शैडोइंग अभ्यास: Chinese Music - It's Not Dead, It's Misunderstood... - वीडियो के साथ अंग्रेजी बोलना सीखें

Even if you live in the West, you've probably heard of this song.

Or this song.

But unless you live in these countries in East Asia, or understand the language, you've probably never heard of this.

That's because what you're listening to is CPOP.

And it's dead.

There's even a whole video essay about it.

In it, it argues that the TikTokification and attempts to copy the K-pop industry has caused detriment to the CPOP scene.

That sayings like CPOP is doomed or CPOP has flopped have been spreading all over Chinese Twitter.

I'll link the video down below.

It's a great video.

So it seems to be common consensus now that CPOP is dead.

Or is it?

Because to answer, is CPOP dead?

You first have to answer, what is CPOP?

Seems straightforward because the clue's in the name, but the problem with separating genres with language is we end up taking into the genre everything else that doesn't fit.

For instance, you'd rarely see people consider this to be K-pop.

Or this.

is.

If we take a look at CPOP, we get the exact same problem.

Not everything in Chinese is considered CPOP.

To make matters more confusing, Chinese pop is split into every dialect that uses Chinese.

So when we sing there's Cantonese pop, Mandarin pop, Hokkien pop, the list goes on.

All that's fine because it still doesn't change the fact that it needs to be in a Chinese dialect to be CPOP.

But if we want to define the genre, there has to be a better way.

Instead of just looking at the music, it's worth considering everything else that surrounds it.

Take K-pop for example.

You generally have an easier time defining it if you factor in its idol culture.

In fact, I'd say it's the key difference between K-pop and other Korean music.

That's why one song can get remade twice.

And while one is considered K-pop, the other one isn't.

It's also interesting to note that these two songs were released within days of each other.

Even if we look at J-pop, we get more or less the same analogy.

There's a plethora of talented musicians out there making great songs in Japan, but if you were to name a J-pop song off the top of your head right now, there's a good to fair chance that it's an anime theme song.

Okay, cool, now we're getting somewhere.

Let's try to define CPOP by its global driving force.

K-pop has their idols, J-pop has their anime, and we have...

I don't...

I don't know what we have.

And that's the first problem.

CPOP has great music, but what we lack is a musical vessel like everyone else to influence the world.

And you know what sucks?

We used to have the biggest one.

Fei Wang, she's the best.

I don't know anybody who hasn't seen this movie that hasn't gotten a crush on her.

That's right, 80s and 90s Hong Kong cinema.

The films that made everyone think all Chinese people know kung fu, drive stunt cars and smoke cigarettes and sunglasses.

On top of that, they also drummed their theme songs into every head that fell in love with the movies.

Those were

the days.

Those were the days.

Well, shit.

One financial crisis, a handover ceremony and a SARS pandemic later, the Hong Kong film industry disappeared from the global spotlight in under a decade, along with its iconic theme songs.

But that can't be it.

That's just Hong Kong.

CPOP is made in China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and everywhere that uses its dialects.

It must be something else.

Let's listen to more theme songs.

How在我们从不必说明什么...

Not as a pattern?

No?

Let's keep going.

Still nothing?

Let me give you a hint.

They are all ballads.

Now, I know what you must be saying.

Ballads are a very common choice for movie theme songs, even in the West.

And you're right.

But over here, this shit spreads way beyond the movie theaters.

If we flashback to this video where it all started, this screenshot of the top 10 charts on QQ Music where the commentator used to point out how old the songs are.

Something really strange lies here.

7 out of these 10 songs were released 10 years ago.

Oh yeah, that's strange.

You know what's more strange?

You know what's even more fucked up in this screenshot?

9 out of these 10 songs are ballads.

Make no mistake, you are looking at one of the most ballad-heavy music ecosystems in the world.

Now, to the outsider, it might sound weird that our charts are topped by depressing breakup songs.

But for some reason we love it.

We love singing them in karaoke's and birthday parties Even in weddings, which is kind of fucked up,

but whatever But the popularity of ballads in CPOP is not without its reasons The main one is because Chinese dialects are spoken with tones,

a mechanic that's neither present in Korean, Japanese,

nor English Some Chinese dialects like Cantonese have up to nine tones So our language family already has musicality built into it In tonal languages words must be intonated the right way in relation with other words to preserve its meaning

And so songwriters and composers in CPOP have to work extra hard to create melodies and lyrics that marry each other flawlessly.

