Pop music is always part of the culture of a place. Beyond and Leslie Cheung represent the pop culture of the 80s and 90s. But nowadays, most young generations listen to Korean pop music and Western music more than local Chinese pop music (C-pop). But what is Chinese pop music? We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Chinese pop music (C-pop) comes from countries where a large number of populations use the Chinese language, mainly China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia are also one of the countries in the list, but a Due to multicultural characteristics, C-pop has a limited market in these countries, some Singaporean or Malaysian singers would move to China, Hong Kong or Taiwan to find better opportunities. C-pop included mandopop and Tai-pop. Cantopop was very popular in the 1980s and 1990s, but after this period of time, in the 21st century, Taiwanese singers such as Jay Chou and mainland singers began to gain more fame. And since 2007, the Korean girl group Girls Generation made its debut, K-pop began to be popular all over the world. Using the famous Korean boy band "BTS" as an example, they made their debut in 2013, but they already have 17 MVs (music videos) with more than one hundred thousand hit rates. But only three C-pop singers have more than one music video exceeding one hundred thousand hit rates on YouTube. This essay will mainly focus on Cantopop and Mandopop because one of them is the beginning of C-pop and the other is taking the lead now in C-pop, due to the low usage of Taiwanese Hokkien, Tai-pop is less popular than the other two pops, mainly listened to only by Taiwanese. This essay explains why C-pop has become less popular over the past decade. The first part of the essay will talk about the history of C-pop because before analyzing why C-pop became less popular, we need to know why C-pop -pop was popular in the 20th century, it can provide a better understanding of the background of the problem. And the research on the change of C-pop music industry can make us understand how the change of the world introduces C-pop to the world to other Chinese competitors as well. The method by which people listen to music also influences the industry because companies earn profits by selling music, so the method by which people listen to music influences how the company sells and promotes its music. First, this essay will introduce the history of C-pop. Most of Cantopop's audience are citizens of Hong Kong and citizens of Guangzhou such as Shenzhen because most citizens share the same native language, Cantonese. But Cantopop is mainly based in Hong Kong, so the essay will only focus on the history of Cantopop in Hong Kong. In 1974, Cantopop had the biggest moment in history, this will be the beginning of the famous Cantopop era, in this year there were two people released two songs that shocked the whole Chinese music industry, Sandra Lang released a song composed by Joseph Koo, called 'Between Tears and laughter'(《啼笑姻緣》), and Sam Hui, Kwun-kit debuted with his album 'Gwai ma Seung sing'(《鬼馬雙星》) with the film that shares the same name. And from that moment the most glorious era of Cantopop began. Subsequently, the Cantopop industry grows rapidly. Some more famous singers like Leslie Cheung, Alan Tam and George Lam. And from the 1980s, new Cantopop singers debuting at that time began to mix foreign music style with local music style, for example Sandy Lam used R&B. And at the same time, Mandopop joins in and joins inof the sector. Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng is the best example. From the 1990s to 2000s the band became more popular in C-pop, Beyond was the most successful band during that time. Hong Kong has the four heavenly kings (Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Leon Lai) and Eason Chan, the mainland has Faye Wong, Taiwan has the biggest, most famous singer and bands nowadays almost all debut around this time, for example Jay Chou, A-Mei, Mayday...etc. This is the golden age of C-pop, after that, Canto-pop no longer had impressive movements or debut singers, most of them are only popular among a certain age group in a specific region . The way people listen to music has also changed in recent years. People used to listen to radio programs to learn about a new song, people can't decide which songs to listen to. Commercial Radio Hong Kong, founded in 1959, plays Western music on the radio, such as the Beatles. In the 1970s, Hong Kong's economy was on an upward trend, at the same time people had money to spend on entertainment, such as buying albums or supporting their favorite singer, and even on television. Television is widely used in Hong Kong families, then the other entertainment, television drama, was formed, which also helped the music industry because now they can create theme songs for television drama. Although radio programs in the 1980s and 1990s provided songs from other countries, such as Japan and America, radio still controlled what music people could listen to, so C-pop can still maintain the trend. And the way people listen to music has changed rapidly over these decades. But after the Internet was invented, people started to go online, and they can listen to music on Youtube, they can