Cantopop

Cantopop is a colloquial abbreviation for "Cantonese pop music", a form of popular music that is a subgenre of C-pop. It is also known as HK-pop, short for "Hong Kong pop". Cantopop draws 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 definition, Cantopop songs are almost invariably performed in Cantonese. Although Cantopop boasts a multinational fanbase, Hong Kong is the most significant hub of the genre. In Hong Kong and around the world, the Cantopop music industry is dominated largely by record labels owned by record industry giants such as Sony, EMI, Polydor, Emperor Entertainment Group, and Philips.

Cantopop lyrics

In recent decades, Cantopop has established a tradition of writing lyrics in modern written Chinese (which is largely based on syntax and vocabularies of nothern Chinese spoken variants), but pronounced in Cantonese, hence like "Mandarinised" Cantonese. Relatively few have truly colloquial (and usually comical) Cantonese lyrics, and fewer songs contain Classical Chinese (Wenyan) lyrics. In the past, Cantopop maintained the Cantonese Opera tradition of matching the musical notes with tones in the Cantonese language. Since the 1980s, increasing numbers of singers have departed from this traditional Cantonese Opera vocalisation in favor of Western techniques (though some big names like Roman stayed true to traditional techniques).

Related Topics:
Modern written Chinese - Nothern Chinese spoken variants - Classical Chinese - Tones - 1980s

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Samuel Hui (許冠傑) started out as a Western musician. Several of his box office hits (starting in 1974) brought the Cantonese movie and Cantopop to the next level of popularity. His songs, written in colloquial Cantonese, mirrored the life of common Hongkongers. Although he was not the first to do this, he was the first to gain widespread appeal throughout Hong Kong.

Related Topics:
Samuel Hui - Cantonese movie - Hongkonger

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Wan-gwong (尹光), aka "Prince of Temple Street" (????), is representative of yet another class of Cantopop music. The lyrics of his songs are unusually coarse and vulgar; his target is mainly the poorly educated and his songs seldom appear on TV or radio. Although few would class him as a Cantopop star, he surely has a place in the history of Cantopop music.

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Although the population of Hong Kong large, the tastes of much of Hong Kong's youths are quite similar. As a result, most stars tend to sing songs with similar topics and hence most popular songs are bland, "maudlin love ballads" similar to those of Vanessa Carlton in United States. But there are still many sideline musicians like Beyond , Swing and Tat Ming Pair (達明一派) whose songs reflect the darker side of society. In recent years, the presences of Yea Chi, The Pancakes, LMF etc, have had a great impact on the Cantopop industry. Their songs express youth attitudes and beliefs. This kind of music is similar to that of Hip Hop cultures in Western society.

Related Topics:
Vanessa Carlton - Beyond - Swing - Tat Ming Pair - Society - Yea Chi - The Pancakes - LMF - Hip Hop

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