All of eeMedia’s favorite artists except for Top Combine seem to have released MV’s at around same time – Li Yuchun, Zhang Jie/Zheng Shuang/Lu Hu and Yu Haoming.
Which MV’s your favorite?
Li Yuchun’s self-composed, self-directed Amour:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVU7ZBf902A]
Zhang Jie ft Zheng Shuang in Lu Hu-composed Watch the moon rise
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhizUO0jbwk]
Yu Haoming’s I’m not that hot
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lnSq9Uotl4]
Conclusion: Lu Hu writes the best songs, but Li Yuchun is a way cooler director. Oh, well, Yu Haoming, at least you’re hot.
Yu HaoMing, dont go fishing for compliments. you know you’re hot!
and Zhang Jie’s songs are always the best. why? because his voice. regardless of what he sings his voice is the main weapon. (im bias).
and Li Yuchun still scares me. i dont know why. i think of Sinead O’conner when i think of her. i unno why. i think Li Yuchun give tons of effort, but i dont know why i cant come to like her and her music. she has my respect but at the same time her music is not my fav too.
THANKS.
I thought Yu Haoming’s MV was really dumb and poorly made (or at least the teaser since the full’s not out yet), but since he’s only releasing a single, with two songs, and is getting MVs for both those songs, I guess the MV amount is already overbudget.
My assumption based on the fact that YHM’s album and MVs were finished 1 and 1/2 years ago:
They were going to wait for Haoming’s sudden rise in popularity after MS/LHNH to release his full album. Didn’t happen…the MVs would be too dated if they waited any longer. So they released the single with the 2 songs and 2 MVs, and kept the rest of the songs for his next album.
Then because that is almost definitely a loss in money, they tapped into Zhang Jie’s MV funds leaving him with a sort of lackluster MV for a really pretty song.
Basically Yu Haoming’s hair in MS screwed everyone over. Extremely pissed at that unloyal Outsiders director and his screwy stylist friend.
And Yu Haoming should learn to compose or befriend a good composer because Doremi is such an average provider of songs. Top Combine is so lucky they have Ma Xueyang.
While I really like the song and his voice, I’m fairly disappointed in the video quality/costumes for Zhang Jie’s MV.
It has a much better concept than Yu Haoming’s (not that YHM’s had any), the video quality is not as bright or detailed (but YHM’s MV has a terrible camera angle). Li Yuchun’s is the only that looks good and is interesting to watch.
Actually, Yu Haoming’s lyrics imply that he’s hot, he’s simply trying to dissuade you from liking him because his heart is captured by another girl (the MV doesn’t really help him to that purpose, neither).
——
I think the one thing I got out of this was that Li Yuchun got to where she is because she’s multi-talented and takes control of her own fate. She’s directed almost all of her own MV’s so far, which might explain they’re a lot better than someone else’s.
Yu Haoming and Top Combine both get their MV’s from DoReMi, which explains the fairly nice looking but thoughtless MV’s.
Poor Zhang Jie gets random guys. Despite all of his good songs, he’s had almost no good MV’s.
——–
sidenote: Yu Haoming’s “Hug” MV has a really creepy looking female lead….
*Sigh* I just feel like Yu Haoming’s zero increase in popularity from Meteor Shower hit eeMedia’s music department pretty unfortunately, because it didn’t go according to plan, and Zhang Jie took the brunt of carrying them through the loss in money, maybe because he’s the most popular and has the most hardcore fans who don’t care how his MV looks or how many songs he has on his album. Oh well, as long as the songs are good.
If they had released Yu Haoming’s album and MVs when they were made, it would have been fine. I don’t think I had many expectations from eeMedia then. Now I do, and these are subpar.
There’s also He Jie… her MV’s were all really pretty. Some of them weren’t great plotwise, but they looked good and probably cost a lot to make.
I felt like because the previous head of eeMedia spent so much on everyone, especially He Jie, Long Danni is trying to be as frugal as she can. Hence the cutback on MV’s. Of all the eeMedia MV’s recently, Li Yuchun is honestly the only one who’s had good MV’s.
Yet while being frugal is good, there are times when money should be spent – ie. on Zhang Jie, who really is a major money puller- and not on people she thinks might succeed.
Long Danni has guts, and time will tell if they’re the right ones.
—
as for Yu Haoming, DoReMi’s just pretty boring in general. Sometimes fancy, but never substantial.
Yeah, I was thinking about how good He Jie’s MVs were. She had 3 for her last CD right? And I feel they were all better.
