Cantopop

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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.^[1]

[edit] History

[edit] Origin

Western-influenced music first came to the Republic of China in the 1920s, specifically to Shanghai.^[2] Artists like Zhou Xuan acted in films and recorded popular songs, and was possibly the first Chinese popstar. The split would come 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.^[2] Beginning in the 1950s massive waves of immigrants fled Shanghai to destinations like North Point.^[3] Because many of the first generations of artists and composers were originally from the city, Hong Kong cantopop owes its origin to Shanghai.^[2]

[edit] 1960s: Cultural acceptance

By the 1960s, Cantonese music available 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 boom generation at the time preferred British and American exports, as well as Mandarin music. Western culture at the time was a mark of education and sophistication,^[4] and Elvis, Johnny Mathis, Beatles were the main attraction.^[2] Conversely, those who preferred Cantonese music were considered old or uneducated. Cheng Kum-cheung (鄭錦昌) and Chan Chai-chung (陳齊頌) were two popular Cantonese singers who specifically targeted the younger generation. Connie Chan Po-chu (陳寶珠) is generally considered to be Hong Kong's first teen idol, mostly due to her career longevity. Josephine Siao (蕭芳芳) is also another artist of the era.

Roman Tam, the godfather of cantopop^[5]

[edit] 1970s: Rise of the industry

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Pre-Canto Pop era in the 1960s laid seed to the creation of Hong Kong's new pop music. Many local bands mimicking British and American bands became recording artistes. Two types of local Cantonese music recordings appeared in the market nearly concurrently in 1973 in Hong Kong. One type cashing-in on the popularity of TVB's drama series were based on more traditional music and lyrics styles. Yet the type of musical cross-overs that made foreigners recognised and coined 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 had most of the 60s artists in Hong Kong.

Beginning with the 1970s, TV was a technological marvel mostly available to the rich, and broadcasted contents were highly valued and respected. Soap operas were needed to fill air time. Many popular Cantonese songs became TV theme songs.^[2] Around 1971, Sandra Lang (仙杜拉), 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 the legendary songwriter Joseph Koo (顧嘉煇) and the songwriter Yip Siu-dak (葉紹德). The song was ground breaking and topped local charts.^[2]

Samuel Hui, the lead singer of the band Lotus from late '60s signed to Polydor in 1972. The song that made it happen was the theme song to the movie Games Gamblers Play (鬼馬雙星), which also starred Sam himself. The recording produced by in house producer 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.

Another TV promoted group was the Four Golden Flowers. The star of TV theme was Roman Tam (羅文), whose singing earned much praise. Two of the most famous TV soap opera singers were Liza Wang (汪明荃) and Adam Cheng (鄭少秋).^[2] The Wynners and George Lam also amassed a big fan base with their new style. Sam Hui continued to dominate the charts and won consecutive two times the Centennial Award (Best Sales awards) in the first and second IFPI Gold Disc Presentations (1977, 1978). Polydor became PolyGram in 1978.

[edit] 1980s: Beginning of the Golden age

During the 1980s, cantopop scaled 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 developments. 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 鄧麗君. She achieved in both artistic strides and great commercial success by her original Cantonese Hits (Polygram Label) in the early '80s.

As Cantopop gained big following in all Chinese communities, Hong Kong entrepreneurs' ingenious use of the then new LaserDisk technology produced yet another explosion in the market, the Karaoke market was dominated by Cantopop.

The Four Heavenly Kings in a tribute to Leslie Cheung (2003)

[edit] 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 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) of 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.^[6]

After 1997, there emerged a younger generation of singers after the half-retired 4 kings. Singers like Sammi Cheng, Joey Yung, Eason Chan and Kelly Chen began dominating until and even after the turn of the century.

[edit] Current

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.^[7]

Gillian Chung of the Twins was caught in a major scandal possibly at the height of the group's popularity

[edit] 2000s

At the turn of the century, Cantonese is still dominant in the domain of Chinese popular music.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.

