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hanmai

Hanmai

China · 2010s
IntenseDancingEpicHappyDark
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Description

Hanmai (喊麦) is a Mainland Chinese internet-born vocal style in which a performer rhythmically shouts or chants short lines over simple, high-energy electronic dance beats. Instead of melodic singing, the delivery emphasizes chest-voice projection, crisp diction, end-rhymes, and slogan-like parallel couplets.

The sound is closely tied to live‑streaming culture and club MC traditions, favoring big, festival-style drops, four-on-the-floor kick patterns, and straightforward harmonic loops. Lyrics often revolve around braggadocio, camaraderie, and "society" (社会) memes, and are designed to energize crowds and scroll-by audiences. Effects such as heavy reverb, delay throws, and sidechain pumping are common, giving hanmai a punchy, hype-driven feel.

History
Origins (early–mid 2010s)

Hanmai emerged in Mainland China in the early to mid‑2010s at the intersection of club MC hype traditions and the rapid growth of live‑streaming platforms. Performers adapted the role of the nightclub MC—whose job is to excite crowds over electronic tracks—into a broadcast-friendly, chant-forward format.

Viral growth via platforms

Services such as YY、快手 (Kuaishou)、and later 抖音 (Douyin/TikTok in China) amplified hanmai. Short, repeatable lines, motivational slogans, and call‑and‑response phrasing made the style ideal for clips, fan edits, and mashups, helping certain catchphrases and hooks spread widely.

Aesthetics and reception

Musically, hanmai leaned on festival‑EDM textures (big room leads, hardstyle‑leaning kicks) at 120–150 BPM, plus trap‑tempo halftime variations around 70/140 BPM. Culturally, it sat outside orthodox hip hop and conventional pop, drawing both huge grassroots followings and criticism from purists who viewed its chant-first approach as simplistic.

Regulation and consolidation

From the late 2010s, increased content scrutiny on Chinese platforms affected some high‑profile streamers associated with hanmai. Even so, the style’s templates—chantable slogans, drop-centric arrangements—continued to inform viral EDM‑pop hybrids and online performance practices.

Legacy

Hanmai helped normalize a distinct “internet MC” performance language in China, influencing how hooks are written for short-video virality and how creators structure high‑impact, loopable drops for mobile audiences.

