音樂使你快樂: Music makes you happy...

ARTIST: Wen Lan 溫嵐 Landy Wen
ALBUM: You Dian Ye 有點野 A Little Wild
YEAR: 2001
DOWNLOADS: SendSpace FileHO YouSendIt
TRACKLIST:
01. Can U Feel It // uptempo R&B
02. 北斗星 Bei Dou Xing (the Big Dipper) // love song
03. L.A.N.D.Y // chill R&B
04. 動心 Dong Xin (Touch the Heart) // duet love song
05. 跟著我Party Genzhe Wo PARTY (Party With Me) // pop-rock
06. 眼淚知道 Yanlei Zhidao (Tears Know) // sad ballad
07. 仰望天空 Yangwang Tiankong (Look to the Sky) // pop-rock
08. 1 + 1 = 0
09. 蒲公英 Pugongying (Dandelion) // beyond awesome minor key ballad
10. 愛太急
11. 屋頂 Wuding (Rooftop) // Disney-style duet with Jay Chou
MY TAKE: This is an out-of-print album, but I own it. Unfortunately I can't find it right now, and I only ripped the songs I liked onto my computer. I was able to snag a few more because they were on her best-of collection, but I didn't find track 8 and 10. So you don't get them. Sorry.
I think the tags are pretty messy too, so sorry about that as well.
What I'm not sorry about: THIS ALBUM KICKS ASS. It's a really good mix of slow and fast, happy and sad, and even the songs I don't like aren't bad, they're just not my taste.
The links go to the translations, all mine, except for track 11, where I link to the excellent one by Jay Chou Studio. I don't have all the pinyin done, and I will probably procrastinate on it, so if there are any songs you particularly want pinyin for, drop a comment to that effect.
I particularly love L.A.N.D.Y. and Pugongying, so their lyrics, and invidual download links, are below the cut.
( Splendid! )

Five rock-ish songs for your downloading pleasure. I have to say rock-ish because finding pure rock in cpop is difficult. Hopefully you'll find this a nice mix of modern and older stuff.

Under the cut:
Deep White 深白色2人组's 2006 song "Nothing Wrong"
Stefanie Sun 孫燕姿's 2005《完美的一天》"A Perfect Day"
TONE 仲維軍's 2006 "6:57am"
Bibi Chao 趙之璧's 2005 "She Has What You Want" 她有你要的
Tanya Chua 蔡健雅's 2003 "Stranger" 陌生人

And translations of course!
Requests are open omg request someone plzzzzzzzz

Edit: I forgot to mention, I uploaded My Little Airport's album "The OK Thing to Do on Sunday Afternoons is to Toddle at the Zoo" here. Yay Hong Kong indie-pop!

( one two three four one two three four rock facts rock facts rock facts! )

I was accepted into National Taiwan University's International Chinese Language Program (台大國際華語研習所), which means I'm going to Taipei at the end of August and staying there until next June. Am I excited? Well, if this were a cartoon, there would be a me-shaped hole in the ceiling above where I read my acceptance letter. In celebration, I offer an entire album for download, something I hardly ever do. This album is old and YesAsia doesn't appear to be stocking it currently, but it's worth getting.
I will upload individual tracks upon polite request.
Requests are open.
My next post will have a rock-ish theme.


