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When Cpop Went Beyond American Pop

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.

[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL0C06C35FA9FC1C64&hl=en_US”]

YouTube link.

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What do you like about the Cpop industry?

Who are your fave artists?

Posted on August 25, 2011 In Chinese, English, MixTapes, Music, Music Videos, Sharing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Yu Aoi for Tamatama Movie

August 25, 2011 — 5 Comments

I don’t… even know how she does it.

Or in general. How does Japan do it to not let anyone outside the production know that they’re making any type of movie? Because when they want you to, they make sure you know.

How is it possible that we find out Yu Aoi was shooting a movie in location in Ireland a little over a month before the movie is set to open? Yes, Yu Aoi’s new movie is called Tamatama (translated to “by chance”) and is set to open on October 15th.

Little details are known from this Tokyograph report:

The film’s main concept is “tamatama,” which means “by chance.” Aoi plays a young woman who travels to Ireland, and the fantasy story depicts her life there as she encounters different people and places, resulting in occasional “miracles.”

Except for the miracle part, it sounds a lot like One Million Yen Girl… sans the Bitter-bug. xD

The film marks the debut for CM and MV director Komatsu Mayumi (小松真弓).

In Celebrity, English, Films, Japanese, Misc., Photographs, Sharing ,
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Remember when Christina Aguilera was Back to Basics?

August 25, 2011 — 3 Comments

I finally bought the 2-disc Back to Basics concert DVD. I’ve become cheap because I buy other expensive stuff from Asia — I just spent $30 for a Bluray concert of Eason Chan because Exaggerate looked so freaking awesome. But I couldn’t spend more than 10$ for Back to Basics, even though I really liked the album.

I had… a like/don’t care relationship with Christina Aguilera since her debut alongside Britney — I was always a Britney fan because she had ‘something’ which we can call ‘it’ and I always felt Christina didn’t have that thing that make you want to root for her… but I was often blown away with her voice anyway. I knew the few steps to Genie in a Bottle, What a Girl Wants and Come on Over… almost to heart. I also dug that she had spent some time singing in Spanish with some good quality ballads and that infectious Falsas Esperanzas. She was the prettiest during those days — do you remember how amazing she looked in the MV for Pero me Acuerdo de Ti [MV]?

Her skin complexion then, non-sun-tanned and platinum blond, made a perfect match with the pinks which were highlights among all those grays.

Then she went all Dirrty. I did have an issue with her Dirrty days, even though Beautiful and Fighter are a couple of her strongest songs and I appreciate the change to more grundgy or gothy looks, but her literally dirty look and the sexual nature of the concept just reminds me of Tara Reid in her Wild On days. It’s just really disgusting. In the end, I never bought that album and I sorta forgot about Aguilera (or Britney). In fact, during that transition, I was becoming a Pink fan — you can tell from this post.

I have a point, bare with me.

Alongisde my Back to Basics concert DVD, I bought the Pink: Live from Wembley Arena — which would be her I’m Not Dead tour, and I watched them back to back.

It struck me that I could get a better sense of Christina watching the concert than I did with Pink. As I sat watching the second DVD, I thought to myself “wow, Back to Basics has a more cohesive theme than Pink’s concert.” To someone that considers herself a Pink fan, I felt a renew respect for Aguilera then.

It was then that I got it.
Continue Reading…

In Celebrity, Concerts, DVD/BR, English, Music, Sharing, Spanish , , , , , ,
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When Aoi Was Natsui

My gosh! Look what I found on Weibo~

At the time, Yu was only 1.50m xD

By the way, she’s turning 26 in two days. Yu is now closer to her 30s than her 20s. O_O

Posted on August 15, 2011 In Celebrity, English, Japanese, Sharing, Snapshots , , , , , ,
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Power Rangers in Space: The Bad Character Complex

August 15, 2011 — 6 Comments

I recently was watching the Latino dubbing of Bones, when I heard Bones’ espanol latino speaking and racking my brain as to where I had heard her voice, until it hit me — Cordelia Chase (from Buffy) was speaking Bones dialog. I was in shocked at the personality clash of that as my brain turned to mush from all that pop culture.

