HMV

A good indication (sometimes) of the music culture in larger cities is what is being sold at HMV. It gives one an idea of what people listen to and what material they have access to and what’s popular. In the long weekend here where most things where closed I spend an afternoon browsing the sections at the downtown Central HMV.

The Charts were separated into a smaller Asian chart and a broad based general chart as well as a Jazz section. It seems what’s available in HK of Western content is vastly behind on what is actually happening, which is normal for a place that is on the other side of the Earth. It’s just interesting to see what various fragments of the west does catch on, and often it is quite random. Only the big names and far few of them catch on in the various genres. Like Eminem in hiphop, The Killers in rock, Sufjan Stevens in indie rock and there is surprising still quite a bit of Alterna-rock – like Korn and System of a Down (even Chinese imitation nu-metal in clothing stores that sounds just like Linkin Park). It seems a lot of the mainstream Chinese bands imitate and mix up at lot of the various western genres. A band’s songs will swing from emo to alt-rock to country to slow jam on a single album. The HMVs here are equally divided between Visuals (DVDs) and Music.

Aside from the usual Rock pop section there is an entire section dedicated to Asia music including Japanese, Korean, Karaoke and strangely enough the only category separations for Chinese music is Male and Female and a section for Groups. In China, music revolves around the Pop Icon. Usually there is one main singer that leads every single song in a heart-felt slow jam. One face I see everywhere is this b-boy/pretty boy Justin who looks more like a clean cut hip hop guy, but turns out to be a sensitive, boy band type singing English lyrics of “Alloone..! so Alone…!” before continuing in Cantonese.

The Chinese (mass population) seem to really like their music compilations – like Dance mixes, or mega mega live hip hop party … mix or something. They don’t seem to know enough about individual artists to buy it, but instead just want something to listen to that might be catchy. In terms of artists there seems to be a lot of adult contemporary stuff on the charts. Old stuff like Enya, or Elton John, Kenny G (is EVERYWHERE!), Eurythmics etc… They also seem to dig live performances (like where they wear their headsets, with a backing band and audience participation).

I spent a good part of my time sampling their Asian pop. I found the voices dominate and control the music so much that I couldn’t get much from any of it. Some were definitely more creative musically than others, but most often I found the CD would start off really sharp and catchy (good beats) and then revert back into slow heart-felt jams that everyone does. A girl group called “She” started off with hard mean beats like the Chinese Christina Aguilera or Gwen Stefani I was really digging and then after the first few songs it just reverted back into everything else. Bian Bian Bian at least tries to do something different musically sounding more like Stereolab with the same songy girl vocals.

In terms of indie, there was a bit. It seems Montreal’s Constellations Records gets some crazy distro in HK from Monitor Records (the Chinese Monitor Records). Monitor Records is also a local label and record store. In every record store I’ve been to there has been a good supply of Do Make Say Thing, Fly Pan Am and of course Godspeed..

Chinese listen to music for face-value pleasure. They don’t care what it is as long as it’s catchy or good for the car.

In fashion on the other hand, the mainstream youth fashion is more up-to-date / stylish than North America. Much more experimental and creative.