ARTIST: 蕭亞軒 Elva Hsiao/Xiao Ya Xuan
ALBUM: 愛上愛 In Love With Love/Ai Shang Ai
Downloads: SendSpace MegaUpload FileHO
TRACKLIST:
01. 我就是我Remix (I Am Me - Wo Jiu Shi Wo Remix) /// DRUM'N'BASS
02. 進行式 (Progressive Mode - Jinxing Shi) f. Hu Yanbin /// DUET
03. 開始愛 (Begin to Love - Kaishi Ai) /// LUSH DANCE
04. 愛情專用 (Reserved for Love - Aiqing Zhuanyong) /// CHILL SYNTH
05. 一輩子做你的女孩 (Be Your Girl For a Lifetime - Yi Beizi Zuo Ni de Nvhai) /// HAPPY BALLAD
06. 愛上愛 (In Love With Love - Ai Shang Ai) /// LATIN HIGH BPM
07. 想到你 (Think of You - Xiangdao Ni) /// SAD BALLAD
08. 原始 (Primal - Yuanshi) /// SEXY DANCE
09. 不配 (Doesn't Fit - Bu Pei) /// SAD MID-TEMPO
10. 魔術 (Magic - Moshu) /// FUNKY MID-TEMPO
11. 我就是我 (I Am Me - Wo Jiu Shi Wo) /// DISCO
MY TAKE: One of my first Chinese album purchases, Elva released "In Love with Love" in 2003. It's a great album and still one of my favorites, with a great blend of fast paced dance music, chill mid-tempo songs, and slow ballads. Elva wrote the lyrics to track five and seven, and she has some great help on the others, including Deep White (深白色) and Hu Yanbin (胡彥斌) who sings the duet "Jinxing Shi" with her.
It's hard for me to pick favorites because I pretty much like them all, except track 11, which is too Bee-Gees for me. They're all really great for karaoke too, easy to sing, at least if you can keep up with the fast near-rapping of track 6.
Click the cut for the translations; click on the track name to go to the full translation page at chinesesongs with the romanizations etc.
( TRANSLATIONS: )

imageniooous requested some dance songs. So, here are three. I'm home from college for the summer so expect more frequent updates, especially once I get my computer hooked up. (These files were scrounged from my mp3 player.)
Under the cut--Elva's "Wo Jiu Shi Wo", A-mei's "Yes or No" and Jolin's "Dancing Diva." Plus the translations, as usual!

( Bust a move. )

Mavis Fan got her start in 1990 at age 17, singing cute songs for cartoons, with a pure image. When she became an adult she started doing a lot of outrageous stuff to change her image (think Mandy Moore). Now she's one badass indie pop queen.
Here are two songs from her 2004 album "Is There Another Way?"--"Because" and "Ghost Doll." In terms of attidude, you can compare her to Tommy heavenly6, but the music style is more similar to other Taiwanese indie pop acts, such as Ziran Juan.
You can watch the music video for "Because" here. There's an MV for "Ghost Doll" too; if there's enough interest I'll upload it.
I'm also happy to announce that FileHO is working again, so you have three downloading options.
( Click here. )

I've been having some difficult times, so I haven't been updating, telling myself that I would do it when I things were better. Well things aren't getting better and I need something to distract me, so I'm updating. :D
BTW why does my university want the students to die? It charges $1.25 for soda and $1.35 for water! OW, MY HEALTH. OW, MY WALLET.
Two mp3s: David Tao's "Taoyan Hong Lou Meng" and Amu's "You Yi Zhong Ai Jiaozuo Fang Shou".
( Men singing about LURVE. )

New Year, new songs... and some relatively old songs... and some songs that have been in the fridge for a while, but I sniffed at them and they don't smell bad. All lovingly translated and uploaded for your consumption.
INSIDE:
Faith Yang Nai Wen - Nvjue (Madam)
at17 - Nei Ho Maa? (How Are You?)
Angela Zhang Shao Han - Baohuse (Camouflage)
Cyndi Wang Xin Ling - Dang Ni (When You)

Please do comment if you enjoyed your stay on zhongwenmp3 :D

( Angela's back with a new groove! If ya don't know what it is, then call yourself a n00b! )

Hello, sportsfans! I don't have any Chinese media for you right this second... but I do have a link to an community that has some, and 3 new translations!
Join _ongaku and you can download the new album 1087 from Elva Hsiao Ya Xuan 蕭亞軒.
I translated three songs from that album, the booty-shaking single 表白 Biaobai (Elva's album translates it as "confess" but I translated it as "getting it clear"), the funky song L.o.V.e and the sweet ballad 我的男朋友 Wo de Nanpengyou (My Boyfriend) that Elva wrote herself!
表白 translation! This song reminds me of something t.A.T.u might do, particularly their song "Klouni"/"Clowns". There's a bounciness, but also a sense of disconnection, like pop-and-lock dancing. The English isn't cringe worthy! Yay! The MV on YouTube. Is it just me or is the boy in this video Hirai Ken? LOL Elva's certainly not behaving shy in the video!
LoVe translation This song is kinda mid-tempo, very chill, with Elva's trademark lush voice tempting you. It's funny how she manages to spell L O V E in five syllables. o_O Ah well. "La la na na la di da!" Edit: Apparently this is the second single! LOL I guess I know how to pick them! The MV on YouTube.
我的男朋友 translation The first twenty seconds of this song, I thought it was just a boring, unoriginal ballad, and I was about to hit "next track." I'm glad I didn't. Once the singing starts, it gets a real sense of urgency and a driving flow. The lyrics are very cute too.
I really like this album, so I'm open to taking requests to translate more tracks from it.
I'm starting on the pinyin as soon as I post this, so it should be up soon.