I honestly really hate YHM’s MV. It doesn’t even look that great quality wise, and it’s so so shallow, which annoys me, because it takes away the greatest appeal of YHM, his niceness, his boyishness.
I’m pretty sure Doremi’s going to spend more on TC next though…little cash cows that they are.
I’m sorry, the juxtaposition of the two MVs (YHM’s and ZJ’s) just annoys me greatly for some reason. Going back to studying!
Edit: And yeah, Long Danni’s being frugal. I better see the fruits of that frugality soon, or else, it’s just frugality with no sense to it.
Since you brought it up. I’m pissed that ever since TC became famous, they’ve been spending less and less on Zhang Jie, who has proven to bring in the most fans.
Thank goodness he has a good voice and an already strong base.
But Yu Haoming’s MV’s were probably made beforehand, so they haven’t became frugal yet and instead spent their money paying way too much for DoReMi directors.
i’m sorry but li yun chun’s dancing…
I thought Meteor Shower was like a huge hit or something in China? all four guys became really popular?? lol maybe i am out of the loop
I like Zhang Jie when he sings more rockish/more powerful songs, he has the voice for it, why go compete in the ballad/pop genre like everyone else when you got such a great voice?
OK the wan’t Yu Haoming’s full MV. Let’s judge it AFTER it comes out ok? lol =)
@curious
It was a huge hit, but not to the extent of Super Boys. It’s pretty safe to say that among eeMedia guys, popularity goes:
Zhang Jie > Su Xing/Top Combine > Zhang Han /Wei Chen > Yu Haoming > Wang Yuexin/Amu/Ji Jie/ ZHu Zixiao> Wang Zhengliang/Yao Zheng/Guo Biao/Lu Hu
I agree with Zhang Jie. I prefer more “Most beautiful sun” and “tian xia” typed songs.
i like haoming “yong bao” and as for the ” i’m not so handsome” mv i think since it’s kinda outdated, therefore he going to south korea for 10 days in Novemeber to reshoot the MV so i will be expecting something “hotter” haha
and lu hu is awesome.
yeah meteor shower kinda ruin for haoming like what he kinda imply that doing this drama probably had “hurt” him but i felt that there are some people out there became fans of him via MS but yeah those have to digg thourhg his old stuff and see who the really him
@nancy: yhm is reshooting the mv?
Yong bao’s also a much better song…but is it just me or is the female lead really not pretty?
He’s going all the way to Korea to reshoot the MV? What a waste of money. The old one was fine. He looked hot in it, and that’s all that really matters. I would rather they remake the Yong Bao MV.
Silly Zhang Jie fans, they should’ve used the 80000 dollars they raised to make him lots of good MV’s instead of buying him out of his old company so that Long Danni can use that money to remake the already more costly MV’s for Yu Haoming.
I was really ready to be pissed at YHM for getting two MVs for a crappy song, then I saw paparazzi pictures of him and Li Xijun eating out together and it was the most adorable thing.
But I’m getting really ticked at what people want from Cpop. Stop with the shallow crap. I hope Long Danni doesn’t look at SM and think, hey, I can release albums with half the real amount of songs, price them at full, even though most of the songs are crappy. Her planning and frugality reminds me of SM. The latter is his downfall, and pretty much the downfall of other kpop. He lowered the standards of music, and upped the standards of “shiny promo stuff”. And now a generation of asians are getting stupider and stupider.
The cynic in me want to say promotional technique…but awww. Super Girl/Boy needs to have a couple ASAP.
At least Zhang Jie’s songs are fairly good unlike the other album…though they obviously spent more on their MV, no matter how bad it was. I’m also hoping that Long Danni doesn’t look to Taiwanese boybands for inspiration on music quality…as she semi-did for the Meteor Shower OST.
Frugality is very, very good. Save on all she can, but she should understand the gains achievable by spending money on the right things. Stop splurging on Zhang Yadong remakes of red songs and double MV’s for crappy songs, and start spending on making the right MV’s for the right songs for the right people.
I’m saddened by the red song album a lot. It could have been so amazing.
Well, I’ll wait and see. Long Danni has long-term plans, and since they are long-term, I can’t safely judge her now because I’m not quite sure how she’s partitioning the money.
Cfensi, do you have the links to the yhm/lxj pics?
I feel like nothing really big is happening, I’m still waiting for tc.
I really want a new singer to debut.
I don’t know what you consider “big”. A lot of stuff is being released. But also I’ve lost almost all motivation to post Cpop because what’s the point when people who come to this site just want average music that’s well-packaged?
http://pic.yule.sohu.com/group-189178.s … &p=1561960
The last picture is super cute.