listen to music all over the world, there are more competitors for C-pop singers. Except for the way people know new songs, the way people memorize their songs has also changed a lot. Sony develops the first walkman in 1979, and the CD player, mp3 player. So far we listen to music from apps on our phone, such as Spotify and Apple Music. Before the Internet became popular in the world, people bought an album just to listen to one or two songs that they really liked, but people stop buying albums since technology nowadays doesn't need something solid to store the music, you can store a million songs on your phone, just one click to listen to all the music you want. The change in the way people listen to music has caused a huge change in the music industry, physical albums are no longer the trend in music, if people can listen to music on YouTube, without paying money, why should they waste it? money to buy an album of which they might only know one or two songs? In conclusion, the change in the way people listen to music has resulted in a huge loss for C-pop. Since C-pop started to develop in the 1980s, when the album was still the main source of income, they can't keep up with the rapid change of technology, because as a company, every time they change the direction running a business is complicated. But K-pop started to develop after 2005, the company already knows how to use the Internet to promote their songs. Although music apps like Spotify and Apple Music pay and purchase the right to use music, there are more people outside listening to music by illegally downloading it online. According to a survey by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, they interviewed seven universities in Hong Kong and receivedthree hundred and twenty-one responses, over 89% of students were downloading music online illegally. The main reason is convenience. One of the students said: The payment to buy music depends on the quality of the song. But even albums and songs that they think are low quality are something that people have worked hard for. People have no awareness of intellectual property, they download music freely from online, but the people who worked hard for the music, such as lyricists and composers, are ignored. Unlike singers, singers can earn by going to shows and doing concerts, these workers can only earn from royalties, the amount of albums and official mp3 resources sold are their income, even if you think that the physical album does not be more useful, people can still buy a digital album or buy an account on the music app. But most people ignore it and download it directly. Professor Leung Wing Chi Louis, said in an article: Music and videos are free to the public, just like air. The younger generation has already become accustomed to free TV and radio programs. But the media is also a product.' He said that the MP3 must be loaded because unlike the TV can put an advertisement, the MP3 cannot put an advertisement. Finally, the style of songs in this decade is not the same as in the past. In the past, around the 90s, the themes of pop songs were mainly about love, society, friendship. These topics can appeal to the adult age group, and the singer himself, including the outlook and his musical style, appeal to the younger age group, for example, students. But today, in the 21st century, the young students of the past become adults. Of course they will listen to new songs but they will also remain close to the singer they liked in the past. But new singers fail to get the support of this age group, the song style and promotion method are the main reason. The theme of the songs is confusing, take the first song "Say meow meow" as a For example, the meaning of the lyrics is basically: Said meow meow. The rhythm is interesting and easy to remember, but the lyrics themselves have no meaning. Just like Kpop, the beats are easy to remember and don't understand the lyrics because most are written in that country's language, for example, Kpop mostly writes in Korean, so fans from other countries may not understand the meaning of the lyric. But the singers of the song usually only have a single instead of an album because they don't have many resources like the Korean music group to produce an album. Most new C-pop singers become famous with just one song, they have ways to earn a profit, at least they can't hold a concert. Adults have high expectations towards music because singers or bands from the 90s or 80s have higher quality. Popular songs nowadays are obviously very different from the old ones, of course there are new singers who still follow the original style of C-pop. And they will set their mindset and think that all new music nowadays is all like that because they don't have time to prove it, they're already busy working or managing their life so they don't have time or mood to explore new singing things they would like . And the new generation has been listening to these songs since they were little, so they think this music is cool and they don't like the music of the 80s and 90s. But just liking and commenting on social media is not enough to make those singers rich. Students and younger generations don't have much financial income or even have no financial income, they can't.