Chinese pop music

Lately, my huihua (conversation) teacher has been starting each class by playing different Chinese pop music videos. While I'm sure listening to music in foreign languages (along with films and television) is a great way to aide our learning of Mandarin, I must confess from what I've heard of Chinese pop music previously and after coming here to Beijing, I'm not much of a fan.

Perhaps it's just the music I'm being exposed to and that seems to be very popular, but all the songs seem to be slow, dramatic power ballads with music videos featuring even more over-dramatic story lines, e.g. right after a couple moves in together, they discover the girl has some sort of fatal cancer. Call me a cynic, but watching the music videos and listening to the songs make me cringe.

To me, listening to the songs and watching these music videos is much like taking an already super-sweet candy, drenching it in even more sugar syrup and then eating it. There's no way the overly saccharine tast of the candy, or in this case the music, appeals to me. I feel like I'm getting cavities just by listening to it.

Many other people in my class and other people I know in the US seem to like it though, so maybe it's just me. I also do realize that our musical taste is very much influenced by our respective cultures and I do like some sappy, slow longs from time to time (yes, James Blunt, I'm looking at you), but from what I've heard Chinese pop seems to be too much for me.

Of course, I don't profess to have very much knowledge on Chinese popular music. So if you perhaps want to prove me long or know of a Chinese band/singer that may appeal to me, please by all means let me in the comments or via e-mail. I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

Jay Chou, a big Chinese pop star from Taiwan.

Sorry, I have no access to YouTube here in China, so I can't embed or link you to a Chinese pop music video. I'm sure if you search on YouTube "Jay Chou" or even "Chinese pop song," plenty of videos will pop up.