How to make a track in this genre
Core rhythm and tempo
•   Aim for 120–150 BPM with a four‑on‑the‑floor kick (festival EDM feel) or 70/140 BPM halftime for a trap‑like groove. •   Keep drum programming bold and uncluttered: punchy kicks, snappy claps/snares on beats 2 and 4, off‑beat hi‑hats, and occasional fills to set up drops.
Harmony and sound design
•   Use simple, loopable progressions (e.g., i–VI–VII, or I–V–vi–IV) over 4 or 8 bars to support chant hooks. •   Lead with bright supersaw/big‑room synths and sub‑bass that sidechains hard to the kick. Add risers, sweeps, impacts, and white‑noise builds to frame drops.
Vocal delivery
•   Perform in strong chest voice with clear consonants and tight rhythmic alignment. Favor short, parallel lines that end‑rhyme. •   Write lines like motivational slogans or streetwise aphorisms that can be memorized quickly and repeated. •   Process with light autotune if needed, but prioritize compression, slapback/room reverb, and occasional delay throws for emphasis.
Structure
•   Common layout: intro (4–8 bars) → build (8 bars) → drop with chant (8–16 bars) → brief break → second build/drop → outro. •   Use call‑and‑response moments: a short shouted question followed by a crowd‑style answer or a beat cut for a memorable punchline.
Performance and mixing
•   Leave space in the instrumental for the voice to dominate the midrange. Use sidechain ducking to make chants pop during drops. •   On stage or in stream, maintain high energy: posture upright, mic close, and lines paced so the audience can echo them.
Main artists
Influenced by
Hip Hop
Hip hop is a cultural and musical movement that emerged from Black, Latino, and Caribbean communities, centering around rapping (MCing), DJing/turntablism, sampling-based production, and rhythmic speech over beats. It prioritizes groove, wordplay, and storytelling, often reflecting the social realities of urban life. Musically, hip hop is built on drum-centric rhythms (from breakbeats to 808 patterns), looped samples, and bass-forward mixes. Lyrically, it ranges from party anthems and braggadocio to political commentary and intricate poetic forms, with flow, cadence, and rhyme density as core expressive tools. Beyond music, hip hop encompasses a broader culture, historically intertwined with graffiti, b-boying/b-girling (breakdance), fashion, and street entrepreneurship, making it both an art form and a global social language.
Rap
Rap is a vocal music style built on the rhythmic, rhymed, and often improvised spoken delivery of lyrics over a beat. It emphasizes flow, cadence, wordplay, and narrative, and is commonly performed over sampled or programmed drum patterns and loops. Emerging from block parties and sound-system culture in the Bronx, New York City, rap became the core vocal expression of hip hop culture alongside DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti. While it is closely linked to hip hop, rap as a technique and genre has also crossed into pop, rock, electronic, and global regional scenes. Musically, rap favors strong drum grooves (breakbeats, 808 patterns), sparse harmony, and loop-based structures that foreground the MC’s voice. Lyrically, it spans party chants and battle brags to intricate internal rhymes, social commentary, reportage, and autobiography.
Edm
EDM (Electronic Dance Music) refers to the mainstream, festival-oriented wave of electronic dance styles that rose to global prominence in the early 2010s. It emphasizes high-energy drops, ear-catching toplines, and crowd-pleasing arrangements designed for large stages and mass audiences. Musically, EDM typically sits around 124–130 BPM with a strong four-on-the-floor kick, wide supersaw leads, bright plucks, and heavily sidechained pads and basses for a pumping feel. Tracks are structured around tension-and-release: intros and builds lead to explosive drops, followed by breakdowns that rebuild energy. Vocals and pop-style songwriting frequently appear, enabling crossover success on radio and streaming platforms.
Electro House
Electro house is a high-energy branch of house music characterized by distorted, buzzing bass leads, crisp four‑on‑the‑floor drums, and dramatic, festival-ready drops. It typically runs around 125–130 BPM, favoring aggressive, sawtooth-based synth timbres, heavy sidechain compression, and big, riff-like hooks over lush chord progressions. Production emphasizes powerful low-end, gritty midrange textures, noise sweeps and risers, and tightly structured builds and breakdowns that set up explosive drops. While rooted in house and electro traditions, its sound design borrows from techno’s intensity and big beat’s punch, resulting in a bold, modern, and club-focused aesthetic.
Big Room House
Big room house is a festival-focused strain of EDM built for massive sound systems and outdoor main stages. It typically runs around 126–132 BPM (most commonly 128), uses four-on-the-floor kick patterns, and features huge, simple lead riffs designed to be instantly memorable to large crowds. A defining trait is the contrast between cinematic, reverb-washed breakdowns and ultra-dry, percussive drops driven by a powerful kick, sub, and a few bold supersaw or horn-like synth stabs. Arrangements lean on dramatic builds with snare rolls, risers, and crowd-hyping vocal chops, culminating in drops that emphasize impact over harmonic complexity.
Hardstyle
Hardstyle is a hard dance genre characterized by a pounding 4/4 kick at around 150 BPM, heavy distortion, and anthemic, festival‑scale melodies. Its signature sound is the hardstyle kick: a layered, distorted kick drum with a pitched, tonal tail that carries the track’s root note. Early hardstyle was defined by reverse‑bass patterns and gritty, techno‑leaning drive. From the late 2000s onward, "nustyle" brought brighter, euphoric supersaw leads, cinematic breakdowns, and pitched kicks, while the parallel rawstyle branch emphasized darker timbres, aggressive screeches, and relentless drive. Today the genre spans a spectrum from euphoric and vocal to raw and industrial, but the unmistakable kick‑led energy remains the constant.
Spoken Word
Spoken word is a performance-centered genre where text—poems, monologues, stories, or manifestos—is delivered aloud with musicality in voice rather than through singing. It may be entirely a cappella or accompanied by sparse instrumentation (often jazz combos, ambient textures, or minimal electronics) that frames the cadence and rhetoric of the performer. The emphasis is on language: prosody, pacing, imagery, and argument. Pieces often explore personal narratives, social critique, and political themes, drawing on techniques such as internal rhyme, alliteration, and repetition. While recordings exist, the tradition is fundamentally live, prioritizing immediacy, audience engagement, and oratorical presence.
Manyao
Manyao (慢摇, literally "slow shake") is a Greater China club style that takes sentimental Mandarin and Cantonese pop vocals and places them over a steady, slowed 4-on-the-floor dance beat. Typically running at 95–110 BPM, it blends Eurodance/Hands Up melodicism, trance-style buildups, and modern EDM sound design with the melodic and lyrical DNA of Mandopop. The result is a DJ-friendly, warm, and danceable sound that feels both nightclub-polished and nostalgic, with vocals often pitch-shifted or chopped to fit the groove. Manyao thrives on catchy hooks, simple minor-key progressions, and big, sidechained supersaw leads. It is designed for continuous mixing in bars and clubs across mainland China, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese nightlife scenes, where it functions as a bridge between mainstream pop and the floor energy of contemporary EDM.
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