Chinese Pop Music? (and others)

Well, PRC is a big country and what's popular in 1 province is not necessarily popular in another. So, in a way, it depends on where in PRC you are heading to.

1 way to familiarize yourself with the local music scene is to listen to the webcasts of the more established radio stations in that province. The link below is for Shanghai's.

上海东方广æ’*动感101 - 101.7 FM Shanghai - Listen Online

You can quite easily find links to the other radio stations in PRC from there.

Hope that helps.

there arent much of headbanging rock, if any. if ballads you mean by old folks and cultural singing, then i know some. if ballad as in typical pop songs, then it's hard to find anything not of that range. anyways, i will recommend my favorite, jane zhang. she's one of the best, if not the best, contemporary chinese female pop singers around and with huge popularity. rivaling her would be other divas such as stefanie sun, amei, etc...although stefanie probably can't reach the same vocal range as jane can

Originally Posted by airsuperiority

there arent much of headbanging rock, if any. if ballads you mean by old folks and cultural singing, then i know some. if ballad as in typical pop songs, then it's hard to find anything not of that range. anyways, i will recommend my favorite, jane zhang. she's one of the best, if not the best, contemporary chinese female pop singers around and with huge popularity. rivaling her would be other divas such as stefanie sun, amei, etc...although stefanie probably can't reach the same vocal range as jane can

Unfortunately those are all ballad singers :P, but it's kinda hard not to find something that's not ballad-y in Mandarin music. It's kinda infused in the style of the song.

You can try F.I.R. (飞儿乐团) Mayday (五月天) and David Tao (陶喆). Those are much more pop-rock. Jay Chou (周杰伦) has a good variety of different genres, including some R&B. I heard Joanna Wang (王若琳) is pretty good for Chinese Jazz. Don't ask me about hip hop though. I think the hip hop scene in Asia is horrible, period.

Thanks so much for your suggestions! I'll definitely check them out.

Originally Posted by latenlazy

Unfortunately those are all ballad singers :P, but it's kinda hard not to find something that's not ballad-y in Mandarin music. It's kinda infused in the style of the song.

You can try F.I.R. (飞儿乐团) Mayday (五月天) and David Tao (陶喆). Those are much more pop-rock. Jay Chou (周杰伦) has a good variety of different genres, including some R&B. I heard Joanna Wang (王若琳) is pretty good for Chinese Jazz. Don't ask me about hip hop though. I think the hip hop scene in Asia is horrible, period.

i also listen to fir too, so i agree. maybe xin le tuan is also possible. there's also khalil fong, though his songs seemed all the same to me. as for hiphop....i really cant think of any....da mouth? various artists have some hiphop songs, and that's about it...none of any that's a particular focus.

Originally Posted by airsuperiority

i also listen to fir too, so i agree. maybe xin le tuan is also possible. there's also khalil fong, though his songs seemed all the same to me. as for hiphop....i really cant think of any....da mouth? various artists have some hiphop songs, and that's about it...none of any that's a particular focus.

None of it is any good either. We could suggest MC Hotdog to him and let him writhe in the horrors of what they've done :P

Though a friend of mine once found a canto hip hop song that dissed Korean music, which was pretty awesome.

Oh, I guess 南拳妈妈 had some decent hip hop tracks, but they're disbanded now. Sad.

Originally Posted by Maggern

Thanks so much for your suggestions! I'll definitely check them out.

Actually, I could send some stuff to you. I have a pretty large collection...

A friend of mine went to international school in Beijing and is a huge mainland rock fan. Here's a long list of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_rock#The_Beijing_Midi_Modern_School_of_Mus ic_and_Music_Festivla

Which city are you in? If you're in one of the big ones my suggestion is to walk around and look for concerts and bars and clubs. Sometimes you'll encounter something interesting. Once I encountered a modern music festival in Shanghai at the New Century Park. Some of that new age techno and electronica is still stuck in my head XP

Originally Posted by latenlazy

None of it is any good either. We could suggest MC Hotdog to him and let him writhe in the horrors of what they've done :P

Though a friend of mine once found a canto hip hop song that dissed Korean music, which was pretty awesome.

mchotdog...couldnt agree more

Originally Posted by latenlazy

Actually, I could send some stuff to you. I have a pretty large collection...

A friend of mine went to international school in Beijing and is a huge mainland rock fan. Here's a long list of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_rock#The_Beijing_Midi_Modern_School_of_Mus ic_and_Music_Festivla

Which city are you in? If you're in one of the big ones my suggestion is to walk around and look for concerts and bars and clubs. Sometimes you'll encounter something interesting. Once I encountered a modern music festival in Shanghai at the New Century Park. Some of that new age techno and electronica is still stuck in my head XP

Sounds cool! I'd love to browse some music. So far, we're stuck to checking out Taiwanese hit lists (if there is any new music and/or themed to summer, that's even better )

I'll be living in Beijing (unfortunately). I rather loved living Chengdu last time. Prefer the inland-city, non-cosmopolitan style of urbanity (though still some touch of international connection). I even met a Pakistani working on FC-1 avionics, at a beer-marathon there. What a coincidence

Originally Posted by airsuperiority

mchotdog...couldnt agree more

*winces at name only*

PS: About the midi festival in Beijing, I read that we JUST miss it by a month. What a downer...

Originally Posted by Maggern

Sounds cool! I'd love to browse some music. So far, we're stuck to checking out Taiwanese hit lists (if there is any new music and/or themed to summer, that's even better )

I'll be living in Beijing (unfortunately). I rather loved living Chengdu last time. Prefer the inland-city, non-cosmopolitan style of urbanity (though still some touch of international connection). I even met a Pakistani working on FC-1 avionics, at a beer-marathon there. What a coincidence



*winces at name only*

PS: About the midi festival in Beijing, I read that we JUST miss it by a month. What a downer...

Hrmm keep looking around. I'm sure there will be little things here and there. Beijing's actually a great music scene. I would advise look around for college events in the 海淀 district.

Personally, I'm in love with Beijing, but seeing as I was born in Tianjin that shouldn't be too surprising. :P I think Beijing certainly has a more homely feel than Shanghai, and only some parts are super cosmopolitan.

I'll see if I can send some music to you when I get back to my college dorm. Internet back at home is slow.

Originally Posted by Maggern

Sounds cool! I'd love to browse some music. So far, we're stuck to checking out Taiwanese hit lists (if there is any new music and/or themed to summer, that's even better )

I'll be living in Beijing (unfortunately). I rather loved living Chengdu last time. Prefer the inland-city, non-cosmopolitan style of urbanity (though still some touch of international connection). I even met a Pakistani working on FC-1 avionics, at a beer-marathon there. What a coincidence



*winces at name only*

PS: About the midi festival in Beijing, I read that we JUST miss it by a month. What a downer...

i was at chengdu a a week ago. great place, nice people, but not advisable if u had a sore throat or were sick to begin with. it's been almost a month and im still coughing like crazy. the food is too strong. oh and those rabbit heads....i just can't stand them.

and yes i agree on wincing at the name part as well