In January 2008 Gillian Chung won the "Asia Pacific Most Popular Artist Awards" from Jade Solid Gold following the success of Twins.^[10] In just a short month, the Edison Chen photo scandal would rock the Hong Kong entertainment industry. Local actor Edison Chen and a number of highly publicized female celebrities like Gillian Chung, Bobo Chan and Cecilia Cheung were caught in sexual acts with the nudity photos spread across the internet worldwide. The event garnered the attention of international media including including CNN,^[11] MSNBC,^[12] and The Guardian.^[13] The scandal raised a number of questions regarding legal issues and netizen's online rights that went far beyond the usual music discussion.

[edit] Characteristics

[edit] 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.

[edit] Lyrics

Cantonese language is one of those pitch sensitive languages. The word carries different meaning when sung in a different relative pitch. Matching Cantonese lyrics to Western music was particular difficult because of such 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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'.

[edit] Foreign compositions

Since the 1970s, many western and Japanese traditional and pop compositions have been translated to Chinese. Historically the practice is done for business reasons of filling up albums and re-capitalizing on songs with a proven record. By definition hybrids are still considered Cantonese songs due to Cantonese lyrics, though the rights borrowed varies country to country. Songs like "Tomorrow sounds like today" (明日話今天) by Jenny Tseng, "Life to seek" (一生何求) by Danny Chan, "Snowing" (飄雪) by Priscilla Chan, and "Can't afford" (負擔不起) by Jade Kwan were originally composed outside of Hong Kong.

[edit] Industry

[edit] Cantopop stars

From the inception of Canto Pop to the late '80s, Hong Kong had seen many original talents developed to super stars status, each with unique singing style and easily recognisable voice. Due to emergence of Karaoke style of singing which displaced originality, CD piracy from the '90s that forced shorter investment cycles, pop idols that appear to have a better chance of generating revenue from different exploition modes became the target of development.

Usually talent is secondary to the success of a cantopop singer in Hong Kong. Most of the time, the image sells the albums, as it is one of the characteristic of mainstream music similarly mirrored in the US and Japan. Publicity is vital to an idol's career, as one piece of news could make or break one's future. Almost all modern cantopop stars go into the movie business regardless of their ability to act. They immediately expand to the Mandarin market once their fame is established, hence pure cantopop stars are almost nonexistent. Outside of the music sales, their success can also be gauged by their income from various sources. For example, according to some reports, Sammi Cheng earned HK$46M (around US$6M) from advertisement and merchandise endorsements in the month of January 2003 alone.

[edit] Labels

Due to rise of Canto Pop and the control of music piracy in Hong Kong from 1978, aside from already existing PolyGram and EMI in Hong Kong, Sony, Warner and BMG established their Hong Kong company one after another from 1979. Meanwhile, local record companies such as Crown Records 娛樂唱片, Wing Hang Records 永恆, Manchi Records 文志 and Capital Artists 華星,each invested heavily and became very successful local labels that compete well in the market. As TV drama theme lose favour from the middle of the '80s, market power soon drifted to the multi-national labels. PolyGram also established CinePoly (originally a JV with Cinema City) which remains a major local label until now with many top local artistes. After the sale of PolyGram to Universal Music in late '90s, the company name was replaced by Universal Music.

Since 2000, a number of local record labels have emerged such as Emperor Entertainment Group and East Asia Record & amusic (included its partly-owned subsidairy, Go East Gold Label Records, which acquired the cantopop business of EMI).^{[citation needed]} Sales are tracked at the IFPI HK Annual Sales Chart.^[14]

[edit] Variety

The taste of much of Hong Kong's youths are quite similar. As a result, most stars tend to sing songs with similar topics with emphasis on "maudlin love ballads". But there are still many sideline musicians like Beyond and Tat Ming Pair (達明一派) whose songs reflect the darker side of society. In recent years, the presences of The Pancakes, LMF, At 17 etc added freshness to the industry. Their songs express youth attitudes and beliefs with similarities to cutie pop or hip hop cultures.

[edit] Artists

[edit] Male

[edit] Female

[edit] Groups

[edit] Major awards

[edit] Cantopop radio stations

[edit] See also

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

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• C-Pop Fantasie - Online resource for c-pop, providing lyrics, downloads, video shows, and more.
• Pop Saves Hong Kong, in Tofu Magazine #2
• Hong Kong Vintage Pop Radio
• Cantopop News Blog
• www.hkmusic.cn: Cantopop song listings (in chinese)
• www.mysongspage.com, lyrics and chords for Cantonese, English & Mandarin songs.