C-pop

**C-pop** is an abbreviation for **Cheenese popular muisic** (), a loosely defined muisical genre bi airtists oreeginatin frae mainland Cheenae, Hong Kong, an Taiwan. Ithers come frae kintras whaur the Cheenese leid is uised bi a lairge nummer o the population, sic as Singapore an Malaysie. C-pop is whiles uised as an umbrella term coverin no anerlie Cheenese pop but R&B, ballads, Cheenese rock, Cheenese hip hop an Chinese ambient muisic an aw, awtho Cheenese rock branched aff as a separate genre durin the early 1990s.

Thare are currently three main subgenres athin C-pop: Cantopop, Mandopop an Hokkien pop. The gap atween cantopop an mandopop haes been narraein in the new millennium. Hokkien pop, tho haein its ruits in Japanese enka, haes been re-integratin intae C-pop an narraein its trend o development towards Mandopop.

## History

Frae 1920 tae 1949 *"Cheenese popular muisic"* wis uised tae describe aw contemporar muisic sung in Cheenese dialects in Shanghai. An important name wis Li Jinhui.  Buck Clayton is creditit wi bringin American jazz influence tae Cheenae an the muisic gained popularity in hangoot quairters o nichtclubs an dancehaws o major ceeties in the 1920s.  A nummer o privately run radio stations frae the late 1920s tae the 1950s played C-pop.

Aroond the time o the Japanese invasion o Manchurie an the Cheenese Ceevil War, pop muisic wis seen as a leftist distraction.  Efter the Seicont Sino-Japanese War an Warld War II C-pop haes been mercatit, producit an brandit regionally. The Communist Pairty o Cheenae established the Fowkrepublic o Cheenae in 1949.  Ane o its first actions wis tae label the genre "Yellae Muisic" (the colour is associatit wi pornografie). The Shanghai pop muisic industrie then teuk pop muisic tae Hong Kong an in the 1970s developit cantopop. The Kuomintang, relocatit tae Taiwan, discouragit the native Taiwanese Hokkien frae the 1950s tae the late 1980s. As a result, mandopop became the dominant muisical genre in Taiwan.

In 2000 EolAsia.com  wis foondit as the first online C-pop muisic portal in Hong Kong. The company survivit the dot-com bubble an affered online legal muisic dounloads in Februar 2005, backit bi EMI, Warner Music an Sony BMG.  It primarily targets consumers in Hong Kong an Macau: some sangs require Hong Kong Identity Cards tae purchase.

In August 2008 Norman Cheng, faither o HK sangster Ronald Cheng, acquired the remainin portion o EMI Music Asia whan EMI, which haed entered Cheenae in the early 20t century, athdrew frae the Cheenese mercat. Typhoon muisic made the purchase for an estimatit HK$100 million.

In Februar 2008 mainland Cheenae's tap sairch ingine Baidu.com wis sued bi local industrie groups for providin muisic listenin, broadcastin an dounloadin athoot appruival.  Piracy continues tae exist in Cheenae but Google hae syne annooncit a cooperation deal afferin free listenin an genuine muisic copies. Top100.cn wis foondit bi basketbaw starn Yao Ming, agent Zhang Mingji an muisic insider Chen Ge via a 20 million yuan investment.  Google mp3  became available in Mairch 2009. The futur o C-pop in mainland Cheenae is slowly emergin. Houiver, the Cheenese govrenment's bannin o the heichlie popular shaw *[[Super Girl (contest)|Super Girl]]* for ane year in 2008 an 2012 still a vera controversial for the mainland Cheenae mercat.

### Major production centres

### Smawer, emergin hubs

 for airtists who release albums primarily in the Taiwanese muisic industrie e.g. JJ Lin, Nicholas Teo, Stefanie Sun, Wilber Pan.

## References