Sunny Side up features analysis and commentary from my former colleague, Sunny
The Cantopop scene has not created a generational icon for a long time, but it was the “IT” thing in the ’80s and 90’s.
In particular the 80’s – Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, Alan Tam, Danny Chan, Priscilla Chan, Sam Hui, George Lam, Beyond, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau – are among some of the Cantopop artists that launched the career and/or become extremely popular during that decade.
Even without formal record labels to release their music in China in those days – there was no such system back then, ask anyone who grew up in the 60s,70’s, and 80’s in China, and many of them shall at least have some familiarity with Cantopop. How so?
The cassette tapes were the main medium that could be purchased from small vendors. Not only Cantopop, but also English pop, like Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, and Japanese music on tape were also available.
But Cantopop was the top choice, in an era when Hong Kong was the destination many were looking up to, and where it dictated the trend of the Chinese music scene. It was definitely the golden era of Cantopop.
When sampling these three tapes, I was trying to understand people’s tastes at the time and the quality of music they listened to.
Tape 1 is mainly music bootlegs from Hong Kong radio stations – I can hear on one song the DJ was speaking about the weekly album ranking. The music was from the 80s that were lesser known tracks compared to the other two tapes discussed below (honestly, a lot of them I could not recognize and will require much more research). Anita Mui and Priscilla Chan’s works were included.
(Image above is from https://thehoneycombers.com/hong-kong/hong-kong-radio-stations/)
Tape 2 is popular 80’s Cantopop songs seemingly being covered – they did not sound like the original. Who covered them is unknown. The songs were well-known, some were theme songs from Cantonese TV drama, which was also huge at that time, and some romantics songs like 只怕不再遇上 with a catchy chorus to leave an easy impression. There were quite a few Leslie Cheung covers, so it seems that was the big selling point.
(Picture below from https://thehoneycombers.com/hong-kong/best-leslie-cheung-movies/)
Tape 3 was from a live concert recording of a singer that I am not familiar with, but the songs covered at the concert were definitely well known in the 80s, including mostly Leslie Cheung’s popular works, some Anita Mui’s and other random ones.
These music tapes did not have any bootlegs from the original albums. And even without better sound quality due to the bootleg conditions, nevertheless, these tapes were probably important sources of entertainment, and a window to expose to Hong Kong, the at the time glistening pearl of the East, even for rural and remote places, for those residing in China at the time.
The Three Canto Tapes are here: https://c.mail.com/@649543521753114149/uKoIz3R6QLa3qQ5TM3_A-w
The Full Tape History is here:
https://c.mail.com/@649543521753114149/A7iTxK5eS5ec797K4gH5rQ
