Once again, I'm breaking the focus of this blog to talk about what is an incredibly exciting month for Beijing music fans. Over the next few weeks, we'll see Karen Mok come to Worker's Indoor Stadium (on the 11th), the "Godfather", Cui Jian, doing is thing at Capital Gymnasium once again on a very unique way to enjoy Christmas Eve, while on the 31st, Na Ying will play what is sure to be an extremely memorable New Year's Eve show after 7 years away from performing, word is that she's been preparing for over a year for this one.
If you haven't run off for the holidays, attending one (or all) of these shows is sure to be a lot of fun. Tickets are available at piao.com.
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
2009/12/08
2009/12/02
Mao Claus and the Commie Carol
I know the plan was to keep this blog focused on food and style, but sometimes I just can't help it. Is it just me or is China getting into the Christmas spirit in a unique way? I don't know about any other subway stations, but I've walked through the Guomao station (the Line 2 portion) a few times lately and heard muzak that sounded a lot like Christmas carols (lots of strings and horns, what sounds like 4 year olds singing, etc) except when I get closer and take a good listen, it turns out they are renditions of such classics as “Song for a Hero" （英雄赞歌) or "I Love You, Motherland" (我爱你，祖国).
There's nothing wrong with this except that its sudden appearance during the "holiday" season is really messing with my mind...
There's nothing wrong with this except that its sudden appearance during the "holiday" season is really messing with my mind...
2009/03/06
Song of the Week: Native Beijinger
Song of the Week will be a new feature highlighting a great Chinese song (or two) that we've had on our mind (or that's been burning up the charts) over the past week. In this week's edition, I'm going with the excellent pop hop song 北京土著 (Native Beijinger) by Zhang Bohong.
The song's been out for a long time (2 years+) and I vaguely remember it when it came out, forgetting it, then recently hearing it used regularly as background music on Beijing tv, caused me to scramble to find it again. After that, I was hooked. It's really catchy and a great example of Beijing hua. Not the best song, but I love the Beijingness of it and the mix of old and new. It's also made its way around the expat blogosphere and so, for those in need, a quality English translation was recently posted. The artist, 18 at the time, is an interesting story himself and a Beijinger who grew up in the hutongs he sings about in the song.
Enjoy the mp3 and have a great weekend!
The song's been out for a long time (2 years+) and I vaguely remember it when it came out, forgetting it, then recently hearing it used regularly as background music on Beijing tv, caused me to scramble to find it again. After that, I was hooked. It's really catchy and a great example of Beijing hua. Not the best song, but I love the Beijingness of it and the mix of old and new. It's also made its way around the expat blogosphere and so, for those in need, a quality English translation was recently posted. The artist, 18 at the time, is an interesting story himself and a Beijinger who grew up in the hutongs he sings about in the song.
Enjoy the mp3 and have a great weekend!
2009/02/06
Hater in the House, Part 2
My problem with the New York Times article on the hip hop scene in China (discussed here), is that there's no reason for that article now. There is no sudden love of the music (despite hiphop.cn site views) or anything in 2009 that's popping off that wasn't before. More top acts are coming to China, but the audience is almost exclusively expat (just look at the Roots, Kanye, and Talib shows). There hasn't been a sudden large number of hip hop clubs that have opened up, or live local shows going down, there aren't that many underground ciphers or battles that are going on either. Yes, the clothing has been appropriated and the dancing is very popular, but the music is still just a tiny niche.
Let's first get some things straightened out, hip hop contains four elements: graffiti, break dancing, MCing, and DJing. This is something often forgotten or overlooked by those outside the community, all of them are equally important and there's a big difference between that and rap music.
To be honest, all 4 elements have not even come close to entry in China and its going to be a long time before that changes. Dancing came in first and is unbelievably popular here, with tons of crews even in far flung 3rd tier cities and mainstream classes at gyms and even on tv. In Korea, the dancing came with the music, and while the dancing popped off a lot faster, the music slowly caught up to where there are serious hip hop acts, but in China, we're still a long way from that. You do see some graffiti around town, but because of the strict nature of the police, almost all of it is sanctioned or more pop art than the raw tagging that goes on elsewhere (even in Hong Kong).
DJing is another problem, mainly caused by the difficulty of getting top records. Real DJ's use records and the only way to get them is by having them shipped from back home, making HK or Tokyo runs, or bringing them in whenever the DJ (or friends) return home. Most clubs don't even bother with real DJs, they just use computerized mixes or loops, though some "hip hop" clubs will put somebody who fits the "image" of a hip hop head behind a platform with 2 turntables and tell them to pretend to spin for an hour or two, good money if you can get it.
And finally to MCing, well...We're not there yet, we're nowhere near there. The problem, it seems, especially from reading some of the comments to another blogger, is that there is more a desire to make money than stay true to any art form. Groups that have made it "big" (you could mention Gongfu, but they even make Yin Sanr look gangster) do so with feel good, sometimes even pop, lyrics. There are some decent underground acts who've yet to sell out, but the difficulty is in keeping them together because there isn't a lot of money to be had. There are a lot of expats running around who are sometimes involved in the scene back home and trying to promote it here, some of them are highly skilled and doing a great service, others, well...not so much. There's also too much lack of confidence (perhaps that's the right way to say it?) in some artists to perform straight up hip hop music, all too often you get something more akin to Fred Durst-ian rock rap (but in part, that goes to the lack of influences and the difficulty of getting all kinds of hip hop in China).
