Music Obsessions – September 2022

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! I honestly can’t believe its already September and I’ve actually managed to keep up with this segment with actual content. Its a little wild overall. Either way, here we are so let’s go right into it!

Cruel – Jackson Wang

At this point, Jackson Wang really has proven that his variety in his music with his resources has truly grown quite a bit including the music video themselves are really creative. While I can’t say that I love all his music the same level, there’s a certain catchiness to them that jives well. Cruel is pretty good and the video is pretty impressive. I wonder whether Jackson Wang will one day jump into being a director at this point seeing as all his music videos now have a certain fantastical story background.

眼淚落下之前 Before Tears Fall Down – Silence Wang 汪蘇瀧

This summer’s youth romance film, since it seems like there’s always one highlight film of that regard in China is My Blue Summer. The source material for My Blue Summer has already been adapted into 2 separate Chinese TV series before called Unrequited Love both times with the only difference being its network and the cast. While I think that’s kind of pointless, they’ve gone and adapted it into a film as well. Which brings us to Silence Wang’s song which I really liked when he performed it in Wonderland Season 2, a Chinese lifestyle variety show so found the original MV.

寻一个你 Searching You- Yuning Liu刘宇宁
(“Love Between Fairy and Devil” Theme)

One of the hit Chinese fantasy dramas this summer has to be Love Between Fairy and Devil so of course, I’m also watching it right now. Not binging quite the way that I normally would but everything fits so well for me from the cast to the soundtrack. Its theme is by Yuning Liu which I have shared him music quite a bit over the time this segment has been around. Probably one of the newer singers that I like nowadays since the last time I followed someone so intently has be at least a decade ago. Regardless, I’m always happy to watch series and find his song part of the OST. Its a really nice one that matches this series pretty well.

臟藝術家 Dirty Artist – MC HotDog熱狗

Its crazy how time does fly by but MC HotDog was the original first generation Chinese rapper back in my teenage days and its great to see the status that he’s achieved as a hip hop artist. In the last few years popping on music related variety show, there’s a humble side of him that makes him so respectable. In the latest season of Rap of China: All Stars Season, not only did he take all the new generation rappers under his wing in his team, there’s no doubt that during the performances that all these years experience with his writing and the messages he wants in his songs now. There’s a versatility that can’t be duplicated. Either way, he tried to not outshine his other team members most of the time but this song he did himself is probably the best of the show.

粉色海洋 Pink Ocean – 周杰倫 Jay Chou

I’d like to say that Jay Chou’s latest album seems to be all songs paired up with Taiwanese lyricist Vincent Fang who found his popularity writing up the majority of the hit songs from Jay Chou’s beginning albums, so there’s a real taste of nostalgia as this album’s songs remind me a lot of the earlier albums of Jay Chou back in 2000. This music video also is one filmed with Jay Chou’s son so its pretty fun overall. While most of the songs in the recent music videos are pretty good, this one is so light-hearted and positive.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to lately?

Music Obsessions – August 2022

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! The last month was pretty fun as a lot of new music videos landed and others popped up on my list from various shows and whatnot. All Chinese music from different spaces and styles but all very fun stuff! Let’s check it out!

最偉大的作品 Greatest Works of Art – 周杰倫 Jay Chou

Jay Chou is basically my youth seeing as he got famous in the prime of my post-secondary days around 2003 and he became the center of a lot of conversations and his songs became the focus of karaoke days back then as well making him an musician that I’ve been following for a long time (with some gaps in the middle) and I’ve shared quite a few songs of his. I should really considering doing a focus post on him when we get a slower month. This month, he dropped this one which the song itself is nice but the video is one that is even better, especially for those who watched his J-Style Trip on Netflix where you see some of his best friends pop up in this music video as well as he travels through time, performs a few magic tricks while recreating the art masterpieces.

一格格 Frames – 衛蘭 Janice Vidal

There’s a chunk of Janice Vidal’s discography which is an empty space for me when I stopped listening to Cantopop for a while (or at least the new stuff over a decade as I lost a little faith in what was coming out) and now its a lot of catch-up. This popped up mostly because of the Chinese singing variety show and their really good rendition but the original very nice. The whole chill vibe really suits the song and is such a feel good song in general.

賽勒斯的愛 Cherlas – 張敬軒 Hins Cheung

Its been a long time since I have looked up Hins Cheung’s new music. Funny enough he is rather underrated since he went onto the music scene fairly quietly and had a few hits but no one really knows him that well (at least in my circle of friends). This one oddly popped up my recommended videos recently. Somehow I found it rather catchy. The story is well portrayed in the music video as well. The lyrics are decent as well.

