C-pop

C-pop is an abbreviation for Chinese popular music (simplified Chinese: 汉语流行音乐; traditional Chinese: 漢語流行音樂; pinyin: hànyǔ liúxíng yīnyuè; Jyutping: hon3jyu5 lau4hang4 jam1ngok6), a loosely defined musical genre by artists originating from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Others come from countries where the Chinese language is used by a large number of the population, such as Singapore and Malaysia. C-pop is sometimes used as an umbrella term covering not only Chinese pop but also R&B, ballads, Chinese rock, Chinese hip hop and Chinese ambient music, although Chinese rock branched off as a separate genre during the early 1990s. There are currently three main subgenres within C-pop: Cantopop, Mandopop and Hokkien pop. The gap between cantopop and mandopop has been narrowing in the new millennium. Hokkien pop, initially strongly influenced by Japanese enka, has been re-integrating into C-pop and narrowing its trend of development towards Mandopop. Chinese popular music was initially a vehicle for the Cultural Revolution and Maoist ideologies; however, during the country’s extensive political and cultural changes of the past 50 years, it has lost much political significance; and now closely resembles the styles of K-pop and J-pop, from South Korea and Japan, respectively.