There will be an actual post with music files later this week. I hope everyone had a good Christmas season!

ETA: I found out why the album is called 1087! It's because it's been one thousand and eighty-seven days since Elva's last album (5th Avenue) came out. Wow, longer than I thought!

Peace to you all! As long as I still get to make fun of Canada. Peace on earth and mockery for all, I say. America's certainly not exempt.
I kind of... lost... my Chinese Christmas music folder. But I'll find it, hopefully, tomorrow. In the mean time, here are some English, Latin, French and Polish songs for Christmas.
I'm trying out a new file host service: FileHO. Let me know how it works.

( Joy to my friends list, the mp3s are come. )

It's antepenultimate Christmas Eve! Or penultimate Christmas Eve, if you consider 12:28am on Friday night as Saturday morning instead. Anyway, there's no music in THIS entry, but there WILL be music in tomorrow's entry; hopefully to be updated in the late hours of the 23rd of December, here on the Eastern coast of the United States.
The purpose of this entry is twofold. Firstly to pressure myself into actually doing the update rather than kicking back and eating chocolate. Secondly I wish to put out an all points bulletin for Chinese Christmas music. It is really hard to find Chinese Christmas music, or at least it's thwarted me.
My planned menu of holiday delights will be of the "World" variety, and containing my favorites, and some little-known carols. It should contain the following music, and possibly more:
ALL THE CHINESE XMAS MUSIC I HAVE:
Joey Yung's "Xmas Chihuahua"
an mp3 that is labeled 成龍 - 平安夜 but sounds like neither Jackie Chan nor Silent Night
麥兜 - 噢!聖誕 A Cantonese version of "O Tannenbaum"
That's it.
ENGLISH YULETIDE DITTIES:
Catie Curtis - Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming
Mediaeval Baebes - the Holly and the Ivy
Mary Hopkins - Cherry Tree Carol
LATIN IS FUN FOR EVERYONE:
Mediaeval Baebes - Gaudete
Mediaeval Baebes - In Dulce Jubilo
Mediaeval Baebes - Veni, Veni Emmanuel
FRENCH IS NOT JUST FOR KISSES AND DRUG RUNNING:
Elyse O'Connor - Un Flambeau, Jeanette, Isabelle
Mireille Mathieu - Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes
Mediaeval Baebes - Star of the Sea
POLISH CAN BE A PROPER NOUN OR A VERB OR REGULAR NOUN, BUT HERE IT IS A PROPER NOUN BY GOLLY:
Kolędy - W żłobie leży
HURON WHICH SHOULD NOT BE CONFUSED WITH HERON, A KIND OF BIRD:
Bruce Cockburn - Iesus Ahotonnia

This is a rush job, because I'm not at home. I'm in NYC, chilling on the couch with my laptop, full of: turkey with cognac gravy; cranberry jelly (and I mean jelly in the American sense! not gelatin!) in the shape of a pig; brussel sprouts vinaigrette; cornbread stuffing; almond stuffing; mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, with more gravy; acorn squash with fig syrup; sweet potatoes; creamed onions; green beans; apple pie and lots of homemade whipped cream.
But my dedication to you knows no bounds! I must get you Thanksgiving-themed music on Thanksgiving Day! (That is, in America, the only country that counts, LOLERCOASTERZ.)
ICON MAKERS: I'm in the market for a new icon! I want a laughing picture of a Chinese music celebrity with the text "I LOL'd". Coulod be lots of people: Jay Chou, Landy Wen, David Tao, Stefanie Sun... basically anyone I've uploaded here and others I haven't. JUST NOT WANG LEEHOM. This LiveJournal is a Wang Leehom free zone. Thank you.
In return for your mad icon skillz, you will get credit and all the requests you can eat!
Under the cut, Rebecca Kar celebrates Thanksgiving and Vivian Hsu ain't gonna give u luv dat be just soso. (Man, do you know how brain cells I had to kill to enable me to write that sentence?) Original Chinese lyrics in chinesesongs, as usual!

