Do You Think Hong Kong Artist Can Sing?

[botan]

I miss the 80's where there were good singers singing themes

Same here. Theme songs from the 80s were quite memorable and the singers can actually sing.

The worse thing for me is that even the pretty faces are not pretty to my eyes. I prefer the uniqueness of old timers.

LOL, I totally agree with you.

[Pacifian]

- Rain Lau Yuk Chui
- Wayne Lai Yiu Cheung
- Sammul Chan Kin Fung

That's interesting, kidd. This came at somewhat of a surprise to me because I haven't actually heard them sing, despite watching a couple of their shows. How did you get a chance to listen to their songs, may I ask?

[Ken Cheng]

I miss the 80's where there were good singers singing themes

Notably, the performers of the 1980s TVB theme songs were all adults who had been professional singers for years (some of them had professional music careers that had started in the 1960s). By the time folks like Roman Tam, Adam Cheng, Liza Wang, Jenny Tseng, Frances Yip, etc., were contracted by TVB to record those theme songs, each was a veteran performer with at least a decade of musical experience under his or her belt.

Compare that to the average Hong Kong pop singer today, who has his or her first hit record barely a year after starting to sing "professionally."

[kidd]

That's interesting, kidd. This came at somewhat of a surprise to me because I haven't actually heard them sing, despite watching a couple of their shows. How did you get a chance to listen to their songs, may I ask?

Rain Lau - she sang the subtheme of 'Man of Wisdom' and was the female voice for the themesong of 'Gods of Honour'.

Wayne Lai - I've heard him sang without music and live (not prerecorded) in the series 'To Love with Love' and he sounded good. (Note: he also sang in the series where he played a character similar to Roman Tam. Please don't judge his singing in there if u happen to come accross that series, because he was clearly mimicking Roman Tam's voice and not singing with his normal voice. )

Sammul Chan - You can find several of his MTVs and live singing in youtube. He sang the themesong of 'Guts of Man' and sang a song without music in The Academy.

Another TVB actor who can sing is Ngo Ka Nin.

P.S. Check your PM.

[Sugar]

Notably, the performers of the 1980s TVB theme songs were all adults who had been professional singers for years (some of them had professional music careers that had started in the 1960s). By the time folks like Roman Tam, Adam Cheng, Liza Wang, Jenny Tseng, Frances Yip, etc., were contracted by TVB to record those theme songs, each was a veteran performer with at least a decade of musical experience under his or her belt.

Compare that to the average Hong Kong pop singer today, who has his or her first hit record barely a year after starting to sing "professionally."

I mean I still listen to alot of TVB theme songs before the 90's The quality of talent went down sadly

[AndyChrono]

Most of the new HK acts wouldn't make it past the auditions on American Idol. HK's time has passed. 20 years ago HK was the center of chinese pop. Right now its shifted over to Taiwan. In the future it'll shift again to China.

[j-walker]

Interesting note of the downfall of HK music. I totally agree that HK music is going down. I sometimes would imagine if Twins for example, would sing in a singing competition like American Idol. I think they will get ridiculed for their "bad" singing. No offense, but I don't understand how they even became famous to begin with, adding on the new singing generation.... but i would like to say that hacken lee, kelly chen are the few "good" singers still in hk with talent instead of just the mere packaging of these new artists. Just the other day, my dad was just complaining about these new singers. He was like, "who are these fools singing up there? why would they embarrass themselves like that, they're talentless, the lyrics don't make sense, my ear hurts listening to them, etc." lol. I thought that was kinda harsh but then again I wouldn't disagree with him. Note: mind you that my dad is an oldies fan and loved his older generation songs. But I seriously don't understand today's HK music, it doesn't seem to make sense and phrases just come out of nowhere, the lyrics don't flow, the music quality is bad, when the singer is on live they seem to run out of air and force themselves to pitch that note. This is so disappointing since I loved listening HK music from the 90s (80s too old for me, don't like the music) especially the tvb drama themesongs. I am be biased here but many of you probably agree too (even though we're probably in the same generation as these singers nowadays). Here's an article found from asianfanatics that is pretty interesting:

10 Year Recap: the Good, the Bad, & the Future of HK music

Despite the Four Heavenly Kings still being major influences, their music has become less influencial after 1994. The Four Heavenly Kings were like a drug, aside from the four of them no other major names in music existed. As the four of them slowly cut down on their music, the Hong Kong music industry started to slow down because no other singers were around to help stabilze the industry. In 1999, when Leon Lai and Jacky Cheung announced they will no longer accept HK music awards, the HK music industry gradually weakened.

Not to blame the weak decade of HK music only on people of the industry because the economy played an important role. As the economy turned bad, record companies needed to find low cost-high return methods of producing music. This led to the "packaging" of artists and quality of music started to deteriorate.

Although the HK music industry started to deteriorate in the mid-90's, that extra jab came in January 1999 in the form of Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG). EEG has introduced the most newcomers into the industry and is the most successful music company in the past decade. Names like Nicholas Tse, Joey Yung, Twins, Yumiko Cheng, and Eason Chan (who came from Capital Artists) have left their names on the industry via "packaging." Although EEG made their mark on the music industry, the process of getting there leaves the biggest regret. Most EEG artists were forced to promote themselves in Hong Kong only, never being able to continue what the Four Heavenly Kings started in the Mandarin music market (Taiwan and Mainland). Eason Chan, who was the most successful EEG artist in the Mandarin music market, never achieved as much in the Taiwan industry as he did in the HK industry.

Above all the clouds, there is sunlight. Despite the industry downfall, HK music has produced two great writers. The biggest name, is of course, Lin Xi. To best describe Lin Xi's success: 99% of HK singers have sung songs penned by Lin Xi. Even though Wyman Wong entered as a competitor to Lin Xi years later, Lin Xi still has the upper hand. The other great writer is Mark Lui, who is best known for composing uptempo popular songs for Leon Lai and Kelly Chen. Despite being known for his uptempo songs, he has composed many successful slow popular songs for other artists. When compared to Mark Lui, composers Eric Kwok, Ronald Ng, C.Y. Kong, and Keith Chan may be weaker in the "popular song" department when it comes to composition, or when trying to combine popular song with artistry the outcome isn't perfect.

Even when the industry is at a low, there will always be a 'king' and a 'queen' in the industry. In the past decade, the 'king' is undoubtedly Eason Chan. Even though there is Leo Ku and there is Hacken Lee, they have not been able to gain overall success in the Chinese music industry that Eason has. Not only is Eason Chan the biggest discovery to HK music in the past 10 years, he is also the most unconventional idol to come out of HK music. Lacking the charm Leslie Cheung and Danny Chan had and having what Jacky Cheung has -- great skill -- he never chose to walk the traditional "safe" [easy] road in HK music. Along the way, he came across Eric Kwok and other young minds with fresh ideas, making his work a mixture of mainstream and non-mainstream music along with great performances, more importantly he created a platform for display for many music persons.

As for the 'queen', she not only changed the HK music, she also impacted Chinese music in general over the past decade. She has worked with many industry people and has left a mark in many places. Even with Sammi Cheng as her biggest competitor and Faye Wong, whose song selection is much better, she had the ability to make all the other HK female singers around her seem mediocre.

We cannot forget to mention Chet Lam. With the emergence of Chet Lam, who is an independent artist to have successfully gone mainstream, he has slowly become a representative of the creative singer-songwriter position in HK music. Using his own unique style, slowly integrating HK music into Mandarin music in a more creative way.

