Give me an easy way of keeping up with Chinese pop music
January 11, 2013 12:51 PM Subscribe
Is there a Chinese version of the year-end Billboard 100 charts or the Now That's What I Call Music compilations? Something where I can just buy an album every so often and have an idea of what's being played on mainstream radio in mainland China, without having to dig through music blogs?
I'm Chinese and enjoy C-pop, but am no longer hanging out with friend who can send me the latest and greatest. Where and how do I get my Chinese music fix without investing a lot of time in curating and filtering?
I've found a few top-40s-in-China charts online, but a lot of them seem to feature western music quite heavily, which is annoying to sift through. I also know about the Sina music section, but I've only found a weekly top 10 chart there, and checking in on that every week isn't ideal. I could be missing something, but that's what I'm asking you guys.
I'm definitely looking for pop music, preferably in Mandarin - think 梁静茹 or S.H.E. And I'm okay with the fact that I may be missing out on awesome indie gems - one step at a time.
I'm Chinese and enjoy C-pop, but am no longer hanging out with friend who can send me the latest and greatest. Where and how do I get my Chinese music fix without investing a lot of time in curating and filtering?
I've found a few top-40s-in-China charts online, but a lot of them seem to feature western music quite heavily, which is annoying to sift through. I also know about the Sina music section, but I've only found a weekly top 10 chart there, and checking in on that every week isn't ideal. I could be missing something, but that's what I'm asking you guys.
I'm definitely looking for pop music, preferably in Mandarin - think 梁静茹 or S.H.E. And I'm okay with the fact that I may be missing out on awesome indie gems - one step at a time.
This may sound really obvious, but since you don't mention it... do you follow the lists on websites such as Sogou or Baidu?
They both have a "top" list and a "new song" list, where the new song list tends to move a lot more quickly, obviously. It's mainly Chinese songs, although I guess PSY made it in as well...
posted by yonglin at 1:57 PM on January 11, 2013
They both have a "top" list and a "new song" list, where the new song list tends to move a lot more quickly, obviously. It's mainly Chinese songs, although I guess PSY made it in as well...
posted by yonglin at 1:57 PM on January 11, 2013
Best answer: http://www.youtube.com/user/hexie0000001 has a Cpop (I think it's Cantonese and Mandarin) top 30 every week. There's also a Japanese one ('Oricon') so ignore that one.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 4:01 AM on January 12, 2013
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 4:01 AM on January 12, 2013
Best answer: Can you read Chinese?
I assumed you can, so how about douban.fm? It's Chinese version of Pandora on steroid. There are few stations that have fairly new cpop songs. Just start with 华语 MHz, and go from there. I have given up trying to keep up with the latest c-pop music, it's just too time-consuming. If you find a song you like you can "heart" it then do something with it (I haven't figure it out yet).
Great thing about douban is that you are not limited to cpop. You want Indian music? They have it. French music? They have it. Latin music? They have it. All the boring billboard top 100 songs? They have it. I still haven't figure out what is their business model, but I'm completely blown away by their service. Download their mobile app if you want to stream the music on your smartphone.
posted by Carius at 9:51 PM on January 12, 2013
I assumed you can, so how about douban.fm? It's Chinese version of Pandora on steroid. There are few stations that have fairly new cpop songs. Just start with 华语 MHz, and go from there. I have given up trying to keep up with the latest c-pop music, it's just too time-consuming. If you find a song you like you can "heart" it then do something with it (I haven't figure it out yet).
Great thing about douban is that you are not limited to cpop. You want Indian music? They have it. French music? They have it. Latin music? They have it. All the boring billboard top 100 songs? They have it. I still haven't figure out what is their business model, but I'm completely blown away by their service. Download their mobile app if you want to stream the music on your smartphone.
posted by Carius at 9:51 PM on January 12, 2013
Response by poster: Carius, that is exactly what I didn't know I needed, thank you so much. (Hilarious that the site name sounds a lot like "Piracy.fm" too.) I knew MeFi would come through.
Everyone else, thanks for your excellent suggestions, but it involves a bit too much maintenance and upkeep than I have time for. The Sogou and Baidu lists would definitely be good to check in once in a while, but the thought of vetting songs every week fills me with anxiety. Maybe I'll just look for their year-end lists.
posted by Phire at 10:27 AM on January 18, 2013
Everyone else, thanks for your excellent suggestions, but it involves a bit too much maintenance and upkeep than I have time for. The Sogou and Baidu lists would definitely be good to check in once in a while, but the thought of vetting songs every week fills me with anxiety. Maybe I'll just look for their year-end lists.
posted by Phire at 10:27 AM on January 18, 2013
Holy crap, I never notice the pun! Thanks for the chuckle.
The main website at douban.com also have very good book reviews and movie reviews. Explore and have fun!
posted by Carius at 7:06 PM on January 22, 2013
The main website at douban.com also have very good book reviews and movie reviews. Explore and have fun!
posted by Carius at 7:06 PM on January 22, 2013
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Last.fm has a C-pop station and if its like Pandora it will continue to add to its song listing.
Maybe see what #cpop on Twitter brings up? I know I've found stuff by looking at hashtags and seeing what others post. Do you read Mandarin? Can you follow C-Pop music news tweeters?
There are a number of C-Pop music news blogs and that's in English alone.
Finally iTunes has a C-Pop listing.. you periodically check it to see what's new?
posted by xicana63 at 1:29 PM on January 11, 2013