( WHEN COME BACK, BRING PIE. )

Hello loyal zwmp3 fans!
Since my hiatus turned out to be nearly a year, I am pretty out of touch with music rotations on LJ. I have some listed in my profile (updated, by the way), but I don't know who the new-ish guys are.
So please recommend other MLJs to me! If you run an MLJ and you would like to affiliate, I'd love to trade links!
ALSO: I have a bunch of .vob karaoke/vocal files of Chinese music videos. I would like to convert them to a more common extension (mpg or avi). Is there a way to convert and still be able to switch audio from karaoke to vocal? Or do I have to pick one? And which program is the best for conversion? This is for the benefit of y'all, because I want to upload these music videos to share; I have over 50 of them, all recent hits.

Inside this update, we have two featured songs with translations: "Cao Cao" by JJ Lin Jun Jie and "Guai bu Guai" by Rainie Yang Chenglin. As a bonus download, a fast paced rap about the Three Kingdoms by Allen Yuan Tong. As a bonus bonus download, an out-of-print English album by Rivulets and Violets, an obscure sweet strings pop band.
I have decided, in order to save space, only to place the English translation on this page. The Chinese text and the pinyin are available at chinesesongs.

( I spent a few hours of my life uploading and translating it, the least you can do is check it out! (End guilt trip.) )

I got pretty enthused by the fact that people still remembered me, so here's two more songs and translations!
By the way, I added the rest of Rebecca's album to the last post for download.
And requests are still open.
Pinyin for both can be found in chinesesongs.

( First, David Tao swoons beautifully over Olia. Then, Ziran Juan delivers some frank talk to an Old Virgin! )

Yeah, zhongwenmp3 is back. Lack of all warning ho!
But, it's gonna be different. Like, a lot different.
I can not justify the amount of time that zwmp3 takes just for posting music. In addition, it has become easier to find Chinese music. It's still not as easy as jpop, but it's somewhat better. So instead of posting LOTS of mp3s, I will be posting only mp3s with translations.
Fun? Fun.
YOU get a selection of my favorite mp3s, freshly picked from the vine and washed carefully in like, dew, or something. You also get a translation of those songs, a shiny picture of the singer, and maybe some fun facts about Chinese culture! Hurray!
I get a slap on the ass to improve my translating abilities. And your lovely comments will provide a salve for the slap. Yay!

I will be providing multiple links to download; some from free servers, some from baidu. I am not responsible for dead links. I may, out of the kindness of my heart, reupload, but it's not likely.
Translations will also be posted at chinesesongs. Pinyin will ONLY be posted there.
I will uploaded AT LEAST one mp3 and translation per week.
REQUESTS ARE OPEN MMMKAY.
zmp3v2 will be PUBLIC, unless I run into leeching problems; then it's back to the old system of friends only etc. So comment if you know what's good for you!
( MUSIC! Rebecca Xu Tong En. )

Edit: By the way, I'm looking for Rain's latest album "Rain's World." So if anybody had hit me up with that, I will be so grateful.
Son of Edit: I added a link to the rest of Rebecca's album under the cut. Because superslayer18 requested it and he's my homey like dat. Word.

It has been a long time since I updated, I know, but I have had a rather... eventful month.

Bad Things:
- An unidentified ailment which incapicitated me during the final weeks of the semester. It was finally diagnosed as a stomach lining inflammation/infection and is being successfully treated by medicine.
- Due to this malady, I had extreme difficulty keeping up with my coursework. I have talked with my professors and am finishing up now with no penalties.
Good Things:
- I went to visit my boyfriend in Toronto.
Bad Things:
- While in Toronto, I slipped on a set of stairs and smacked my head on the concrete.
Good Things:
- My boyfriend and I fell even more deeply in love and spent every possible moment together.
Bad Things:
- I missed my flight back home.
- I realized I had forgotten stuff I needed to complete coursework.
Good Things:
- I spent a happy Christmas with my family and boyfriend.
- HE PROPOSED. We are now engaged. XD
Bad Things:
- I got strep throat.
Good Things:
- We returned to Pittsburgh.
- I introduced my new fiance to all my friends and they adore him.
Bad Things:
- MY EXTERNAL HARDDRIVE WENT *KABLOOEY*. It seemed I had lost ALL of my Asian music (!) and videos (!!!!).
- The computer network guy who came to check it out said there was no way to recover anything (!!!!!!!!!!).
- I had bank and insurance problems which are both frustrating and boring.
Good Things:
- My fiance, who is OMGWTFBBQFABULOUS figured out how to recover my data (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) (!).
- I love him so much.
- YAY FOR GORDON!
- I'm in <3 and that's great.
- Etc.