Then there are the guys who come from government housing, poor families where both parents were laid off, where the father beat them and their mother, who come from failing schools and instead of rapping about this experience, they talk about "gats" and "ho's", although they've never held a gun and are probably still with their high school sweetheart. I'm not making this a call for conscious rappers or saying that they need to be political, not at all, but talk about your own experiences, you are ghetto, you don't need to pretend to be from the (US) "ghetto."
There is not enough diversity in influences, not enough DJ's who know how to scratch and mix, and far too many hangers on and its made the movement stagnant. The minor glimmers of hope you see from year to year quickly dry up and the scene just feels like its slowly lurching nowhere. The dancing has taken off, but it is already completely disconnected from the music. The clothing style is often more about pissing off one's parents than anything else and is so out of tune with current American hip hop style.
However, it's not all negative, there is some decent, pure hip hop if you dig for it. There are people who are serious about trying to make the scene grow and there are people who truly love the music and aren't just in it for the money. 2009's a tough year economically, but do what you can to support the real hip hop acts when they play live, drop some money on a real CD instead of downloads, hit up websites like hiphop.cn which are often doing a great service. The scene is paused, its in its infancy, but that doesn't mean it can't grow.
Let's first get some things straightened out, hip hop contains four elements: graffiti, break dancing, MCing, and DJing. This is something often forgotten or overlooked by those outside the community, all of them are equally important and there's a big difference between that and rap music.
To be honest, all 4 elements have not even come close to entry in China and its going to be a long time before that changes. Dancing came in first and is unbelievably popular here, with tons of crews even in far flung 3rd tier cities and mainstream classes at gyms and even on tv. In Korea, the dancing came with the music, and while the dancing popped off a lot faster, the music slowly caught up to where there are serious hip hop acts, but in China, we're still a long way from that. You do see some graffiti around town, but because of the strict nature of the police, almost all of it is sanctioned or more pop art than the raw tagging that goes on elsewhere (even in Hong Kong).
DJing is another problem, mainly caused by the difficulty of getting top records. Real DJ's use records and the only way to get them is by having them shipped from back home, making HK or Tokyo runs, or bringing them in whenever the DJ (or friends) return home. Most clubs don't even bother with real DJs, they just use computerized mixes or loops, though some "hip hop" clubs will put somebody who fits the "image" of a hip hop head behind a platform with 2 turntables and tell them to pretend to spin for an hour or two, good money if you can get it.
And finally to MCing, well...We're not there yet, we're nowhere near there. The problem, it seems, especially from reading some of the comments to another blogger, is that there is more a desire to make money than stay true to any art form. Groups that have made it "big" (you could mention Gongfu, but they even make Yin Sanr look gangster) do so with feel good, sometimes even pop, lyrics. There are some decent underground acts who've yet to sell out, but the difficulty is in keeping them together because there isn't a lot of money to be had. There are a lot of expats running around who are sometimes involved in the scene back home and trying to promote it here, some of them are highly skilled and doing a great service, others, well...not so much. There's also too much lack of confidence (perhaps that's the right way to say it?) in some artists to perform straight up hip hop music, all too often you get something more akin to Fred Durst-ian rock rap (but in part, that goes to the lack of influences and the difficulty of getting all kinds of hip hop in China).
Then there are the guys who come from government housing, poor families where both parents were laid off, where the father beat them and their mother, who come from failing schools and instead of rapping about this experience, they talk about "gats" and "ho's", although they've never held a gun and are probably still with their high school sweetheart. I'm not making this a call for conscious rappers or saying that they need to be political, not at all, but talk about your own experiences, you are ghetto, you don't need to pretend to be from the (US) "ghetto."
There is not enough diversity in influences, not enough DJ's who know how to scratch and mix, and far too many hangers on and its made the movement stagnant. The minor glimmers of hope you see from year to year quickly dry up and the scene just feels like its slowly lurching nowhere. The dancing has taken off, but it is already completely disconnected from the music. The clothing style is often more about pissing off one's parents than anything else and is so out of tune with current American hip hop style.
However, it's not all negative, there is some decent, pure hip hop if you dig for it. There are people who are serious about trying to make the scene grow and there are people who truly love the music and aren't just in it for the money. 2009's a tough year economically, but do what you can to support the real hip hop acts when they play live, drop some money on a real CD instead of downloads, hit up websites like hiphop.cn which are often doing a great service. The scene is paused, its in its infancy, but that doesn't mean it can't grow.
2009/01/28
Hater in the House, Part 1*
During the run up to last summer's Olympics, we ran a series called Bylines at Customs made up of all the stupid pronouncements made by good (and not so good) journos who came to Beijing looking for the "real" story. Journalists come to Beijing, see a small example of something, and want to blow it up into something larger. Often these stories are about making the Chinese seem "more like us", ie they eat fast food, just like us, they listen to such and such music, just like us or are cliches about contradictions in modern China. Stories that are almost completely false or without any real backing, like this waste of space on George Bush remaining popular in China, get printed because to the editor back in the US, it sounds good. To borrow from a Chinese saying, its the case of "the mountains are high and the editors are far away."
