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April 12 Chinese Music Part 10A: The New Millennium–OverviewThroughout the first decade of the new millennium, Jay Zhou remained the most popular male singer in the Chinese-speaking world. Second to him included singers we've already profiled, namely David Tao, Andy Lau, Eason Chan, and Alexander Wang.
As far as the females went, the first half of the decade, Singapore's Stefanie Sun was number one. But in 2005 she was overtaken by Taiwan's Jolin Cai who dominated the charts in the latter half of the decade. Other popular female singers whom we've already profiled were Joey Yung, Sherry Zhang, Gigi Leung, Sammi Cheng, Faye Wang, and Elva Xiao.
In terms of singing groups, S.H.E. remained unbeaten in popularity throughout the decade.
Significant aspects of the 2000's included the following:
1. Arguably, there was no new hugely popular singer from Hong Kong. New local singers tended to be popular within the region only and included the likes of Stephy Tang and Janice Vidal. Veteran Hong Kong singers, however, saw an ever-increasing level of popularity throughout the Chinese-speaking world, especially Eason Chan. Hong Kong named four new "Heavenly Kings" but these were all older singers (some debuted back in the 80s!) and are not as popular outside of the region: Andy Hui, Leo Ku, Hacken Lee, and Edmond Leung.
2. After the tragic demise of the one popular Chinese band who composed their own music and played their own musical instruments, a number of new rock bands, though never reaching the level of esteem as Beyond (who will always be known affectionately as The Chinese Beatles), nevertheless have gradually risen to prominence.
3. Perhaps the most significant development of Chinese pop music, since Y2K, has been that Mainland China has begun to churn out some heavyweights. For a number of reasons, stars from the Mainland had been hindered from rising up to superstardom. The nation viewed them performing on the annual Chinese New Year variety shows but the masses never became avid fans rushing out to buy their CDs and attend their concerts (if these stars held any). Prior to televised singing contests like Supergirl, the batch of pop singers from the Mainland included the likes of Cui Jian, Sun Nan, Natasha Na, Han Hong, and Dao Lang. But since the advent of extremely popular idol shows, a number of newly acclaimed singers from the Mainland have become forces to be reckoned with.
4. In addition to Mainland China joining the ranks of pop music superstardom, another country has flourished, and that country is Malaysia. In fact, the biggest song of the decade was brought to us by a Malaysian artist. With the fading out of Stefanie Sun, Singapore has contributed a couple of new stars as well.
5. Many of the new pop stars during the decade were born in or grew up in Canada or the U.S. Because the music industry of these countries is exclusive towards those of Asian descent, they had to brush up on their Chinese and become singers of the Chinese language.
I will be presenting four new entries on Chinese Pop Stars of the new millennium. The first will be on the new rock bands. The second will be on new stars from Mainland China, including but not limited to the "super girls". The third will be on new stars from Malaysia and Singapore. And the fourth and final entry will be on new pop stars of the new millennium that don't fit into any of the categories above, especially those from Taiwan, the U.S., and Canada.
Part 10B (Bands) is located here: http://peltonator.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!184A2363AD187F54!4190.entry
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