I promise this is not turning into a music blog!
Recently I've had little time or energy for dramas. Lots and lots of work stress compounded with immense fatigue. So basically everything had fallen to the wayside (seriously, it's all I can do most days to not fall asleep immediately after I get home from work).
That's why I've been posting on music more recently, it's quicker! I'm still watching dramas though (albeit slowly)! I just finished episode 17 of My Queen (SO GOOD!), and I plan on watching episode 3 of Atashinchi no Danshi tonight (or at the very latest tomorrow). I'm also watching Nodame Cantabile actively, but much slower than normal.
Anyway, I've been asked a few times, so I decided to do a post with some of my mandopop recs (to be clear, I only listen to Mandarin music. I try not to listen to things in Cantonese, not because I feel it's inferior or anything, but because it confuses the hell out of me since I'm learning Mandarin).
Mandopop is, sadly, mostly ignored outside of Chinese cultures. It's not like Jpop, which is widely spread. It's not even like Kpop, which has recently gone international. I know when I first got into Taiwan, I had a hell of a time finding mandarin music. Over time it's gotten easier for me, but I figure a lot of people have the same problems, which is why it's underrepresented in the blogsphere (*snort* I said 'blogosphere'!).
Anyway, on to the recs!
Oh! Before I actually do rec anything, most of the songs are from OSTs. That's how I get in to most mandopop, so yeah...
1. 黃義達 (Huang Yi Da) - 臭男人 (Chou Nan Ren)
Didn't let me embed, so... click here! (It has spanish subtitles, but it was the best quality video I could find, so whatever)
This is the song that started my love of mandopop. It's from the Devil Beside You OST, and I love it SO MUCH. It's my favorite mandopop song ever. Huang Yi Da is a great musician. My favorite album of his is 完整演出 (The Grand Finale). Fun fact: this is not the easiest song to sing along with, yet it was the first mandarin song I memorized phonetically.
2. 王传一 (Wang Chuan Yi / Kingone) - 我要的世界 (The World I Want)
This is the opening to Why Why Love, so I'm sure a lot of people recognize it... Otherwise, this is from Wang Chuan Yi (Kingone)'s first solo album. The other songs off the album are nice, but this is my favorite. Also, this one is the second song I memorized phonetically. And the first where I kinda understood what he was saying! Yay!
3. F4 / JVKV - 在這裡等你 (Waiting For You)
This was the first F4 song I heard, and loved it quite immediately. The video is great. I especially love when they're like, levitating random objects in the air. Plus, Vanness' hair is awesome (when is Vanness' hair NOT awesome?)... And Zai Zai fake playing the guitar is priceless. Also; FAT KEN (super adorable)! Most of F4's music isn't to my taste, but I love their most recent album.
4. Fahrenheit - 最佳聽眾
This is not my favorite song by them (I've already posted that one a ton), but I DO like this one a lot. It's off their most recent album (which is also my favorite album of theirs), and reminds me a lot of F4's song Te Amo我愛你. Anyway, I cannot rec Fahrenheit enough. I love them so much! They're my second favorite Asian band (after Big Bang, of course :D). This video is adorable too!
5. 183 Club - 迷魂计 (Enticing Trick)
The opening song to Prince Turns to Frog, and my favorite Taiwanese MV ever. When you watch it, you'll understand why (very Ricky Martin-esque). Also, thanks for the color coding, Taiwan! 183 Club is sadly mostly disbanded now (Jacky got thrown out for drug use, and Johnny left to become a professional basketball player). Luckily I still have my favorites; Ming Dao, Sam Wang, and Ehlo Huang left to comfort me.
6. 5566 - 终极陷阱/Yes Sir!
This is the opening song to Ying Ye 3+1, which like, no one has seen. Anyway, it's a GREAT song. Seriously, GREAT. It's fast paced, and hip hop, and badass. 5566 are one of my favorite Taiwanese bands... they're like the bad boys of Taiwanese pop, which isn't saying much, actually. The video is great too... sweet innocent looking Jason totally raps his ass off and plays with guns. It amused me quite a bit. And apparently Tony just doesn't sing at all in the song...
7. S.H.E - 宇宙小姐
I love a lot of S.H.E's song, so this was a hard choice. I chose this one since FM S.H.E is my favorite of their albums. I like Selina and Hebe, but Ella is my true love. That girl's voice is AMAZING. Seriously, listen to them if only because Ella has one of the best voices I've heard.
8. TANK - 鬥牛,要不要
Another OST song... it's from Bull Fighting. What can I say that I haven't said about all the other songs... I really love this song too. For awhile I listened to it on repeat a lot. I like TANK a lot (he's part of HIM, the same company that S.H.E and Fahrenheit are a part of), but the other songs I've heard of his have been more ballad-ey, which is not really my thing.
