Cantopop

Besides Western pop music, Cantopop is also influenced by other international genres, including jazz, rock and roll, R&B, disco, electronic, ballad and others. Cantopop songs are almost invariably performed in Cantonese. Boasting a multi-national fanbase, the genre has gained popularity in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Additionally, it has found following in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi in southeastern mainland China. Hong Kong remains as the significant hub of the genre.

History

1920s to 1950s: Shanghai origins

Western-influenced music first came to China in the 1920s, specifically through Shanghai. Artists like Zhou Xuan (周璇) acted in films and recorded popular songs.

After the People's Republic of China was founded by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, the new government quickly denounced pop music—particularly Western pop—as decadent. Beginning in the 1950s, massive waves of immigrants fled Shanghai to destinations like North Point in Hong Kong. As a result, many first generation Cantopop artists and composers hail from Shanghai.

1960s: Cultural acceptance

By the 1960s, Cantonese music in Hong Kong was still limited largely to traditional Cantonese opera and comic renditions of western music. Tang Kee-chan, Cheng Kuan-min (鄭君綿), and Tam Ping-man (譚炳文) were among the earliest artists releasing Cantonese records.

The generation at the time preferred British and American exports. Western culture was at the time equated with education and sophistication, and Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and The Beatles were popular.

Conversely, those who preferred Cantonese music were considered old-fashioned or uneducated. Cheng Kum-cheung and Chan Chai-chung (陳齊頌) were two popular Cantonese singers who specifically targeted the younger generation. Connie Chan Po-chu is generally considered to be Hong Kong's first teen idol, mostly due to her career longevity. Josephine Siao is also another artist of the era.

1970s: Beginning of the Golden Age (Rise of television and the modern industry)

Local bands mimicked British and American bands. Two types of local Cantonese music appeared in the market nearly concurrently in 1973: one type cashed in on the popularity of TVB's drama series based on the more traditional lyrical styles. The other was more western style music largely from Polydor Hong Kong (寶麗多唱片). Notable singers from the era include Liza Wang and Paula Tsui. At the same time, television was fast becoming a household must-have that offered free entertainment to the public. For example, The Fatal Irony (啼笑因緣) and Games Gamblers Play (鬼馬雙星) took the local music scene by storm as soon as they were broadcast on the radio and television.

Soap operas were needed to fill TV air time, and popular Cantonese songs became TV theme songs. Around 1971, Sandra Lang, a minor singer who had never sung Cantopop before, was invited to sing a Cantonese TV theme song "A marriage of Laughter and Tears" (啼笑因緣). This song was a collaboration between songwriters Yip Siu-dak (葉紹德) and the legendary Joseph Koo. It was ground-breaking and topped local charts. Other groups that profited from TV promotion included the Four Golden Flowers.

Sam Hui is regarded by some to be the earliest Cantopop star. He was the lead singer of the band Lotus formed in the late 1960s, signed to Polydor in 1972. The song that made him famous was the theme song to Games Gamblers Play (鬼馬雙星), also starring Hui.

The star of TV theme tunes was Roman Tam. Three of the most famous TV soap opera singers were Jenny Tseng, Liza Wang and Adam Cheng. The Wynners and George Lam also amassed a big fan base with their new style. Samuel Hui continued to dominate the charts and won the Centennial Best Sales Award in the first and second IFPI Gold Disc Presentations twice in a row in 1977 and 1978. Polydor became PolyGram (寶麗金) in 1978.

It was at this time that the term Cantopop was first coined. The Billboard correspondent Hans Ebert, who had earlier coined the term Cantorock in 1974, noted a change in its style to something similar to British-American soft rock, therefore started to use the term Cantopop instead in 1978.

In 1974, as the theme song of The Fatal Irony (啼笑因緣) was very successful, TVB sold to the mainland and other countries and Cantopop reached overseas audiences through drama series.

1980s: The Golden Age of Cantopop

During the 1980s, Cantopop soared to great heights with artists, producers and record companies working in harmony. Cantopop stars such as Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, Sally Yeh, Priscilla Chan, Sandy Lam, Danny Chan, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau quickly became household names. The industry used Cantopop songs in TV dramas and movies, with some of the biggest soundtracks coming from films such as A Better Tomorrow (英雄本色). Sponsors and record companies became comfortable with the idea of lucrative contracts and million-dollar signings. There were also Japanese songs with Cantonese lyrics.