@julie
I thought the Laure Shang album was pretty big. and Lu Chuan/Gao Yuanyuan dating, and Huayi going on the stock market, and eeMedia going into video games
I don’t really want to see “packaged” music, I just want to see the singers/groups I like be in more activities and stuff. I haven’t heard much about the people I like (TC, Jane, Super Girls, Hou Xian), there’s no recent news about them. (Or maybe there is, but I idn’t know =P)
@idarklight: By “big” I mean new dramas, new albums (Laure Shang’s was great, but notice my “s” in albums……..oh yea, I’m sick of EPs), I’m not too interested about the economics.
Lol, sorry for me using the broad word “big”
@Cfensi: OMG, those pictures were cute
There is news about them. Well, not TC, but you know they’re releasing their album in December. Hou Xian’s gone blond, and he’s gotten better clothes and coverage than he ever has after joining Tian Hao. Hit-5 says they’re going for a “Jay Chou” inspired style now, so perhaps Hou Xian is actually influencing them for the better although I feel bad for MT-muzik. Xu Zhiqian’s filming his MV, soon with album release. Qiao Renliang is releasing early next month, etc.
But I have a life, and this site is maintained with our free time. It is not our job to keep everyone up to date with everything. And yet sometimes it feels like it’s an obligation since where else are you going to get the info? No other Chinese kids who know how to read Chinese are helping to shoulder the burden. And it just seems so futile and a waste of time to post on them if people will go right back to fangirling boybands/personalities. We can not be the only people spreading news.
And the comment was not directed toward you specifically. I see lots of people who know about everyone in Cpop, even mainland Cpop, like them, but they still spend their time in Kpop communities commenting on the most banal things because it’s mindless fun. And then they wonder why Cpop isn’t more popular. Because if people don’t use at least some of their energy to spread this stuff, it’s basically as good as not existing, just like how you don’t know what’s happening if I don’t post.
Maybe this Kpop flood of boybands/girlbands I can’t tell apart but have such “unique” personalities is only a phase before it crushes their music scene completely, but it’s a phase I’m living in, and it’s really really annoying. Especially since I have to look at this crap even when I go to Chinese websites now because of SJM. I can’t believe they got an OPPO sponsorship (BOBO’s sponsorship!) when they’re not even in China for most of the time. If that commercial plays after Happy Camp instead of BOBO’s I’m going to have to stop watching the show or turn it off early. And the sad thing is Chinese people would rather use the energy to post SJM pics or news than the news of Chinese people that are more involved in Chinese entertainment.
Maybe I’m pissed because I, like some others, could not read Chinese at all when I first started in Chinese entertainment, but because I was interested in my culture, went out to some Chinese website, started clicking around, using context clues. You don’t need to be literate to get started. Just go to Sina, or Sohu, and stare at it. You’ll learn Chinese.
As for YHM/Li Xijun they really are our best hope for a Superboy/girl couple. I want a couple from all the big cities:
Beijing: Yang Mi/Liu Shishi
Shanghai: Kimi/Tang Yan (they twitter at each other on Sina’s twitter thing..it’s so cute!)
Guangzhou: Yu Haoming/Liu Xijun
Shandong (kinda): BOBO
I understand, you’re busy. And you’ve dona an AMAZING job with your posts. You have no obligation to do anything people want, yet you still try to; you’re awesomeness. (You too idarklight!!!!!!!)
So if there anything that I can do to help, let me know and I’ll try my best. (I’ve learned more chinese on baidu than I have in actual classes =P)
Why do you dislike boybands/packaged stuff so much? Is it because it doesn’t represent real talent or something? Or do you not like the fact that its based on appearance?
BOBO!
Shanghai also has Hu Ge/Yuan Hong.
Chengdu already has Zhang Jie and Xie Na.
@julie
personally, I dislike boybands because when they take over, companies tend to focus more on packaging – having shiny MV’s, pretty faces and dance moves rather than on quality of music.
It’s sort of like the difference between Twilight, and the Lord of the Rings.There’s nothing inherently wrong with Twilight, but do you really want your kids to be reading shallow books?
To me, entertainment is a tool that can be used for self-enrichment and for spreading one’s culture. Boybands can be used as neither because it obviously doesn’t help you, and they are often so devoid of culture that there’s nothing to spread.