隆里电丝 Lonely Dance – KEY.L刘聪/ICE杨长青/盛宇DamnShine/Ricky

My latest variety watch is the latest season of The Rap of China Season 4 or something. I’m not an avid watcher of this variety show but this season is a competition of the best of the best or something so some pretty cool competitors in competition show. While I don’t really share a ton of variety show stuff, this one did get released as a single by one of the performers here but I still prefer the performance version more, mostly because I really do like ICE as a rapper and the whole guitarist Ricky is a super nice addition. Its a fun funky rap song which is kind of how I like hip hop music or just the fact that rap itself can be incorporated into so many different styles of music. This is a great example of it.

最後一堂課 Graduation – Eric Chou 周興哲
(“Mom, Don’t Do That!” End Theme)

I’m not sure if people actually watch Taiwanese series, even if they are Netflix series but I’ve had my eyes on them for a while and slowly catching up with it. The recent release of Mom, Don’t Do That! Is where this song is from. I do like Eric Chou quite a bit as well and he is diving into acting as he takes a cameo role in the series. The song does match certain parts of the series pretty well.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!

Music Obsessions – October 2021

Welcome to this month’s music obsessions! The past month has been quite interesting. Looking back, there hasn’t been a lot of new music that I’ve discovered since I’ve been watching a lot of variety shows and stand-up comedy shows. However, fret not, just enough fun music to share this time around! As usual, some fun extras from variety show Singing With Legends at the end.

Let’s go!

不超级的马里奥 Mario Is Not A Superman – Ma Ye 马也

I love funky music like this that plays on video games or other pop culture stuff in their own twist. The whole song has some really fun lyrics about how Mario isn’t super in his pursuit for Princess Peach and whatnot which breaks the norm and its fairly entertaining over with its rhythm and music.

你不適合兩個人 You Aren’t Suitable for Two People – Sunnee 楊芸晴

While I never followed Rocket Girls 101 much, I actually do like Sunnee a lot whether its from her appearances in variety shows or her performance ability. I’ve been going back to listen to some of her singles and they all are pretty good. This is her latest single (I think) and while the music video has some awkward overacting, the song itself is pretty good. The whole thing is pretty simple but somehow Sunnee’s voice is one that I find so soothing to listen to.

違背的青春 Against Youth – Joker Xue 薛之謙

I don’t really actively follow Joker Xue’s music normally but whenever his music pops up wherever I always end up searching up the music since his voice is very unique mostly for how he sings. This time its from the new season of Singing With Legends where he performs this song. The performance itself is also pretty good (even if something funny happens) but there’s nothing better than sharing the original so here we go! Its also a different song from previous songs that I’ve shared before of Joker Xue’s songs as its not about love but more about youth and life itself.

不良少年 High School Punk- Lil Ghost小鬼王琳凯

I’ve shared a good few Lil Ghost’s songs at this point. Its pretty nice to see that as he develops his music career, he has proved that he is a great rapper and hip hop artist but also equally capable in other styles of music. The last few songs that he’s released has broken away from the usual hip hop style from when he started and has changed slowly but its always very upbeat and fun songs.

Pull Up- Panthepack

Panthepack has definitely been releasing their song’s very regularly now. The last few weeks had a few new releases. Jackson Wang creating this hip hop group really is quite interesting especially after I recognized the other three artists. One of them being more familiar as he was a mentor in Listen Up Season 1. Either way, their songs and music videos have pretty decent budget behind it and really good production value. I do like this one a lot as it does feature a lot of different hip hop artists from the Chinese entertainment industry in the video. Plus, its super upbeat and full of positive and happy vibes. Its like the joy of having fun with friends. Good times overall.

Extras from Variety Show “Singing With Legends Season 3”

I absolutely love the Chinese variety show Singing with Legends. At Season 3, this season has some of my favorite singers gathered together so suffice to say, I can’t give up a chance to share some of George Lam’s duets. Both songs are basically Hong Kong classics. The favorite is a mesh of Danny Chan’s song with a little snippet from Rod Stewart’s Sailing. Its a great new rendition.

The second is from their performance after the group’s have been formed in A Team for George Lam and Fox Hu. George Lam is one of my favorite singers even if I don’t listen all time. This song of his is one of my easily Top 5 favorite songs ever. This rendition definitely didn’t disappoint. Its hard to imagine that George Lam is 74 years old and still sings so incredibly good.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to recently?

