Archives For Music

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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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.
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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

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Posted on August 11, 2011 In Chinese, Clips, DVD/BR, English, Fun, Lyrics, Music, Pinyin, Sharing , , , , ,
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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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Cuando Tu me Pegas

Los Nosequien y los Nosecuantos (literally translated to “The Whomever and the Whichevers”), often shortened as NSQyNSC or some variation of that, are famous for… being total clowns. They’ve got their bits of ska so often populating the good stuff of Peruvian Rock, ready for parties.

I was recently updating myself with their discography and found this song called Cuando Tu me Pegas (When You Hit Me)… which talks about DV… domestic violence, or a variation of that since it’s not explicit that the couple in question lives together… in a very inappropriate funny way.

Raul Romero, in the role of the woman… mocking “delicate” tone of voice and all talks about her relationship with a man who hits her, but she loves it. It probably goes in hand with that ever popular saying of “mas te pego, mas te quiero” (the more I hit you, the more I love you) or that thing called “amor serrano”.

Of course, DV is no laughing matter… and I’m sure I’m supposed to be feeling socially conscious about the song and its context… I just can’t help finding this hilarious though. It’s not the lyrics perse, but the execution and overall feeling of the song that makes you go WHUUUUT and then laugh at it.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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Posted on August 8, 2011 In English, Fun, Lyrics, Music, Sharing, Spanish , , , , , ,
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SunnyHill MV Goodies~ Midnight Circus + Pray

I’m not really familiar with SunnyHil, but my curiosity was peaked when I caught a teaser for Midnight Circus that had BEG member Ga-In, just about the time when they released the video for Midnight Circus~

I dug it… kind of a mix of music that wasn’t exactly Kpop… it had something — I was caught inadvertently saying “midnight cir-CUS!” once or twice. And the video is class… really moody… almost a bit cabaret-y punk-y, but not really that… it wasn’t the Dresden Dolls, but it was interesting Kpop. xD

So I was really surprised with their MV for Pray — which once again peaked my curiosity with the teaser. There’s a certain sci-fi horror feel to it… combined with this creature that looked a bit like an orc combined with a little bit of Sloth from The Goonies.

It’s just an outstanding music video overall — such a despicable (yet so familiar) storyline! A ‘monster’ lured in with affection that’s suddenly betrayed by the people that he thought care for him. Amazing.

Posted on August 7, 2011 In English, Korean, Music, Music Videos, Sharing , , , , , , ,
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OK Go – All Is Not Lost

Here I thought that OK Go couldn’t impress me any longer.

Of course this takes forever to load, and I’m always scared it might crash my computer being so old and outdated xD but I’ve seen it a few couple times  already. I keep hitting replay. LOL

Check it out~ All Is Not Lost.

This is a strong contender for Breakthrough of 2011 xD – on a side note, WTF is up with this year’s VMA not having the Breakthrough category? I thought that was sooooooooo sad~ It’s like… I have nothing to look forward!

Posted on July 27, 2011 In English, Fun, Music, Music Videos, Screencaps, Sharing , , ,
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Miyavi-sama in Lima

July 15, 2011 — Leave a comment

I’ve had experiences with the artists I’d like to see and chasing after them… until finally they come to me. LOL

It happened to me with Bjork, chasing her across Europe — missing her in Finland, Sweden… and later Madrid. Defeated back home, it wasn’t but a few weeks or a few months when Bjork announced she was going to be doing a show in Lima.

Something similar happened to me with the Backstreet Boys.  After a failed Canadian visa for a friend’s wedding, I had already tickets for the BSB show in Vancouver that I ended up giving to my ex-roommate. I was pissed off at the embassy for denying me entry, and barely a month later, I head that BSB was going to play Lima.

For a while now, I had been lamenting not being able to attend many Asian concerts, and when Miyavi announced that he’d be playing in Chile, I thought I could go there. I hadn’t heard from the festival organizers, but today I got word that Miyavi was playing Lima as well.

Well, FUCK YEAH!

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How to: Worldwide Tours

June 30, 2011 — 2 Comments

With my excitement over the fact that Miyavi is going to be in Chile, I just thought it’s the perfect time to start off my How To Series. This time around with my frustration of living in a developing country that was never “lucky” enough to be part of the “world,” in that sense, we grew up never believing to be able to EVER see our favorite artists live.

With a globalized world, this is changing — artists and managements are finally realizing the possibilities of other markets. This is even more prominent in the ever elusive, to the western fans, of Asian music. Many of my friends truly grew up watching their favorite idols from afar never imagining that they would ever EVER see them perform, unless they dish an enormous amount of money on a plane ticket all the way to the East.

As the years went by, and the Asians communities began expanding even more and more (as well as in status) in North America, Asian artists began adding small dates in significant cities like Los Angeles (or San Francisco), maybe New York… sometimes they would switch it around to Vancouver or Toronto.

However, adding a few cities in North America to your Asian Tour to make it a “world tour” – However, a World Tour is just not two parts of two continents. Of course, sometimes the amount of cities you get to visit depend on the amount of money you have to set your tour on the road, that’s why you need key cities which will let your fans travel to cities closer to you.

This is where I come:

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Top10 Britney Spears Music Videos

June 24, 2011

Hey, Britney~

Let your body loseeeee control~~~

I wasn’t aware Britney had enough videos to fill a Top10. LOL

In Celebrity, English, Music, Music Videos, Sharing , , , , , ,
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