So. Yeah.
I don't know how long it will be until I'm back up and running but I hope y'all will be patient, and that my trials have amused you. ^_^

Xposted to my personal journal, dustthouart.

This music LJ has very special rules. Only comment and ask to be added if you can follow them.
1. Comment, saying what you downloaded, and if you like, what you enjoyed, didn't enjoy, gossip, etc.
2. If you didn't download anything, you must comment and tell me that.
3. Two entries in a row with no comment from you means you're off the list.
4. No hotlinking, that is, no linking to the files directly, say in a forum or email to someone else. Link them to my userinfo instead. I will be prompt in friending people. I understand that you want to share this music--I made this LJ because I want to share! But my bandwidth is limited and it costs me $60 a year. Please be respectful of the fact that I am paying out of my own pocket for you to enjoy something absolutely free.
5. You must have an LJ to join, but LJs are free and fun, and it's easy to sign up!
5. Requests are NOT allowed, unless I have rewarded you with one. Click here for more on request policy.
6. If you get kicked off the list, it is up to me whether you can come back on or not.
7. In your request to be added, include the phrase "I've read the rules and I will follow them." If you don't I'll ignore you.
8. Friends image featuring Hamasaki Ayumi made by aoisakana. Thank you!

NOTICE: As of March 25th 2005, my friends list is OPEN. Read the rules and comment to join. If you were a bad boy/girl, comment to rejoin.

Information You May Need

How to Earn a Request:
1. Make me some kind of nifty thing. Generally I'll put out a request for something like an icon, and if you make it, you get a request.
2. Give me a link to a music LJ not already on my friends list, or to a music rotation site. (Check my userinfo for music LJs.)
3. Give me a link to a music translation site not listed in helpful links (below).
4. People who run music LJs can request anything at any time, because you guys are teh kewliez.
5. Report a hotlink or other thievery.
6. NEW! Answer a quizzie question correctly and first.
7. You can offer to trade me. I am particularly interested in music videos, PVs and lives. Let me know in a comment what you have and how you can get it to me. YSI, your own server, or instant messenger service are all options. Giving me a music video is worth 2 requests.
8. NEW! Commenting on ten rotations in a row without missing any will earn you a Good Attendance award and one request.

How to Make a Request:
1. You can post your request on the latest active entry, or on this entry.
2. Give me as much information as you have, for example, song title romanized, song title in original language, artist's name romanized, artist's name in original language, artist's English name, album title, language it's in, date it came out, soundtrack it's from, etc.
3. You can also request a style or mood. For example, "I want an upbeat Sakamoto Maaya song" or "I'd like some Korean techno" or "Do you have any songs that sound like See-saw's 'Kioku (Memory)'?"
6. You can request from the playlist, where you're pretty much guarenteed to get it, or you can request something that's not on it. I will do my best to find your request.
7. If I can't fulfill your request, you can use it to request something else.
8. Special: Requesting video files. You can request video files, however they cost 2 requests because of their larger file size. Also, you can't request a video file that I don't have, because videos are hard to find. Please see below for my current list of video files.

If You Have Problems:
Sometimes people can't download at first. I don't know why this is. So far everyone who has had download problems has fixed them by coming back a day or so later. Please let me know if you continue to have problems.

Helpful Links:
Translation sites
Centigrade-J Japanese romaji and translation
Mognet Japanese romaji and translation, also BitTorrent dls of anime
Aheeyah Korean konglish + T
Ryuichi's Jpop Music Station Japanese R+T
Wataru's Japanese Translation J R+T
Silent Water Ripples J R+T and reviews
Ting Dong Chinese + Japanese R+T
Cori's Jpop Lyrics Lots of Romaji, some T
Moonless Triton Japanese R+T
Jay Chou Studio Jay Chou R+T and media
Hanamusuki darcenciel's translation site, including the translation of Gackt's book Jihaku!
Other sites
Hong Kong Vintage Pop Radio Chinese entertainment news in English.
Yesasia.com Asian cds, DVDs and other stuff.
J-poop Lots of news, reviews etc for Japanese music.
Baidu Chinese search engine, sometimes useful for finding mp3s.
Mp3tt Music download site, mostly Chinese, some Korean, Japanese and English. In Chinese.

