Music Genres in Chinese

For today’s newsletter, I thought it was about time I talked about Chinese music again. Chinese-language music is still pretty underrated in the Western world, and apart from sharing a few of my (and my husband’s) favorite songs last year, I haven’t really covered the topic much.

So today, I put together a Chinese vocabulary list of music genres, along with some popular Chinese or Taiwanese artists in each category. I did have to do a bit of research for this one, and to be honest, I don’t personally listen to most of these singers or bands myself. But if you’re into any of these genres, you might enjoy checking out the names I mention, or even better, just search the genre on YouTube and see what you discover!

MUSIC GENRE

CHINESE NAME

POPULAR ARTISTS

Pop

流行音乐 (liúxíng yīnyuè)

Jay Chou (周杰伦), Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), A-Lin (黄丽玲)

Hip-Hop/Rap

嘻哈/说唱 (xīhā/shuōchàng)

Higher Brothers(更高兄弟), VAVA, MC Hot Dog (热狗)

Rock

摇滚 (yáogǔn)

Mayday (五月天), Tang Dynasty (唐朝乐队), TRASH

R&B/Soul

R&B/灵魂乐 (línghún yuè)

Khalil Fong (方大同), David Tao (陶喆)

Electronic Dance Music (EDM)

电子舞曲 (diànzǐ wǔqǔ)

Corsak

Jazz

爵士乐 (juéshìyuè)

Joanna Wang (王若琳)

Classical

古典音乐 (gǔdiǎn yīnyuè)

Lang Lang (郎朗), Yuja Wang (王羽佳)

Indie

独立音乐 (dúlì yīnyuè)

Carsick Cars, Midnight Ping Pong (午夜乒乓), EggPlantEgg (茄子蛋)

Metal

金属音乐 (jīnshǔ yīnyuè)

CHTHONIC (閃靈), Voodoo Kungfu

Punk

朋克 (péngkè)

Brain Failure, Fire EX. (滅火器)

Folk

民谣 (mínyáo)

Song Dongye (宋冬野), Ma Di (马頔)

Reggae

雷鬼乐 (léiguǐ yuè)

Long Shen Dao (龙神道)

Blues

蓝调 (lándiào)

Zhang Ling (张岭)

World Music

世界音乐 (shìjiè yīnyuè)

Sa Dingding (萨顶顶), Hanggai (杭盖)

Metalcore

金属核 (jīnshǔ hé)

Awake Mountains (醒山)

Emo

Emo

Chinese Football

Post Hardcore

后硬核 (hòu yìnghé)

Instinct of Sight (目光本能)

Ska

斯卡 (sī kǎ)

The Trouble (热超波)

K-pop

K-pop/韩国流行音乐 (hánguó liúxíng yīnyuè)

Lay Zhang (张艺兴)

If you'd like to practice these words, you can find this flashcard set on my Quizlet page too.

Sandy

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