Mandopop: Jolin Tsai

It's funny how most of the products we buy and use on a daily basis are produced in China while none of the music we listen to is. Of course their large internal market makes it less necessary to promote their music abroad, making it difficult to find. Luckily everything can be found on YouTube and thus, a couple of years ago, I came across Jolin Tsai. Jolin is a Mandopop singer (pop music sung in Mandarin) born in Taiwan and arguably one of the bestselling female singers in the Greater China Region. The first music videos of Jolin I stumbled upon were Mr.Q and Agent J, dating from 2006 and 2007 respectively. Both pop songs were catchy enough for me to become a fan of Jolin. Since then Jolin has improved and diversified her sound more. Her latest album Play was released in 2014. Besides the upbeat title song Play it also features ballads like The ThirdPerson And I and even a collaboration with J-Pop singer Namie Amuro in I'm Not Yours. Lately she's been busy doing other things besides music like being a voice-actress in the Disney movie Zootopia. Work on her new album has been scheduled to start in the second half of 2016.

Other favourites: The Great Artist, Spying On You Behind The Fence and Lip Reading.

Watch more of her videos on her Official YouTube Channel

Soul: Andreya Triana

Many of the artists I discuss on this blog are usually famous, maybe not worldwide but at least somewhere in the world. This however is not the case for British singer Andreya Triana with modest YouTube views (in the 100,000's). I first heard Andreya in a videogame called Sleeping Dogs, where she was featured on the radio station Ninja Tune with her single Lost Where I Belong. Whenever the song would play I'd stop doing whatever it was I was doing in the game and just listened. Her music is very soulful and relaxing to listen to and her tone is slightly comparable to Amy Winehouse albeit less raw-sounding. During her time at record label Ninja Tune she released several singles including A TownCalled Obsolete and The Keeper, a collaboration with label mate Bonobo. In 2014 she signed with Counter Records where she released her album Giants in 2015 featuring singles That's Alright With Me and Playing With Fire. This latest album's sound is a bit more poppy compared to her earlier work, but still very enjoyable and deserving of more recognition than she is getting now.

Check out more songs on the Ninja Tune and VEVO YouTube Channels.

Contemporary Classical: Two Steps From Hell

I'm willing to bet that everybody reading this blog has at least once in their live unconsciously heard a song from Two Steps From Hell (TSFH). How do I know? Well, let me counter that question with one of my own. Have you ever seen a trailer for: Harry Potter, Star Trek, The Dark Knight, The Avengers, Pirates of the Caribbean or Narnia? Or have you played games like Resident Evil or Mass Effect? Or maybe you love television series like: Breaking Bad, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones or Sherlock. Or maybe you're a sports fan and watched the UEFA European Championship or London Olympics. If you recognize any of these, you've heard the music of TSFH.

I however discovered their existence through a hardcore remix of their song Strength of a Thousand Men performed by DJ Korsakoff: Unconquered.

TSFH was founded by composers Thomas Bergersen and Nick Phoenix and together they've composed music for over 1,000 major movie trailers. Their compositions are performed by classical orchestras (including additional instruments like electric guitars), choirs and solo vocalists, sometimes mixed with electronic elements. Besides heavy bombastic drum-filled works (e.g. Sky Titans) they also produce more serene almost heavenly music (e.g. Benedictus).

Because they've produced so many diverse songs it's impossible for me to give you a good representation of their work. All I  can do is encourage you to visit their YouTube channel on which they've uploaded almost all their compositions and discover them for yourself.

Other favourites: Heart of Courage, Birth of a Hero & Winterspell

Comedy Hip Hop: The Lonely Island

One of the reasons I started this blog was to introduce you, the reader, to music genres that normally don't get much airplay or attention on the radio. Ironically the first time I heard of The Lonely Island was actually on my everyday radio station. At first glance the played song sounded like a regular hip hop song but out of the blue I clearly heard a description of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, followed by Forrest Gump and Scarface. It was one of the funniest hip hop songs I'd heard so upon my arrival back home I started a search for the artist of the song Jack Sparrow.

The Lonely Island consists of the three comedians Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone who have all written for the comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live, which is where they created some of their first successful songs. Because of their connection to SNL they've been able to work with lots of famous singers like: Akon, Nicki Minaj, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Pharrell. Recently The Lonely Island wrote, directed, produced and starred in their first movie called Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which is  a parody on music documentaries. Of course they also made all the music for the movie which includes singles I'm So Humble, and the slightly more daring Finest Girl (Bin Laden Song). Obviously their songs are parodies and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Check out their Official YouTube Channel for more songs and sketches.