Cantopop

 ( Cantonese ) 

Besides Western culture pop music, Cantopop is also influenced by other international genres, including jazz, rock and roll, R&B, disco, electronic music, 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.China Briefing Media (2004). Business Guide to the Greater Pearl River Delta. China Briefing Media Ltd. .

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.

The generation at the time preferred British and American exports. Western culture was at the time equated with education and sophistication,Wiltshire, Trea. First (republished & reduced 2003). Old Hong Kong – Volume One. Central, Hong Kong: Text Form Asia books Ltd. ISBN Volume One 962-7283-59-2 and Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and The Beatles were popular.

Conversely, those who preferred Cantonese music were considered old-fashioned or uneducated. 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.

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.馮應謙.(2009). 歌潮．汐韻－香港粤語流行曲的發展.香港次文化

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 rock, New Romanticism, 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-pop 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., originally printed in Ming Pao Weekly, 2002.

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.

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

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.星星同學會 episode 3

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 Drug possession. Kwan was released without charge after 32 days in jail,Patsy Moy, Drug rap Wei Si in Tokyo jail as Kwan flies home , The Standard, 30 March 2009 while Vidal later pleaded guilty in Tokyo court to heroin possession, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, suspended for three years.

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.