C-pop has brought global hitmakers to Hong Kong, and they say China will be Asia’s next big music hub
- A Hong Kong songwriting camp brings together Chris James, Gaston Pong and Chiyo to create all-but-guaranteed chart-toppers. It’s about ‘the market finding them’
About a dozen twenty-somethings stood aloof at a Lan Kwai Fong nightclub, as the speakers blasted repetitive and uninspiring electronic beats.
I stood among them and observed their boredom, which would soon be followed by relief as a consensus was made to return to where they were the previous night – Petticoat Lane, a now defunct gay bar down the street, known for its eclectic selection of pop tunes.
I had met them on a balmy summer evening in 2023, a bona fide group of songwriters who have made some of the biggest hits in the region and beyond. No wonder they were uninspired by that first Lan Kwai Fong club’s playlist. Petticoat Lane was, as hoped, more attuned to their tastes.
Hailing from Berlin, Beijing, Tokyo, Stockholm and Los Angeles, the musicians were in Hong Kong for a songwriting camp put together by Universal Music’s publishing arm, which had expanded its operations in China with a state-of-the-art office in Shanghai a little less than two years earlier.
For a week, the creatives started their workdays at 10am and wrapped up at 7pm – often much later. They made songs that might end up in the hands of some of the world’s biggest performers, such as BTS.
At the wrap party, songs written over the week were played and, it was hoped, maybe sold to the label, too.