exploring the universe of chinese music

[Angelina]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/%E6%B2%BC%E6%B3%BD-Zhaoze/53806369768

This is a great band called Zhao Ze.

It doesn't matter where a genre a band is labelled with was invented as long as the music is good. Thing about the soundtrack of Master of the Flying Guillotine (du bi quan wang da po xue di zi), Krautrock fits perfectly well with wu shu.

I've seen PK 14, Carsick Cars and Er Shou Mei Gui live.

Er Shou Mei Gui have incorporated traditional Chinese music into what they play, if you want to listen to something 'authentic'. Their stage performance was strong and they also covered some pop songs.

You can check out Carsick Cars here

http://site.douban.com/carsickcars/.

A lot of people group PK 14 and Carsick Cars together. Carsick Cars are more famous than PK 14 probably because I they did a song called Zhong Nan Hai. I personally prefer PK 14.

[li3wei1]

Isn't all music 'derivative'? It all borrows from what came before, and whether or not the borrowing is cross-cultural shouldn't matter, only the end result. The Rolling Stones started out doing covers of American blues, and are heavily influenced by them, but produced some great stuff.

[count_zero]

derivative (dɪˈrɪvətɪv) — adj 1. resulting from derivation; derived 2. based on or making use of other sources; not original or primary 3. copied from others, esp slavishly; plagiaristic

[liuzhou]

or

2.a Of derived character or nature; characterized by being derived, drawn, obtained, or deduced from another; coming or emanating from a source.

Oxford English Dictionary

[Cavesa]

So, I am about halfway through the links here and I am totally excited! Thank you!

When I have a bit more time (hopefully in a few weeks), I'll get to the rest and to the links leading from these links.

I really like Dadawa, I love the Fearless song (and I remembered I had seen the film and liked it).

I am not so sure about PK14 and Teresa Teng, I will probably need to go through more songs.

The Guqin abd Guzheng sound great!

I loved the two links from Roddy, thanks.

Thank you for opening a totally new window for me, I really like the view. Perhaps I'll gather the courage to open the door as well by beginning to learn the language :-)

[count_zero]

> count zero, as you say you have a lot of classical music, would you mind helping me out with some recommendation?

I’m far from being an expert but I can give some recommendations.

The CD at the top is a rather unprepossessing item but I would recommend it highly. It pairs guqin with xiao, which works very well.

The second CD is guzheng. Many of these songs are based on ancient manuscripts and old styles so it has a really ancient feel to it. Really, really good gear.

There are plenty of guqin solo CDs out there such as the third one down. It’s good though I couldn’t really judge how Fan Liying sits in the pantheon of China’s guqin players. The first track is 平沙洛雁, the piece you linked to above. If you buy a lot of these CD’s you’ll end up with quite a few versions of the classics.

If that’s useful I can recommend some other stuff.

[count_zero]

post #24

When people describe music as "derivative" they are using the meaning of the word that I highlighted in bold, not the meaning of the word that you gave.

This is not debatable!

[liuzhou]

This is not debatable!

Wanna bet?

[heifeng]

I am not so sure about PK14 and Teresa Teng,

As far as Teresa Teng (Dèng Lìjūn) you should at least be familiar with her & her songs (since almost everyone is). Consider her as part of your cultural knowledge

[PengHaoShi]

Cavesa, I was at the same point a few years ago, I liked quite some Chinese music, movies etc. But I didn't know the names of the singers, the actors / actresses, directors and so on.

Then I decided to make a list of those (with picture, brief description), the list grew into other topics as well, such as history, politics etc. You can find the list in skritter (if you use Skritter, www.skritter.com or www.skritter.cn), the list is here:

http://www.skritter.cn/vocab/list?list=115425147

For directors and actors/actresses, you'll find some of their most well known movies under the mnemonics (up to end of 2011, didn't do an update last year).

[Cavesa]

Thanks a lot, I'll have a look at it. (And sure, Teresa Teng sounds like an important part of the modern Chinese culture)