Now Playing… is a biweekly column that releases every other Friday at 5 p.m. EST. Every other week, I will spotlight a lesser-known song or artist from a variety of genres. It will be a bit of music analysis, arts education, blogging, and more. Love it or hate it, I won’t let you down at exposing you to the cool art that is being made today from songs, to music videos, to live performances. If you’re also a cool young person constantly on the search for new music, let me supplement your listening diet!

Who are they?

Wang is a Dutch-Chinese singer who has been active since 2013. She comes from a musical family; her grandmother was a Chinese opera singer and her mom followed suit. Wang was born in the Netherlands and found her way to music after joining a Chinese singing competition show and getting signed by Warner Records. From what I can gather, her biggest commercial hit is “Home,” and she recently founded her own entertainment company this year.

I first heard Diana Wang on Spotify when shuffling through Chinese pop (also known as C-pop or Mandopop) music. I came across her debut album, Love Lesson on Apple Music or 你好吗 on Spotify and was immediately entranced by her fun pop sound. It was giving everything you wanted music to sound like in the early 2010s. While it was not groundbreaking, all of her tracks gave a very pleasant overview of her skills as a vocalist and I stayed tuned in.

Off her debut album, I adored the very classic 2010 era pop songs with RnB like the third track “Me & I”/ “我的我自己.” The amount of genres in the album is fascinating, spanning classical ballads to electro pop “Loveee!”/ “最最愛!” to the folk-sounding “Armored Wizard”/ “穿盔甲的精靈.” I also enjoyed her more standard pop offerings like “No No No No”/ “不說不” and her lite disco pop track “Hey Boy.”

But what really solidified me as a fan, and inspired this week’s Now Playing, was her 2018 album Poem.

What’s playing this week? 

“Tomorrow (明天) ft. 王蕾 & Khalil Fong (方大同)” — Diana Wang

“Only Man (主角)” — Diana Wang

“Changing 換裝” — Diana Wang

“Wang Jiang Ting (望江亭)” — Diana Wang

Why this album, why these songs? 

Compared to her first album, which is good, this album is really good. It’s unlike anything anyone has done before. Across all the tracks, there is very dynamic vocal layering and the incorporation of Chinese traditional instruments. And, it’s not just done for a gimmick.

The different moods of the songs and their intricate composition are evidence of the time and labor put into refining the mix and truly exploring the combinations of Western and Chinese music traditions, especially when compared to her debut album. It is so refreshing and heartening to hear a true fusion of diverse musical influences and skills. It pays off in tracks that keep the listener interested at every turn. While she retains the lighthearted pop sound she curated in her first album, it’s a bit more mature now.

In this week’s Now Playing, all the tracks incorporate different Chinese traditional instruments that ebb ever so softly in the background. It pairs well with her R&B sound to create a relaxed yet innovative space, just barely detectable on the edges.

Wang Jiang Ting (望江亭)

Not only is there a wide variety of instruments used in the song — ensuring that your ears won’t get bored — but they each somehow have their uninterrupted moment to shine. And, it all works together because they are grounded by the consistent drum beats. The rhythm of this song is a masterpiece, and while short, it packs a punch. 

Only Man (主角)

This song is a more class pop offering, but the textures in the song make it addictive. From the metallic-sounding drum beat to the synths that add just a bit of texture, and the abundant hi-hats, the song is heavy-hitting and signals a kind of majestic march. Instead of speeding up, the climactic part of the song slows down a bit before the pace gets picked back up for the last time. To me, it demonstrates Wang’s ability to curate interesting song finales, which was the feature that drew me in as a fan.

Tomorrow (明天) feat. 王蕾 & Khalil Fong (方大同)

If there’s only one song you walk away having listened to, it has to be this one. This is the stand-out track for me, and when I first heard it I was blown away. 

For many Chinese kids, we hear Chinese opera for the first time when our grandparents blast it on our TVs. The loud wails of the art form are often confusing for Western-raised ears that are primed for certain forms and conventions. But, when Wang and her collaborator/mentor Khalil Fong blended it so seamlessly with R&B, I could feel my preconceptions melt away. 

From the use of Chinese instruments that bring us closer to the climax, to the part where Wang’s mother, Wang Lei, begins, it’s a wonderful but also sentimental musical experience. As the song nears its climax, the instrumental gets more intense, and it layers while Wang Lei performs her part. It is a very intense reimagining and modernization of traditional Chinese music — making something viewed as “old” into something “cool,” perhaps similar to the snippets of Chinese opera that were presented as one of Evelyn’s alternate lives in the movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

Thinking a bit about music history, these kinds of mixed-sounds sounds are very contemporary, because they have to come about with not only the influence of Western culture but the desire to blend it with traditional culture. Pop music around the world usually tends to go towards the direction of blatant imitation, specifically of Black American pop culture, so I appreciate efforts like this that build off that foundation to create something that’s both respectful to the cultures they pull from and entirely new. 

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Missed the last rendition of Now Playing…? Read it here!

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