For instance, here's a line of a very popular Cantonese pop song without its melody.

So if I have to find a tune that fits this line, what can I do?

Well, let's start with the easy part.

The first two words are identical.

This is because in Chinese dialects, it's very common to double up a word to strengthen its meaning.

For example, 天 means day, and 天天 means everyday.

听 means listen, and 听听 means listen carefully.

So you would think if 痛 means pain, then 痛痛 means it really hurts.

But instead it's used like this.

I fucking love this language.

Anyway, as you can imagine, in Canto Pop, it's very common for double words to have either identical or similar notes in music to avoid confusion.

So in our case, we can just do this.

The second part, 頭上, actually starts with identical tone as the two words before.

But because in context, this is a separate phrase, we can get away by not mapping it to the same notes.

That being said, it still requires a rising tone to preserve its meaning.

Like this.

100

The last part is actually a little tricky, because the words fei, fa are actually in the highest tone bracket in Cantonese.

101

Meaning, once you've set the word fei, you can't follow it up with any other word that goes higher.

102

It won't mean anything.

103

So in music, having an ascending interval for these two words might cause confusion.

104

But there's a catch.

105

For one, unlike the first example, these aren't identical words.

106

So a slight deviation won't hurt.

107

Also, context matters.

108

This is actually a very common phrase in poetry, so it's less likely to be misheard.

109

And lastly, there's nothing to be misheard for.

110

The word fa is actually one of the only two terms that exist for this particular syllable, meaning you can only say the word fa in two ways.

111

The only other way that makes sense, fa, doesn't make any sense when combined with the first word.

112

Because of that, you can actually take quite a bit of musical liberty for these two words, like this.

113

And now with all these considerations put together, we finally turn this line into music.

114

And this laborious process that's unique to CPOP

115

results in some of the most sophisticated music there is in

116

the world Even world-class singers have trouble keeping up I'm so sorry to hear the melody.

117

I'm so sorry to hear the melody.

118

It's not a melody, but it's not a melody.

119

It's so beautiful to move on and move on.

120

If I take this last part of the line and just say it as is, you can almost hear the melody of the final song.

121

So, If

122

this sounds like a songwriter's nightmare to you, keep in mind that this level of tone melody correspondence is far more stringent in Cantonese than in Mandarin.

123

This is a 2023 study done by a professor for spoken language processing in the University of Munich.

124

In their test, they selected nine pairs of C-pop songs which have both Mandarin and Cantonese versions and compared the lyrics to see how well the natural tones of both dialects map onto the same melody.

125

The result?

126

Cantonese versions were consistently more tone sensitive than the Mandarin counterparts, with 77% of the lyrics matching the melody, while the Mandarin versions only matched 38%.

127

That being said, the songs used for these tests are all over 10 years old, some are even pushing 20 years old.

128

Since then we've become much more accustomed to songwriters taking liberty by going off tone.

129

But the one big takeaway remains undisputed.

130

Chinese dialects are perfect for ballads.

131

All this sounds great, but what if a gift from the tones that the ballad gods have given us is now actively fighting against the songwriters in just about every other genre?

132

Just think about how hard it is to write a Cantonese EDM for example.

133

The point of EDM is that the melody is supposed to be simple and catchy, like this.

134

But if this chorus was in Cantonese, you'd have to find five words in either identical or at least similar tones to put them there.

135

They have to make sense, they have to rhyme a second time, and they have to be about pasta, which isn't that nuance of an idea in the first place.

136

But even the word pasta are in two different tones, so you're fucked from the get-go.

137

That being said, it doesn't mean we don't have catchy dance music, it just means we have to work around it.

138

For example, what if you have to write a song for a canto pop idol?

139

Well one thing you can do is to start the song in Cantonese, and then switch to English for the chorus.

140

Another way to do it is to not have lyrics for the chorus at all.

141

Hip-hop is another great example.

142

In English, for instance, hip-hop artists are known to use tones to create rhythm and emphases on certain words in the lyrics.

143

Like this.

144

Girl, I can buy a Westy girl with my bass dub.

145

Ooh, that pussy good, won't you sit it on my taste buds.

146

What you're listening to specifically is something called the phrase final declination.

147

It refers to a phenomenon in speech where the pitch of a voice drops significantly as it reaches the end of a sentence.

