Candy Lo

Candy Lo is a Canto- rock singer-songwriter and actress from Hong Kong. She has released nine studio albums, over forty singles, two compilations, one live album, and one EP with Sony Music to date. On 11 June, she released her first EP on her new label WOW Music.

Biography

Pre-solo period

Before going solo Candy Lo was the lead vocalist in Hong Kong based rock band Black & Blue. Before the band released any material, they used to perform independently of Black & Blue as a band as well.

In 1995 Black & Blue released their first record titled Hope in Just One Day. A year later, in 1996 they released their second album eponymously titled Black & Blue. The former contains songs mostly sung in English while the latter is completely in Cantonese. Stepping away from English and singing completely in Cantonese had been a decision made in concordance with their record label so as to make themselves more understandable to fans. Lo wrote the lyrics to their songs herself.

Solo career

In 1998 Candy Lo was signed to Sony Music, thereby starting her solo career. Her first release under Sony was an EP called Bat Seui Yiu...Yun Mei Dak Ho Pa (不需要...完美得可怕; Unnecessary To Want...Perfect Can Be Terrible). For this record she won a Golden Award in the same year. The style of this release continued on from her Canto-rock past with Black & Blue. In winter 1998, Candy released a second record called Miao, the title of which refers to Candy's love of cats and how "they listen while people sometimes don't." The album did not sell as much copies as expected. Producer Kubert Leung blamed the public, who "failed to grasp the concept of the album".

Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (sometimes known as Sony Music or by the initials, SME) is an American music corporation managed and operated by Sony Corporation of America (SCA), a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony Corporation. In 1929, the enterprise was first founded as American Record Corporation (ARC) and, in 1938, was renamed Columbia Recording Corporation, following ARC's acquisition by CBS. In 1966, the company was reorganized to become CBS Records. In 1987, Sony Corporation of Japan bought the company, and in 1991, renamed it SME. It is the world's second largest recorded music company, after Universal Music Group.

In 2004, SME and Bertelsmann Music Group merged as Sony BMG Music Entertainment. When Sony acquired BMG's half of the conglomerate in 2008, Sony BMG reverted to the SME name. The buyout led to the dissolution of BMG, which then relaunched as BMG Rights Management. Out of the "Big Three" record companies, with Universal Music Group being the largest and Warner Music Group, SME is middle-sized.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong (香港; "Fragrant Harbour"), officially Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea. Hong Kong is known for its skyline and deep natural harbour. It has a land area of 1104 km² and shares its northern border with Guangdong Province of Mainland China. With around 7.2 million inhabitants of various nationalities, Hong Kong is one of the world's most densely populated metropolises.

After the First Opium War (1839–42), Hong Kong became a British colony with the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island, followed by Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and a 99-year lease of the New Territories from 1898. Hong Kong remained under British control for about a century until the Second World War, when Japan occupied the colony from December 1941 to August 1945. After the Surrender of Japan, the British resumed control. In the 1980s, negotiations between the United Kingdom and the China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, which provided for the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong on 30 June 1997. The territory became a special administrative region of China with a high degree of autonomy on 1 July 1997 under the principle of one country, two systems. Disputes over the perceived misapplication of this principle have contributed to popular protests, including the 2014 Umbrella Revolution.

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. There are also cases where songs are used in tie in marketing campaigns that allow them to become more than just a song. Tie ins and merchandising could be used in toys are marketing campaigns for food and other products. Although the origins of music videos date back to musical short films that first appeared in the 1920s, they came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip". Since the creation and increased popularity of YouTube, mainstream artists now promote new music videos by releasing trailers of short promos on the site for their upcoming song and music video. Consequentially, YouTube has been converted into a social media platform for celebrities and artists to market themselves to their fans and audiences.