Is there an indicator that HK is recovering? In 2003, Hins Cheung emerged successfully as a Guangzhou singer-songwriter. With his ability to sing and write with success, people felt he sparked the comeback of the singer-songwriter category and hopefully will help HK music recover. At the same time, HK music enters another high point even though Andy Lau is still around, even though Ronald Cheng has not given up on music, and even with Miriam Yeung taking advantage of Sammi Cheng and Faye Wong's 'disappearance' by capturing the top female awards and coming out with many films. Since 2004, HK music has seen many singer-songwriters, Pong Nan, Ivana Wong, Justin, Khalil, even the duo Soler and with that the trend of 'everyone singing their own songs, leaving the idol singers with nothing to sing' emerged. Meanwhile, veterans have re-entered into the HK music scene. With Hacken Lee releasing Concert Hall and Concert Hall II, he brought back older listeners on the concept of lyrics with content and using more traditional music. As for Leo Ku, he played a similar role as Hacken. If we were to say that those that grew up outside of Hong Kong (Khalil Fong, Pong Nan) were the future of HK music, then Hacken and Leo are definitely the ones that are representing the traditions of HK music. Right now, HK music is trying to combine traditions with the future in hopes that the lowest point in HK music has passed in the last decade. Comparing Hins, Justin, Ivana, etc. to the tradtional HK singers, their star power isn't quite the same but they have much more musical knowledge and background coming into HK music than these traditional HK singers had, and with that we can put weight onto their shoulders in hopes that they will help HK music recover.

There is no rush, we have already mistakenly missed out on 10 years of HK music. HK music is back on track and because of that we only have to wait until the day comes when HK music has made a full recovery and back to its remarkable status.

-------
60699:
- Kelly Chen and Miriam Yeung are the only ones still around from the Sammi/Faye days, and since Kelly has made a much more significant impact in the Chinese market, I'm assuming the 'queen' in this article is Kelly.
- I apologize for butchering the Chet Lam piece.
- I must say, a very different perspective on why HK music went to the gutter. Not only blaming EEG (which everyone does), but the Four Heavenly Kings' fans also, which is quite refreshing and true.

Translated by 60699 @ asianfanatics.net
Taken from http://music.ent.tom.com/2007-06-29/068G/30555922.html

(Note: The article is not fully translated (if someone wants to translate it all -- by all means, go ahead). The second half of the article, where the core of the headline is focused, is roughly translated. The first half summarizes the HK music industry leading up the 1997.)

[pannonian]

The worse thing for me is that even the pretty faces are not pretty to my eyes. I prefer the uniqueness of old timers.

One that got away was Priscilla Chan, who was for me the sole highlight of a very poor dubbing of Nausicaa. Having shown she could do voice acting better than old regulars, and with at least an interesting if not conventionally pretty face, she sadly decided she had no interest at all in acting. She was a bit befpre my time (I only recently started to listen to her stuff). Here's an example of the kind of western indie music I grew up with. Is there an equivalent of this in HK?

Setting Sun by The Howling Bells (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbBepI5FVgo

[kidd]

10 Year Recap: the Good, the Bad, & the Future of HK music

Despite the Four Heavenly Kings still being major influences, their music has become less influencial after 1994. The Four Heavenly Kings were like a drug, aside from the four of them no other major names in music existed. As the four of them slowly cut down on their music, the Hong Kong music industry started to slow down because no other singers were around to help stabilze the industry. In 1999, when Leon Lai and Jacky Cheung announced they will no longer accept HK music awards, the HK music industry gradually weakened.

Not to blame the weak decade of HK music only on people of the industry because the economy played an important role. As the economy turned bad, record companies needed to find low cost-high return methods of producing music. This led to the "packaging" of artists and quality of music started to deteriorate.

Although the HK music industry started to deteriorate in the mid-90's, that extra jab came in January 1999 in the form of Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG). EEG has introduced the most newcomers into the industry and is the most successful music company in the past decade. Names like Nicholas Tse, Joey Yung, Twins, Yumiko Cheng, and Eason Chan (who came from Capital Artists) have left their names on the industry via "packaging." Although EEG made their mark on the music industry, the process of getting there leaves the biggest regret. Most EEG artists were forced to promote themselves in Hong Kong only, never being able to continue what the Four Heavenly Kings started in the Mandarin music market (Taiwan and Mainland). Eason Chan, who was the most successful EEG artist in the Mandarin music market, never achieved as much in the Taiwan industry as he did in the HK industry.