Playlist
Playlist length as of May 15: 2279 tracks
Playlist is grouped by language.
Click here to browse.
( Click for Video Playlist )

This music LJ has very special rules. Only comment and ask to be added if you can follow them.
1. Comment, saying what you downloaded, and if you like, what you enjoyed, didn't enjoy, gossip, etc.
2. If you didn't download anything, you must comment and tell me that.
3. Two entries in a row with no comment from you means you're off the list.
4. No hotlinking, that is, no linking to the files directly, say in a forum or email to someone else. Link them to my userinfo instead. I will be prompt in friending people. I understand that you want to share this music--I made this LJ because I want to share! But my bandwidth is limited and it costs me $60 a year. Please be respectful of the fact that I am paying out of my own pocket for you to enjoy something absolutely free.
5. You must have an LJ to join, but LJs are free and fun, and it's easy to sign up!
5. Requests are NOT allowed, unless I have rewarded you with one.
6. If you get kicked off the list, it is up to me whether you can come back on or not.
7. In your request to be added, include the phrase "I've read the rules and I will follow them." If you don't I'll ignore you.
8. Friends image made by heed_the_call. Thank you!

NOTICE: As of October 11th 2004, my friends list is OPEN. Read the rules and comment to join. If you were a bad boy/girl, comment to rejoin.

Would anyone like to make me a friends only image? It doesn't necessarily have to be Chinese music related... something cute or pretty would work too. I'd like it to say "zhongwenmp3 is only for friends" or something to that effect (affect?), use your creativity. It's worth one request if you make one, and two requests if yours is the one I pick.
I'm going to update the request list pretty soon. I have to rip my CDs that I got in China first.

I'm back! You had almost given up, right? ^_^
There's going to be a new system here at zhongwenmp3. After this entry, new entries will be friends only, with a special policy. Simply put, here's how it will go:
1. Comment to be added.
2. Download with majesty.
3. Comment, telling what you downloaded. If you don't download anything, COMMENT SAYING THAT. This is important.
4. I understand that everyone forgets to comment once in a while. However, if you do not comment on 2 entries in a row, you will be off my friends list, and you will have to REALLLY be nice to me to get back on. If you're going to be on vacation or something, tell me that.

Hopefully, these new rules will enable me to truly reward the good commenters. Since I fully expect this to lessen the number of people who download, that means I can offer more songs per update!
Updates will now be on Wednesday evening. I'll set my FTP to upload while I watch Lost on ABC, hee hee. (Dominic Monaghan is SEX.)
It's late and I'm tired, so no pictures yet. I'll do that tomorrow.
Once again, we'll be having a weekly vote. This week's vote is: Which Kawashima Makiyo song would you like me to upload next? She's in this week's update, but I'm aware most of you won't have heard any of her songs, so um... judge by the titles. Zou Kai! Ni Na Wei? (Out of My Way! Who Are You?), Xiao Lu Cang Dao (Little Deer Hiding a Knife), Aiqing Lai la (Romance is Coming), or her single "Pink Band"?

Artist: Ziran Juan (Naturally Curly) 自然卷
Song: QUEEN OF THE WORLD (plus hidden track)
Album: C'est La Vie
Language: Mandarin
Style: Indies, retro
Comments: You want to listen to some Chinese indies, don't you? I thought so. This album is pretty good. I have no idea where I'm going to buy it though, because yesasia ain't selling it. This particular track sounds like it was recording in a coffee house or something similar. You can hear people's cell phones going off. But it's a must download because you must sing along with "LA LA LA LA I AM QUEEN OF THE WORLD." The hidden track starts pretty quickly and lasts a long time... like five minutes. It's a jazzy number with harmony and doo-wop type vocals. Sounds like it could be on an Austin Powers soundtrack or maybe Cowboy Bebop. And there's bongos! Compare to: Fantastic Plastic Machine, Cibo Matto, Pizzicato Five.

