70s
Hui Guanjie is regarded as the originator of Hong Kong's contemporary pop songs, he created to Hong Kong spoken rendition of Hong Kong's local songs to create a new era, the role of the implementation of Cantonese songs is decisive. In his early years, he formed a band, sang English songs and hosted a TV program with his brother, Sam Hui. The Hui brothers' movies were hugely popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with "Best Buddies" still holding the record for the number of people watching a Hong Kong movie.
Hui's 1974 debut Cantonese album Ghosts and Stars kicked off Hong Kong's contemporary pop music scene, and in 1978,
The "buy it now" classic Half a Catty Eight Taels signaled the formation of Hong Kong's Cantonese pop music market. Sam Hui is a musical wizard, his works can be put in and out, and wielded freely. The songs he wrote and sang can be clearly categorized into slang and elegant, with the former being particularly significant. These songs, written in Cantonese vernacular, are funny and angry, standing in the position of the common people to praise and criticize current affairs, using funny and humorous language, and have been welcomed by the public like never before. Such as "half a catty eight taels" through the mouth of wage earners to speak out the hardship of the lower strata of society, "ten girls" is pointedly satirical of the one-sided pursuit of fashion, profit-oriented girls, "price increase fever" is a direct venting of dissatisfaction with the skyrocketing prices, "student brother" positively exhortation to the students, asking them to study, "make money to do the wild" to a fable-type story from the positive and negative aspects of the world should rely on their own strengths, The story "Make a Living" is an allegorical tale that urges the world to earn their own living and work hard. The songs he composed in a literary style are inherited from our country's classical poetic style, and thus are full of poetic flavor, with each lyric being a small poem. Pearly Smile" and "Light Whispering in the Middle of the Night" have the style of Song Dynasty's euphemisms, "Iron Pagoda" (written by his brother Hui Koon Man) is a Hong Kong-loving masterpiece, and "Prodigal Son's Heart" and "Genius Idiot's Love of the Past" are interpreted with elegant words and gentle melodies, which is really amazing to see how much room there is for the development of pop songs. It is said that a company in Southeast Asia once purchased the copyright of a few lines of the lyrics of "Genius Idiot's Dream" from Sam Hui for advertising purposes, paying $1,000 per word. Xu Guanjie is the biggest contributor to the creation of contemporary Hong Kong pop songs, but also the first superstar of this pop music world.
Under his influence, a large number of singers switched to Cantonese pop, while a number of new artists emerged, and a springtime for Hong Kong's music scene was approaching...
The Losers, the predecessor of the Wynners, disbanded after an unsuccessful attempt, and a few of their members, believing that the band's name was inauspicious (the name meant "losers"), changed their name to "The Losers. A few members of the Losers decided that the band name was unlucky (meaning "losers") and changed it to "winners" and invited Chung Chun-to to join them, forming Wynners. In the beginning, the band mainly sang English songs, including "L-O-V-E love" and "Sha LaLa". Later on, they sang Cantonese songs based on the style of British and American pop songs with Cantonese lyrics. The songs "I love you, I love you" and "Sha LaLa" became popular in Hong Kong. Their youthful, avant-garde (e.g. bell-bottom pants, shoulder-length hair) look won young people's imitation, and for a while, "band" (forming a band) became a popular novelty. A later song by Sam Hui, "The Trend of Band", described this phenomenon. The rise of the band signaled the emergence of their own pop songs and idols in the Hong Kong music scene, and they profoundly influenced a generation of Hong Kong young people in the mid-to-late '70s. 1978 saw the breakup of the band, with its members going their separate ways and promising to get together every five years to release a major album. They fulfilled their promise, with the album released in 1988, the 10th anniversary of their breakup, being the most influential, with "A Thousand Years of Changes" hitting the Top Ten Gold Songs of that year.
After going solo, the members of Wenner achieved incredible success in Hong Kong's entertainment industry: Alan Tam became the first person in Hong Kong's music industry; Zhong Zhentao, the lead singer of Wenner, also became popular in both music and film; Pang Jianxin, though not as accomplished as the last two, but also gained a certain status in the music industry for his unique country style; Chan Yau, who made a name for himself in the film industry, was very accomplished, from acting to directing; and only Yip Chi-keung continued to appear in the entertainment industry to a lesser extent. the acting world.
Gu Jiahui and Lai Siu-tin also contributed a lot to the rise of Cantonese songs. Their theme songs and interludes for TV dramas such as Struggle, King of a Thousand Kings, The Heavenly Serpent, and Dramatic Life y touched the hearts of the Hong Kong public through the medium of TV, and at the same time sang the songs of singers such as Cheng Siu-kiu, Liza Wang, Kwan Ching-kit, Lo Man, Yip Chun-tong, and Yanni.
In the late seventies, Cantonese songs could already compete with Mandarin and foreign language songs, but there was still a shortage of songwriters, so outstanding lyricists such as Wong Chim, Lo Kwok Chim, Cheng Kwok Kong, and Hui Koon Kit wrote lyrics to a large number of foreign songs. At that time, foreign songs, especially Japanese songs, were very melodious, and with ** lyrics, they became an important part of Hong Kong's Cantonese songs.
The famous singer Xu Xiaofeng, who became popular in the 1970s by singing Mandarin songs such as "Selling Soup Dumplings" and "Barbecued Pork Buns", and Lin Zixiang, who became popular by singing English songs, had also begun to switch to Cantonese songs.
Additionally, singers who are famous for singing adapted songs include Kaori (her "Whenever It Changes" and "Rain in the Hometown" are so memorable!) ), Luo Wen (her favorite remix of Xi Cheng Xi Shu Shu), Yan Ni, Kwan Ching Kit, Yip Chun Tong, Liza Wang, and so on.
Of course there was Alan Tam, the Winners disbanded in '78 and Tam released his own debut solo album, "The Antichrist", in 1978, which was well received.
There were also singers who took the folk-song route, such as Teddy Robin, Au Swee Keung and Lo Yip Mei. Au Ruiqiang, dressed as a cowboy and holding a guitar in his hand, left a deep impression on me, and every time I listened to his "Stranger" and "Fishing Fire Flashing", I was refreshed and happy.