Therefore, when the New York Times ran a story last week on Chinese hip hop, it was a "stop the presses" moment here at Modern Lei Feng, almost enough to bring us out of our hibernation. Lots of phone calls back and forth and disbelief, but nobody bothering to pick up the pen. Perhaps its because we thought we dreamed the article, the idea of a burgeoning hip hop scene in China just made us laugh. Then we found this generally on point snark filled blog post about the story and realized we could no longer stay quiet (though his hip hop vs. rap note shows where he's coming from).
Jimmy Wang is generally a good reporter on China, perhaps this article was a case of not having enough material or already being on mental vacation due to the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday. It has all the signs of a hack "they're just like us" story by a Chinese first timer.
The article discusses how Q-Tip and Eminem (first record release: 1999) have been popular in China "since the 90s". Interesting. I defy you to find me 5 Chinese "hip hoppers" who know that Q-Tip isn't one of those things you stick in your ear, or even know what group he belonged to. It talks about hip hop clubs that opened "across the country" and yet the "hip hop clubs" in Beijing or Shanghai cater musically more to the tastes of suburban teens than any real hip hop heads. The article spends so much time building up the idea of hip hop in China, only to end with the reality that its still nothing more than a tiny niche.
While we have a lot of problems with the way the author puts things in the beginning of the article, like: "Over the last decade many students and working-class Chinese have been writing rap as a form of self-expression. Rougher and more rebellious than the well-scrubbed pop that floods the airwaves here," which is just wrong on so many different levels, the big problem is that this story is more expat rag fodder (and something they've been writing since 2001 or so), not the kind of august journalism one (should) expect from the New York Times.
As the saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words, the main picture that accompanies the article shows 3 "rappers" surrounded by an almost exclusively white crowd with nary a Chinese face to be seen, so much for Chinese hip hop.
*Part 2 is coming soon, our own look at the hip hop scene in China
Therefore, when the New York Times ran a story last week on Chinese hip hop, it was a "stop the presses" moment here at Modern Lei Feng, almost enough to bring us out of our hibernation. Lots of phone calls back and forth and disbelief, but nobody bothering to pick up the pen. Perhaps its because we thought we dreamed the article, the idea of a burgeoning hip hop scene in China just made us laugh. Then we found this generally on point snark filled blog post about the story and realized we could no longer stay quiet (though his hip hop vs. rap note shows where he's coming from).
Jimmy Wang is generally a good reporter on China, perhaps this article was a case of not having enough material or already being on mental vacation due to the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday. It has all the signs of a hack "they're just like us" story by a Chinese first timer.
The article discusses how Q-Tip and Eminem (first record release: 1999) have been popular in China "since the 90s". Interesting. I defy you to find me 5 Chinese "hip hoppers" who know that Q-Tip isn't one of those things you stick in your ear, or even know what group he belonged to. It talks about hip hop clubs that opened "across the country" and yet the "hip hop clubs" in Beijing or Shanghai cater musically more to the tastes of suburban teens than any real hip hop heads. The article spends so much time building up the idea of hip hop in China, only to end with the reality that its still nothing more than a tiny niche.
While we have a lot of problems with the way the author puts things in the beginning of the article, like: "Over the last decade many students and working-class Chinese have been writing rap as a form of self-expression. Rougher and more rebellious than the well-scrubbed pop that floods the airwaves here," which is just wrong on so many different levels, the big problem is that this story is more expat rag fodder (and something they've been writing since 2001 or so), not the kind of august journalism one (should) expect from the New York Times.
As the saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words, the main picture that accompanies the article shows 3 "rappers" surrounded by an almost exclusively white crowd with nary a Chinese face to be seen, so much for Chinese hip hop.
*Part 2 is coming soon, our own look at the hip hop scene in China
2008/12/11
China's Lack of Biopics
Yesterday I referred to Mei Lanfang ("Forever Enthralled") as China's first non-Party biopic, at the very least, its certainly the first ever multimillion dollar major biopic movie. While there have been a number of biographical tv shows, they typically focus on Party members (popular subjects are Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai, Lei Feng, etc). Even now, two of the nightly tv shows on Chinese tv are a popular series about Bruce Lee (who many Chinese barely know anything about) and one about Liu Shaoqi.
Is it fair to talk about China's love of biographical shows about Party members? Aren't a large number of US biopics about politicians as well? If its not about politicians, its typically about actors/actresses or musicians who've lived the sex, drugs, rock n' roll lifestyle to the extreme and thus make interesting subjects. However, China didn't really have "celebrities" per se before 30 years ago and too many of the ones that do exist lead very boring lives (at least by comparison to US standards). Can you imagine a Yao Ming biopic? Or Gong Li?
So if Mei Lanfang was China's first major biopic, who will be the second? I think a decent biopic could be made about Wang Zhizhi, especially his battle to go to the NBA and then his years left in the cold as a "traitor". It would be made a lot better if he develops a drug habit or fades away into obscurity (or gets into another road rage incident). But my top candidate? Wang Fei!
It has everything! Cultural Revolution repression, a family's move from Beijing to Hong Kong, a difficult road to stardom, a sudden rise, an attempt to take over the mainland after HK success, her successful return to Beijing and falling in love with a Beijing boy, and finally her 2 horrible romantic betrayals before finally finding true love.
This would make a hell of a movie, I'm starting work on the script now, expect it out around 2020 or so...
Is it fair to talk about China's love of biographical shows about Party members? Aren't a large number of US biopics about politicians as well? If its not about politicians, its typically about actors/actresses or musicians who've lived the sex, drugs, rock n' roll lifestyle to the extreme and thus make interesting subjects. However, China didn't really have "celebrities" per se before 30 years ago and too many of the ones that do exist lead very boring lives (at least by comparison to US standards). Can you imagine a Yao Ming biopic? Or Gong Li?
