#0: Mando Gap

what's going on? and other things about this newsletter and Mandopop

Mandopop is perceived strangely. Check it out on Twitter and there seem to be two groups: 1) the people stuck in the early 2000s recommending the same Jay Chou ballads and 2) the people who “can’t get enough” of Mandopop, but then recommend the K-pop adjacent acts, you know, the ones that they claim are/were mistreated by SM Entertainment. Then there’s also my grandpa who sent me a Teresa Teng video the other day from forty years ago. But beyond the Twitter stans and my grandparents, the general perception of Mandopop is that it’s, well, terrible. Stale ballads. Boilerplate EDM. Lacking any creativity. Is it all really that bad?

Obviously not. No music from any one region can be dismissed that easily. Part of the issue lies in what’s popular in Mandarin-speaking communities and the way Mandopop is taken as a genre descriptor. I’d argue instead that Mandopop shouldn’t really be taken as one genre but instead as an umbrella term, a broad descriptor of anything sung in Mandarin with some pop sensibilities. There’s still some stuff that adheres to the general perceptions and quite a bit of it (and occasionally, I love it), but there’s great Mandopop to be found beyond that surface. Unfortunately, for anyone outside of Mandarin-speaking regions trying to get into Mandopop, there are more barriers than resources. There are fewer people writing about Mandopop as a whole than there are writing about the latest pop hit.

Mando Gap is a new newsletter focused on highlighting the best new Mandopop music. Think of it as a starting point on music mostly from China and Taiwan, with occasional appearances from artists from Hong Kong and Singapore. A big part is keeping Mandopop accessible, so highlighted releases will be widely available across all major streaming platforms (I’ll focus mainly on Apple Music, Spotify, and Youtube as those are the ones I use) but occasionally, Mandopop moves slower and releases are only available through one platform (most often Youtube). New issues will go up on the 10th of each month. My main goal is to show that there’s good Mandopop beyond its surface, that the genre is still worth your attention.

Find the Mando Gap playlist on Spotify here and me on Twitter here.