hey! i’m a new follower and i’ve just recently been getting into cpop. what are some songs you recommend and groups/artists to listen to for newbies? thanks!
aaahhh!!! hiiii!!! welcome! i hope you don’t mind that i published this! well, depending on how long you’ve been following me you probably have seen posts about my favorites in cpop rn so i am going to split it into two categories: groups and artists. there will be some overlap between these two and even within different groups. there’s probably a post out there about how everyone in cpop knows each other and honestly i don’t doubt it.
this got longer than i expected, i am so sorry, so i put it under a “read more”
the tl;dr of it is there are kpop artists who are chinese who put out chinese music either solo or with their groups, idol producer and youth with you are 2 idol maker competition shows that many of today’s better known cpop artists have been in, there is currently a ywy season going on right now for creating a girl group and you can find my posts about it under the tag “ywy” or “youth with you”. these posts are specifically about the girls and my reactions to the episodes. i mention it at the end of the post as well but my “cpop” tag may be of help as well
Groups:
Nine Percent -> first idol group put together at the end of Idol Producer, Cai Xukun was the leader and I love him a lot
Nex7 (also known as Next or Yuehua’s Next) -> there are three members who overlap with 9%: Zhu Zhengting, Fan Chengcheng, and Justin Huang
Unine -> second idol group put together at the end of the first season of Youth With You; Yao Mingming, Li Zhenning, and Jiayi are my bias line from them
Uniq was good but also dabbles in kpop as well so if you’re looking for a nice transition group I would go with that
Super Junior-M was the Chinese subunit of Super Junior
WayV is the Chinese subunit of NCT
Oner is good
Mr. Tyger has my beloved Jiayi as one of the members and their MVs are so visually interesting
Artists:
Since 9% has disbanded, all of the members went on and did some solo things. Again here I will mention Cai Xukun, but Lin Yanjun, Wang Ziyi, Chen Linong, Justin, and Zhengting all also have really good solo stuff
Zhoumi is one of my favorite ballad singers for cpop
Z.Tao is good and his song “Beggar” is my current song on repeat
Kris Wu has some really really good songs in both English and Chinese
Luhan is incredible and his falsettos really are something else
Zhang Yixing, aka Lay of EXO, is probably one of my favorite cpop artists both musically and choreographically
Jeffrey is an artist I haven’t listened to a lot but the stuff of his I’ve heard is good
Jolin Tsai has some of the most interesting and amazing music i love her a lot
Ella Chen is one of the mentors on this current run of Youth With You and was part of the girlgroup S.H.E but her solo music is good as well
I also like Eric Chou
9m88 is more jazzy in music but she’s got an interesting voice and also did a cover of the City Pop classic “Plastic Love” which I love
If you are more used to kpop, there are plenty of songs by the original groups that are in Chinese; Exo was really good at having a lot of songs in Chinese done because in their original debut lineup they had 4 Chinese members
Here are some links to different cpop playlists on spotify that i recommend:
idol producer bois
im on my laptop but this playlist is entitled *cherry blossom emoji**sparkle emoji*
this is arguably one of the most popular posts i’ve made so far on this blog and the playlist that came out of it but we love Cpop Thot Bops
this definitely seems like a lot but honestly i’m just trying to give you as many options as you can have because of the different styles of the artists in the industry. there are also a ton of OSTs for cdramas that are done by members of groups or by solo artists. I personally like Bi Wenjun’s songs for the drama “Sweet Tai Chi”!
There are also plenty of cpop blogs out here but the ones that i would recommend are @zhuzhengtngs, @9toawaken, @princekunge, @baobeejun, @ruangz, @kunxcii, and @lovleez ! am i biased bc i’m friends with them and they bully me in our groupchat daily? perhaps. and of course I’m always here if you have questions, want recommendations, or want to scream about what X person wore on 160319 or whenever date :p
also if you want more background on Nine Percent, Nex7, or Unine, you can find Idol Producer and Youth With You on YouTube. Through them you are also able to find a lot of incredible rappers, dancers, musicians, and singers that i didn’t have the space for in this ! I am sorry for how long this is and I’m wrapping it up I swear but you can check my “cpop” tag as well as anything related to cpop will be there and that can give you more background on certain people (cough cai xukun cough) and perhaps enable you to develop your bias or help figure out who you want to listen to. also the ppap stage of idol producer was the best one dont listen to anyone else who says it wasnt :D
