Archives For MixTapes

Am I starting a series? Nah… I don’t think I can come up with a Jpop list xD

Unlike the Kpop list which it focused 99% of the time on dance pop friendly tracks that went beyond American commercial pop, this “Cpop” list is… not really pop.

Popular music in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China (but mostly Taiwan) tends to be pop/rockish flare. Sure there are dance pop friendly, but even they have moved or are moving more towards pop/rock. They also love indie flavor, and accept not particularly attractiveness in their idols… even though there are some very good looking people who are immensely popular.

To be completely honest, compared to Korea’s pop music charts, Chinese music charts have a broad variety. But then again, compared to Japan’s pop music charts (which is comprised of AKB48 and Arashi xD), even Kpop charts (mostly 2NE1 and Big Bang now that DBSK is gone) seem to have some variety. xD

So this list of great Chinese music includes varying genres from R&B, pop/rock… more rockish, ballads (regular and of the indie type), etc. once again listed by year of release.

Again, it’s a bit weak on the earlier years… but you are welcome to make suggestions (for any year). A few guidelines would be that they cannot be too indie (I couldn’t fit Cheer Cheen or Mavis Fan in the list because they don’t feel completely pop, if you know what I mean), must include MVs (so songs released as singles), not older than late 90s.

Also… song must work as MV too. So no awesome songs but tacky videos. Sorry.

YouTube link.

What do you like about the Cpop industry?

Who are your fave artists?

This one turned out to be really awesome, if I may say so myself.

Of course, I have been trying to put this together since last year, LOL – so it’d better be good, right? Though, I know there are some repeat tracks if you’ve followed the blog, I think it’s fair to say that the combination of songs has a nice flow. It’s turned out to be a really moody list~

You can check my previous Chinese Music Playlists [1][2]

  1. Mavis Fan (范曉萱) - I Want Us to Be Together (我要我們在一起)
  2. Waa Wei (魏如萱) – Shangri-La (香格里拉)
  3. Jing Chang (張芸京) – Broken (壞了)
  4. Leehom Wang (王力宏) – Daily Necessities (柴米油鹽醬醋茶)
  5. R-Chord featuring LaLa Hsu (謝和弦 feat. 徐佳瑩) – Under the Willow Tree (柳樹下)
  6. Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿) – Silent All These Years
  7. A-Mei Chang (張惠妹) – What Time Is It Already? (你在看我嗎)
  8. Jing Chang (張芸京) – The Opposite Me (相反的我)
  9. Chris Lee (李宇春) – Lost Heart Crazy (失心瘋)
  10. Dream Girls – Weak (軟弱)
  11. A-Mei Chang (張惠妹) [as AMIT] - After the Sentimental Love of Animals (相愛後動物感傷)*
  12. Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿) - The Kingdom of Fools (愚人的國度)

*Note: There’s some blurred nudity and depictions of sex in that video.

You can check the playlist on YouTube.

I love when I do long and weird titles. xD

I don’t want to offend anyone — I know I’m doing my generalization, but let’s be honest~ I haven’t been into the American commercial pop scene since… I left Britney, and I left her circa her Toxic days too.

Even though people say I’m a music snob (I don’t know why…), I really like my easy-to-digest commercial pop of pretty idols that I can worship,  catchy music, and dance routines. I was big on the dancing, and I’m not talking about jiggly butt dances or Waka Waka stuff — as you know, I prefer my Shakira in her Donde Estan los Ladrones days… — I’m talking about sync dancing that gets you pumped, all the UMPH from the Nsync and Britney days of late 90s and very early 2000s.

I gave a try to the Katy Perrys, the Jonas Bros, the Justin Biebers (yes, yes I did.) — by the time Ke$ha was out, I had already given up. I didn’t even try Miley because her voice exasperates me, so I wouldn’t be able to stand her singing voice.

And then Kpop happened.

Maybe it was because I saw these Asian faces looking back at me — then again, maybe it isn’t — or maybe they put something in my kimchi (though I’m pretty sure I started eating kimchi after my Kpop thing), maybe it’s because they’re just better… who knows, but there’s something so VERY fascinating about the way Kpop is spreading.

We’ve been looking how it’s grown over the past 2 or 3 years into a phenomenon. I wonder how big is going to get, I want to see it get big… but not only Kpop, of course — other types of Asian music. I want to see how Kpopers get famous, Cpopers, — okay, not Jpopers, but definitely Jrockers, and the Taiwan music scene, and the indie Japanese scene~

So obviously, I made a playlist prompted from the Kahi post I did a day or two ago.

These are songs from from the Kpop industry that just stuck out. It’s a bit thin on the earlier years [the playlist is ordered by year], but it begins getting pretty heavy in 2008. I tried picking just songs that are dance pop and not ballads just to keep the list in check — at the moment it has 30 tracks, that I hope will expand into more songs as the months and years go by~

Here’s the YouTube link.

If you have any suggestions as to what it’s missing, comment away.

*EDIT*

Must include MVs (so songs released as singles), not older than late 90s.
Also… song must work as MV too. So no awesome songs but tacky videos. Sorry.

Now tell me, how did you get into Kpop?

Excuse me, was I supposed to know what #FF meant? LOL

Deftune asked what were YAM’s fave Hip Hop tunes, and I suggested Lauryn. Because Ms. Hill is awesome. And I sure hope she’s coming back. But then again, I don’t know much about Hip Hop.

I took some time to fill up my YouTube Wayne Isham Playlist. Now it contains over 50 videos directed by Isham, but I’ve omitted some — namely most Metallica videos because they don’t let me watch their content, so screw them.

If you missed my write-up on Isham’s work, here you go~

Here’s the link to the list, and don’t forget to “HEART” this post and/or comment on what videos could be added, or other music video directors for future Music Video Director posts xD