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 2020

Time for the next Music Obsessions! Its September and the beginning of Labor Day Weekend! Fun times, right? I’ve been bombarding everyone with movie reviews lately so all wordy posts in general so lets just get right to it and check out some fun music!

Warm Sunshine 暖阳光 – 吴季峰 Jifeng Wu

One of the songs from the Mr. Honesty is definitely one of my favorite since its all kinds of positive vibes. Its all happy and fun to listen to which is exactly what I’ve been wanting to listen to.

红眼睛 Red Eyes – Rarpid望江晴 & JD & 葛兆恩 Kodii
(“Listen Up/ Rap Star” Team Battle Performance)

There’s probably isn’t another performance part of Rap Star/ Listen Up variety show that I’ve listened to more on repeat. These three put together a stellar show packed with a love triangle story line and some great lyrics. If only they had a version which was just what they were saying when the mic is off to add to the actual performance, that would be so cool. All three are such good rap star contestants that I’ve love to see them get further. Of course, JD ended up winning 1st place in the show already so he’s going to places.

Mojito – Jay Chou

I’m 3 months late to this Jay Chou party but this song was a reminder that I need to get back to J-Style Trip. Its filmed in the streets of Havana, Cuba and has such a fun vibe to the story with lyrics that compare some romantic lyrics comparing a lover to Havana and all its highlights. This song is upbeat and awesome! Not to mention the music video also has a special appearance with Alan Kuo.

Rain 雨- 沈以誠 Eason Shen
(Song from TV Series “Go Ahead” OST)

I haven’t had a chance to fangirl over Go Ahead which is my latest drama binge as its playing right now updated with new episodes everyday. That series is just all kinds of feels. I’ve cried and laughed, sweet and bitter times and there’s still 10 episodes to go as I’m writing this up. This song is my favorite that happens to play in some of the really memorable moments fittingly. I especially love the piano ballad and the lyrics…well, that’s everything isn’t it? Its my current mega obsession both the song and the TV series.

宇宙的宇 阳光的阳 – JD
(Winning Performance of Rap Star 2020)

The finals of Rap Star was really awesome with a lot of amazing performances. I had a hard time deciding which one to use since the 2nd Trouble.Z and 3rd place KC also had some awesome songs. While I think this one won on the song being about JD changing his usual style and taking a more melodic route with a rap song and lyrics for his son about giving his name which meant that he would give him the universe and the sunlight, which is rather touching and warm. I mean, how to do beat a song like that? Not to mention that JD was no doubt going to win this season since he had a lot more stable and solid technical skills and production skills than the other contestants in general.

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

Music Obsessions – April 2020

April is upon us! 2020 is going by crazy fast and spring is already here! The world’s a bit crazy right now but its why music is so important! At least for myself, I have coincidentally been watching a lot of music-related variety shows, making this Music Obsessions a little more padded than normal. I just can’t choose and really want to share it all! Its different music genres and a little slow and a little fast as well to give it a little balance. Hopefully you will like it!

GOOD NIGHT – Lil Ghost 小鬼

We start off with something fun and light. Lil Ghost (Linkai Wang) previously a member of Nine Percent, released this song back in 2018 however, I only caught this because of variety show Our Song. Lil Ghost is one of the most talented young rappers in the Chinese music landscape that really has a lot of potential and while I might not have seen it so much in Idol Producer, the many variety shows that he’s been in really shows off his personality as well as his talent. At least on-screen, he brings a lot of positive vibes and that’s really great.

Half Moon Serenade 月半小夜曲 – Hacken Lee 李克勤 & Charlie Zhou 周深 (“Our Song” performance)

Hacken Lee and Charlie Zhou’s every single performance in Our Song was all my favorite so it all comes down to which song I love personally a lot and my favorite song of Hacken Lee (definitely in top 5 singles) goes to Half Moon Serenade and they do a fantastic job here. Its how their voices play off each other really well and also how they manage to pair together so well.

Remaining Years 餘年 – Sean Xiao 肖戰

Sean Xiao has been through a rather ridiculous situation in my opinion early in March, right when I started checking out his stuff, peaked by interest after Who’s The Murderer and then his stellar performances in Our Song and my interest in checking out The Untamed eventually (but haven’t yet). I ended up finding this song that I’ve put on repeat a whole lot. He is a very talented singer who started out in a boy group XNINE but ended up pursuing an acting career nowadays but he still has really good voice. Remaining Years is a song in last year’s series Joy of Life (that I also didn’t see but my mom is currently watching) and its really the song and how it sounds that I find has a hard element to learn how to sing.