So if Mei Lanfang was China's first major biopic, who will be the second? I think a decent biopic could be made about Wang Zhizhi, especially his battle to go to the NBA and then his years left in the cold as a "traitor". It would be made a lot better if he develops a drug habit or fades away into obscurity (or gets into another road rage incident). But my top candidate? Wang Fei!
It has everything! Cultural Revolution repression, a family's move from Beijing to Hong Kong, a difficult road to stardom, a sudden rise, an attempt to take over the mainland after HK success, her successful return to Beijing and falling in love with a Beijing boy, and finally her 2 horrible romantic betrayals before finally finding true love.
This would make a hell of a movie, I'm starting work on the script now, expect it out around 2020 or so...
2008/11/14
How Ever Will CCTV Survive?!?
It seems the Chinese Ministry of Culture has basically condemned CCTV to hours upon hours of blank air and brought an end to the annual Spring Festival Gala show in one fell swoop. That's right, they have proposed a draft law that would ban lip synching at concerts and on tv and publicly name and shame repeat offenders (its a rare day that I get to link to Perez on a post about China). Cui Jian has long been on a quest against lip synching after turning down a request to appear on CCTV, but being told he would have to lip synch. If you've ever watched the mega concerts on CCTV, especially "Tong Yi Shou Ge", its pretty obvious that a large percentage of the acts are lip synching, so what's going to happen to them all now? Is this the first step to China developing real singing talent of its own? Is this the end of lip synching Taiwanese pop stars coming to the mainland? What the hell is CCTV going to do now that these "singers" actually have to sing without the help of studio editing? This year's Spring Festival show would certainly be worth watching (the first time in a long time, though more for the comedy than for the performances), if this rule was actually enforced.
2008/11/12
Golden Oldies
Over the course of the past week, a lot has been said about the changes to American society over the past 50 years. The other day when I picked up the new Vanity Fair, it was brought home once again how different things are now.
When talking about 60s music, there are many great names you can throw out, but one word will touch a nerve with everyone, Motown. The music that came out of the Motor City, to be more specific, out of Barry Gordy's little studio there, touched the world, it brought together both white and black at a time that the nation was very divided and it lives on today as new generations love it and are influenced by it just as much as their parents and grandparents. Its amazing music and an amazing story and Gordy and others offered up an excellent oral history in VF, as well as classic photos of the players by THE American photographer, Annie Liebovitz
When talking about 60s music, there are many great names you can throw out, but one word will touch a nerve with everyone, Motown. The music that came out of the Motor City, to be more specific, out of Barry Gordy's little studio there, touched the world, it brought together both white and black at a time that the nation was very divided and it lives on today as new generations love it and are influenced by it just as much as their parents and grandparents. Its amazing music and an amazing story and Gordy and others offered up an excellent oral history in VF, as well as classic photos of the players by THE American photographer, Annie Liebovitz
2008/11/10
Concert Review: Kanye West Lets Us Down
Multiple date/venue changes, check.
Crazy expensive tickets, check.
Change in opening act, check.
Title misnomer, check.
Short set, check.
Kanye West in Beijing, check.
It's been a week since Kanye came through Beijing to much fanfare and ended up disappointing most in attendance. I'm a big Kanye fan (does anybody do it better repping the Chi?), but a show that saw us hitting the bars by 10 and with the disappointing usage of the "Glow in the Dark" title, it was an absolute disappointment. Sure, we knew this not to be a true part of the "Glow in the Dark" tour, there would be no Rihanna, Lu Fiasco, and all the rest who were supporting him on US/Europe shows, but could we at least get the amazing stage setup that was offered in those other locations? This was a very pared down version of the show that cost more than tickets in the US did. Sure, Kanye came a long way and is one of the few hip hop acts to come to China, but why give China fans of his both a scaled back show and high prices? Why not go the extra mile? Why not do more to excite the hip hop masses in China, a scene that definitely could use some excitement?
Wake up, Mr. West! And wake up promoters! This is exactly what people were expecting, a half-assed version of a concert, which is why so many people stayed home, despite the attraction of having the Louis Vuitton don in our capital. Kanye, you could have done better than that, what happened to going all out all the time?
Crazy expensive tickets, check.
Change in opening act, check.
Title misnomer, check.
Short set, check.
Kanye West in Beijing, check.
It's been a week since Kanye came through Beijing to much fanfare and ended up disappointing most in attendance. I'm a big Kanye fan (does anybody do it better repping the Chi?), but a show that saw us hitting the bars by 10 and with the disappointing usage of the "Glow in the Dark" title, it was an absolute disappointment. Sure, we knew this not to be a true part of the "Glow in the Dark" tour, there would be no Rihanna, Lu Fiasco, and all the rest who were supporting him on US/Europe shows, but could we at least get the amazing stage setup that was offered in those other locations? This was a very pared down version of the show that cost more than tickets in the US did. Sure, Kanye came a long way and is one of the few hip hop acts to come to China, but why give China fans of his both a scaled back show and high prices? Why not go the extra mile? Why not do more to excite the hip hop masses in China, a scene that definitely could use some excitement?
