I think the first things I heard that I loved were Maggie Chiang (Jiang Mei Qi), Faye Wong and maybe a few more ballad-pop things. Then I heard some cute things like My Little Airport, milk@coffee and Katncandix2.
But I think it was hearing Carrchy, Deserts Chang, Waa Wei, and Mrs. This that made me a serious fan. Similar with Japanese & Korean music, I followed a natural progression of pop, cute, and then more substantial styles.
I think that's the way most people do it, right? You take a liking to the most popular (most shared) artists, and then gradually discover lesser-known bands, and develop a more diverse taste. =)
Reader responses: gaedlis said: For me, it actually started with the indie music! Carsick Cars was one of the first groups I got into. I wanted to learn Chinese and I wasn’t really feeling Chinese pop music, so I spent a while looking for indie artists. Thank you, @gaedlis! kanzi58 said: Not a question, but an answer to your question. Finding songs I like and translating them has become part of my apprenticeship in Chinese. Didn't quite know where to look at first. Stumbled upon Chuanzi via a news article on his song 'People of July', found some more of his stuff (too little of it!). Also found Gong Linna via an article on her song TanTe. Instantly became a devoted fan. Researching Kunqu opera led me to Carrchy (thanks Google!), and to your blog! And so on and so on! Thank you, @kanzi58! greatestlotus said: I listened to jpop, jrock, and kpop and grew up watching chinese movies so I figured I check out cpop also. Started with big names like Jolin and Elva then eventually wanted to dig deeper. Found Carrchy and Tian Yuan then went on from there. Thank you, @greatestlotus! shiftingcloud said: I couldn’t find the reply button so I’ll just reblog. As a young sapling I was forced to listen to a lot of old Chinese songs as my mother blasted those cassettes through speakers that were taller than me back in the day. I never appreciated that music until I finished high school, when I realised I hated almost everything I heard on the radio.My friend in Taiwan told me about Sadon, whom I fell in love with and put me on the path to C-Indie, and then this blog helped me branch out to other artists like The Girl and the Robots and Elephant Gym amongst many others.Japanese and Korean tunes generally receive more exposure, whether it be mainstream or indie, and not being able to read Chinese makes it harder for me to track down some decent Chinese indie groups. So thanks for your work, fyeahcindie! Thank you, @shiftingcloud! doufuhua said: I started off as a HK movie fan, so I heard a lot of Cantopop, but it wasn't my cup of tea. Faye Wong was the only Chinese singer that I really liked. After that it took me a long time to find out about the Chinese indie music scene. But then I discovered a wonderful blog called *My Randomness that opened the gates for me and got me hooked on singers like Cheer Chen, Mavis Fan, and Cao Fang. Nowadays, with your tumblr and sites like Indievox, it's a lot easier to keep up with new artists. :) Thank you, @doufuhua! *FYCI note: the My Randomness blog was one of my earliest entry points to the C-indies, too! Along with the LiveJournal of a user named pho50 or pho80, ?? - As far as I know, both sites stopped updating years ago.A great YT channel for C- indies (especially mainland China) that sadly stopped updating in 2010 is sinoprod, run by a person in France. The clips are still there, and you will not be disappointed, trust me!
