A Short History of Mandopop, Decade by Decade华语流行音乐简史
Mandarin pop music, or Mandopop, began in the dance halls of 1920s Shanghai, survived war and politics by moving to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and came back to the mainland on smuggled cassette tapes. Here is the story, with one or two songs to hear from each era.
1920s to 1940s: Shanghai, the birthplace
In the 1920s Shanghai was one of the most international cities in the world, full of jazz bands, film studios and record labels. The composer Li Jinhui (黎锦辉) mixed Chinese folk melodies with Western jazz and is often called the father of Chinese popular music. These songs became known as shídàiqǔ (时代曲, "songs of the times").
The biggest star was Zhou Xuan (周璇), an actress and singer nicknamed the "Golden Voice". Her songs came from films, which is how most people heard them.
- 天涯歌女 · 周璇, 1937. From the film Street Angel (马路天使), a simple, sad melody that is still sung today.
- 夜上海 · 周璇, 1940s. A portrait of Shanghai nightlife, and the song most people think of when they picture old Shanghai.
1950s to 1970s: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Teresa Teng
After 1949, popular music of this kind was discouraged on the mainland, and the industry moved to Hong Kong and then Taiwan. In the 1970s one singer changed everything: Teresa Teng (邓丽君). Her soft, intimate voice was the opposite of the loud revolutionary songs on mainland radio. When China began to open up in the late 1970s her cassettes spread everywhere, at first unofficially. A popular saying went: "By day, listen to Old Deng (Deng Xiaoping); by night, listen to Little Deng (Teresa Teng)."
- 月亮代表我的心 · 邓丽君, 1977. "The Moon Represents My Heart" is probably the best-known Chinese love song in the world.
At the same time, Taiwanese university students started the campus folk song movement (校园民歌): simple songs with acoustic guitars, written by young people in their own language rather than copied from Western hits.
- 外婆的澎湖湾 · 潘安邦, 1979. A gentle song about a grandmother's seaside home, learned by generations of schoolchildren.
1980s: rock arrives
In Taiwan, Lo Ta-yu (罗大佑) wrote songs with sharp social commentary and became the model for the singer-songwriter. In Beijing in 1986, Cui Jian (崔健) walked on stage in an old army jacket and sang a rock song called "Nothing to My Name". Chinese rock was born.
- 童年 · 罗大佑, 1982. "Childhood", a nostalgic song every Chinese speaker of a certain age can sing.
- 一无所有 · 崔健, 1986. "Nothing to My Name", the founding song of Chinese rock.
1990s: the Hong Kong superstars
The 1990s belonged to Hong Kong's "Four Heavenly Kings" (四大天王): Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai. They sang mostly in Cantonese, but their Mandarin albums sold in huge numbers across Taiwan and the mainland. Faye Wong (王菲) became the decade's most original female voice.
- 吻别 · 张学友, 1993. "Goodbye Kiss" by Jacky Cheung, one of the best-selling Mandarin albums of all time.
- 红豆 · 王菲, 1998. "Red Bean", a quiet ballad that is still one of the most covered Mandopop songs.
2000s: Jay Chou and the Taiwan wave
Jay Chou (周杰伦) released his first album in 2000 and changed the sound of Mandopop. He mixed R&B and hip hop with Chinese instruments and classical-style lyrics, a style fans call Zhōngguó fēng (中国风, "China style"). The same decade brought the band Mayday (五月天), Stefanie Sun (孙燕姿) and JJ Lin (林俊杰), and Taipei became the capital of Chinese pop.
- 七里香 · 周杰伦, 2004. "Common Jasmine Orange", the perfect summer love song.
- 青花瓷 · 周杰伦, 2007. "Blue and White Porcelain", the most famous example of China-style pop.
2010s: talent shows and viral hits
TV talent shows such as The Voice of China (中国好声音, from 2012) made stars out of unknown singers, and the internet started deciding what became a hit. "Little Apple" by the Chopstick Brothers was everywhere in 2014, from wedding parties to the dance routines of retired women in city squares (广场舞). Hong Kong singer G.E.M. (邓紫棋) became one of the most watched Chinese artists on YouTube.
- 小苹果 · 筷子兄弟, 2014. Silly, catchy, impossible to escape.
- 光年之外 · 邓紫棋, 2016. "Light Years Away", written for the Chinese release of the film Passengers.
2020s: the short-video era
Today many songs become hits because a 15-second clip goes viral on Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok). Older classics also get new life when young people discover them through short videos. Eason Chan's (陈奕迅) "Lonely Warrior", the Chinese theme song for the animated series Arcane, became a playground anthem sung by schoolchildren across China.
- 孤勇者 · 陈奕迅, 2021. "Lonely Warrior", the song every Chinese child seemed to know in 2022.
Want something you have never heard? Our player often lands on music videos from every era.
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中文小结
华语流行音乐起源于二三十年代的上海（周璇），五十年代后在香港和台湾发展，七十年代邓丽君红遍华人世界，八十年代罗大佑和崔健带来了新的声音，九十年代是四大天王和王菲的时代，两千年后周杰伦开创了“中国风”，如今的热门歌曲则常常来自抖音短视频。
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