Melodies into Verse
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.