I ended up in Doblaje Wiki, in which I discovered Clemen Larumbe was doing the voice. It’s an amazing thing Latino dubbing.. of course, it used to be better because dubbing took longer before, and now you’re on a tight schedule as to not keep fans waiting. In my search of Latino dubbing, I found out that Laura Torres (who voiced KidGoku on Dragon Ball, Tommy Pickle on Rugrats, Daria, Gabrielle on Xena, Catherine on CSI) had also voiced Kat (the 2nd Pink Ranger)… which made me look for other Power Rangers related news.

Then it hit me even harder: Amy Jo Johnson (the original Pink Ranger — from the American version) is turning forty-freaking-one this year. I was downright depressed at how old I am.

I’m not so ashamed to say that I watched Power Rangers until Zordon was gone — because I’m a loyal fan, I even watched a few of the eps after that. But to me, Power Rangers was truly ended when Zordon’s capsule was destroyed… which takes me back all the way to Power Rangers in Space.

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In Clips, English, Sharing, Television , , , , ,
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In the Mood for Dancing~

I literally burst out laughing when I saw this on the DVD

It’s supposed to be a deleted scene from In the Mood for Love — understandable considering it totally kills that moody setting throughout the whole thing. But the part of me that laughed heartly would have loved it included…

Posted on August 12, 2011 In Chinese, Clips, DVD/BR, English, Films, Fun, Sharing , , , , , ,
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Bonobo Plywood Bicycle

I haven’t talked about bikes in so long…

Designed by Stanislaw Ploski – it’s so fresh!

Check more pics and info at CycleEXIF

Posted on August 11, 2011 In English, Products, Sharing ,
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Eason Chan kills it with Exaggerate

This is so amazing.

Or how do you say it? 好看，好听！！我喜欢~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99QVa8Q1F4g

-edit-

added Cantonese lyrics

Continue Reading…

Posted on August 11, 2011 In Chinese, Clips, DVD/BR, English, Fun, Lyrics, Music, Pinyin, Sharing , , , , ,
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In the Mood for Love: Hong Kong, 1960s

August 10, 2011 — Leave a comment

Going through my last batch of DVDs to arrive, there’s some pretty kick-ass extras in the Criterion edition of In the Mood for Love. And why wouldn’t there be, right? It’s Criterion! Listen to Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung speaking in English is… something else. xD

There’s a quote from an essay included in the DVD that struck a chord and wanted to share

As an African-American singing in Spanish, [Nat King] Cole embodies American Culture’s ability to absorb, transform, and commodify the exotic for its own ends. In other words, America takes from the world and sells what it has borrowed back to those from whom it was taken.

In the Mood for Love
Hong Kong, 1960s Introduction
Romance and the “Yellow Peril”: Race, Sex and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction by Gina Marchetti

Amazon.com | Google Books

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BSB Acapella and Feeling the Music

How didn’t I ever see this BackStreet Boys performance? OMG, I must’ve been very disconnected from fandom to never hunt down what was up with that Black&Blue video collection.

Though I’m a little tired of those BSB vs. Nsync fights online that I get to see from time to time when I browse through old videos on YouTube — seriously people, TEN freaking YEARS. Just… enough is enough. We don’t need more crazies on the net. [See my post on Gagaism].

I gotta admit that vocal arrangement was… pretty cool.

I had almost forgotten how good AJ used to sound, so soulful and raspy. They may not all harmonize because their voices are quite similar in range… but they sound tight.

There’s a particular quote I got from the interview that I thought exemplify what I’ve been trying to say for a while… and why I think YAM Magazine is important. I love that Nick says it plainly:

I think that’s what happens with people and music. They connect with certain songs, not necessarily the lyrics but sometimes with the way that they sound. They just connect and it can help them through things and it’s just… it’s their soul.

Any thoughts on this?

Posted on August 8, 2011 In Clips, English, Music, Sharing ,
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