Non-Chinese songs big in China

[roddy]

I happened to recently hear a couple of songs, neither in Chinese, which I first, often and only heard in China. Although they're not Chinese songs, they will always be for me, China songs.

I have no idea if these songs are popular beyond China, or how they came to suddenly pop to fame here. Tell me if you like.

The first of these dates from I'd guess 2003, 2004? It used to be on constant loop at a little long gone CD store squeezed into a corner of Jishuitan subway station, and no doubt lots of other places. I'm not going to tell you what it is, click the link, close your eyes and see if you get a little bolt of recognition. Or perhaps it was only that one shop and nobody else knows it. And don't look the lyrics up without tissues handy.

The second . . . the second is potentially a weapon of mass irritation. I'm not sure if I should post it. But then this forum is responsible for 陶晶莹 being worrying close to the top of my iTunes most played list, so here you go go go. Again, this might just have the school I was at the time, but everyone could do the dance. Maybe even me.

I know there must be loads from those only-in-China foreign bands, but has anyone got any other interesting ones (those were interesting, right)? Bonus points for anything that's neither in Chinese or English, or is actually a good song.

[Don_Horhe]

Well there's the Korean "I want nobody, nobody but you" song which seems to be quite popular, but I have absolutely no idea what it's called or who sings it.

[gato]

I thought you were going to mention "Take Me to Your Heart" by Michael Loves to Rock. Someone wrote a rant about them here once.

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/7oCJtbEJJGk/

Take Me to Your Heart

[Daan]

Thanks, Don_Horhe, for reminding me of that song. Good times in Beijing. It's called Nobody by the Wonder Girls. Click

to enjoy this milestone in music history once more.

[daofeishi]

. I don't remember how many times I've heard a CD of them on in DVD stores, clothing shops, etc.

On a similar note, I get really fascinated whenever western musicians cover Asian music

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[gougou]

"Take Me to Your Heart" by Michael Loves to Rock

First thing I thought about. They are learning to rock though, not loving it, which also more aptly describes the level of their playing.

[skylee]

How about "Right Here Waiting" and "Lemon Tree"?

[chrix]

What about Modern Talking? :shudder:

[gato]

They are learning to rock though, not loving it, which also more aptly describes the level of their playing.

Oops, you are right. Michael is just Learning to Rock. Hehe.

[realmayo]

Roddy, as a companion to "turn around, go go go", can I suggest "Aye Aye Aye I'm your little butterfly": here. I'd guess if you know one, you'll know the other, equally intimately.

[gougou]

Right Here Waiting, Lemon Tree and Modern Talking I all knew before coming here, but they're definitely much bigger here than they are back at home now. There's a lot of other songs that fall into this category, like most anything by the Carpenters, Hotel California, Country Roads and Rod Stewart's Sailing.

[Ah-Bin]

There's a lot of other songs that fall into this category, like most anything by the Carpenters, Hotel California, Country Roads and Rod Stewart's Sailing.

I was wondering if anyone was going to mention songs from this era. When I was in Taiwan thirteen years ago, this was the standard stuff in the English section of KTV books, plus some Elvis and Beatles.

I doubt that these things came to China during the time they were popular in western countries, especially when you think what was going on in China in the late 60's and early 70's.

I'm guessing this means that for taste in western music in the PRC a lot of influence came from Hong Kong and Taiwan (or Japan?), places where the music was allowed in that time. It really raises interesting questions about musical tastes, that these sorts of things became popular among young people in China when their popularity outside had long passed.

Queen was really popular among Japanese teenagers in 2005 when I taught there, that was because a popular TV show had used a song.

[889]

Well, as for non-Chinese-but-close-your-eyes-and-you'll-be-in-China songs, you can't do much worse than Kenny G:

Going Home

Songbird

[tooironic]

M2M. I don't remember how many times I've heard a CD of them on in DVD stores, clothing shops, etc.