Artist: Sun Yue 孙悦
Song: Zhen Shijie (Real World)真世界
Album: Ta He Tamen (Her and Them) 她和她们
Language: Mandarin
Style: upbeat Pop
Comments: I don't know what it is about this song. It's not Latin at all, yet it makes me want to do that hip shake thing which is more like a vibration. You know, like you see Shakira doing in her videos.When I was China and I danced to this song, I did this shoulder shimmy thing. Everyone laughed because I am, ahem, endowed by God with certain attributes which also shimmied. Hee. You can buy this cd from yesasia.com for 4.95. I'm not kidding. That's USD right there. So you really have no excuse for not buying it. I'll provide you with another song so you can tell. Compare to: Shakira, Melody, Sakamoto Maaya, Shimatani Hitomi, Zhang Hui Mei (Amei).

Artist: Ai Dai (Edell) 爱戴
Song: Fei Wo Yi (Not My Idea) 非我意
Album: edell.love
Language: Mandarin
Style: piano ballad
Comments: Yes, I'm a ballad hater. I admit it. A ballad has to be pretty special for me to enjoy it. I love this ballad. You don't have to speak Chinese to hear the melancholy and regret in her voice. Actually, the most emotionally lines of the song are in English anyway. They are, "Oh, no, baby... no, no, baby..." which sounds stupid and vaguely pornographic when I write it here, but it's very powerful and emotional in the actual song. If you've ever had to break it off with someone you still had feelings for, this will resonate. Compare to: Zhou Hui, Li Wen (Coco Lee), Zhang Bo Zhi (Cecilia Cheung), Kouda Kumi, Kuraki Mai.

Artist: S.H.E
Song: Bosi Mao (Persian Cat) 波斯猫
Album: Magical Journey 奇幻旅程
Language: Mandarin
Style: Pop, R&B, Dance
Comments: I must have seen this video 50 times in China, so I can now do a pretty good imitation of their cat-mimicking dance: hands up like paws, up on tippy toes, wiggle your butt. This is power dance pop that's the mainstay of S.H.E. As the title would suggest, the music has a strong Middle Eastern flair. Middle Eastern and Indian influences seem to be all the rage in the Chinese pop industry. Download and wiggle along. Compare to: Cai Yi Lin (Jolin Tsai), Xiao Ya Xuan (Elva), Wen Lan (Landy), Diva, BoA.

Artist: Kawashima Makiyo 川岛末树代
Song: Ni Zhe Yang Bu Dui O (This Time You're Wrong) 你这样不对喔
Album: Magic Age 魔术代
Language: Mandarin
Style: Retro, Pop, Rock
Comments: Kawashima Makiyo, half-Japanese, half-Taiwanese, has released music in both languages (I think as just "Makiyo" in Japan, but I'm not positive), but has never had real break out success. She's trying to change that with her new album, in which she harmonizes with herself... the album features "two sides of Makiyo", one called Maki and one called Yo. I really like this. The entire album is great and I'll definitely be uploading more songs by her. It definitely draws from contemporary Japanese music, especially Tommy february6. Tommy fans will enjoy it. Strangeness: Yesasia.com ran a news item about this album, but you really have to hunt to find the album on their site. Simply searching for "Makiyo" didn't show me it. For some reason it's under... books? Anyway, search for "Magic Age" if you'd like to buy it. Compare to: Tommy february6, some Morning Musume, Kawamoto Makoto, Yum! Yum! ORANGE, speena, Paris Match, chicochair, Shonen Knife.

Artist:Kyla
Song: Human Nature
Album: ? not sure.
Language: English
Style: R&B, pop
Comments: I heard this song on the plane coming back to America. Kyla is from the Phillipines and is a "pop princess", at least according to the DJ. I love the song and Kyla's voice. Her accent sounds American to me, I don't know if she actually lived in America/Canada or if people speak American-style English in the Phillipines (perhaps someone can enlighten me in their comment?). It's good... very mellow, nice melody, and lyrics that don't make you barf (take notes, Hikki?). Try it, you'll like it. Compare to: Jojo, Li Wen (Coco Lee), Utada Hikaru, Regine Velasquez, Onitsuka Chihiro, Hinouchi Emi, Takaoka Ai.