I've noticed that in recent years, a lot of my Cantonese friends started to develope great interest in Mandopop especially from Taiwan. It wasn't too long ago that Cantopop was the main player in Chinese pop but Taiwanese entertainment has become way more dominant. A lot of Taiwanese singers have sell out areans in HK even though they sing exclusively in Mandarin. But it doesn't seem to be true the other way around.

So I ask to all the Hong Kong or Cantoese Chinese people here, do you prefer cantopop or mandopop more? Why?

As a half Honger/Vietnamese (I actually kind of speak canto , my viet is non-exsistent tho) , I do prefer listening to Taiwanese music than HK music for the most part. Like the only HK artists i do enjoy listening to is GEM and Khalil but even then Khalil's songs are still strictly Mando. The problem is it seems like the HK industry is mostly too focused on making ballad and karaoke-friendly songs rather than producing actual talented artists who can write their own music. Thats why you see so many actors in HK become singers as well(which is just stupid , cuz 90% of them are pretty bad).Another problem is theres not a lot of diversity in genres in the HK music industry . Most of the songs that come out is ballad. The only way you can find the likes of HK rock or rap is pretty underground(well with the exception of 24 HERBS and FAMA and MR., but again thats only a few).Thats why I miss the old BEYOND and LMF cuz they brang actual creativity to HK. But I can say that the HK music industry is somewhat improving (but very slowly). With the Taiwanese music industry , theres a lot of diversity in music genres. You got people like Xiao Yu , Mayday, Wang Lee Hom, Gary Cao, MC HOT DOG , FIR, Jam Hsiao,JJ Lin etc... who each cover different kinds of genres and not just mostly on one particular one like in HK. I dont know if the HK music industry is just scared of doing something different because the market is small, but I really hope for improvements in it.

I think now it doesn't matter anymore, because singers are crossing over between 2 languages: almost all major HK singers release Mandarin albums, and then a lot of Mandarin singers are releasing Cantonese albums as well.

I listen to Mandarin songs more than cantopop. The only Hker that I listen to is Khalil Fong and he only sings in Mandarin well he recently released a cantonese song I think? I usually avoid cantopop b/c it's really the same thing, like the karaoke songs, or maybe I'm just really ignorant but really back then Twins was really popular but can they sing? Not really. I think there's more diversity in mandarin songs/ TW.

Mandopop. IMO, Cantopop is not good to listen to anymore because HK has some crappy singers and crappy songs.

I still like cantopop, but yeah it's getting boring..Like even when bad singers (linda chung) can win an award lol...Mandopop is better for me then!

You pretty much sums it up, haha.
But I think that the HK ppl need to start accepting other varieties of music. It's their fault that most of the songs playing are ballads. And they're quite boring, imo. Same piano, strings, violins. Geeze.
Which is why I prefer mando-pop. xD

i haven't got a clue why i don't like listening to canto. I grew up with cantopop actually. my friends try to get me to listen to some canto I just refuse XD

MANDOPOP! i've never really like cantopop except for a few songs.. they all sound pretty much the same.
I find that mando songs are more catchy and vocally challenged. My favs: Jam Hsiao, Evan Yo, Gary Cao, FIR, Khalil, Fahrenheit (even though they don't have a good vocal range), etc..
sorry cantopop lovers but iono i personally find that canto songs dont have much meaning.

I actually listen to a lot of Cantopop...just not current Cantopop. I'm into the oldschool 90s songs when the singers could actually sing. Leslie Cheung, Faye Wong, Alan Tam, Four Heavenly Kings, etc. Nowadays, it's filled with mini cooperty people like Twins and Joey Yung.

i like canto more even tho i don't understand what the song means..maybe some parts but for mandarin i dont understand at all..the language just doesn't get to me too..

I am a Hong Konger ..and i luv cantopop...even cantopop started "marginalized" and most of us tend to switch to j-pop, k-pop and mandopop.

Honestly, there are alot of talented singers in hong kong, likes, Ivana, Hins , Eason...etc...I SERIOUSLY adore and appreciate EASON..he is such a excellent stage-perfromancer..and his recent album was excellent...

i think not only cantopop is declining, the language "Catonese" is also declining in Hong Kong...that's pretty sad...