I don’t mind boybands/girlbands, as long as they’re in moderation. I never even minded the untalented crack that even Fahrenheit brought. They had pretty good songs, composers got paid, and HIM gets money so that they can hire other talents like the One Million Star Boys, Jade Liu, Tank, etc.
But if there’s too much, that’s scary. People become way too attached to something other than the music. And mostly it’s not even the looks, it’s the fun personalities.
And frankly, SM does exactly that. He basically finds someone with a fun personality, spends most of his money on training them (sometimes PS), and then packaging them with MV producers and stylists, that he’s left with no money to pay for good music. You can say they’re well-trained, better trained than Chinese artists, but that training was at the expense of the Korean composers that he doesn’t hire because he’s paying for some pre-made or rights to a remake.
And frankly, the fact that they have so much training makes them a bit hard to compete with in the music world. It’s like, why buy album of the ugly singer-songwriter with a beautiful voice, when I can buy the albums of pretty-boys with beautiful voices and fun, kind personalities even though it’s filled with remakes? The creative world, the composers, the people who drive the music industry gets left behind.
A couple boybands to fill a niche is fine…too many boybands, especially if they do have good voices, is just detrimental.
Also sometimes I find it mind-boggling how much stupid news there is on AF, LJ, about the boy/girlgroups. It’s like…seriously? Do you realize what you just spent the time to translate? And people comment on it…and it’s scary to think that this is what people are reading day in and day out. How can you not turn stupid after reading about how some idol said this and that? I know entertainment is meant to relax, but it can’t all be about that. Seriously, people are turning dumber.
I finally understand you now, and I agree. It becomes really annoying when people talk about groups too much, I mean get a life, you don’t know them, they’ll never know/like you so why are you wasting your energy on them? There’s this girl at my school who does just that and it drives me nuts.
I like groups, but I don’t over-obsess on their personalities (Ok, maybe I did once or twice…*ashamed* lol). I just like watching their performances and stuff, it keeps me entertained when I’m bored…er…I hope I don’t sound like a hypocrite.
What is your definition of “good” music? I always get the impression that you dislike those Americanish fast tempo-ed songs.
LOL, no. I’m about to buy front-row tickets to go see Lady Gaga on her Monster Ball tour which I’m incredibly excited about. I definitely don’t hate the fast tempo-songs.
My definition of good music is anything that’s good, which ranges from any type of song. Some songs are just really average though, with a catchy beat that gets old. And sometimes, like SM, just gives one good catchy song and the rest are crap because people are too attached to the personalities of their idols and will buy it anyway. Or they’re remakes which means someone on the creative end is getting shafted.
I’d like more variety in China’s music scene. Variety is good. My dislike occurs when Chinese people look down on the Chinese music as somehow inferior to the songs with stronger beats. It’s not. And China’s is not “outdated” because she hasn’t Americanized herself.
And it’s true even with American music isn’t it? Beyonce’s “I am” side’s ballads was so much better than her “Sasha Fierce” side. Good music is just good music. And I’d like to see it sell because of that reason so more good music comes out.
@julie
I waste lots of my energy on BOBO…they’re like a mirage in my mind that makes me fill warm and fuzzy when I see them together.
and I think that there are definitely ways where admiring someone’s personalities are good. For example, I think it’s beautiful how many Li Yuchun fans turn their love and admiration for her into a motivation for themselves to be better people. But when even that personality is trained to fit the mold of simply “fun,” there’s something lacking. After so many boybands, all their personalities became merged into a big “boyband personality” where everyone is funny and nice.
Yet they never strive for anything, and have few passions. There’s something wonderful about the human triumph; the idea of seeing people working toward a greater goal; to see people enjoy the music coming out of their mouths and to see the creations that come out of that. With boybands, I feel like so many of them lack that joy. They perform for others, so that they’ll be loved. There’s no passion, no flame, nothing that makes me go “aww, they finally did it.”
As for the music themselves, I feel like people should do what they’re best at for the benefit of society. It frustrates me when a good song is given to an inferior singer or when a crappy song is given to a good singer. Or when a bad song is promoted more simply because of its source rather its quality.
You guys should be in the music industry LOL. You know so much. Me? I can’t really tell between a good song and a bad song…I basically just like any song that’s “memorable”. And memorable doesn’t always include catchy.
It annoys me too how people/songs become famous just because of the company. I don’t get why fx is so popular, they aren’t exceptional at anything.
On a side note, cfensi, I’m so jealous that you’re going to a lady gaga concert.
