At the beginning of 1950s, there are no specific terms to describe Cantopop, rather they are often consider as movie soundtrack. For example, 芬艷芳’s 《荷花香》、《懷舊》、《檳城艷》. The term Cantopop (粵語時代曲／粵語流行曲／廣東時代曲) was first established and used by a avant-grade record label company called 和聲唱片公司. While other record label companies in the market, choose to categorize the same genre of song in different titles, e.g. 南聲唱片公司 called it as 跳舞歌曲, 幸運唱片公司 and 美聲唱片公司 called them as 電影插曲, 音樂譜子, or sometime 跳舞粵曲. Although the term is established, public understanding towards Cantopop was still vague, sometime they will even consider ditty in Cantonese opera as Cantopop.  

 

Till the end of 1950s, Cantonese opera was still the dominant music genre, which achieved high popularity and mature production in Hong Kong. Cantopop was consider as sub culture designed to fit grassroot taste, and singers were just trying to imitate the aria of Cantonese opera. So, the status of Cantopop remains unelevated.

 

懷舊 (1954) - 芳艷芬

Composer: 王粵生

檳城艷 (1954) - 芳艷芬 

Composer: 王粵生