My love for Chinese songs.

If you have been reading my blog for quite some time, you may know that the main thing I have been doing is doing lyrics translation for Chinese songs. One of the pushing forces for me to do those translations is my love for Chinese music. I have been listening to Chinese music since young.  I experiences three stages currently in my experience of Chinese music.

The early stages of my experience in Chinese music

Let me start off by introducing my early days with Chinese music. The ‘in’ things back then were Jolin Tsai, Jay Chou, 5566(band) and Energy (band) in my country. I was introduced to Chinese music through my cousins. I could still remember my favorite song was Jolin Tsai倒带 (rewind), Jay Chou’s 借口 and 菊花台 (chrysanthemum terrace) and some other songs like 我可以 (I can).  I listened to very songs in this period of time. In the second period of my life, I continue listening to the hit songs and start idolizing some artistes. I guess the first group I idolize seriously was Y2J 神木与瞳. They are the first rock band which is made up of one female and one male vocalist in the Taiwan music history. I truly love 草戒指 （grass ring） and 为你而活 (Live for you) from their first album and 守护者 (Guardian angel). The two vocalists possess powerful vocals which are suitable for rock music. I seriously love their rock concept. This marks the start for me to love powerful vocals.

Current stage and introducing my favorite singer.

 Moving on to the third stage, this is the stage when I truly learn how to appreciate Chinese music. In the third stage, I tend to pay more attention to the vocal talent and techniques the vocalist uphold and appreciate the vocalist. At this point of time I fell in love a singer call A-Lin. She is amazing and so talented. Most of her songs fit my style but what attracted me most are her covers.  She has the ability to cover the song in her own style and I don’t ever think that her cover is any worse than the original singer. It is of a different style. She definitely have one of the best vocal in the industry, it can be soothing when she is singing ballads and it can get powerful when she sings rock, she also have a wide vocal range with allows her to sing a variety of songs. Another thing I would like to highlight is the emotional she put in her songs. There is always this strong feeling every time I listen to her ballads. It can easily touch the softest part of my heart.

Current stage (My viewpoint)

Moving back to my appreciation of Chinese music, at this point of time I make the effort to more about more singers and more songs besides the hit songs.  If you were to ask me what songs to listen to, I would recommend the older songs. I realized that the older songs or songs that were made some times back then was better. There is too many nice songs to be recommended but personally I like 信乐团 (both the old and the new one). There are still many legendary singers in the Chinese music but there are too much for me to list all of them, I truly hope that there are more people who know how to appreciate it.

The sad fact.

What saddens me is the amount of attention paid to the Chinese music industry now. Most people I know do not know about the Chinese music industry. All they know is the more popular singers or the idol singers and when they see some idol singers who can’t sing well, they start bashing the whole Chinese music industry. What I am trying to say there are very talented singers in the industry like Amei, A-Lin，萧敬腾 and 家家 etc. These people are just embarrassing themselves with their ignorance.

In conclusion, I hope that more people can learn how to appreciate Chinese music. In response to this, I am starting this new column on the Facebook and Twitter page call “Sharing is caring, Cmusic”. I will recommend some songs that I like in this column frequently. Please show your support by paying attention to this column.