Above all the clouds, there is sunlight. Despite the industry downfall, HK music has produced two great writers. The biggest name, is of course, Lin Xi. To best describe Lin Xi's success: 99% of HK singers have sung songs penned by Lin Xi. Even though Wyman Wong entered as a competitor to Lin Xi years later, Lin Xi still has the upper hand. The other great writer is Mark Lui, who is best known for composing uptempo popular songs for Leon Lai and Kelly Chen. Despite being known for his uptempo songs, he has composed many successful slow popular songs for other artists. When compared to Mark Lui, composers Eric Kwok, Ronald Ng, C.Y. Kong, and Keith Chan may be weaker in the "popular song" department when it comes to composition, or when trying to combine popular song with artistry the outcome isn't perfect.

Even when the industry is at a low, there will always be a 'king' and a 'queen' in the industry. In the past decade, the 'king' is undoubtedly Eason Chan. Even though there is Leo Ku and there is Hacken Lee, they have not been able to gain overall success in the Chinese music industry that Eason has. Not only is Eason Chan the biggest discovery to HK music in the past 10 years, he is also the most unconventional idol to come out of HK music. Lacking the charm Leslie Cheung and Danny Chan had and having what Jacky Cheung has -- great skill -- he never chose to walk the traditional "safe" [easy] road in HK music. Along the way, he came across Eric Kwok and other young minds with fresh ideas, making his work a mixture of mainstream and non-mainstream music along with great performances, more importantly he created a platform for display for many music persons.

As for the 'queen', she not only changed the HK music, she also impacted Chinese music in general over the past decade. She has worked with many industry people and has left a mark in many places. Even with Sammi Cheng as her biggest competitor and Faye Wong, whose song selection is much better, she had the ability to make all the other HK female singers around her seem mediocre.

We cannot forget to mention Chet Lam. With the emergence of Chet Lam, who is an independent artist to have successfully gone mainstream, he has slowly become a representative of the creative singer-songwriter position in HK music. Using his own unique style, slowly integrating HK music into Mandarin music in a more creative way.

Is there an indicator that HK is recovering? In 2003, Hins Cheung emerged successfully as a Guangzhou singer-songwriter. With his ability to sing and write with success, people felt he sparked the comeback of the singer-songwriter category and hopefully will help HK music recover. At the same time, HK music enters another high point even though Andy Lau is still around, even though Ronald Cheng has not given up on music, and even with Miriam Yeung taking advantage of Sammi Cheng and Faye Wong's 'disappearance' by capturing the top female awards and coming out with many films. Since 2004, HK music has seen many singer-songwriters, Pong Nan, Ivana Wong, Justin, Khalil, even the duo Soler and with that the trend of 'everyone singing their own songs, leaving the idol singers with nothing to sing' emerged. Meanwhile, veterans have re-entered into the HK music scene. With Hacken Lee releasing Concert Hall and Concert Hall II, he brought back older listeners on the concept of lyrics with content and using more traditional music. As for Leo Ku, he played a similar role as Hacken. If we were to say that those that grew up outside of Hong Kong (Khalil Fong, Pong Nan) were the future of HK music, then Hacken and Leo are definitely the ones that are representing the traditions of HK music. Right now, HK music is trying to combine traditions with the future in hopes that the lowest point in HK music has passed in the last decade. Comparing Hins, Justin, Ivana, etc. to the tradtional HK singers, their star power isn't quite the same but they have much more musical knowledge and background coming into HK music than these traditional HK singers had, and with that we can put weight onto their shoulders in hopes that they will help HK music recover.

There is no rush, we have already mistakenly missed out on 10 years of HK music. HK music is back on track and because of that we only have to wait until the day comes when HK music has made a full recovery and back to its remarkable status.

