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Q: Chinese music - is China waiting for its Elvis?
I'm not trying to be funny here, or insulting, but listening to the radio while I'm getting my hair cut, it's hard for me to tell the difference between songs. The chord progressions are incredibly predictable, and though I don't understand most of the lyrics, most of it sounds like a cloy-fest of over-emotional garbage.
Sometimes it really seems like every part of those songs could simply be replaced by a robot, and it'd sound the same.
Is China just waiting for its Elvis to take it out of its desolate musical landscape?
I think the elvis presley of china is the famous actor/singer J. Chou from Taiwan. He's in a lot of commercials you probably heard of him. He's like the music guru in China. If you ever go to KTV you will find dozens of his songs...
crimochina:
taiwen??? i could understand if you went hong kong but taiwen is not under control of the prc. which is why they have a great music and film industry
the music here is awful unless you listen to some ethnic chinese music. it is not a matter of is china waiting for their elvis it is a matter of will anyone get to hear him. a true electric artist would be banned in mainland china and that just leaves macao or hk. unless he/she'll be willing to escape and get their work released in another country but that would make him/her an enemy of the state
Recently I went to a KTV with some of my students because it was one guy's birthday. I swear, almost all of the songs they sang were slow, either about love or heartbreak. A few were interesting, one was about vampires, and one was about something dark sung by Jay Chou. I was the one picking songs in English, Korean, and yes, one song in Chinese, but they were all fast paced songs that were more fun. It's not that China doesn't have the talent or the capability, but obviously something is holding them back...probably laws.
Every day I walk by about 20 stores, 19 of which play generic Chinese music and one of which plays east Indian music. All types. Old, new, real variety. Swear to god it is the best three-six seconds of my day.
