What is Mandopop and How Does It Differ From Other Pop Music?

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Recommended: development of Chinese popular music

Mandopop is defined as the shortened form of the Chinese music genre ‘Mandarin-Chinese language popular music’ (Moskowitz 2009). However, Mandopop cannot be defined solely as a music genre but a cultural and social importance, especially in China and Taiwan. This essay will first focus on the brief history of Mandopop and its cultural and social importance in China and Taiwan. Secondly, the essay will concentrate on the marketing style in increasing revenues of Mandopop within the Chinese music industry . Thirdly, a comparison of Mandopop to Korean pop in its marketing styles will also be examined. Overall, this essay will emphasize on how Mandopop is generated to be a part of Chinese cultural and social significance for Mandopop listeners.

The Mandopop industry first began around the 1920s in Shanghai, China (Moskowitz 2009:1). However, the popularity of Mandopop did not spread and develop until the late 1970s after China established the ‘open door policy’ in which foreign cultural products like Taiwanese Mandopop were introduced into mainland China. The introduction of Gangtai pop music received unfavorable reactions from China’s government to the extent of arresting Chinese citizen for listening to unauthorized Gang-tai pop music (Baranovitch 2003:10, 103). Surprisingly, due to various factors from increasing consumer financial power to technology development, Taiwanese Mandopop had a rapid increase in popularity in China (Latham 2007:344). Even till this day, although China contains the largest Mandarin speaking population, Taiwan is now deemed as the upcoming centre of Mandopop, with trade revenues in its music industry totaling up to $68.9 million in 2007, rivaling against China’s piracy affected revenue of $69.4 milli...

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Moskowitz, Marc L. 2009. Cries of Joy, Songs of Sorrow: Chinese Pop Music and Its Cultural Connotation. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Pease, Rowan. 2009. Korean Pop Music in China: Nationalism, Authenticity, and Gender. In Cultural studies and cultural industries in Northeast Asia: What a difference a region makes, edited by Chris Berry, Nicola Liscutin and Jonathan D. Mackintosh, 151-167. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Williamson, Lucy. South Korea’s K-pop craze lures fans and makes profits. BBC News, 26 April 2011. Accessed 27 September 2011 at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/13191346

Worth, Thibault. 2009. Strait to Stardom?. Billboard 121 (3): 20.

Yoon, Lina. Korean Pop, with Online Help, Goes Global. Time Magazine [Website]. 26 August 2010. Accessed 27 September 2011 at: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2013227,00.html.

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