Where to Start with Chinese Music

[videlity]

Hi everyone,

I feel like listening to some Chinese music could be beneficial for learning Chinese.

Right now, I probably know about 800-1000 characters or so, maybe around HSK4 level?

I'm just not really sure where to start with listening to Chinese music or where to find it.

I've only listened to a couple of Chinese songs and I like these ones:

A-Lin以前，以後完整版

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEnYfb9B6Vs 夏天的风/温岚

Any help/recommendations will be appreciated.

Thanks!

[feihong]

You should check out 豆瓣音乐 (Douban Music). It focuses a bit more on indie acts than the acts that are currently very popular right now, but it features a greater range of genres than, say, 虾米音乐网.

I should add that I believe the genre most suited for beginning to intermediate learners is 民谣 （Western-style folk music). Often the songs are fairly slow and there won't be a lot of instrumentation to obscure the singer's voice. The lyrics tend to be a bit more interesting and varied than the ones found in pop songs. When you reach an advanced level, rap is also a good choice.

[count_zero]

Some guy I've never heard of has put this together for the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/dec/25/china-music-lowdown-on-chinese-pop

Worth checking out!

[陳德聰]

Awesome link from count_zero, I think you can also dive into Chinese music that is pretty popular right now by watching the recently(-ish) finished 中国好声音, since that show aired I think I have heard 我的歌声里 close to a hundred times, and 王妃 in KTV almost as many times haha.

[count_zero]

And if you liked that, check this out.

http://www.timeoutbeijing.com/features/Music/14310/Chinese-musical-genres.html

It's a round-up of Chinese musical genres and videos of some classic examples. Written by Wang Ge, formerly of Time Out Beijing and now working at Vice magazine.

[feihong]

A more recent music-related article from Timeout Beijing: Best Chinese records of 2012.

I actually know a few of these bands. Can personally recommend The Gar.