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.

Characteristics of Cantopop

Early Cantopop was developed from Cantonese Opera music hybridized with Western pop music. The musicians gave up using traditional Chinese musical instruments, like the Zheng and the Erhu fiddle, and switched to Western musical setups. 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 the 'chorus and verse' form and are generally monophonic. Practically all Cantopop songs feature a descending bass line.

Related Topics:
Cantonese Opera - Chinese musical instrument - Piano - Synthesizer - Drum set - Guitar - Bass guitar - Chorus and verse - Form - Monophonic - Descending bass line

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The lyrics of Cantopop are at least as important as the music. There are two types of lyrics written by songwriters. The first type is the poetic lyrics written in literary or classical Chinese. The formation of lyrics of this type was influenced by the classical Chinese lyrics in traditional Cantonese opera. Songs with literary Chinese were usually used as the theme songs for TV shows about ancient China. The second type is less formal and the lyrics written in colloquial Cantonese, usually for the TV shows filmed under modern contexts.

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Starting from the 90s, musicians began to introduce Japanese pop music to Hong Kong market by rewriting the lyrics in Chinese. In recent years, the same phenomenon has been witnessed for Korean pop music. However, these hybrids are still considered as Cantonese songs because the lyrics are re-written in Cantonese. Songs like "Love you a bit more everyday" (???????) sung by Jacky Cheung and "Can't afford" (????) by Jade Kwan were originally composed in Japan and Korea, but they enjoyed huge successes in Hong Kong after their adaptation.

Related Topics:
Japanese pop music - Korean pop music - Jacky Cheung - Jade Kwan - Japan - Korea

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Regardless of which type of lyrics is used, Cantopop songs share an overriding common characteristic, an 'end rhyme'. Almost every last word of a phrase is rhymed. The first few phrases of the song "Impression" by Samuel Hui exemplify this feature: the last word of every phrase ended with the sound '?eong' (see the extract below).

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"Impression" (??; in Cantonese phonetic symbols), by Samuel Hui

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?????????

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Sui Ling Ngo Tong Man Kui Ji Sat Seong

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?????????

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Nan Ji Kum Mong Kuan Nei Nang Kin Leong

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?????????????

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Tan Kok Man Fun Kan Jeong Kai Yan Kan Nei Yu Seong

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?????????

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Sui Ling Ngo Tak Yin Chong Mun Wan Seong

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