The Best of the 00's : Chinese Edition
Uploading each of these songs took way longer that I thought it would... especially finding them. I need to have some sort of organized system for my external HDs. And choosing the songs was alot harder too, I think I changed my over hundred times. And I'm still not happy about it. I leaned more towards finding popular songs of the decade rather than personal favourites -- that would cover too many genres and artists. Headache.
Here is the (mixed) Chinese Edition. I've thrown together both Cantonese and Mandarin as it makes life easier. If you missed the last Korean post - look back a few posts - here's basically a list I personally consider my favourite/classic songs and artists of the last decade. The order isn't too specific, as I kept on changing it. Some of you might agree, some might not so I would love to hear what would be missing from your lists.
I've uploaded every song to Divshare.com so you can preview/download them indivdually (after the pictures have loaded, give it another minute so everything can show up) and included .rar files at the bottom if you want everything.
40. Fahrenheit feat. Hebe of S.H.E - "只對你有感覺 (Only Have Feelings For You)" (2007)
I was discussing this post with a friend and they said it would be wrong to not include Fahreneheit into the list. They've made quite a big impact in terms of idol groups in the latter part of the decade. To tell the truth I couldn't name one song of theirs I thought was generation-defining, so I'm sticking to my favourite.
39. Khalil Fong - "春风吹 (Spring Breeze)" (2005) / "愛愛愛 (Acoustic Version)" (2007)
Again, I think Khalil is more known for his general music and talent rather than one song. But "Soulboy" as a whole album did great.
38. Garden Sister - "逆風 (Upwind)" (2007)
This is just a totally biased, soundtrack fangirl add. I have alot of these included. Have they released anything after the "Tokyo Juliet" OST?
37. S.H.E - "Superstar" (2003) / "候鳥 (Migratory Bird)" (2004) / "不想長大 (Don't Wanna Grow Up)" (2005)
I put S.H.E with Fahrenheit in the same catergory - a name that represents the last ten years - not necessarily breakthrough music. However "Superstar" was song of the year back in the days, so they're not too bad. I feel they do too many remakes though.
36. Machi - "南京1937 (Nanking 1937)" (2007) | Stanley Huang - "無神論 (Atheist)" (2007)
Alumni of Machi include Jeff Huang, Stanley Huang, Nicky Lee, Melody Yeung and more. Machi is started off as a hip hop group but is now a record label as well - think YG of Korea. They have group stuff, solo projects and every so often do collaborations and what not.
35. Kay Tse - "囍帖街 (Double Happiness Invitation Street)" (2008)
I don't know if this should go here or not. But with the way the HK music has been going the last few years (i.e. Joey Yung won everything) Kay was a breath of fresh air. She started off as pretty unknown, with some not so good publicity but became a household name through this track.
34. Elva Hsiao - "Cappuccino" (2000) / "表白 (Confession)" (2006)
She started off with a solid debut but during the high of her career she pretty much came across a nightmare named "Warner Music Labels" - after signing with the major label, her album was delayed for nearly two years - and she was absent from the charts for 1087 days (thus the name of her comeback album). "Cappuccino" is the song that rocketed her to fame, "Confession" is the song she used her comeback.
33. Hins Cheung - "My Way" (2002) / "Hurt So Bad" (2006)
Hins started off the whole singer-songwriter craze we now have in Hong Kong. Nowadays everyone "writes" their own music - like anyone believes that - but this was some of the original talent.
32. Anson Hu - "Waiting For You" / "一年前 (One Year Ago)" / "三對三 (Three vs Three)" (2004)
In the world of male pop artists, Anson Hu is nearly always mentioned as an afterthought - behind the likes of JJ Lin, Leehom and Jay Chou - however he can bring all their styles together and actually the vocal talent to back it up. He was at one of the recent Asia Song Festival concerts representing China.