Wake up, Mr. West! And wake up promoters! This is exactly what people were expecting, a half-assed version of a concert, which is why so many people stayed home, despite the attraction of having the Louis Vuitton don in our capital. Kanye, you could have done better than that, what happened to going all out all the time?
2008/10/23
Like A Rolling Stone
An interesting post on Silicon Hutong, that lifts heavily from an equally interesting post by Ed Peto, on the Chinese music scene. The conclusion of both seems to be that, any day now, there will start to be a move away from traditional saccharine Chinese pop songs and diversity will be the word of the day.
The reality would dictate otherwise, as access, habit, and peer pressure will continue to dictate things for years to come. Currently, a large indie, hip hop, and rock scene exists in Beijing, and to a lesser extent other cities, but there are very few people jumping on the bandwagon. Part of it is that a number of artists in these scenes insist on using English, thus pushing fans of these genres to focus away from domestic options and instead pick foreign ones. If they're singing in English anyways, why not listen to people who speak better English?
Yet the biggest issue is peer pressure and acceptance of something new and unusual. Play a Gong Fu or Joyside song for 10 Chinese youngsters and maybe 1 or 2 will be bouncing their head to it, the rest will just see it as strange and go back to blasting their Jay Chou or Cai Yilin megahits. Part of the attraction to these other genres is that it makes one different from everyone else. There has been a nascent rock scene in China for nearly 25 years and yet its never been able to go mainstream, despite huge crowds showing up to concerts of top foreign and Chinese acts. It is a rebellion against what your parents and everyone in your school is listening to, its an act of individualism in a country where individualism is frowned upon.
It is interesting as well that if a genre exists outside of pop in China, it is folk/ethnic music, with singers like Dao Lang (mentioned in the article) and Han Hong garnering a lot of popularity. This sort of "traditional" music is familiar and easy on the ears of all generations, thus making it more acceptable to all.
Chinese labels are looking for music that will have mass appeal in an extremely large, diverse country. Selling music to a subculture wouldn't be that hard as there is still a huge audience for it, but the choice always goes for music that is attractive to 10 million Chinese instead of 500,000. I find it so interesting how 21 year olds who weren't even born when Jackey Cheung (张学友）began his career will know every word to every one of his songs. Music is typically generational, but in China, it crosses generations as many songs today don't sound that much different than songs 20 years ago.
There will always be a market for Re-Tros, there will always be a market for CMCB, but they will never be mainstream and there will never be the same degree of acceptance of these subcultures as there is in the US or abroad. Just looking at Korean and Japanese music shows this, sure other genres have taken a small portion of the market (hip hop and rock, respectively), the majority of what is out there isn't very different from your everyday Mandopop tune.
The reality would dictate otherwise, as access, habit, and peer pressure will continue to dictate things for years to come. Currently, a large indie, hip hop, and rock scene exists in Beijing, and to a lesser extent other cities, but there are very few people jumping on the bandwagon. Part of it is that a number of artists in these scenes insist on using English, thus pushing fans of these genres to focus away from domestic options and instead pick foreign ones. If they're singing in English anyways, why not listen to people who speak better English?
Yet the biggest issue is peer pressure and acceptance of something new and unusual. Play a Gong Fu or Joyside song for 10 Chinese youngsters and maybe 1 or 2 will be bouncing their head to it, the rest will just see it as strange and go back to blasting their Jay Chou or Cai Yilin megahits. Part of the attraction to these other genres is that it makes one different from everyone else. There has been a nascent rock scene in China for nearly 25 years and yet its never been able to go mainstream, despite huge crowds showing up to concerts of top foreign and Chinese acts. It is a rebellion against what your parents and everyone in your school is listening to, its an act of individualism in a country where individualism is frowned upon.
It is interesting as well that if a genre exists outside of pop in China, it is folk/ethnic music, with singers like Dao Lang (mentioned in the article) and Han Hong garnering a lot of popularity. This sort of "traditional" music is familiar and easy on the ears of all generations, thus making it more acceptable to all.
Chinese labels are looking for music that will have mass appeal in an extremely large, diverse country. Selling music to a subculture wouldn't be that hard as there is still a huge audience for it, but the choice always goes for music that is attractive to 10 million Chinese instead of 500,000. I find it so interesting how 21 year olds who weren't even born when Jackey Cheung (张学友）began his career will know every word to every one of his songs. Music is typically generational, but in China, it crosses generations as many songs today don't sound that much different than songs 20 years ago.
There will always be a market for Re-Tros, there will always be a market for CMCB, but they will never be mainstream and there will never be the same degree of acceptance of these subcultures as there is in the US or abroad. Just looking at Korean and Japanese music shows this, sure other genres have taken a small portion of the market (hip hop and rock, respectively), the majority of what is out there isn't very different from your everyday Mandopop tune.
2008/07/28
Now When Will Deep Dish Arrive?
The founder of this blog and former main editor is a Chicago guy and as such, has presumably spent many a night partying away at Crobar. The infamous Chicago nightlife hotspot has outposts in Lebanon and Buenos Aires and took stabs at the New York and Miami scene. Well, now its coming to Beijing, opening in the Solano complex just north of Chaoyang Park's west gate and extremely close to Lucky Street. Still no word on when it will open, but like a lot of things, it could be open before the Olympics.
Sure the Cubs and Sox have yet to come to Beijing, and you can't get a decent deep dish pizza (or any for that matter), but having Crobar is a step in the right direction.