REVOLUTION is needed...it was annoying that only karaoke-friendly music can survive. And the agents should follow the system in japan or korea...they hv to train up their singers (both in dancing and singing)...i dun want those stupid groups and singers who cant even pronounce the words well...and they only hv pretty face but no skill in singing and dancing...

Cantopop was probably the largest music industry in terms of Chinese music back in the early 1980s. Most of the classic, renowned, and EXTREMELY popular singers back in the day had sung in Cantonese at some point in their career (such as Teresa Teng... she was extremely popular all over Asia). I love listening to Cantopop, still do, especially old-school Cantopop. I listen to a bunch of Asian music in general, and old-school Cantopop still gets me.

The fact that Mandarin is the second largest native-speaking language in the world also contributes to the popularity of Mandopop.

Actually, I don't think the Cantopop market is small. If it's small, would we have a thread comparing the two languages here in soompi? XD Believe orit not, Cantopop has quite a lot of fans in overseas markets, especially in Canada and USA. This explains why many Cantopop singers have WORLD tours. The thing is, young people tend to enjoy Mandopop because it's trendier, older people enjoy Cantopop more because of its popularity in the early 80s and 90s.

Anyways, getting back to topic (lol), I'm about 50/50 in both languages. If we're talking about quantity over quality on my iTunes, then I have more Mandopop songs.

I'm not from HK, so forgive me if i'm posting here,

I'm not very familiar with cantopop, the only cantopop artist I listen to is Nicholas Tse, I like him because even though his voice might not be perfect, his songs are cool and his rock songs are nice, besides that, I loved his album 'One Inch Closer'. I also know TWINS, but I don't like their songs so I don't really care about them.

As for mandopop, I listen to A LOT of artists. I'm a HUGE Wang Lee Hom fan. There are so many great artists in mandopop and they always try different styles of music and add different elements on their songs, they write and compose their own songs: Leehom, Jay Chou, JJ Lin, David Tao, Mayday, Alan Kuo. Also on mandopop you also have a good amount of idol singers (those that aren't musician and might not sing perfectly, but at least have catchy songs and are charismatic) like F4, S.H.E., Show, Jolin Tsai, etc.

I grew up listening to HKpop like the Four Heavenly Kings, Faye Wong, Hacken Lee or Sammi Cheng. My family loved them and so do I, but I stopped listening to Cantonese music nowadays. Mando songs are more definitely diversified and catchy. Some artists in the HK music industry do have good voices though, I actually like Hins Cheung (well I guess it doesn't count since he also sings in Mandarin?). but it's irritating when HK actresses try to sing Jolin-like dance songs when they just can't...

so.. Mandopop

i grew up with canto pop and almost never listened to mandopop. but then, canto pop REALLY started going downhill, with all these not so talented "singer" popping up everywhere with mediocre tunes and not lasting longer than 1 or 2 albums. i got tired of it all and switched to other music where the singers CAN actually hold a tune and put out decent music. so now i listen to more mandopop than cantopop.

for cantopop, i love all the oldies. paula tsui, roman tam, dave wong, 達明一派, sam hui, danny chan, beyond - pretty much anything my parents would listen to. there are a few other artists still in the industry that i might listen to (sammi cheng, andy lau, jacky cheung) obviously, even they've been in the industry for quite a while now. i do agree that there are beginning to be a number of new artists with actual talent, but still not enough for me to become a dedicated mainstream cantopop fan. most of the songs just seem to be the same karaoke-type tunes, which gets boring. and yes, i am a bit biased against the hk music industry, having worked behind the scenes before.

not sure what category khalil will fit in, but he tops my list of favourites.

i prefer mandopop. there are so many likable artists: wang leehom, jay chou, david tao, gary cao, FIR, nicky lee..

canto but now most hk singers does venture out to mandopop anways so for me it's really supporting hte specific artists so either canto/mando is still okay.....will be going to watch HINS and raymond concert in vegas this thanssgiving ~~

i listen to canto pop more than mando pop.

@ miss scarlet - word