31. Janice Wei Vidal - "大哥 (Big Brother)" / Superman (2005)
She started off gaining publicity as the girl who covered Leon Lai's songs and since then has swept the all awards for Female Newcomer, and is continuously in the top selling albums. There's still something about her voice that doesn't sit well with me, but I've come to enjoy her music.
30. Joey Yung - "我的驕傲 (My Pride)" (2003) / "赤地雪 (Land of Snow)" (2006)
"My Pride" - which is actually a cover from Fiona Fung's - hailed her to Hong Kong's number one female singer. Her music from that year up until 2006/7 was quite good but it's taken a huge dip since then (at least I think so). It seems she releasing music just for the sake of sales. Taking nothing away from Joey - because she is one of Hong Kong's most talented - but her path to Most Popular Female artist has been a rather easy one this decade. Firstly, there really hasn't been much competition and second, she has a great publicist and record label behind her. That's also the reason why this is listed so low.
29. Jasmine Leong - "絲路 (Silk Road)" (2005)
Coz we need a ballad queen. I'm quite sure you should have this before. Or at least heard of the name.
28. Alan Luo - "戀愛達人 (Lian Ai Da Ren)" (2004) / "真命天子 (Zhen Ming Tian Zi)" (2005)
"Zhen Ming Tian Zi" feat Jolin Tsai is probably the only song from Alan's discography that somewhat stands out. It was back when we needed dance tracks. As for "Lian Ai Da Ren" - I remember when this came out, everyone kept on asking me about this song. Its one of those tracks you give a first listen to and find really catchy.
27. It Started With A Kiss Soundtrack - "惡作劇 (Practical Joke)" / "後悔 (Regret)" / "能不能 (Can or Cannot)" / "靠近一點點 (Come A Little Closer)" / "遇到 (Meet)" / "Say U Love Me" (2005)
I told it would be soundtrack galore. Maybe I'm totally biased but this is my favourite OST in recent years, it's the only one can listen to including the instrumentals. I guess it helps that ISWAK is also one of my favourite dramas. Haters can hate. The soundtrack features Jason, Lara (Nan Quan Mama), Landy Wen, He Shu Yu, Fang Ya Xian and Ariel Lin.
26. Stefanie Sun - "遇见 (Meet)" / "我的愛 (Wo De Ai)" (2004) / "完美的一天 (A Perfect Day)" (2005)
I like Stefanie. You should too.
25. A-Mei - "我要快樂? (I Want Happiness?)" (2006)
A-Mei is one of those artists I'm sure you've at least heard of. At the beginning of the decade she got banned from performing in China and the next few years were a journey for her in discovering herself. When she did, she released this song, and is her most successful since her debut years.
24. Ping Pung - "愛是最大權利 (Love is the Most Important Right)" (2004)
Why do I have an image of Kary? For the life of me, I couldn't find a HQ version of the album cover. Then I wanted to scan my own one in -- and well, I can't find that CD either. Ping Pung was a group fronted by ex-Cookies lead singer Kary Ng who has now gone solo. This is the groups only release but was became wuite popular because it followed the then popular Canto-pop/rock style.
23. Alan Kuo - "零 (Zero)" (2005)
And we have another soundtrack. You know you've watched "Mars" starring Barbie Hsu and Vic Zhou - they also had a duet track which while memorable, I don't think is as big as the title theme.
22. 183 Club/7 Flowers - "閉上眼默唸3遍 (Close Your Eyes and Whisper My Name 3 Times)" (2005)
I told you this was choke full of OSTs. I guess with the huge number of artists in the Chinese music industry its always easier to start of career like this. Sort of like how anime themesongs in Japan can get you lots of buzz. I think the two groups came together for another duet, but I can't remember the name so that means it doesn't belong of this list.
21. Alex Fong & Stephy Tang - "十分愛 (Perfect Love)" (2006)
I know, three consecutive duets. This is also the third duet between Alex Fong and Stephy - who are perhaps better known for their songs together rather than their solo careers.