The "Queen of Mandarin songs" Teresa Teng also crossed over to Cantopop. She achieved commercial success with her original Cantonese Hits under the Polygram Label in the early 1980s. Jenny Tseng was another notable singers, who was born in Macau.

In the 1980s, there came the second wave of "band fever" (the first wave came in the 1960–70s, which was much influenced by the global Beatlemania at that time. Young people thought that forming bands was fashionable. Many new bands emerged at that time, such as Samuel Hui's Lotus, The Wynners, and the Teddy Robin and the Playboys. However, the bands emerged in this first wave were just copying the western music style, mostly covering British and American rock songs, and prefer singing in English rather than Cantonese). Different from the first wave in the 60s, the "band fever" in the 80s did not show an obvious relationship with the global culture at the time being, but much related with the marketing strategy of the local record companies and mass media. Many independent bands and music groups were signed by big record companies, and this made a positive impact to the Hong Kong pop music world, as their works were highly original, with strong individuality, and they were all devoted to writing songs in local language, i.e. Cantonese. The subjects of their works were different from the mainstream (which was mostly love ballads). Politics and social life were popular subjects for the bands in their creation. The "band fever" also brought variety in musical style to the Hong Kong mainstream music world (which was almost monopolised by Pop-ballad for a long time). Styles like Rock, Metal, Pop-Rock, Folk, Neo-Romantic, Pop and some experimental styles (e.g. Cantorock) were introduced. Among them, Beyond and Tat Ming Pair (達明一派) gave the greatest impact to the Hong Kong music world. Some renowned bands and groups included: Beyond, Raidas, Tat Ming Pair, Tai Chi (太極樂隊), Grasshopper (草蜢), Little Tigers (小虎隊), Paradox (夢劇院), Blue Jeans (藍戰士), Echo, Wind & Cloud (風雲樂隊), Citybeat (城市節拍).

The second wave of "band fever" also brought a group of new music lovers to the Hong Kong mainstream music world. Most of them were the just-grew-up generation, or the music lovers of the western Avant-garde music, also the Euro-American Rock-band lovers. This contributed to a great change in the population and age distribution of the music listeners from the 70s. Record companies were laying ever more stress on the buying power of these young new customers. The second wave of "band fever" emerged from the mid-1980s (around 1984) and reached its climax in 1986–87. However the "band fever" cannot put for a long time. Along with the death of the legendary Wong Ka Kui, the leader and co-founder of Beyond, in 1993, and the disband-tide emerged in the early 90s (Tat Ming Pair disbanded in 1990), the "band fever" gradually faded away and totally got down in the early 1990s.

As Cantopop gained large followings in Chinese communities worldwide, Hong Kong entrepreneurs' ingenious use of the then new Laserdisc technology prompted yet another explosion in the market.

1990s: Four Heavenly Kings era

In the 1990s in Hong Kong, the "Four Heavenly Kings" (四大天王) — Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Leon Lai and Aaron Kwok — dominated pop music, and coverage in magazines, TV, advertisements and cinema. They had wide audience across different regions, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, Southeast Asia, and even South Korea. The female counterparts in this era were Sammi Cheng, Cass Phang, and Kelly Chen.

In 2019, Andy Lau spoke of his desire for a reunion of the Four Heavenly Kings in an interview with the press.

2000s: New era

At the turn of the century, Cantonese was still dominant in the domain of Chinese pop. The deaths of superstars Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui in 2003 rocked the industry. In addition, with the Four Heavenly Kings fading out and the rise of Taiwan Mandopop singer-songwriter superstars like Leehom Wang, David Tao, Jay Chou and Singapore singer JJ Lin, influence of Cantopop started declining with fans turning to Taiwan Mandopop in the 2000s.

During the period, a transitional phase also took place with many overseas-raised or overseas-educated artists such as Nicholas Tse and Eason Chan gaining popularity and recognition. In 2006, Time magazine praised Eason Chan's Cantonese album U87 as one of the "Five Asian Albums Worth Buying". Besides holding the record for winning the "Ultimate Male Singer - Gold" award (10 times) and "My Favorite Male Singer" award (9 conservative years) at the "Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation" in HK, Eason Chan also won numerous awards at major music award ceremonies locally and in other regions. He became one of the representative figures of Cantopop in the 2000s. Cantopop was not restricted only to Hong Kong, but became part of a larger music movement.

In 2005, Cantopop began a new upswing. Major companies that drove much of the HK segment included Gold Typhoon Music Entertainment (EMI, Gold Label), Universal Music Group, East Asia Entertainment (東亞娛樂) and Amusic and Emperor Entertainment Group.

