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.

The Golden age of Cantopop

During the mid-80s to the mid-90s, the Cantopop genre has scaled great heights with both artistes and producers teaming up to produce songs and films of outstanding quality such as not heard of in Hong Kong previously. Cantopop stars such as Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, Alan Tam, Priscilla Chan and Danny Chan quickly became household names in the then British colony in the late 1980s with exciting talents such as Beyond, Jacky Cheung and Andy Lau soon to emerge as firm contenders in the early 1990s. The reason for the blooming of this creative era is the result of a healthy Hong Kong economical development where sponsors and record companies were able to sign composers as well as the artistes with lucrative contracts worth millions of Hong Kong dollars in addition to employing professional musicians to accompany the singers. Further, the emergence of Hong Kong as a Westernised country meant that the territory has to possess a tangible and positive image of its own to reflect its status as a prosperous city. There would be no better alternative than to project this into the entertainment industry where glitz and glamor complement each other well. The peak of this golden age could be said to have been the era when the "Four Heavenly Kings" (Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai) were first introduced to the adoring Hong Kong and overseas Chinese communities. The ultimate effect was immediate as the quality of the songs from this interesting period of development could be said to be more memorable than those of the current crop. This golden age was not to last. Severe piracy issues in Southeast Asia as well as a lack of budding talents to take the helm of the Cantopop would result in a appalling drop in sales of music. Nowadays, Joey Yung is considered the cantopop queen because of her great singing skills.

Related Topics:
Hong Kong - Anita Mui - Leslie Cheung - Alan Tam - Priscilla Chan - Danny Chan - Beyond - Jacky Cheung - Andy Lau - Four Heavenly Kings - Aaron Kwok - Leon Lai - Chinese - Southeast Asia - Joey Yung

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