20. Kelly Chen - "希望 (Hope)" (2005)
This is another themesong, but this time its a Cantonese themesong for the Korean drama "Dae Jang Geum" or better known as "Jewel in the Palace". Personally I don't get the hype of the series, I couldn't even get half way through coz it was so boring. Maybe someone could explain it to me?
19. Nicholas Tse - "玉蝴蝶 (Jade Butterfly)" (2001)
Nicholas has suppossedly always been the rebel - you wouldn't believe it if you saw him nowadays. He's a perfect family man. Nic is more well known for keeping alive the Canto-rock scene (not that was much going on) so this being his strongest track was quite a surprise. He still needs to work on the vocals though. But this is what made me a Nic Tse fan. its also a nice track to play on the piano.
18. David Tao - "黑色柳丁 (Black Tangerine)" / "月亮代表誰的心 (The Moon Represents My Heart)" (2002)
Yes, that second track is a remake of the ever popular Teresa Teng song, but I feel its very good in showing you David Tao's music style. If anyone tells you Jay Chou is the King of RnB, they don't know what they're talking about (and yes, someone has said that to me before) because its this man here. Plus he does great pop, ballad, rock, classical - you name it, David Tao can do it.
17. F4 - "流星雨 (Meteor Rain)" (2001) / "絕不能失去你 (Can't Lose You)" (2003)
No this is not the last drama related song/s in this list. I feel as though it would be totally wrong to not include them in an end-of-decade list. The are the boyband of Taiwan, they've broken quite a records, put up some suprising stats and after everything they're still around, probably with a fanbase just as big. So they aren't as popular as before, but you know them, you've seen of them, you might not even know but you've heard their music, watched their dramas etc. It all started with a Taiwan remake of "Hana Yori Dango"... which then encouraged nearly every other Asian country to do their own remake. Yes, the Japanese one is still the best.
16. F.I.R - "Lydia" (2004)
So originally this is a themesong for a drama called "The Outsiders" it attracted a number of curious people because when the song was first aired there was no indication as to who the singer/s were.
15. Sammi Cheng - "終身美麗 (Forever Beauty)" (2001) / "上一次流淚 (Last Time I Cried)" (2002) / "Mi" (2007)
So she kinda took a hiatus and disappeared for a chunk of the decade, but when she's around she one the biggest stars. And shes still my favourite female artist. He's a little trivia: did you know she was the highest paid female entertainer in Hong Kong - her male counterpart then, Jackie Chan. As for her songs, "Last Time I Cried" is a classic ballad from one of my favourite albums, "Being Sammi" and "Mi" is one of her latest hits made popular because of the use of famous entertainers names.
14. JJ Lin - "曹操 (Cao Cao)" / "一千年之後 (After a Thousand Years)" (2006)
I love JJ, and it felt wrong that I couldn't put him higher up in the list. Also I didn't know whether or not I should have added "杀手 (Killer)" to the list of his songs - the music video made even more of an impact. But Google it - if you haven't already seen it. It still freaks me out.
13. Rainie Yang - "曖昧 (Ai Mei)" / "理想情人 (Ideal Lover)" (2005)
For the number of OST's I included, I realised none of them were placed in the top ten. Strange, uh? Well this one, and the one below deserved seperate entries coz I like them that much. Rainie's gained a huge number of fans over time, but she hasn't had another hit as big as this one.
12. Huang Yida - "一秒的安慰 (A Moment of Consolation)" (2005)
So if both songs come from the same drama, why is this one ranked higher? Because it introduced me to an artist that I wouldn't have otherwise known of. Introducing new artists through themesongs is super and all, but I always love it when its just someone I haven't heard of (yet). Someone who's already released music. Someone who's more than likely to release more music.
11. Jacky Cheung - "講妳知 (Tell You)" (2004) / "如果爱 (Perhaps Love)" (2005)
It's Jacky Cheung, biggest star of the last twenty years. I had to add him somewhere.