The decade was also dubbed a "People's singer" era (親民歌星), as most performers were frequently seen promoting publicly, in contrast with the 1990s when that era's "big-name" singers (大牌歌星) seemed unapproachable.

A number of scandals struck some of stars later in the decade. In 2008, the Edison Chen photo scandal, involving Edison Chen and Twins singer Gillian Chung among others, was the subject of explicit photos uploaded online. The scandal occupied the front pages of the local press for a solid month, and also garnered the attention of international media. The scandal tarnished the image of the previously "squeaky-clean" Twins, and resulted in their going into hiatus in late June 2008, four months after Gillian was caught up in the scandal. Other events include the street fight between Gary Chaw and Justin Lo. In 2009, Jill Vidal and her singer boyfriend Kelvin Kwan were arrested in Tokyo on 24 February 2009 over allegations of marijuana possession. Kwan was released without charge after 32 days in jail, while Vidal later pleaded guilty in Tokyo court to heroin possession, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, suspended for three years.

2010s: Decline

In the 2010s, Cantopop market shrank with fans, particularly the youth, turning to K-pop and Mandopop.

As Mandarin became more important as a result of fast growing culturally and economically in China, the influence of Cantonese began to dwindle. Nevertheless, in addition to the 7 million people of Hong Kong and Macau, the genre continues to enjoy popularity among a Cantonese-speaking audience of in excess of 100 million in southern China, plus 10 million Cantonese-speaking diaspora in Canada, Australia and the United States. In 2010, a proposal that Guangzhou Television station should increase its broadcast in Mandarin led to protests in Guangzhou. While the authorities relented, this event reflects an attempt at marginalising Cantonese with the ascendency of Mandopop.

In the 2010s, Cantopop industry had singers and musicians who achieved success beyond the local market and made a mark in the Chinese music scene. Eason Chan is a popular and influential Cantopop superstars. He captures audience across different regions, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, Southeast Asia, UK, North America, Australia etc. He successfully held world tours in these regions in the 2010s. He was the first Chinese/HK singer who held solo concerts in London's O2 Arena and Beijing's National Stadium (Bird's Nest).

In the 2010s, there was revival for boy groups and bands in Cantopop with the rise of C AllStar, RubberBand, Supper Moment and Dear Jane.

In 2018, Eason Chan released an album "L.O.V.E." (mainly in Cantonese), which was successful in Taiwan's 30th Golden Melody Awards, winning nominations to three major awards: Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and Producer of the Year, Album. Ultimately, the album's producer, Carl Wong, won the "Producer of the Year, Album" award. This was the first time in the history of the Golden Melody Awards that a Cantonese album won this award.

2020s: Resurgence of Idols

Interest in Cantopop was renewed in the early 2020s in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, which led to border closures and restriction of travel. In addition to the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests and the passing of the Hong Kong national security law in June 2020, the resurgence of Hong Kong pride had led many Cantonese natives to support local music artists. The Cantopop boy group Mirror, which was formed through the ViuTV singing competition in Good Night Show - King Maker in 2018, skyrocketed in popularity during this time due to their distinctively local image. Media had described them as a "Mirror phenomenon."

In February 2021, Hong Kong's biggest television broadcaster, TVB, historically lifted its ban on four of Hong Kong's biggest record labels, opening the doors for non-TVB artists to perform on the network. The move was described by local media as "reviving the Cantopop music industry."

In 2023, Eason Chan released a new album titled "Chin Up!", which included a Cantonese song "Homo Sapiens" (人啊人) with lyrics written by Chow Yiu-fai. This song won Chow the Best Lyricist award at Taiwan's 34th Golden Melody Awards, marking the first time in the history of the awards show that a Cantonese song was nominated and won the award.

In 2024, at the age of 79, the renowned Temple Street King, Wan Kwong (尹光), was voted to the final five of the "My Favorite Male Singer" category at the "Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation," marking a record in the Cantopop industry. This was also the first time in over fifty years after his debut that he transitioned from performing at Temple Street to appearing at a major music awards ceremony. The "Wan Kwong phenomenon" caused a stir online, with fans appraising his continuous efforts in releasing his latest song, "Dear Myself," which incorporated AI elements while others voting for him as a counterbalance to the idol genre because they had been sick of Mirror individual members’ live performances and Mirror fans' behavior in the poll.