The Younger Me 少年 – Wakin Chau 周華健

Wakin Chau is more like my parents music but I grew up as a little girl listening to him and knowing a lot of his song in the 80s and 90s. So many memory songs and he has a unique voice that you can just recognize right away. His latest album took him years to put together and the lyrics here (while not written by him) is incredibly meaningful and kind of grabs me everytime. I’ll translate the Chorus and ending verse:

Some people we don’t see again, Some dreams have been forgotten
I sing every song to keep the happiness
Some roads are hard to walk, Some pains take a lifetime to heal
I can still smile and live

Sometimes its too late to settle, The years have passed before your soul
Fortunately there is a little faith, Accompanying us to go through everyday
Don’t forget your heart’s younger self, The wild and brave younger self at the start

100 Ways – Jackson Wang

Adding an English song to the mix! Jackson Wang makes some pretty fantastic music videos. While I can’t say that I love a lot of his music, mostly because I’m pretty picky with his style of music. However, 100 Ways is definitely my fave so far and the one that I’ve replayed the most. Its upbeat and fun. The lyrics is a tad repetitive but the whole song’s rhythm and beat just works so catchy!

我说了算(I Have the Final Say) – Nicholas Tse, Jam Hsiao & Karry Wang
(Me to Us performance)

Me to Us is a great variety show that has really only started. Putting together Nicholas Tse, Jam Hsiao and Karry Wang, the former two who I know more than the latter. Nicholas Tse wrote this song for the first performance of Me To Us as they all sing it together. Its just all kinds of awesome. I can’t fangirl over the fact that I just thought back that its been 20 years that I’ve been a fan of Nicholas Tse and his performance is every bit as fantastic now than when I first heard his songs in 2000 (maybe even 1999). Not to mention, this song is so fun and powerfully rock!

When I Met You當遇見你  – Yuning Liu 劉宇寧
(Ending Theme “Skate Into Love”)

I kind of debated whether to put this here since I might end up using this video as a part of the TV binge when I finish Skate Into Love but you know what, I truly have been lately the most obsessed with this one. I have shared a few of Yuning Liu’s songs before and this one is also really cute and romantic and fits this series a lot. There’s some great singing going on here from Yuning Liu as well.

That’s it for this (longer than usual) Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to on repeat?

Music Obsessions – September 2019

Another month as passed by. Its been a very odd month since it feels like I haven’t quite found a ton of new music but then there’s been some interesting finds at the same time. Its been quite random or related to whatever I’ve been watching and such.

好好說 – Sammi Cheng 鄭秀文

If we were to talk about a singer that I’ve adored for a long time, it has to go to Sammi Cheng who inspired a lot of my own love for pop music in terms of female singers especially for Cantonese pop music. This song is for her upcoming movie which I hope to get a chance to see as I like a few people in the cast as well but I absolutely love this song. The lyrics and her singing and everything: still love her even after so very long (we’re talking almost two decades).

谁都别吝啬 – R1SE

I was a bit skeptical of R1SE or lets say, Produce Camp but this group has really made its mark as its been associated with a lot of different songs for TV shows and having their own music and such. Its definitely nice to be on the Tencent platform or to have come out of a show on the Tencent platform. Adding into their own singing abilities, its a group that works. As much as I like this song, I do hope that they all get to find their place as a few of the boys in this group are quite good at the overall music production from lyrics to music. Hopefully, they’ll get a chance to flex those skills. For now, their music is always a constant fun and energetic company.

Bad Guy – Billie Eilish

Its taken a few listens but I’ve been into this song lately. The video is a bit weird in my opinion but hey, the song is quite fun. I’m not sure whether its going to be a permanent thing in my playlist but this past month, its been quite entertaining to have on and keeping the energy level high.

The Coming One 3 Highlights
White – Rohar Ye & Tian Yi

漂浮群岛 – 张颜齐 & 洪一诺

The Coming One 3 is done but I can’t get over the collabs show they did. That episode was my favorite and these two performances above are my absolutely faves.  I’m doing it as a unit because they are simply highlights from the show. Both of them didn’t end up winning in the end but these two girls are my faves of the competition. Rohar Ye is my absolute fave right from her first song so I’m hoping she continues tackling the rest of the colors and make them into songs while still making other songs true to her style because I’m totally down for it. She’s different and its very indie and I’m not sure the audience she’s aiming for will easily accept it but I sure hope she still finds a way. On that note, White is a great song. She’s done Blue and Black at this point during the competition.

我還是沒改變 I’ll Never Change – 大壯 DZ

DZ has come out with three singles at this point, I think. And all of them are really good. They remind me a lot of the really nice days of music when songs were filled with well-written lyrics as well as nice ballads/tunes. Its one of the reason why I like DZ and his work so much. Three for three is not easy and I hope that he keeps making music and keeps such a high quality.

忘情森巴舞 -草蜢 Grasshopper

I really wanted to add in this one for this round-up even if this time feels a tad heavy. Hong Kong has been on my mind a lot lately and being a long-time fan of Grasshopper since I was young, I wanted to share something from the 80s that always makes me happy to listen to. Its very dated but hey, its been playing on repeat these days on my playlist. Grasshopper members may all be in their 50s but they really remind us of staying young at heart as they still give great performances full of energy and pull of their dances and stuff well still.

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