10. Jolin Tsai - "獨佔神話 (Exclusive Myth)" / "睜一隻眼 閉一隻眼 (Eyes Half Shut)" (2005) / "舞孃 (Dancing Diva)" (2007)
Because again, you can't not have some Jolin. I'm quite sure these are her most popular tunes. Two of the earlier ones are from my favourite album of hers, "J-Game"
09. Tension - "我們的故事 (Our Story)" (2001)
I don't think many people know the group, but those who've listened to Chinese for more than a few years, you will have come across this at some point. And they sing acappella. I mean, they actually know who to sing acappella. How many groups can do that nowadays.
08. Wilber Pan - "不得不愛 (Bu De Bu Ai)" (2005)
It was originally a Korean song. Yes, its a remake. But hey, only good songs get remade.
07. Landy Wen - "屋顶 (Rooftop)" (2001)
This is a song written by Jay Chou - you know, back when his stuff was amazing. The version I've uploaded is the duet version between the two of them.
06. Leehom Wang - "Kiss Goodbye" / "完美的互動 (The Perfect Interaction)" (2005)
I was discussing this with some other people and asked them, what do you think the most popular Leehom song? "Kiss Goodbye" and "Forever Love" was an obvious choice, and personally I thought "竹林深處 (In the Depths of the Bamboo Forest)" or anything off the Shangri La album would the next choice. But it seems alot of more people know "完美的互動" instead because of the RAIN and Lim Jeong Hee collaboration. Alot of people say his "chinked-out" era was the best, but anything from Leehom is beautiful, his sort of back-to-basics album, Change Me (as simple as it was) is his high selling.
05. Peggy Hsu - "汽球 (Balloon)" (2001)
I bet you're thinking, who is this? Well this is one of my favourite tracks, its an amazing piece of work. And the fact she composed and penned the whole album is an additional plus. It took her six years after this release to get a new album out. And why is this song so amazing? Because she says a billions words in one big breath - and it still sounds like beautiful music.
04. Candy Lo -"好心分手 (Hou Sam Fan Sau)" (2002)
This was a SUPER big hit when it was released, everyone knew how to sing it. The version I uploaded is the duet version featuring Leehom - I think it just sounds smoother.
03. Jay Chou - "安靜 (Silence)" / "簡單愛 (Simple Love)" (2001) / "髮如雪 (Hair Like Snow)" (2006)
Yep, thats right. Jay Chou is not sitting at the top of this list. But he's technicaly second (see below for explaination). Surprise for anyone? Do I even need to explain who this guy is?
01 (Cantonese). Eason Chan - "夕陽無限好 (Sunset is Infinitely Good)" (2003)
Instead of having 2nd and 1st place I thought I'd do my 1st for Cantonese and Mandarin songs. This was Eason's breakout song. People knew who he was before, he had the talent but lacked the looks which Hong Kong so insistantly want. But after this album, he gained much needed recognition and is now suppossedly named the next era "God of Songs" - though techinically Jacky Cheung hasn't retired yet and still holds that title until he does. He's also been able to achieve more than moderate success overseas and won a few Golden Melody Awards, the first non-Taiwanese to get it since Jacky Cheung. And did I mention "Time Magazine" named this album one it's top 5 Asian albums that year?
01 (Mandarin). Michael Wong (Guang Liang) - "童話 (Fairytale)" (2005)
If you tell me you haven't heard this song before, I'm going to bang my head against a brick wall. And you know you have a popular song when the Koreans have decided to remake it.
Download .RAR:
40 - 31 (99MB), 30 - 21 (108MB),
20 - 11 (77MB) and 10 - 09 (91MB)
... I'll tag this later on when I have more time. Unless of course, you know, someone wants to do it for me.
Post will be public for 48-ish hours. As always please try to comment if you're taking, a simple "thanks" will do, or even better I want to hear what you think of the music. Absolutely NO HOTLINKING for my server links, and higher quality album art can be found by clicking the thumbnail(s).
Tags | Masterlist