148

If English is your first language, you probably do this a lot without even thinking about it.

149

Unsurprisingly, this technique has become a large part of rap music.

150

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, There's vomit on his sweater already.

151

Mom's spaghetti, he's nervous.

152

But when hip-hop got introduced into Chinese music, things got complicated.

153

Let's look at Mandarin.

154

As mentioned before, for a sentence to achieve phrase final declination, you have to pitch down at the end of a line.

155

But in all four tones of Mandarin, only the fourth and the occasional neutral tone can achieve a low intonation at the end of a syllable.

156

Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma.

157

Not only that, the fourth tone's pitch doesn't stay constant.

158

It's what we refer to as a contour tone, where the voice has to pitch up and down within a single syllable.

159

Ma.

160

And because unlike Cantonese, where there are multiple tones that stay relatively low and flat, Mandarin hip-hop relies heavily on its fourth tone to achieve phrase final declination.

161

But I'm in the group of people I'm in the middle of the world I'm in the middle of the world As you can imagine, not having the whole vocabulary available becomes limiting for the songwriters So if you want to write a Mandarin hip-hop song, what can you do?

162

Well, like in Canto Pop, one thing you can do is to just substitute the line ending syllables with English

163

Granted that a good portion of the reason is to cater to an international audience, according to a 2023 study published by the Journal of New Music Research,

164

out of a sample size of 34 modern Mandarin trap style rap music, English words account for 32% of all line ending syllables.

165

It's an elegant solution.

166

But what if you don't want English lyrics, you don't want to work with tonal constraints, and yet you still want to make catchy Chinese music?

167

Well, your only other option is to be this guy.

168

I think it's just a mistake.

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Don't try to understand it.

170

Feel it.

171

You

172

know what,

173

at this point I'm convinced that even he doesn't know what the fuck he's singing about.

174

Now, you may be asking, if J-Chi was able to sing past all of the tonal obstacles by simply mumbling and slurring through lyrics, why can't everybody do it?

175

And the answer is simple.

176

So, if we take a step back, we start to see the full picture.

177

Why is it hard to make Chinese music?

178

Well because Chinese is music.

179

And considering where the trend is taking us, the linguistic structure of Chinese dialects makes it hard for songwriters and composers to produce music that's simple and catchy, an important ingredient for worldwide success on the international stage.

180

And that's understandable.

181

Pop songs, by definition, are popular songs.

182

And it's hard to imagine an international audience going to a music festival like Coachella, expecting to have a good time, and then play them a sad ballad.

183

But does that mean it's dead?

184

Not really.

185

Because international success doesn't matter.

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popularity has never been an indication of quality.

187

The fact that CPOP is failing to copy K-pop is a good thing, because we already have K-pop.

188

But it also doesn't mean CPOP can't evolve.

189

Indie rock, hip-hop and R&B artists are pushing the boundaries every single day.

190

It's just going to take more trial and error to traverse our beautifully complex language.

191

Maybe CPOP will one day get the spotlight on the international stage, be it in its current form or an amalgamation of what's coming next.

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But if it doesn't, so what?

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It just means it's not for everyone.

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It's for us.

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I've always wanted to do some with the Japanese movie or Japanese music and the Japanese movie.

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It's a shame that this channel is always working on the English.

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I've never found a chance.

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I hope you can support this video and support more Japanese viewers.

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If you like this video, please like and subscribe We'll see you next time

शैडोइंग तकनीक क्या है?

शैडोइंग (Shadowing) एक विज्ञान-समर्थित भाषा सीखने की तकनीक है जो मूल रूप से पेशेवर दुभाषिया प्रशिक्षण के लिए विकसित की गई थी। विधि सरल लेकिन शक्तिशाली है: आप मूल अंग्रेज़ी ऑडियो सुनते हैं और तुरंत इसे ज़ोर से दोहराते हैं — जैसे वक्ता की छाया 1-2 सेकंड की देरी से। शोध से पता चलता है कि यह उच्चारण सटीकता, स्वर, लय, जुड़ी हुई ध्वनियाँ, सुनने की समझ और बोलने की प्रवाहशीलता में काफ़ी सुधार करता है।

शैडोइंग अभ्यास: Chinese Music - It's Not Dead, It's Misunderstood... - वीडियो के साथ अंग्रेजी बोलना सीखें

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