Sure the Cubs and Sox have yet to come to Beijing, and you can't get a decent deep dish pizza (or any for that matter), but having Crobar is a step in the right direction.
2008/03/03
Lots of Apple talk on the web these days, about an Apple store opening at the remodeled Qianmen before the Olympics and talk about what a Chinese version of iTunes may mean to those in China. First, an simpler to deal with, is the Qianmen store, news of which comes way of tuaw.com (hat tip to China Economic Review). It will be great for Mac to finally have its first official presence in China, though current authorized sellers like Dragonstar have done a good job at replicating the Apple store image in China. It will be strange having an Apple store which won’t be selling iPhones (unless a deal can be reached by the time the store opens) and won’t be using iPods to promote iTunes. At the same time, it will be awesome to finally have a REAL Mac presence in China.
As for iTunes, well, that’s connected to part 2 of the China Game’s post regarding Apple in China. I’m sorry, as I said before, the China Game is a great blog, but as a fellow Mac lover, I can tell we have a divergence of opinions on the impact Mac can play in China. In the entry, China Game talks about renting DVDs through iTunes as a great option and possibly the way to fight counterfeit DVDs in China.
There are a number of major problems with this idea that China Game doesn’t touch on or glazes over. The biggest is that he claims that pirated DVDs purchased in China are low quality and typically “shot inside a movie theater”. I wonder when was the last time he bought a DVD in China? I’ve bought over 50 DVDs in the past 6 months (don’t tell Hollywood!) and out of those exactly 1 didn’t work and 2 others looked like they were shot in a movie theater. The majority are excellent, high quality and come straight from real DVDs, often they even turn out copies of awards copy videos provided to the judges of the Oscars and other awards shows. Some stores even offer a choice between DVD-5 for between RMB8-10 and a higher quality DVD-9 for RMB16-20. Out of all the DVDs I’ve bought, the only one that didn’t work came from the guy selling DVDs outside of the Guomao subway many nights for RMB5.
Would I choose to pay RMB21 or more (the equivalent to US$2.99) to rent a movie online or would I prefer taking the (relatively small) risk of buying the RMB5 DVD on the street? Umm, I’m going with my street seller everyday, but that’s just me. In a move to combat pirating, Hollywood came out with RMB20 versions of popular movies with no added content other than subtitles and these failed miserably, what makes anybody think people would download movies for the same price (or more)?
iTunes taught many Americans that paying for music and movies online is the thing to do. No viruses, guaranteed quality, no chance of lawsuit, and a low price was better than the great abyss of downloading music/movies. Even if every Chinese is given an iPod and an internet connection that will automatically hook up to iTunes, it won’t teach Chinese to pay for what now is free for them. There are too many sites that link to free mp3s, even major sites like Baidu, Sina, and Yahoo.
This is another huge problem, music. iTunes already carries a limited selection of popular older Chinese music and newer, cutting edge music. They charge the usual $0.99 per song and $9.99 per album, how could they go about charging ￥0.99 for the same song in China? If they charge close to the equivalent of a dollar, say ￥5 a song, very few Chinese would go for that. If they did go with ￥0.99, would they include all western music? If so, they'd need to do something to prevent foreigners from getting on the Chinese version to buy the cheaper songs. Even if there was a Chinese version, it would be hampered by the fact that so few Chinese have credit cards that could be used to make online purchases.
iTunes revolutionized the way Americans (and Europeans) bought music, but the heights that must be climbed to change China seem too high even for Steve Jobs to scale. Yet reading about the lawsuit that Baidu, one of the most popular sites for downloading illegal mp3s, faces from the Chinese music industry, well, nothing is impossible.
As for iTunes, well, that’s connected to part 2 of the China Game’s post regarding Apple in China. I’m sorry, as I said before, the China Game is a great blog, but as a fellow Mac lover, I can tell we have a divergence of opinions on the impact Mac can play in China. In the entry, China Game talks about renting DVDs through iTunes as a great option and possibly the way to fight counterfeit DVDs in China.
There are a number of major problems with this idea that China Game doesn’t touch on or glazes over. The biggest is that he claims that pirated DVDs purchased in China are low quality and typically “shot inside a movie theater”. I wonder when was the last time he bought a DVD in China? I’ve bought over 50 DVDs in the past 6 months (don’t tell Hollywood!) and out of those exactly 1 didn’t work and 2 others looked like they were shot in a movie theater. The majority are excellent, high quality and come straight from real DVDs, often they even turn out copies of awards copy videos provided to the judges of the Oscars and other awards shows. Some stores even offer a choice between DVD-5 for between RMB8-10 and a higher quality DVD-9 for RMB16-20. Out of all the DVDs I’ve bought, the only one that didn’t work came from the guy selling DVDs outside of the Guomao subway many nights for RMB5.
Would I choose to pay RMB21 or more (the equivalent to US$2.99) to rent a movie online or would I prefer taking the (relatively small) risk of buying the RMB5 DVD on the street? Umm, I’m going with my street seller everyday, but that’s just me. In a move to combat pirating, Hollywood came out with RMB20 versions of popular movies with no added content other than subtitles and these failed miserably, what makes anybody think people would download movies for the same price (or more)?
iTunes taught many Americans that paying for music and movies online is the thing to do. No viruses, guaranteed quality, no chance of lawsuit, and a low price was better than the great abyss of downloading music/movies. Even if every Chinese is given an iPod and an internet connection that will automatically hook up to iTunes, it won’t teach Chinese to pay for what now is free for them. There are too many sites that link to free mp3s, even major sites like Baidu, Sina, and Yahoo.
