Music of Taiwan
Chinese guqin and Beijing opera, Japanese gagaku, shakuhachi and min'yō, Korean pansori and samul nori, Taiwanese gezaixi opera, nanguan chamber music and Bunun pasibutbut, Mongolian khöömei throat singing and morin khuur.
Sung and searched in Chinese (Traditional). The YouTube button above can run your search in that language.
A brief history
Background
The Kuomintang-led Republic of China government arrived in Taiwan in 1949, a government that suppressed native Taiwanese culture and implemented Standard Chinese (Mandarin) as the official language. This political event has significant effects on the development of music in Taiwan in the 20th century as it resulted in a gap in the transition of the traditional music culture. In 1987, a revival of traditional culture began when the martial law declared by the government was lifted. (See Taiwanese localization movement.) Instrumental music includes multiple genres, such as beiguan and nanguan. Nanguan originally hails from Quanzhou, while it is now most common in Lukang and is found across much of the island. Taiwanese puppetry (hand-puppet theater) and Taiwanese opera, two genres of spectacle that are strongly related to music, are very popular, while the latter is often considered the only truly indigenous Han form of music still extant today.
Popular music
Modern music
In the mid-1970s a genre of popular music known as Taiwanese campus folk song appeared in the music scene of Taiwan. This music consisted of a fusion of elements from American folk rock and Chinese folk music, and was very popular throughout East Asia. Until the 1987 lifting of martial law, Taiwanese pop fell into two distinct categories. Hokkien pop was sung in a native dialect and was popular among older and working-class listeners; it was strongly influenced by Japanese enka. In contrast, Mandarin pop, due to the assimilation policy of the authoritarian Kuomintang regime (1945–1996) that suppressed Taiwanese languages and culture, appealed to younger listeners. Pan-Asian superstar Teresa Teng was originally from Taiwan and enjoyed immense popularity throughout the Sinophone world and beyond. By the mid-1980s, Taiwan's booming Mandarin language music industry was the source of around 90% of Mandopop sold in Southeast Asia.
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Music only, no news or talk. Stations that play the local tradition come first, then the most listened. They play in the corner of the page.
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