EVERY GENRE PROJECT - February 27 - C-pop

Genre of the Day - C-pop

Album of the Day - babyMINT Loading… Fun! by 薄荷水晶 (babyMINT) (2023)

No matter the decade, ever since the USSR’s influence began to wane, the US media has been constantly awash in a certain vein of article. With a raised eyebrow and sense of imminence, writers have claimed that Japan is here to overtake our economy and in turn ‘take over the world’, or more relevantly in the past twenty years, China. These articles almost always imply a dichotomous zero-sum game in which their economic ascendancy would nullify America’s economic prowess and ability to prosper globally. While these narratives are less than true, what we should actually be paying attention to is the fact that east Asian music markets are definitely outstripping our major labels in pop creativity. 

Japanese music has always had some impact on the international market and in the US. Yellow Magic Orchestra enchanted international audiences with their innovative early takes on electronic pop music and city pop is iconic and beloved (and has been pretty popular on TikTok throughout the app’s existence), but J-pop never really took off in the US, as it is pretty insular and marketed more towards the domestic market rather than foreign audiences. It wasn’t until K-pop locked into catchy, American pop-esque hooks and crossed the Japanese idol model with the American boy band/girl group models of the ‘90s that east Asian pop found a massive following in the West. However, C-pop—Chinese pop, which encompasses the music markets of both mainland China and Taiwan—has never really found that international footing. Perhaps this is just a history factor—China was definitely culturally isolated until around the 1980s, when Wham! made the inaugural visit to the PRC as a western pop group to perform in the economically liberalizing country. Additionally, China’s pop influences are remarkably different from its neighbors. The biggest stars like Jay Chou have a great emphasis on heartfelt lyricism and balladry, rather than the hip-hop influences that pervade South Korea. For reference, just look at the most beloved international star in China—Taylor Swift.

I have some exposure to C-pop in the past. I became fascinated by the story of Teresa Teng, who was the face of Mandopop in the 1970s and 1980s and hailed from Taiwan. She was one of the pioneering Chinese-language artists to bridge western pop influences into her music, and experienced wild success in both Taiwan and the mainland. Her music is often wistful and very traditional folk-influenced, and very sentimental. Fast forward forty years and the game looks quite different. The formulas of K-pop have gradually caught on in the Chinese music market, leading to the meticulous selection of stars into marketable groups via platforms like TV shows. Today’s artist babyMINT was formed in one of these shows, albeit in Taiwan. A cursory look at a playlist of popular Taiwanese music—this one’s title translates to popular karaoke songs—shows that individual artists are still the vanguard.

If this is the level of creativity and innovation today’s C-pop is fostering, though, these new groups definitely deserve more exposure. I was shocked to see that most of today’s album’s streams sit far under 200,000. babyMINT doesn’t just toy around with a dizzying array of styles—the group leans fully into them frenziedly, no-holds-barred. From the industrial percussion interspersed throughout opener “La Nueva Era” it was evident that any expectations I had for this album had disintegrated. At breakneck speed, they manage to cover sweaty drum’n’bass on “R!ng R!ng R!ng”, industrial techno and jersey club on the same song—inexplicably named “NOBODY LUVS U :(” with a smiley face in case you weren’t sure—straight up hyperpop on “DAAAAAMMMN” and “2023: BB Meme Odyssey.” They veer into house on “Ocean Bomb” and perhaps most jarringly the distinctive 808 sub of drill on “Icky.” 

This voracious ability to reference and interpolate so many foreign club scenes is astounding, and to do it so seamlessly with sleek and dynamic shifts within each song promises a dazzling future for groups like this and their producers. Just like the concept of a massive girl group (nine here!) the thesis of musical collectivism is hard at work here. Of course, there’s the whole inauthenticity argument, but it’s reductive to just argue that they’re mish-mishing whatever sounds they like when the end results yield such a bewilderingly excellent manic pop package. The singing takes a backseat here—their voices are good, but there’s obviously the ubiquitous group rapper, but the lyrics match the production choices well. They even lean into traditional C-pop sentimentality albeit with little bursts of Imogen Heap-esque electronic flourishes on “No Way.” The future of China economically and politically generates thousands of news articles pumped out every day. We’re tired. I think it’s high time C-pop gets that exposure.