So, I've been thinking about how to make this blog more interesting with my limited time, brain power, and technology. So this post has a theme: Music!

Well, to start off, I'll mention that Hong Kong seems to be a musical black hole. Cantopop is king here, and Mandopop, J-Pop, K-Pop, and late 90's American Boy Band music come next in popularity. I'm not going to say that this music is bad, but its not what I consider quality listening. I don't understand why this music is relevant to the locals' lives either; I think I'd get into gansta rap, death metal, or speedcore if I had to suffer through the stressful Hong Kong school system and lifestyle for my entire youth. But, somehow, those sappy, melancholy love ballads crooned in Cantonese are whats 'in' in Hong Kong.

For anybody wondering what I'm talking about specifically, I can give you a few names of artists my classmates have recommended:

F.I.R
Super Junior
Eason Chan
Edison Chen
G.E.M Tang

Look them up on Youtube if you want to look and listen.

"But Ben, what do you listen to in Hong Kong?"

I'm glad you asked!

Well, actually I listen to tons of music here. You see, even though I have no free time, I have hours and hours of time that can only really be spent listening to music. "How?" you ask? Public transport of course!

Every day, I take a minibus ride of 40 minutes each way to and from school. That gives me 80 minutes with nothing to do but enjoy the contents of my iPod! WOOHOOO! I love it actually, because in the mornings it wakes me up from my semi-conscious 'get ready for school' state, and in the afternoons it relaxes me after 6 hours of listening to various lectures in broken English. It's a kind of therapy almost...

So now I'll mention specifics of who I've been listening to in the past few days:

Wax Tailor - French Experimental Trip-hop
Muse - One of my all-time favorite bands from the UK
Immortal Technique - NYC Political/Conspiracy Theory Gangster Rap
Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - unexplainable spoken word/experimental duo
Rammstein - German Industrial Metal at its finest
Kid Cudi - A new genre I'd say, but in the realm of hip-hop
Mika - amazing singer, in Hong Kong later this month, but sold out :(

Thats just scratching the surface. But anywho, look up those names if you want to hear the same sounds I hear while making the trek from Sheung Shui to Tuen Mun every day.

My fingers are cold now. Heating doesn't exist in HK...

Ben

Comments (1)

On November 16, 2009 at 8:27 AM , LU said...

Hi Ben,

Even with your blogs few and far between, I enjoy them, so keep them coming.