9. 方雅賢 (Fang Ya Xian) - 遇到 (Meet)
This isn't a MV for the song, rather an ISWAK MV with this song in the background, but I don't care. This song is TO DIE FOR. You know how I don't usually like ballads? Well, I like this one. It takes a special ballad for me to love it, and this one is spectacular.
10. 梁靜茹 (Jasmine / Fish Leong) - 沒有如果
Another ballad I have obscene love for. This is the opening to My Queen, which explains a lot (and that's totally Ethan Ruan in the video!). However I do really like Fish Leong. Her voice is beautiful, and her songs are usually heartbreaking. Like this one. Just watching the damn video makes me want to cry. Thanks Love Contract...
11. 花園精靈 (Garden Sister) - 逆風
Another one of those heartbreaking songs that's amazing. It's too bad Garden Sister never did much else. They're great! This song is from the Tokyo Juliet OST.
12. Da Mouth 大嘴巴 - 國王皇后
I just realized that Harry Zhang, who plays JJ in My Queen is in Da Mouth! How did I miss that?! And he's American too (and like, half Taiwanese and half Korea... AND HE LOOKS LIKE RAIN)! I mean, I knew Aisa was Japanese (she was in TKA and The Rose, where she played, um, the Japanese girl...). But wow, their association with my favorite current drama makes me love them more! They encounter a lot of comparisons to The Black Eyed Peas, which makes sense to me. Anyway, LOVE this song.
13. Jolin Tsai - 乖乖牌
I love Jolin a ton, and make no secret of that. This is off her Dancing Diva album. I LOVE this song because it features Stanley Huang, who I've loved since seeing him in Twenty Something Taipei. Also, he says "fuck" a lot in the song, which amuses me (Jolin understand english, and Stanley is American. They were in on it).
14. 可米小子 (Comic Boyz) - Number 2
Comic Boyz disbanded awhile ago, but I still love listening to them! A bunch of people were in Comic Boys, including Chuan Yi, Figaro Zeng, and An Jun Can. I'm super sad I wasn't into them before they disbanded, because, come on, they ROCK. This song isn't my favorite, but I do love it nonetheless. Weirdly the video is a good minute shorter than the album version of the song.
15. Rainie Yang - 太烦恼
This is a short version of my favorite Rainie song. The full version is here. I like this song a lot. It's a cover of a german song, actually... Rainie looks fabulous in the MV, and she sounds great too! This is from her latest album.
And yes, that is all I will do for right now, as I'm tired!
That's why I've been posting on music more recently, it's quicker! I'm still watching dramas though (albeit slowly)! I just finished episode 17 of My Queen (SO GOOD!), and I plan on watching episode 3 of Atashinchi no Danshi tonight (or at the very latest tomorrow). I'm also watching Nodame Cantabile actively, but much slower than normal.
Anyway, I've been asked a few times, so I decided to do a post with some of my mandopop recs (to be clear, I only listen to Mandarin music. I try not to listen to things in Cantonese, not because I feel it's inferior or anything, but because it confuses the hell out of me since I'm learning Mandarin).
Mandopop is, sadly, mostly ignored outside of Chinese cultures. It's not like Jpop, which is widely spread. It's not even like Kpop, which has recently gone international. I know when I first got into Taiwan, I had a hell of a time finding mandarin music. Over time it's gotten easier for me, but I figure a lot of people have the same problems, which is why it's underrepresented in the blogsphere (*snort* I said 'blogosphere'!).
Anyway, on to the recs!
Oh! Before I actually do rec anything, most of the songs are from OSTs. That's how I get in to most mandopop, so yeah...
1. 黃義達 (Huang Yi Da) - 臭男人 (Chou Nan Ren)
Didn't let me embed, so... click here! (It has spanish subtitles, but it was the best quality video I could find, so whatever)
This is the song that started my love of mandopop. It's from the Devil Beside You OST, and I love it SO MUCH. It's my favorite mandopop song ever. Huang Yi Da is a great musician. My favorite album of his is 完整演出 (The Grand Finale). Fun fact: this is not the easiest song to sing along with, yet it was the first mandarin song I memorized phonetically.
2. 王传一 (Wang Chuan Yi / Kingone) - 我要的世界 (The World I Want)
This is the opening to Why Why Love, so I'm sure a lot of people recognize it... Otherwise, this is from Wang Chuan Yi (Kingone)'s first solo album. The other songs off the album are nice, but this is my favorite. Also, this one is the second song I memorized phonetically. And the first where I kinda understood what he was saying! Yay!
