Best Songs of 2020 playlist

[feihong]

In 2020, I listened to well over 4000 Chinese songs. I took 50 of my favorites and compiled this playlist. The total duration is roughly 3 hours and 30 minutes. The majority of the songs are sung in Mandarin, but some are sung in topolects such as Hakka or Cantonese. A handful of songs are in a non-Chinese language spoken in mainland China or Taiwan. Note that this is a list of songs I discovered in 2020--some songs are older, and others are new covers of old songs.

 

Link to YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPU-SZNWWh0&list=PLKPg6d3PEwV1GrVZ9X0hW94ePqEtxJDBZ&index=1

 

1. 昆仑山牧人 ✪ Haya乐团xYamy郭颖 ♫ 摇滚+说唱 Rock+Rap
2. 望 Mong ✪ 邱淑蝉 Chiu shu-chan ♫ 民谣 Folk
3. 妹妹你大胆地往前走 ✪ 大波浪乐队 & 福禄寿FloruitShow ♫ 电子 Electronica
4. 碎吧睡吧 ✪ 许净淳 ♫ 民谣 Folk
5. 流光似水 ✪ 梦离子 ᴍ∞ɴʀɪᴢᴇ ♫ 电子 Electronica
6. 光明的道路 Na Demelja Lja Jalan/ Bright Path ✪ 巴赖（Balai） ♫ 世界音乐 World
7. 扯谎哥 ✪ 阿朵 ♫ 世界音乐 World
8. 即时通 ✪ 就已 Joey Huang ♫ 说唱 Rap
9. 胜利就在前方了 ✪ K.A咔咔 ♫ 说唱 Rap
10. 吃土的表演工作者 ✪ 寻人启事The Wanted ♫ 阿卡贝拉 Acapella
11. 22kMagic ✪ 许时ShiShr ♫ 说唱 Rap
12. 玉珍 ✪ 福禄寿FloruitShow ♫ 民谣 Folk
13. 洋楼芳梦 ✪ 胭脂虎 Rouge Tiger ♫ 摇滚 Rock
14. 草莓蛋糕 ✪ Anie Fann 范安婷 ♫ 民谣 Folk
15. 恋爱的麻烦 ✪ 花季男女生队 ♫ 说唱 Rap
16. 远方 ✪ 四枝笔 Four Pens ♫ 民谣 Folk
17. 人间普通指南 ✪ 午夜蠕动子队 ♫ 说唱 Rap
18. 吐露空空 ✪ Wishbao ♫ 民谣 Folk
19. 屋顶着火 ✪ 康姆士乐团 ♫ 摇滚 Rock
20. 消失 ✪ 傅欣瑶 ♫ 流行 Pop
21. 天光 Twilight ✪ 黄宇寒Han ♫ 流行 Pop
22. 你还有个我 ✪ 王启 ♫ 流行 Pop
23. 香味 ✪ RECall ♫ 流行 Pop
24. Go psycho ✪ 孙瑄阳 ♫ 说唱 Rap
25. 柔黄 ROYAL YELLOW ✪ 邱比 CHOVBE ♫ 电子 Electronica
26. Qui Con Me 你的色彩 ✪ 声入人心男团 ♫ Europop
27. 模拟人生 ✪ AR 刘夫阳 ♫ 说唱 Rap
28. 夜坐绳桥 Tightrope Walker ✪ 眠脑 Sleeping Brain ♫ 摇滚 Rock
29. Hey Kong ✪ 刘聪 KEY.L ♫ 说唱 Rap
30. disco的快乐 ✪ 泰蜜Tammy ♫ 电子 Electronica
31. 如果没有你2020 ✪ 将个烂就队 ♫ 说唱 Rap
32. 盗梦骑手 ✪ 星号69 ♫ 电子 Electronica
33. 小娟 (化名) ✪ 谭维维 ♫ 流行 Pop
34. 说说 ✪ KUNG 龚敬文 ♫ R&B
35. Mirror ✪ 阿达娃 ♫ R&B
36. My Way ✪ 张碧晨 ♫ 流行 Pop
37. 小房间 Hideaway ✪ Vivien Loh卢苑仪 ♫ 流行 Pop
38. 三行情书 ✪ 曹旭组合 ♫ 摇滚 Rock
39. 梦·川 ✪ 婆罗洲之子 ♫ Post rock 后摇滚
40. 不值得 ✪ 郑伟杰组 ♫ R&B
41. 玻璃屋 Aquariam ✪ JADE ♫ 摇滚 Rock
42. 甲午战争｜War ✪ 厌世少年 ♫ 朋克 Punk
43. 来自外公的一封信 ✪ 彩虹合唱团 ♫ 流行 Pop
44. 你是不是在生气 ft. SJIN & 张伍 ✪ G5SH ♫ 说唱 Rap
45. Peace & Love ✪ Lcz小强 ♫ 雷鬼 Reggae
46. 执着 ✪ 倪琰宸组 ♫ 摇滚 Rock
47. 点点点 ✪ Sam ♫ 民谣 Folk
48. 银行关门后 When The Bank Closes ✪ 88balaz ♫ 摇滚 Rock
49. 留一盏灯给漫漫长夜 ✪ SoulFa 灵魂沙发 ♫ 流行 Pop
50. 顽家 ✪ Jony J ♫ 说唱 Rap

[Flickserve]

4000!

