Melodies into Verse
Frequently asked
What is music poetry?
Morgan rewrites YouTube's Top 50 Chinese songs as brand-new rhymed verses sung over the original melodies — familiar tunes, fresh lyrics you can hum along to. A tribute to the golden era of Mandopop.
Which songs are covered?
Drawn from YouTube's Top 50 Chinese songs — the classics of Mandopop's golden era — each paired with the original music video and re-versed into new rhymes.
Can I sing along to the melodies?
Yes. The lyrics are new but the tunes are ones you already know — open the video and sing Morgan's rewritten version to the original melody.
Is this an official cover or a licensed music release?
No, and it's worth saying plainly. This is a personal tribute — not a cover, not a review, just each song's story, era, and the feeling behind its lyrics condensed into a four-line rhymed verse, paired with the original music video. There's no license or affiliation with the original singer, songwriter, or label — it's a personal, non-commercial project.
Do the poems have their own recording or sung version?
No — they're built around the original music video. Both videos (Part 1 and Part 2) embed the actual YouTube MV clips, so you read the rhymed verse while the original video plays. There's no separate track of Morgan singing the new lyrics — the melody you hear is the original song's MV, footage and audio both.
Is the Top 50 list updated regularly, or is it a snapshot from when it was written?
It's a snapshot from when Morgan compiled it (May 2026), not a live-updating chart. YouTube's Chinese-song rankings shift over time, so a song's position referenced in a poem may no longer match today's actual ranking — read this collection as a record of that moment, not a real-time leaderboard.
Golden songs become poetry—Morgan pays tribute to YouTube's Top 50 Chinese songs + MV.
"Melodies into Verse" is Morgan's systematic tribute to decades of Chinese pop music. Based on YouTube's Top 50 Chinese songs, it retells each song's story, the era's atmosphere, and the life behind the lyrics in limerick form—not a cover, not a review, but a four-line metrical condensation of each song into a poem.
The series is split into two parts: Part 1 covers the top half of the rankings, Part 2 the bottom. Both videos feature MV clips, so you can read the poems while watching—and you’ll realize many songs you’ve always remembered, just not why.
When to watch: after a KTV night when you want to reminisce, on a long drive, chatting with friends about “what you listened to back in the day,” or simply curious—what path has Chinese pop music walked over these decades?
About this collection
Why rewrite Mandopop songs as new poetry? Because the melodies are already in everyone's head they don't need new music to land. What they need is fresh meaning. Morgan takes YouTube's top 50 Chinese songs, keeps the original melody, but writes new doggerel verses to sing over it. The result: songs that feel familiar at first listen, then unfamiliar in lyric, then memorable in both.
The selection follows Morgan's listening: classics from Faye Wong and Jay Chou alongside more recent hits from Tanya Chua and Mayday. Each rewrite is a tribute, not a parody. The original songwriter and original feeling are respected. The new doggerel sits in the same emotional key as the original but with different specific images usually Morgan's own life, his Taipei walks, his travel memories, his Tainan dinners.
The track count grows. Melody into Poetry Part 1 (2025) covered 25 songs; Part 2 followed with another 25. More are in production. Each one is on YouTube with a karaoke-style overlay so listeners can sing along.
Why this matters for the broader project: this hub proves the Morgan Poetry format works on existing songs, not just original AI-music tracks. The same hand-rhymed doggerel approach that turns Tainan street food into singable verses also works on a Faye Wong ballad. The format is portable.
Who comes here: Mandopop nostalgia listeners, karaoke enthusiasts, people who want to remember why they loved a song from twenty years ago, and AI-music curious from outside the Chinese-language world.