Oh, on another random note, Yu Haoming and Liu Xijun’s outfits matched. awww
Regarding boy band translations – meh, some of us translate boy band fluff not because we particularly like boy bands, but because no one wants to read translations about the bands we do like. By now, I’d much prefer to do translations for a good half of the artists under Modern Sky and a few under Maybe Mars, but no one would read them, which defeats the purpose.
The thing is that boy bands are as catchy as the music they rely on. They’re fun and easy to follow; you don’t have to think to understand what they’re saying and thinking, or puzzle through the compositional nuances of the music. I’m really hoping that TC and HIT-5 will be it in China, at least for now… give the rock scene a bigger chance at breaking out.
And there’s loads of variety in Chinese music, as far as I can tell from my recent poking around on Douban, LOL (Though there’s a bit too much of a Britpop/punk/rock influence, and too much electronica, IMO.) Baidu’s not a good place for it, ’cause that’s where a lot of the idol fangirls flock. And watching some of the lives from Hedgehog, The Life Journey, Carsick Cars, and Queen Sea Big Shark, in addition to the Modern Sky Festival (even after the mess)… I’d say there’s an appetite out there for it. It’s just that there’s not going to be as many internet-flooding fangirls for these groups, because they don’t attract the same crowds.
On topic – I thought YHM’s songs were bland enough without the blah music video that looks like a rip of Rain. eeMedia should cut off ties with Doremi, I swear… Still don’t particularly like Li Yuchun, but props for a product where you can see the work she put into it.
I must be the only one who doesn’t like Zhang Jie, LOL. The music video, though, was just bad, which is a pity, because it looks like more of an issue with budget than concept.
I thought Yu Haoming’s MV looked more interesting than it sounded. Ditto on DoReMi. eeMedia can surely find good dance instructors themselves.
Zhang Jie has a really clear, high voice. Sort of like Liu Liyang. I really hope both of them will use that voice to their advantage rather than suppress it like he did in all his songs so far in his upcoming album…
@Neph
Oh I don’t mean people are neglecting just indie. That’s indie, it’s kind of understandable – although I’d like people to know it exists like how people know Bump of Chicken exists in the J-music circles. I’d like people to stop spending time posting or commenting on everytime anything happens to an boyband/girlband and use a little bit more of that time on just regular pop artists who make good music, which there are in China too of course. No one cares. I’m kinda hoping now that Hou Xian’s in a good company he’ll get a fansite or something, because he’s definitely getting more news articles for people to translate, and he dresses a lot nicer and has fanmeets and all sorts of goodies now.
I adore Liu Liyang’s voice. Too bad she’s not getting much attention because she bombed in sales for her first album.
I love all your posts. I know what you guys mean about the boybands. It’s fun to read it in the beginning, but seeing practically the same exact news gets really irritating sometimes. I think you guys know that I’m in charge of urasiansourceCpop and it pisses me seeing youtubers saying Chinese music sucks but honestly their definition of Chinese music means well known artists and pretty face/no talent groups etc. It’s even sadder seeing Chinese people dissing music from their mother country.
There was one person who commented in Elva’s MV stating that the dance is mixture of Lachata and Brown Eyed Girls Abra … (something). Most time when something actually sounds/looks nice, the immediate response is ‘Kpop influenced’. Anything good = kpop.
I find it funny when some k-entertainments buy a song for remake, yet people don’t judge saying it’s a remake. Instead you have yourself a bunch of fangirls and fanboys defending the artists saying ‘oh it sounds way better in korean’ When chinese artists buys the right to remake a vesion, people’s immediate reactions are ‘so and so copied. he/she should be ashamed… why are ppl still purchasing this crap’. Oh the irony.
On AF, there are 1-3 news articles on a popular group but most of them aren’t even important. I’m getting sick of seeing the well-known artists’ news constantly being covered, yet people ignores the underrated singers.
=x
i feel like everyone is so enrage by the entertainment industry. If it’s possible, we should run the industry instead *sigh*.
Nobody probably cares, but for urasiansourceCpop, my original plan was to uplod high quality music videos from China, but it’s impossible because nobody bothers to post MVs from China only except those well known ones. Now, I’m stuck posting taiwanese music videos only.
(p.s – i typed this in the dark so some sentences might sound funky)
wait wheres lu hus mv
ok nvm whatever hah
@yelei
Have you tried the bt download sites?
@idarklight: can’t find them. Most people download them from sina, sohu, tudou, youku etc. *sigh*
[...] than being in Zhang Jie’s MV, Zheng Shuang should also be starring in a new drama called “Jello of love/Ai Qing Guo [...]