[Weyland]

This looks promising. Except for #36 (  張碧晨《My Way》) these all show up on my YouTube as not-yet-watched, which is rare as I too am an avid listener of Chinese music. I'll be sure to give it a listen.

What's your method of finding new music? YouTube often treats you like a toddler that wants to re-listen to the same song 20 times whenever it recommends you playlists, and Spotify discovery feature is limited to a weekly list (most of which is in no way relevant). Do you use the standalone YouTube Music app perhaps?

[mungouk]

2 hours ago, Weyland said:

This looks promising. Except for #36 (  張碧晨《My Way》)

 

When I read this I assumed it was a cover of the Sinatra song, that wasn't looking promising... ?

 

Great work @feihong, thanks for sharing!
 

@Weyland how does youtube show things as "not yet watched"?  I use YT all the time (browser) and have never seen this.

 

[Weyland]

57 minutes ago, mungouk said:

how does youtube show things as "not yet watched"?

 

It does the opposite, kind of. IIRC YouTube saves the last 500 or so videos you have watched, maybe it's more. It probably is more. I have one of my Google Accounts dedicated to just listening to new Chinese music on YouTube, and when I like a song I add it to a playlist and listen to it again a few weeks later, often with a different headphone, to see whether it's worth adding to my local list.

Like @feihong I'm pretty picky in my music tastes. I can easily listen to a hundred songs and not add a single one to my local playlist. I wonder what @feihong's criteria are for choosing a song. Mine are:

• It needs to have a good BPM, so that if I were to listen to it while exercising (swimming) it doesn't tire me out. Extra points if it switches up the rhythm.
• It needs to have somewhat of a lengthy refrain so that I don't know the lyrics after just one listen.
• It can't have too many English words, preferably none at all.
• Not too nasally or whiny.

[feihong]

11 hours ago, Flickserve said:

4000!

This is very conservative estimate, and doesn't even try to account for all the Chinese songs I passively hear when I'm watching TV with my parents. Basically, I downloaded a bit more than 400 songs in 2020, and I estimate that I download maybe 1 out of 10 songs I listen to. Now, if I were to try to count how many unique songs I heard in 2020, it's for sure a much lower number, since I'm encountering a ton of covers (although I often don't know it's a cover).

 

8 hours ago, Weyland said:

Do you use the standalone YouTube Music app perhaps?

Not directly, no. Apparently a lot of Chinese tracks on YouTube Music just show up on YouTube as "videos" which is just the album cover on loop.

 

9 hours ago, Weyland said:

What's your method of finding new music?

I discover music mostly by using the StreetVoice app and watching music reality shows. But there are many other sources now, so I think I'll devote a separate topic to this.

[feihong]

4 hours ago, Weyland said:

I wonder what @feihong's criteria are for choosing a song.

I don't really know how to describe my musical tastes, but this playlist itself is a decent summary of what I'm into. If you listen to the whole thing, maybe you can tell me.

 

The only thing I can say for sure is that I automatically like almost any song that has "sparkling guitars" or "rolling drums" in it (as you can tell, I'm lacking in the music terminology department). The best example of these motifs on this playlist is 三行情书, which has both.

[Weyland]

5 minutes ago, feihong said:

I automatically like almost any song that has "sparkling guitars" or "rolling drums"

So far I'm only halfway through your list, but I certainly noticed it, yeah. I like those to, though for my own playlist I focused heavily on the vocals. What do you think of this song?

deca joins | 海浪

I tend to listen to songs for like 2 minutes, before I made a judgement. In this song the vocals don't start until 2:06, so in most cases I would have skipped over it. Or songs with music videos like this one;

告五人 Accusefive | 披星戴月的想你
 

Where the music doesn't actually start until 1:35. But then, at 3:00 the music finally hits and it gives a whole different feel to the song.

Also, both of these songs are from 2018, and for that I give my apologies. Haha.

[SophieWaggner83]

This is work! Thanks to the author for the article! I then went to listen to all these songs! I just haven't heard literally 10 songs, now I'm going to listen to them!

[feihong]

On 1/11/2021 at 1:04 PM, Weyland said:

So far I'm only halfway through your list, but I certainly noticed it, yeah. I like those to, though for my own playlist I focused heavily on the vocals. What do you think of this song?

deca joins | 海浪

I liked the instrumentals but I felt let down by the vocals. Pretty sure I’ve listened to this band’s work on StreetVoice before but I haven’t downloaded any of their songs yet.

 

I’ve downloaded a number of Accusefive’s songs (including the one you linked to) and I discovered them through StreetVoice.

[carlo]

Thanks for the playlist @feihong, there's a few I quite enjoyed. However, it fails to mention my greatest discovery of 2020, singer - songwriter Li Zelong:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSAhqxznNZk

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLaPp2002VY