Click to view3. F4 / JVKV - 在這裡等你 (Waiting For You)
This was the first F4 song I heard, and loved it quite immediately. The video is great. I especially love when they're like, levitating random objects in the air. Plus, Vanness' hair is awesome (when is Vanness' hair NOT awesome?)... And Zai Zai fake playing the guitar is priceless. Also; FAT KEN (super adorable)! Most of F4's music isn't to my taste, but I love their most recent album.
4. Fahrenheit - 最佳聽眾
This is not my favorite song by them (I've already posted that one a ton), but I DO like this one a lot. It's off their most recent album (which is also my favorite album of theirs), and reminds me a lot of F4's song Te Amo我愛你. Anyway, I cannot rec Fahrenheit enough. I love them so much! They're my second favorite Asian band (after Big Bang, of course :D). This video is adorable too!
5. 183 Club - 迷魂计 (Enticing Trick)
The opening song to Prince Turns to Frog, and my favorite Taiwanese MV ever. When you watch it, you'll understand why (very Ricky Martin-esque). Also, thanks for the color coding, Taiwan! 183 Club is sadly mostly disbanded now (Jacky got thrown out for drug use, and Johnny left to become a professional basketball player). Luckily I still have my favorites; Ming Dao, Sam Wang, and Ehlo Huang left to comfort me.
6. 5566 - 终极陷阱/Yes Sir!
This is the opening song to Ying Ye 3+1, which like, no one has seen. Anyway, it's a GREAT song. Seriously, GREAT. It's fast paced, and hip hop, and badass. 5566 are one of my favorite Taiwanese bands... they're like the bad boys of Taiwanese pop, which isn't saying much, actually. The video is great too... sweet innocent looking Jason totally raps his ass off and plays with guns. It amused me quite a bit. And apparently Tony just doesn't sing at all in the song...
7. S.H.E - 宇宙小姐
I love a lot of S.H.E's song, so this was a hard choice. I chose this one since FM S.H.E is my favorite of their albums. I like Selina and Hebe, but Ella is my true love. That girl's voice is AMAZING. Seriously, listen to them if only because Ella has one of the best voices I've heard.
8. TANK - 鬥牛,要不要
Another OST song... it's from Bull Fighting. What can I say that I haven't said about all the other songs... I really love this song too. For awhile I listened to it on repeat a lot. I like TANK a lot (he's part of HIM, the same company that S.H.E and Fahrenheit are a part of), but the other songs I've heard of his have been more ballad-ey, which is not really my thing.
9. 方雅賢 (Fang Ya Xian) - 遇到 (Meet)
This isn't a MV for the song, rather an ISWAK MV with this song in the background, but I don't care. This song is TO DIE FOR. You know how I don't usually like ballads? Well, I like this one. It takes a special ballad for me to love it, and this one is spectacular.
10. 梁靜茹 (Jasmine / Fish Leong) - 沒有如果
Another ballad I have obscene love for. This is the opening to My Queen, which explains a lot (and that's totally Ethan Ruan in the video!). However I do really like Fish Leong. Her voice is beautiful, and her songs are usually heartbreaking. Like this one. Just watching the damn video makes me want to cry. Thanks Love Contract...
11. 花園精靈 (Garden Sister) - 逆風
Another one of those heartbreaking songs that's amazing. It's too bad Garden Sister never did much else. They're great! This song is from the Tokyo Juliet OST.
12. Da Mouth 大嘴巴 - 國王皇后
I just realized that Harry Zhang, who plays JJ in My Queen is in Da Mouth! How did I miss that?! And he's American too (and like, half Taiwanese and half Korea... AND HE LOOKS LIKE RAIN)! I mean, I knew Aisa was Japanese (she was in TKA and The Rose, where she played, um, the Japanese girl...). But wow, their association with my favorite current drama makes me love them more! They encounter a lot of comparisons to The Black Eyed Peas, which makes sense to me. Anyway, LOVE this song.
13. Jolin Tsai - 乖乖牌
I love Jolin a ton, and make no secret of that. This is off her Dancing Diva album. I LOVE this song because it features Stanley Huang, who I've loved since seeing him in Twenty Something Taipei. Also, he says "fuck" a lot in the song, which amuses me (Jolin understand english, and Stanley is American. They were in on it).
14. 可米小子 (Comic Boyz) - Number 2
Comic Boyz disbanded awhile ago, but I still love listening to them! A bunch of people were in Comic Boys, including Chuan Yi, Figaro Zeng, and An Jun Can. I'm super sad I wasn't into them before they disbanded, because, come on, they ROCK. This song isn't my favorite, but I do love it nonetheless. Weirdly the video is a good minute shorter than the album version of the song.
15. Rainie Yang - 太烦恼
This is a short version of my favorite Rainie song. The full version is here. I like this song a lot. It's a cover of a german song, actually... Rainie looks fabulous in the MV, and she sounds great too! This is from her latest album.
And yes, that is all I will do for right now, as I'm tired!