-------
60699:
- Kelly Chen and Miriam Yeung are the only ones still around from the Sammi/Faye days, and since Kelly has made a much more significant impact in the Chinese market, I'm assuming the 'queen' in this article is Kelly.
- I apologize for butchering the Chet Lam piece.
- I must say, a very different perspective on why HK music went to the gutter. Not only blaming EEG (which everyone does), but the Four Heavenly Kings' fans also, which is quite refreshing and true.

Translated by 60699 @ asianfanatics.net
Taken from http://music.ent.tom.com/2007-06-29/068G/30555922.html

(Note: The article is not fully translated (if someone wants to translate it all -- by all means, go ahead). The second half of the article, where the core of the headline is focused, is roughly translated. The first half summarizes the HK music industry leading up the 1997.)

This article is very well written. I do agree with most of the points. HK music industry is recovering now with more and more singer-songwriters. Maybe music fans are finally tired of pretty faces who can't sing. So, when a singer-songwiter who can sing decently came out, they are well received by fans.

Btw, Chet Lam is really good. Here's his blog http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/chet-lam

Chet Lam and At17 in Lui Fong's mini concert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRa_1hYd8RU

[Canuck21]

Here's an example of the kind of western indie music I grew up with. Is there an equivalent of this in HK?

Setting Sun by The Howling Bells (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbBepI5FVgo

This is a good question. Even during the good days, pop was and still is very dominant with the HK music scene. I only know a few loosely alternative HK artists (sorry, not your type of indie music). What HK needs is a couple of independant record labels like Factory Records, Rough Trade Records or Matador Records which will give a chance to innovative artists. Then again, most of these labels are now owned by big record labels. Still, I don't understand why Asians in general (except for Japanese) rely so much on professional song writers. We need more bands and I don't mean boy bands. It's ok to cater to teeny boppers, but what about young adults? Where are the Oasis, the Radiohead and the Depeche Mode of HK? Heck, where are the Beyond of the 21st century? Why so few?

[Canuck21]

This article is very well written. I do agree with most of the points. HK music industry is recovering now with more and more singer-songwriters. Maybe music fans are finally tired of pretty faces who can't sing. So, when a singer-songwiter who can sing decently came out, they are well received by fans.

Btw, Chet Lam is really good. Here's his blog http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/chet-lam

Chet Lam and At17 in Lui Fong's mini concert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRa_1hYd8RU

The people of HK should encourage these singer-songwriters. Those are the real artists. The pre-packaged is getting tiresome.

[kidd]

One that got away was Priscilla Chan, who was for me the sole highlight of a very poor dubbing of Nausicaa. Having shown she could do voice acting better than old regulars, and with at least an interesting if not conventionally pretty face, she sadly decided she had no interest at all in acting. She was a bit befpre my time (I only recently started to listen to her stuff). Here's an example of the kind of western indie music I grew up with. Is there an equivalent of this in HK?

Setting Sun by The Howling Bells (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbBepI5FVgo

She sounds like Faye Wong.

[kidd]

Another TVB artist that can sing is Mimi Lo. Her rendition of Alan Tam's 'Sui Ho Goi Bin' was really good. One unique point of her voice is that it's on the deep side. The Anita Mui type of voice. It's quite rare nowadays to hear such a voice since most HK female singers now have girly voice.

[Sugar]

Another TVB artist that can sing is Mimi Lo. Her rendition of Alam Tam's 'Sui Ho Goi Bin' was really good. One unique point of her voice is that it's one the deep side. The Anita Mui type of voice. It's quite rare nowadays to heard such a voice since most HK female singers now have girly voice.

wow.. thanks kidd IF u never pointed that out, i never knew she could sing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eizly84nDmM

[kidd]

wow.. thanks kidd IF u never pointed that out, i never knew she could sing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eizly84nDmM

Haha, so after I mentioned it, you went to search for her clip in youtube?

