Sites discussing Chinese Pop
Jul 3, 2002 at 11:47 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 17

becomethemould

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Does anyone know any sites that critcally discuss Chinese pop? I guess something in the lines of mainstream-ish music magazines such as Rollingstone, Q ect.

As growing up in Australia, my Chinese is extrememly horrible and am unable to read and comprehent Chinese entertainment sites (if I can find them).

Does anyone have any bookmarks on English language sites discussing Chinese music?

Thanks
 
Sep 29, 2003 at 4:12 AM Post #3 of 17
the following english language zines published in china usually have reviews of chinese pop and rock music in each issue which are available online as well are archives of past issues.

city weekend
that's shanghai
that's beijing

while no longer published, the past issues of beijing scene are still online and include articles about chinese music.

visit my online shop and click 'music' under amazon's little banner - there are some books about chinese music that might be of interest to you:
niubi! shop
 
Sep 29, 2003 at 11:55 PM Post #5 of 17
actually many of the writers are expats (some of whom are overseas chinese) living in china. some of the writers for those publications are local chinese.
 
Oct 2, 2003 at 3:22 PM Post #6 of 17
hi niubi,

good to see you and thank you for the link to niubi.

I remember a while ago you highly recommended cui jian. i have since tried to obtain any of his album without success. Do you know of a retailer that sells his records? Is his new album out?

also which band/artist would you recommend as the chinese nirvana, sonic youth, etc.

dou wei? is he rock or more folks/blue/rock.

hei bao? any good?

gao qi & overload? i heard one of their song and thought it was good(the same one faith nai wen sings).. but they only have 1 album?? are they good or just 1-hit.

mm.. any recommendation would be great. im trying to discover some chinese rock.

thanks,
taoster
 
Oct 2, 2003 at 10:42 PM Post #7 of 17
online several places list his album "power of the powerless" - try amazon, cduniverse, tower records, etc. other than that i am aware of no other international sites that sell his music. a chinese etailer dangdang.com sells a couple of his albums (a couple of greatest hits albums and "rock on the new long march") and claims to do international shipping. they have some complex fee schedule for international shipping (i have never ordered anything from them). also the site is only in chinese. i have heard of people finding his album "balls under the red flag/hongqi xia de dan" in hong kong, singapore, and malaysia at HMV and tower records. the latest news i have seen says that his new album the village attacks the city will be released at the end of the year.

as to nirvana (grunge-like), i would recommend a band called cold blooded animal/lengxue dongwu. it had been available on yesasia.com in the past (i think), but is not currently. you could press them to try to find it for you. their album was released in china on scream records. they offer a mail service, but you pay in cash. i have never tried that before. scream records releases are also available on dangdang.

i am not a big fan of hei bao though i do own a few of their albums (mainly because i just want to collect as much chinese rock as i can). its 80s hard rock ballad kind of stuff. i liked their first album when i heard it around 1993 or so (that is with dou wei as lead singer).

i do like dou wei's music though. at first i didn't find his changing music styles to my liking after his first solo album, but as he has changed so have i. i like all of his music now. he's all over the place over his career with respect to style: rock, electronica, post-punk, jazzy/lounge stuff, etc.

overload has released 3 albums. the first is a classic of chinese rock - hard rock - released by taiwan's rock records mainland unit magic stone. i haven't heard the most recent (3rd) album. the second album is most likely similar to the 3rd and is available from yesasia.com as "magic sky" (this is the album which has the song that yang naiwen also did).
 
Oct 8, 2003 at 4:50 PM Post #8 of 17
btw: is niubi really "beyond cool" or are you having fun with us
evil_smiley.gif
 
Oct 8, 2003 at 5:11 PM Post #9 of 17
Quote:

Originally posted by taoster
btw: is niubi really "beyond cool" or are you having fun with us
evil_smiley.gif


i would never claim to be cool or hip and most certainly not beyond cool. on the one hand, niubi means something like that in beijing slang. on the other hand, it literally means cow ****; that would not describe me either considering that i am neither a cow, nor am i female. the slang word in mandarin whose meaning is opposite is shabi (stupid ****).

anyway, perhaps i am having a bit of fun...
 
Oct 8, 2003 at 5:37 PM Post #10 of 17
Quote:

Originally posted by taoster
mm.. any recommendation would be great. im trying to discover some chinese rock.

thanks,
taoster


i've no idea what you have heard or might have in your colllection. a good start would be some compilation albums like rock china 1990-2000, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. for the most part, the music contained on these two compilations had previously been released in a series of seminal chinese rock compilations called China Fire (1-3).
 
Oct 9, 2003 at 5:49 AM Post #12 of 17
hehe, i fully understand!

ok. i am not sure about international shipping, but cdbaby (a fairly cool indie music online store in the u.s.) has this important chinese rock release available: the fly. they also have some music samples. my favorite tracks on the album are "life educates me" and what they have translated as "rock" which is an odd translation. the last track should be called "nirvana". the fly is no longer in existence as far as i know, but the founder/leader of the band feng jiangzhou is still active as a solo composer/singer/musician and producer. he is off and on the head of modern sky's bad head record label.

cdbaby also has this interesting compilation of more recent bands produced by an acquaintance of mine: beijing band 2001 . some of the music was featured on the PBS Frontline documentary china in the red. this album is a very good introduction to the past few years in underground bands in beijing.
 
Oct 10, 2003 at 9:41 PM Post #13 of 17
niubi,

I just realize your link has the "Warner Bros. Collection Series - HK Bands" CD listed.

On the disc, there's a version of "Within You'll Remain" by Chyna. Do you know if this is the original version?

I have 5 version of this song....a dance remix w/ no vocals by Chyna, a Cantonese cover version by Paula Tsai, an English and a Mandarin version on Chyna's last studio from the early 80s, and yet another Mandarin version by HK band North Pole (formed by members of HK band Tai Chi).
 

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