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Remapping Hong Kong popular music: covers, localisation and the waning hybridity of Cantopop

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2013

Yiu-Wai Chu  and
Eve Leung
Yiu-Wai Chu
Affiliation:
Humanities Programme, Hong Kong Baptist University, Ho Sin Hang Campus, 224 Waterloo Road, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong E-mail: sywchu@hkbu.edu.hk
Eve Leung
Affiliation:
SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG, UK E-mail: eve@soas.ac.uk
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Abstract

Ever since its sovereignty reverted to China, Hong Kong has been torn between its national (in terms of China and its ‘soft’ power) and global status (as ‘Asia's World City’). In this special context, Hong Kong's singular, ambiguous but prolific existence ceased. This paper endeavours to map ‘Cantopop’ (Chinese popular songs) on the new media landscape and examine its decline in the context of the rise and fall of cover versions. Cantopop was once very popular, not only in Hong Kong but also in its neighbouring regions. Its rise in the 1970s was a result of its typical hybridity, an important aspect of which was influenced by the use of cover versions that changed its soundscape. In the mid-1990s, the Cantopop market started to shrink significantly. A radio campaign for localisation advocated the release of original songs aimed at enhancing the development of Cantopop, but in the end proved to have the opposite effect. In the new millennium, ‘Mandapop’ (Mandarin popular songs) has taken on the role as the trend setter of the Chinese popular music industry. We argue in this paper that Cantopop's decline is the result of Hong Kong's loss of hybridity.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 32 , Issue 1: East Asian popular music and its (dis)contents , January 2013 , pp. 65 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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