Music Obsessions – September 2021

September is here! Next Music Obsessions is here as the first weekend arrives! This month has been a decent mix. Its mostly songs that I’ve found through different variety shows and TV series. Considering there’s a lot of variety shows I’m watching that are music-oriented, so its pretty fun overall.

我只能離開 I Can Only Leave – Renzhong Yan 顏人中

While I have my opinions on Chinese drama A Little Thing Called First Love and should get a TV binge out for it at some point this coming month, this song is really good. I always catch music by Renzhong Yan here and there but never can pinpoint his music specifically. However, I do like his voice overall. Its pretty unique. Plus, this song worked really well in the series in terms of the lyrics so it was a memorable one.

3189 – 焦迈奇 Maiqi Jiao

3189 is an absolutely unique song. The most random song ever if anything right from the lyrics to the music video itself. Something about getting sleep back and happiness and a bunch of odd things and yet, somehow there’s this very catchy element of all the conversation where it feels somehow relevant to what its about as it pulls in Mary Had A Little Lamb but a flipped version of it but its all about trying to go to sleep, counting sheep and stuff..at least that’s my interpretation but then its a little bit more and somehow I find some of it feels relatable. Its just really random and I like odd stuff so this is right up my alley.

With that said, I found this while watching the cover from the performance on “Call My By Fire” by one of my fave groups there with Jordan Chan, Michael Tse, Jerry Lamb, Julian Cheung, Edmond Leung, all big names in Hong Kong. Either way, you can find their performance here also which has a pretty fun twist to it.

The Oath of Love 余生，请多指教- Andy Yang 杨紫 & Sean Xiao 肖战
(Tencent TV series “The Oath of Love” Main Theme)

The Oath of Love finally is launching on Tencent in September. Consider me happy. Big fan of the two main leads who also sings this duet. This duet makes me anticipate the series even more as they seem to have fantastic chemistry. Maybe finally have a series that will follow the wonderful dynamic of the leads following Go Go Squid!. I’m getting carried away but nice sweet song overall.

再見，少年 Farewell, My Lad – 梁靜茹 Fish Leong
(“Farewell, My Lad” Main Theme)

I honestly think that Farewell, My Lad is the upcoming film that will be a family of stories that follows Better Days. I mean, look at the typography they use. Either way, just a small thought on this new Chinese film. I’m hoping that this film will be available. Big fan of Fish Leong. She’s probably one of my top 5 favorite female singers and this song is just so good. I do think the whole scenes from the film does fit the song a lot also.

Let’s Do This! – Cacien Team
(“Girls Like Us” Performance)

I usually don’t post up performances for any of the variety shows as their own part but most of my playlist right now is from performances from “Girls Like Us” Chinese female hip hop competition. Cacien’s group is very unique and the songs that they make is super positive. This performance is pretty good plus the song makes me feel happy so its a good one to wrap up this month’s music obsessions.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – August 2021

It’s August and time for the next music obsessions! Plus, its a little break from all the film reviews lately as we jump into some of the music that I’ve discovered in the past month! Let’s go!

DNA – Panthepack

Jackson Wang’s Team Wang is definitely growing as it starts bringing in other artists and such starting with his promotion of Panthepack and their new song DNA for the past while. Of course, I’ve only heard it recently because of the new Tencent hiphop competition show Girls Like Us where he performs this song.

泊 Anchor – Corsak

Corsak has definitely been finding his groove lately. His last few songs have been very fun. Anchor is really relaxing to listen to and his vocals are pretty on point. There’s something really soothing about the whole song here from its lyrics to the tune itself that has a nice balance. Its a pretty meaningful song overall.

WULEI – Yanqi Zhang

Honestly, I don’t have a lot to say about this one. I’m a big fan of the latest competition show Girls Like Us because it gives a highlight on the female hiphop artists in China especially as they are rather talented and gives them a voice. However, I’m also really happy that they got Yanqi Zhang, who is a former R1SE member and the trainee from Produce Camp 2019 that I liked right from his first preliminary stage as he is a fantastic hip hop artist with both his producing skills to his rapping skills, to host the public performances for the show. I think this performance really shows his abilities and I just really like it a ton.

Woman – Yico Zeng 曾轶可

I told you before that I’m a big fan of the show so other than Jackson Wang, I think the biggest discovery for myself is a Chinese female singer Yico Zeng who has a fantastic sort of style. I like this type of unique creative which takes a very different approach and her new song performed on the first episode as her entrance is called Woman which matches the show so much. The lyrics and the whole tune and rhythm is so different from the other mentors that are part of this show. Next mission is to start going through her discography. I’ll report back in the future with more of her songs, I’m almost positive.