This is another huge problem, music. iTunes already carries a limited selection of popular older Chinese music and newer, cutting edge music. They charge the usual $0.99 per song and $9.99 per album, how could they go about charging ￥0.99 for the same song in China? If they charge close to the equivalent of a dollar, say ￥5 a song, very few Chinese would go for that. If they did go with ￥0.99, would they include all western music? If so, they'd need to do something to prevent foreigners from getting on the Chinese version to buy the cheaper songs. Even if there was a Chinese version, it would be hampered by the fact that so few Chinese have credit cards that could be used to make online purchases.
iTunes revolutionized the way Americans (and Europeans) bought music, but the heights that must be climbed to change China seem too high even for Steve Jobs to scale. Yet reading about the lawsuit that Baidu, one of the most popular sites for downloading illegal mp3s, faces from the Chinese music industry, well, nothing is impossible.
2007/12/05
Beijing Redeems Itself
Returning to Beijing was difficult at first, the city is in complete upheaval as it prepares for the Olympics and life can be...frustrating to say the least (more on that later). However, as a lover of the arts, this city is still the best, bar none. Just look at the calender from this past weekend. A difficult choice Saturday night between a PK-14/Retros show and a Secondhand Roses gig, plus the good people at Acupuncture were coming correct for lovers of house music. Sunday was much easier, with New Pants putting on a show elsewhere in the city.
These are only the musical acts, when you look at the art installations/gallery shows going on during a typical weekend, not to mention book readings/lectures, poetry slams, plays, etc it is staggering. Not to mention the (as of yet unfulfilled) promise of NHL hockey.
For culture vultures of a certain ilk (namely lovers of contemporary art and contemporary Chinese music), one weekend in Beijing promises more activities than a month (or more) in the Southern Square of Shenzhen-Guangzhou-Macau-Hong Kong.
These are only the musical acts, when you look at the art installations/gallery shows going on during a typical weekend, not to mention book readings/lectures, poetry slams, plays, etc it is staggering. Not to mention the (as of yet unfulfilled) promise of NHL hockey.
For culture vultures of a certain ilk (namely lovers of contemporary art and contemporary Chinese music), one weekend in Beijing promises more activities than a month (or more) in the Southern Square of Shenzhen-Guangzhou-Macau-Hong Kong.
2007/11/26
Bits and Pieces from Around the Web
On the heels of yesterday's news about China's World Cup draw, the team manager (not coach), has called it China's "worst draw ever." This will be China's 8th attempt at qualifying, only once has the team been successful.
In other sporting news, check out some interesting articles on golf in China, as well as a book project on the subject, at Par for China (h/t to Shanghaiist).
A very scary picture is painted of how one goes about setting up a company when challenged with bribery and corruption in smaller towns in China in this article on Danwei. However, I'm left to wonder how much of this bribery would have been necessary and how much of it was just the wrong strategy by the business owners who implemented it. The article seems to state that they never tried taking a more normal path and instead resorted to bribery from the get go.
CLB's entry on advice for anyone who wants to break into the Chinese law field is interesting and mirrors most of what I tell people when I get the same question. Like any specialized area, networking is crucial and keeping up to date on the important changes also can go a long way.
And I'm a day late and dollar short as everyone and his brother has already linked to the NY Times article on Rock in China, but here goes. For my money, the most interesting change over the past 2-3 years has been the diversity of the acts who are coming over. In the past, it used to be limited to the pop "tarts", but now hip hop, hard rock, and alternative are all growing. It would have been interesting if the article looked at Okayplayer's focus on China, considering in the past 2 years Common, The Roots, and Talib Kweli have all made stops here. In any case, here's hoping Jay-Z will try again and this time be allowed to do his big pimpin' in Beijing.
In other sporting news, check out some interesting articles on golf in China, as well as a book project on the subject, at Par for China (h/t to Shanghaiist).
A very scary picture is painted of how one goes about setting up a company when challenged with bribery and corruption in smaller towns in China in this article on Danwei. However, I'm left to wonder how much of this bribery would have been necessary and how much of it was just the wrong strategy by the business owners who implemented it. The article seems to state that they never tried taking a more normal path and instead resorted to bribery from the get go.
CLB's entry on advice for anyone who wants to break into the Chinese law field is interesting and mirrors most of what I tell people when I get the same question. Like any specialized area, networking is crucial and keeping up to date on the important changes also can go a long way.
And I'm a day late and dollar short as everyone and his brother has already linked to the NY Times article on Rock in China, but here goes. For my money, the most interesting change over the past 2-3 years has been the diversity of the acts who are coming over. In the past, it used to be limited to the pop "tarts", but now hip hop, hard rock, and alternative are all growing. It would have been interesting if the article looked at Okayplayer's focus on China, considering in the past 2 years Common, The Roots, and Talib Kweli have all made stops here. In any case, here's hoping Jay-Z will try again and this time be allowed to do his big pimpin' in Beijing.
2007/09/09
Asia's Music Powerhouse
There is a strange phenomenon that one finds in any major city in China (and in Korea and Japan to a lesser extent) whenever you look at the listings for bar events, you will often come across this "Live Filipino Band." It didn't really strike me until this past weekend in Hong Kong where I went to a number of bars, all featuring live bands, all of which were entirely (or almost entirely) Filipino. Okay, an obvious reasoning for this is that the Philippines has a large population that speaks English as a first (or very close second) language. Another reason is the large amount of Filipino immigrants that can be found throughout Asia.
