Jade Solid Gold. [Sing Tao Daily Entertainment section. January 13, 2008 Section C1.] Just one month later, the Edison Chen photo scandal would rock the Hong Kong entertainment industry. Local actor Edison Chen and a number of high-profile female celebrities like Gillian Chung, Bobo Chan and Cecilia Cheung, were caught in sexual acts with the explicit photos uploaded on the Internet. The scandal garnered the attention of international media including including CNN [cite web |url = http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/02/05/lustout.hong.kong.sex.photos.cnn|title = Celebrity Sex Scandal |publisher = CNN |date = 2008-02-05 |accessdate = 2008-02-11 |language=] and MSNBC. [cite web |url = http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/02/14/665099.aspx |title = Sex scandal rocks Hong Kong
publisher = Msnbc |date = 2008-02-14 |accessdate = 2008-02-15
language=] and The Guardian. [cite web |url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/13/china.news |title = China riveted by stolen sex photos of Hong Kong stars |publisher = The Guardian |date = 2008-02-13 |accessdate = 2008-02-15 |language=] The scandal raised a number of questions regarding legal issues and netizen's online rights that went far beyond the usual music discussion.

Characteristics

Instruments and setups

Early Cantopop was developed from cantonese opera music hybridized with western pop. The musicians gave up traditional Chinese musical instruments like zheng and erhu fiddle in favor of western style arrangements. Cantopop songs were usually sung by one singer, sometimes with a band, accompanied by piano, synthesizer, drum set, guitar, and bass guitar. They are composed under verse-chorus form and are generally monophonic. Practically all cantopop songs feature a descending bassline.

Lyrics

multi-listen item
filename=DannyChan - Wait.ogg
title="Wait (等)"
description=A slow to medium tempo soundtrack by Danny Chan for the 1984 HK film "Merry Christmas" (聖誕快樂)
format=Ogg----multi-listen item
filename=Jacky Cheung - Half moon.ogg
title="Half moon (月半彎)"
description=A transitional song from the golden age to the Four Heavenly kings era by Jacky Cheung
format=Ogg----multi-listen item
filename=Leon Lai Ming - Sugar in the Marmalade.ogg
title="Sugar in the Marmalade"
description=A hybrid cantopop techno song by Leon Lai
format=Ogg
Cantonese is a pitch sensitive tonal language. The word carries a different meaning when sung in a different relative pitch. Matching Cantonese lyrics to Western music was particularly difficult because the Western musical scale has 12 semi-tones. Through the work of pioneers like Sam Hui, James Wong and Lo Kwok Jim, those that followed have more stock phrases for reference. Cantonese lyricists play a great part in advancing Canto Pop.

Classical Chinese lyrics

The first type is the poetic lyrics written in literary or classical Wenyan Chinese. In the past, cantopop maintained the Cantonese Opera tradition of matching the musical notes with tones of the language. Relatively few cantopop songs use truly colloquial Cantonese terms, and fewer songs contain lyrics. Songs written in this style are usually reserved for TV shows about ancient China. Since the 1980s, increasing numbers of singers have departed from this traditional, though some big names like Roman Tam stayed true to traditional techniques.

Modern Chinese lyrics

The second type is less formal. The lyrics written in colloquial Cantonese make up the majority with compositions done in modern written Chinese. TV shows filmed under modern contexts will utilize songs written with these lyrics. Most songs share an overriding characteristic, in which every last word of a phrase is rhymed.

The following is an example from the song "Impression" (印象) by Samuel Hui. The last word of every phrase ends with '–oeng'.

Groups

*2R
*AMK
*At17
*Beyond
*Bliss
*Cookies
*Cream
*Dear Jane
*Dry
*E-Kids
*Echo
*EO2
*Fama
*Freeze
*Grasshopper
*HotCha
*Krusty
*I Love You Boy'z
*The Jade Band
*LMF
*MP4
*Online
*Ping Pung
*PixelToy
*Purple Nine
*Raidas
*Royals
*Shine
*Sky
*Softhard
*SohBim
*Soler
*Sun Boy'z
*Swing
*Taichi
*Tat Ming Pair
*Twins
*The Pancakes
*The Raiders
*The Wynners
*YLK Organization
*Zarahn
*Zen

Major awards

Cantopop radio stations

ee also

*Music of Hong Kong
*Hong Kong musical tongue twister
*Hong Kong English pop
*Chinese hip hop

References

External links

* [http://chinesemusicblog.com Chinese Music Blog] - Chinese music online community providing chinese music discussion, album review, lyrics translation and romanization for non-chinese speakers.
* [http://www.c-pop.net/ C-Pop Fantasie] - Online resource for c-pop, providing lyrics, downloads, video shows, and more.
* [http://www.amazon.com/CHINA-Music-Essential-Listening-List/lm/R3LCNCHJNX6CL9/ref=cm_lm_byauthor_title_full CHINA Music Essential Listening List] - Amazon.Com's list of hip hits in contemporary Cantopop.
* [http://www.tofu-magazine.net/newVersion/pages/popshk.html Pop Saves Hong Kong, in Tofu Magazine #2]
* [http://www.hkvpradio.com Hong Kong Vintage Pop Radio]
* [http://cantopopnews.blogspot.com Cantopop News Blog]
* [http://www.hkmusic.cn www.hkmusic.cn: Cantopop song listings (in chinese)]
* [http://www.mysongspage.com www.mysongspage.com, lyrics and chords for Cantonese, English & Mandarin songs.]