Actually they had Top Ten hits all over the world didn't they? But I do remember they did a Chinese version of their hit Pretty Boy (interestingly, keeping the chorus in English) which was kept as a bonus track on their greatest hits LP.

When I think of non-Chinese stars in China, one artist pops to mind, and that is Tamas Wells. He's an Aussie, actually, and relatively "indie" I suppose, and I've had many Chinese people tell me that he is their favourite singer. And yet he is, I would presume, quite unknown in Australia, even in alternative music circles. (I would count myself, a huge and eclectic music fan and my partner who is a music journalist as part of that circle and yet bizarrely we have never heard of him.) As for particular songs, I'm not sure, but apparently his two (biggest?) singles are called Cigarettes, a Tie and a Free Magazine and Valder Fields.

Edited February 8, 2010 at 08:24 AM by tooironic

[skylee]

Oh and there are songs of Air Supply.

[eatfastnoodle]

Chinese does have a more "traditional" taste in music, the enduring popularity of Carpenters' songs, in particular, Yesterday Once More, IMHO, has more to do with difference in taste than anything else. More traditional rock bands like Beatles, Eagles are popular and always popular in China ever since China opened up even though they have long passed their time in the West. Loads of modern rocks in the states sound to Chinese more like a bunch of guys screaming for the sake of screaming than anything remotely resembling music. New age, Classic, Euro-dance are three subgenres that are much more popular in China that they're in the US, Disco is probably still more liked by Chinese than what replaced it in the US. I always feel that taste in music wise, China is much closer to Europe than to the US. I'm not sure why. But I find the majority of my itune library consists of songs done by female artists or older time male artists, modern American music scene, in particular music of male artists/bands, is often too loud ( (I like a bunch of songs of Nickelback, but I just can't stand listening to them live, one concert, only one, I felt like my eardrum was pierced. Seriously, why do they all have to be so loud?) too chaotic, too short of rhythmic beauty and too much weird voice (hard to explain, just a feeling.). Austin is considered live music capital of the world, yet when I was bar-hopping there, I couldn't find even one band I enjoy, even though American and European friends of mine as well as people in the bar all looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves and the music. Strange.

[gougou]

When I think of non-Chinese stars in China, one artist pops to mind, and that is Tamas Wells.

True! That also reminds me of Maximilian Hecker, who virtually fits the same description except that he's German.

traditional rock bands like Beatles, Eagles [...] have long passed their time in the West

Millions of fans would disagree.

[eatfastnoodle]

well, they're all legendary bands, so yeah, there are still millions of fans. But they certainly ain't what they used to be and their concerts could not be compared to what they would to command, I don't what kind of scenes Beatles used to attract when they first swept the US, but Paul McCartney's concert in Atlanta last year was good, but I'd imagine it's not what he saw in the 60s. Some kids I met didn't even know who Carpenters or ABBA were.

Speaking of ABBA, their songs are also very popular in China.

[renzhe]

A part of this "retro" affinity might be that these bands used to be controversial in the 60s and 70s, but are considered mild and harmless today. This is what gives them lots of airplay on the rather conservative media outlets in China. Today's rockers are still as controversial as those acts used to be back in their day, and this is a different thing.

Much of the entertainment in the Chinese cultural sphere boils down to harmless bubblegum. Abba simply fits into the picture. As do the modern pop icons such as Beyonce and Christina Aguilera. The Clash and the Sex Pistols don't even though they are also from the 70s.

But if you look beyond the mainstream media, the kids are really opening up towards the good stuff. I have a feeling that many of the young bands today are either doing punk or extreme metal.

[eatfastnoodle]

People are doing punk and other less than mainstream material since way back. But it's still a relatively fringe phenomenon. There are much more kids interested in these stuff. But they still could not break into mainstream media, so yeah the music scene is changing, but for most people who are just casual consumer of pop music, what's big from abroad are still stuff from relatively fringe and obscure groups like M2M. (Seriously, their songs are quite good pop stuff, I don't understand why they didn't receive more recognition.)