As a musician and DJ (and regular pool hall patron) David couldn’t take much of this. He politely suggested to the management that he make compilations for them to play. The bosses were thrilled with the idea so the next day David brought back a lovingly compiled CD of vintage funk and soul. The pool hall played it, loved it and asked him to do the same again, which he did, a number of times. Before long, however, David began to suspect how much people were actually paying attention to his finely crafted mixes. His friend Matt suggested that, as a test, he make a CD which featured the same song repeated 18 times on it, the song being ‘What A Fool Believes’ by Michael McDonald/Doobie Brothers:

As normal the management put the CD on loop and, after two hours of playing pool to the same song, David asked the management and some of the regulars what they thought of it. The assembled staff and punters unanimously declared it to be their favourite CD so far. They absolutely loved it. That was the last CD David gave them.

It is difficult to know what conclusions to draw from this story, if any, suffice to say that the Chinese engage with music in a totally different way to the west. Recognition through repetition is a stock feature of the Chinese psyche, the most obvious example of which being the teaching of characters in Chinese schools (with some 11,000 characters in use in modern Chinese, classes are a necessarily ‘parrot fashion’ learning environment where children repeat pen strokes and character recognition ad nauseam). If a song hits a chord with the country and reaches a certain level of exposure/repetition, it will take on a life of it’s own, become a MONSTER hit to be played, replayed, covered, sync-ed, performed live and sung at KTVs (Karaoke bars) with a fervor very rarely seen in the west – it will become a part of the fabric of everyday life.

If you were to compile a ‘Now That’s What I Call Chinese Pop Music’ you could get away with a five track EP (rather than the 40 track annual double albums we get in the west) and still cover 60% of the musical mindshare of urban China. The relentless repetition of these monster hits in almost every conceivable environment and incarnation mirrors the teaching of Chinese characters and the CD in the pool hall: There is an overriding comfort to be had from recognition alone.

That’s enough theorizing. Anyone who has spent any length of time in China, regardless of whether or not they listen to the radio or watch TV, will recognise at least one, and probably more, of the following songs. These are what the Chinese monster hits sound like, with Mouse Loves Rice being the biggest by some distance (a real phenomenon, the story of which neatly sums up the music environment in China, but that’s for another time):

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL CHINESE POP MUSIC Vol.1:

David Tao & Jolin Tsai – Jin Tian Ni Yao Jia Gei Wo (Today You Must Marry Me):

S.Wing – QQ Ai:

Yang Chen Gang – Lao Shu Ai Da Mi (Mouse Loves Rice):

A Niu – Tao Hua Duo Duo Kai (Peach Blossom):

Kenny G – Going Home:

© Ed Peto 2007