對峙 Confrontation – Nicholas Tse
(‘Raging Fire’ Main Theme)

Raging Fire is hitting theatres at the end of August and its a movie that I’m absolutely looking forward to see since its Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse. Anyone frequent here may know that I’m a mega fan of Nicholas Tse almost since his debut. He’s just gone through so much and worked so hard to create change and his latest songs have been all so meaningful. Either way, there’s not much to say about this one but it doubles as a trailer of the upcoming film.

That’s it for this month’s Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – May 2021

Welcome to the next Music Obsessions! May is already here! I honestly can’t believe me. This first 4 months of the year went by so fast mostly because I was so busy and just working a whole lot. Either way, music has been a lot in my life especially since I’m watching survival idol competitions and stuff so it gave me a chance to look up the original songs and there’s been some good ones. I’d say there’s some decent variety this time so hope you find something that you like as well!

Let’s go!

Stop Sugar – Gen Neo

I’m not sure if finding Gen Neo was more worth mentioning than finding Stop Sugar in general. I still think its a great song but Gen Neo has a fantastic voice and I had never even heard of him before watching Youth With You 3. His style and his voice is absolutely fitting to the music genre that he chooses to do. He has some other experimental ones of covers and collabs that are also pretty good especially worth mentioning is the one for Leehom Wang’s You’re Not There, a song that I love a lot and his version is different but really good and catchy as well.

A Kind World – 2Night夜里

I’m not sure how I ended up finding this song but 2Night was on the Chinese Rap Competition show last year and I really liked his rap style even though he didn’t make it very far. Finding this is pretty cool since its a rather fun song. I haven’t been able to find the lyrics since some of the faster rap bits are a little hard to catch but overall, I do like the writing and the rhythm of the whole thing. Its feels so lighthearted and feel good to listen to.

超能力 Superpower – G.E.M.鄧紫棋

A lot of people who listen to Chinese pop music knows G.E.M. at this point. She’s known to have a powerful voice and so young with so much success. I have to say that the last few years has really made me see a lot more of her music as her success allowed her to expand into other music genres and make more unique and/or meaningful music. Superpower definitely is unique especially when you look at the dance. Its super catchy overall and its been revolving in my head non-stop.

As a side note, her performance on Youth With You 3 for the Collab Stage was pretty fun as well. You can look it up if you want or ask me to share the link in the comments if you want to check it out

念想 Better Us – Jackson Yee易烊千玺 (‘Better Days’ OST)

I haven’t been watching a ton of movies this past month but I think the most memorable has to be Better Days, a movie that I had bought before it was nominated as Best International Feature at the Oscar’s but it did encourage me to watch it sooner. You can find my review HERE. The soundtrack is pretty good. I was deciding whether to share the main theme of the movie by JJ Lin or this one for this post. This one won out mostly because I think this song’s lyrics is pretty well-written and fits the movie so well. At the same time, I think Jackson Yee doing such a good acting job in this movie and then performing this type of song was a bit surprising. To be honest though, I only know Jackson Yee from 3 places before this: his early boy group TF Boys, a few episode of Season 2 of Street Dance of China and the variety show Welcome Back to Sound which kind of all shows his diversity. Either way, this is very quiet but I think its pretty good.

閉嘴跳舞 Shut Up and Dance – Chris Lee 李宇春

I don’t usually share performances from Youth With You 3 BUT this one is unique because its a fresh new music video for a new song from Chris Lee which had its first reveal or public performance or something on the show. Its also a very catchy song and the whole performance and dancing. They wanted to make it with an brainwashing effect for its dance routine. I think its pretty fun overall plus these are all top trainees in the show so the quality is definitely there. Plus, Chris Lee did put together a well done music video with a lot of style not to mention, I love this type of funky music style.

That’s it for this music obsessions!
Hope you enjoyed it!

Music Obsessions – January 2021

The first Music Obsessions of 2021! I do say that I had a few hard choices to make between what I was listening to more since there was some fun music this past month. Let’s check it out!

Ready Now – Lil Ghost

Out of ex-boy group Nine Percent, I do say that Lil Ghost was the one that has grown a lot in how I view his talent over the years after he left boy group competition Idol Producer. Lil Ghost Linkai Wang does have some good skills and some great producing skills and lyricist. His songs in the past while has really shown off a variety of styles and for him, Ready Now was one that I had dismissed when it first came out but lately, its one that I’ve enjoyed quite a bit especially with the ending bit where there’s a contrast of him whispering the lyrics.

