Pop music

C-pop originally began with the shidaiqu genre founded by Li Jinhui in the mainland, with Western jazz influences from the likes of Buck Clayton. After the Communist Party establishment, the Baak Doi record company ended up leaving Shanghai in 1952. The 1970s saw the rise of cantopop in Hong Kong, and later mandopop in Taiwan. The mainland remained on the sideline for decades with minimal degree of participation. Only in recent years did the youth in mainland resume as a consumer for the Taiwan mandopop market. Still, China is not yet considered a major production hub despite having the largest population. When Hong Kong's icon Anita Mui performed the song "Bad Girl" during the 1990s in China, she was banned from returning to the concert for showing a rebellious attitude. By Western standards, the performance was no more rebellious than, for example, Madonna since Mui based a lot of her dance moves on Madonna's style. Many mainland artists often try to start their commercial success in Hong Kong or Taiwan first, and then re-import into the mainland as part of the gangtai culture.

Since the end of the 20th century, pop music in mainland China started to become more popular. Especially at the start of the 21st century, Mainland Chinese artists have started producing a wide range of mandarin pop songs along with many new albums.

Many mainland Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong artists performed for the promotion of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.