I'm glad to let more people know of these not so well known singers (most of them were known more as actors or not as promoted as EEG singers).

And thanks for the clip. It has Kanin in it too.
I've actually seen this performance before. It's in one of the episodes of Supermix, a music show hosted by Susanna Kwan and Ng Wai Kwok. Good that I can watch it again (I've already returned the rented VCD to rental shop long ago).

Kanin is another actor who can really sing. Kanin was better in another song I've heard.

Btw, just saw a clip of Shirley Yeung's singing live. She has a cute and sweet voice. Very suitable for singing songs like 老鼠爱大米.

[Sugar]

Haha, so after I mentioned it, you went to search for her clip in youtube?

I'm glad to let more people know of these not so well known singers (most of them were known more as actors or not as promoted as EEG singers).

And thanks for the clip. It has Kanin in it too.
I've actually seen this performance before. It's in one of the episodes of Supermix, a music show hosted by Susanna Kwan and Ng Wai Kwok. Good that I can watch it again (I've already returned the rented VCD to rental shop long ago).

Kanin is another actor who can really sing. Kanin was better in another song I've heard.

Btw, just saw a clip of Shirley Yeung's singing live. She has a cute and sweet voice. Very suitable for singing songs like 老鼠爱大米.

yeah, because i was surprised. She is so underrated and I never knew she sang.
*hides face in shame*


any more lovely voices please share I like listening to cantonese music so I hope there are good artists out there.

Even I was shocked that Kanin sings

[girllikeme]

I know many people are going to object, and disagree, but what I'm saying is true.

HK singers used to be good; I mean dating back to Anita, etc.
But now?
Most of the HK singers (and I am NOT making this up. I read this in the Chinese newspapers) do not know how to read music sheets, and require someone to sing the song for them once, then they repeat. What kind of singer are you, if you cant even read sheet music? These days, some HK singers have like no voice; no emotion, unique. Being a singer isn't just about hitting the notes right. Its about getting all the emotion and everything together. (now this is my own opinion) but I think that they certainly won't get too far.

[BlueBelle]

Can you name me one Asian artist that is popular and can write his or her own music and lyrics?

Off the top of my head.

Wang Lee Hom, Jay Chou, Justin Lo.

JJ Lin from Singapore.

Guang Liang 光良, Victor Huang 品冠, Gary Cao Ge 曹格, Eric Moo 巫啟賢 & Ah Niu 阿牛 from Malaysia.

Chris Yu Hung Ming 游鸿明, Chang Yu Sheng 张雨生, Sky Wu 伍思凱, Kevin Lin 林隆旋, Phil Chang 張宇, Mei Chen Pan 潘美辰, Mayday Wu Yue Tian & F.I.R. from Taiwan.

The only 3 I know of from China are Chen Chusheng 陈楚生 & Wang Zhengliang 王铮亮 from the 2007 Happy Boy Competition; and Han Zhenzhen 韩真真 from the 2006 Super Voice Competition.

[Canuck21]

JJ Lin from Singapore.

Guang Liang 光良, Victor Huang 品冠, Gary Cao Ge 曹格, Eric Moo 巫啟賢 & Ah Niu 阿牛 from Malaysia.

Chang Yu Sheng 张雨生, Sky Wu 伍思凱, Kevin Lin 林隆旋, Phil Chang 張宇, Mei Chen Pan 潘美辰, Mayday Wu Yue Tian & F.I.R. from Taiwan.

The only 3 I know of from China are Chen Chusheng 陈楚生 & Wang Zhengliang 王铮亮 from the 2007 Happy Boy Competition; and Han Zhenzhen 韩真真 from the 2006 Super Voice Competition.

Are they popular?

[BlueBelle]

Are they popular?

They are popular in their respective countries and internationally (within the Chinese Community). I am from Canada, I've never been to Singapore or Malaysia. I'm sure people on this forum recognize most of the names I listed above.