Should’ve Let Go過 – Jackson Wang 王嘉爾 & 林俊傑 JJ Lin

Who doesn’t want to collaborate with JJ Lin, right? Being a similar type of artist, Jackson Wang’s voice blends really well with JJ Lin’s voice. Its actually quite rare to see two men in a duet but somehow there is a different feeling of two men reflecting on their past love life that seems to work. This one is very relaxing to listen to.

仲夏满天心 Midsummer Full of Love – Yisa Yu 郁可唯
(“Midsummer Full of Love” Main Theme)

Midsummer Full of Love is a series that took me by surprise. It ended up being a lot better than I had expected and the soundtrack was also pretty good. The main theme here is sang by Yisa Yu who I personally love. She has this fantastic voice that works with so many genres plus some songs really show that control she has over how she sings. Sure, she’s had better songs than this one but seeing as I just finished binging this one over the holidays, this song has been one that I’ve been listening to a lot.

Di Da Di – Coco Lee

Coco Lee and Lil Ghost ends up on the list for their duet on Our Song 2. These two pair-up with some great end-results. Coco Lee’s blend of this song and Lil Ghost’s Ready Now is one of my faves and I’ll add that at the bottom as a bonus however, this did lead me to listen to Di Da Di which is a fantastic song. Coco Lee is definitely a wonderful singer that I sometimes forget about but nothing like a singing show to remind us of how great she is.

U – Jasper Liu

Compared to a lot of people, Jasper Liu is fairly new to me. I’ve only seen him in Twogether (review) before and haven’t gotten around to watching the 2 series available on Netflix of his. Its mostly because he showed up on the Taiwan series scene after I stopped watching it. Lately, he’s been popping on my radar especially since he used this song as his intro for this new Chinese variety show, When We Write Love Story. He does have a good voice and the song is pretty lighthearted and fun.

BONUS:
Di Da Di + Ready Now Medley (Our Song S2 performance) – Coco Lee & Lil Ghost

This is the song that I’ve been listening to the most. Top 5 song of this year’s Our Song for sure. The blend of the two songs brings out the essence of both. Its so much fun to listen to and the “chemistry” between the two is best shown in this performance.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to lately?

Music Obsessions: All Sorts of Fun!

Good morning (afternoon/evening/night whenever you see this) on this fine Saturday. I’m in a fantastic mood.  Well, I had some long needed phone time with my best friend last night and living on 5 hours of sleep and heading out to check something out, hopefully with some photo time with my camera but before I headed out, I felt like I wanted to share some Music Obsessions!

I don’t know what I’d do without this past week so these songs have been on repeat! Its a mixed basket this time around so maybe you’ll find something you’ll enjoy as well 🙂

Tiesto & KSHMR feat. Vassy – Secrets 

This video is awesome, especially because I’m totally into the gaming thing right now.  Arcades, Oculus rift…so awesome.  I wish I could afford the Oculus Rift. It seems like an amazing gaming experience. Plus, the beats and tunes are addictive.  I haven’t been too into a lot of Tiesto’s newer stuff but this collab one is really great 🙂

Dreaming Alone – Against the Current feat Taka from ONE OK ROCK

Against the Current is definitely a force to be reckoned with.  When I first started listening to their music, I wasn’t too sure but the last few originals and covers have been really great.  Plus, ONE OK ROCK (from what I’ve checked out so far) has some pretty decent music as well.  Not exactly my usual music genre but there’s some good music.

Shut Up and Dance – Walk the Moon (Tyler Ward acoustic cover)

Sam Smith – Like I Can (Piano Cover by Corey Gray)

And some bonus Hong Kong nostalgia going on!  Some HK pop from the awesome Dave Wong, originally released in 1988.  Late 80s and early 90s had some of the best music in Hong Kong.  But then, I’m also in this weird Hip Hop phase and checking out one of the few Hip Hop groups (who has disbanded now) called LMF (short for Lazy Mutha Fucka). Either way, I had some peculiar taste in music…haha! There’s some nice beats even without understanding it so check it out if you’d like 🙂

 [HK pop] Dave Wong – 幾分傷心幾分癡/Bits of Sadness Bits of Craze

[Hip Hop] LMF – 飛/Fly

[Hip Hop] Edison Chen feat Hanjin/MC Yan/Paisley Wu – War

That’s it for this month’s Music Obsessions! See you all on Monday with my next post! Its gonna be a busy weekend! Plus an announcement coming next week and a good bit of bloggy business to take care of 🙂

Happy Saturday! 🙂