What is Cantopop?

 Cantopop its an abbreviation of Cantonese and Pop music. Cantonese is language that is spoken in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. The Cantopop musicians covered in this article, are all from Hong Kong. I believe majority of big Cantopop artists are from Hong Kong. 

Samuel Hui is regarded as one of the earliest singers of Cantopop, with his formation of the band "Lotus" in the 1960's, he signed to Polydor in 1972. The song that would help him to become famous, was the theme song "Game Gamblers Play", in which Samuel also starred in. Other stars of theme tunes were Roman Tam, who was dubbed as "Grandfather Of Cantopop", Liza Wang and Adam Cheng.

 In was in the 80's in which Cantopop soared and the stars of that era became household names and some even became legends in Cantop (80's is my favourite era of Cantopop), some of the famous, household names included Anita Mui, Sally Yeh, Sandy Lam, Priscilla Chan, Alan Tam, Danny Chan and Leslie Cheung. This was dubbed as the "Golden Age".  Also, sadly in 1993 Danny Chan passed away after falling into a coma and never waking up. He had suffered from mild depression with more new singers emerging, Danny felt like he was unable to write good enough songs. I personally really enjoyed Danny's music, its such a shame he's not here anymore.

During the 90's , four male stars dominated the entertainment industry in Hong Kong and other Chinese speaking parts of the world. These four guys were Jacky Cheung, Leon Lai, Andy Lau and Aaron Kwok, they were popular in both Mandopop and Cantopop and also, dominated many media publications such as magazines as well. They are still popular to this day and have expanded their careers into acting as well as singing.

In the 2000's , two tragic deaths in 2003 (Anita Mui (30th December (cervical cancer) and Leslie Cheung (1st April, suicide)), led to changes in Cantopop. With over sea stars gaining recognition as well such as Nicholas Tse, has led to Cantopop to not just being restricted in Hong Kong anymore. Thus generating a lot of new generation of artists including Eason Chan, Twins, Joey Yung, Leo Ku and bands such as Mr and Rubberband as well. As Cantopop continues to develop in the future, it will be exiciting to see the changes For me, the 80's is my favourite era of Cantopop.

Side note: I have previously complied a list of my favourite Cantopop songs on my own personal blog, www.princehappiness-artoflife.blogspot.com. If you want to keep update with me, check out my Dayre.me/Prinxehappiness.

Credit: None of the photos belong to me therefore credits to the rightful owners, they are just edited into a collage by me using Cameran Collage App, information and facts were gathered through various sites including Wikipedia.