But this got my mind to wandering, what makes it such a big draw to have a Filipino band? Does it bring in more business than a local band who (especially in HK) should be able to speak excellent English? Is it that you can pay them less? Is it "exotic"? Bourdain claims there is a town in Mexico that produces the majority of cooks in New York kitchens, is there one Filipino town that is producing all these bands? A bored mind wonders...
But this got my mind to wandering, what makes it such a big draw to have a Filipino band? Does it bring in more business than a local band who (especially in HK) should be able to speak excellent English? Is it that you can pay them less? Is it "exotic"? Bourdain claims there is a town in Mexico that produces the majority of cooks in New York kitchens, is there one Filipino town that is producing all these bands? A bored mind wonders...
2007/07/07
Live from Shenzhen, a Culture City (?)
Shenzhen has received a bad rap, somewhat desveredly, as a city without culture. It lacks the arts scene that exists in cities like Beijing and Shanghai and despite its close location to Hong Kong, its music scene is probably weaker than an armpit city like Jinan, which, despite its crapiness, its proximity to Beijing makes it easy for bands (which are usually based in Beijing) to make a trip jaunt south for a show.
Well, this weekend, my friends, Shenzhen became a happening city for culture...The famous rock band, Tang Dynasty, was in town for a show at Base Bar in Nanshan on Friday night. Further, there was a Peking Opera performance at the Grand Opera House on Friday and Saturday. To top it all off, famed writer Su Tong gave a lecture at the Shenzhen Library on Saturday. A pretty good weekend of activities, and more should be expected considering this week is some kind of "Arts Festival," at least according to the signs around DaJuYuan...And of course, Shenzhen always has an offering for those who aren't into "culture," the World is holding its Beer Fest, though there are conflicting reports on whether that ends today or runs through the week. Either way, it almost makes me consider making the trip out that way and going to the World (god forbid!)...
Well, this weekend, my friends, Shenzhen became a happening city for culture...The famous rock band, Tang Dynasty, was in town for a show at Base Bar in Nanshan on Friday night. Further, there was a Peking Opera performance at the Grand Opera House on Friday and Saturday. To top it all off, famed writer Su Tong gave a lecture at the Shenzhen Library on Saturday. A pretty good weekend of activities, and more should be expected considering this week is some kind of "Arts Festival," at least according to the signs around DaJuYuan...And of course, Shenzhen always has an offering for those who aren't into "culture," the World is holding its Beer Fest, though there are conflicting reports on whether that ends today or runs through the week. Either way, it almost makes me consider making the trip out that way and going to the World (god forbid!)...
2007/05/07
Girl Power
There has been no mp3 post in awhile, so I was going to make this one about the excellent girl's rock band, Hang on the Box. However, like a lot of "underground" (if you want to call it that) rock music in China, the web doesn't exactly have a ton of their songs and I felt too lazy to upload them to a server. Hehe, it would also allow me to include their great opus, "For Some Stupid Cunt on a BBS," but at this point I can honestly say I'm no longer bitter, isn't it amazing??? Me? Not bitter? What is going on with the world?
So then what is the exact opposite of these punk girls:
these pop tarts:
So here's the music:
S.H.E. - Superstar
This is one of the few Chinese songs that I listen to and it kind of gets me pumped up, the sort of thing I'll play before a game. Makes me want to play and be someone's superstar. It is the one song of S.H.E.'s that I actually really like.
S.H.E. - 我爱你 : S.H.E. - I Love You
This is a decent song and it has a similar feeling as Superstar, kind of gives the feeling it isn't written by someone who is heavily influencehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifd by the traditional pop music of the Chinese market (I know Superstar was written by a German producer, not sure about this song, but it wouldn't surprise me).
S.H.E. - 他还是不懂 : S.H.E. - He Still Doesn't Understand
This has the maddening trend in Taiwanese songs of starting out with a Japanese (Korean?) speaking voice at the very start. This is a decent, typical Chinese pop song.
S.H.E. - 不想长大 : S.H.E. - Don't Want To Grow Up
This is the nightmare that occurs when pop music goes wrong, a disaster....
So then what is the exact opposite of these punk girls:
these pop tarts:
So here's the music:
S.H.E. - Superstar
This is one of the few Chinese songs that I listen to and it kind of gets me pumped up, the sort of thing I'll play before a game. Makes me want to play and be someone's superstar. It is the one song of S.H.E.'s that I actually really like.
S.H.E. - 我爱你 : S.H.E. - I Love You
This is a decent song and it has a similar feeling as Superstar, kind of gives the feeling it isn't written by someone who is heavily influencehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifd by the traditional pop music of the Chinese market (I know Superstar was written by a German producer, not sure about this song, but it wouldn't surprise me).
S.H.E. - 他还是不懂 : S.H.E. - He Still Doesn't Understand
This has the maddening trend in Taiwanese songs of starting out with a Japanese (Korean?) speaking voice at the very start. This is a decent, typical Chinese pop song.
S.H.E. - 不想长大 : S.H.E. - Don't Want To Grow Up
This is the nightmare that occurs when pop music goes wrong, a disaster....
2007/04/12
The Imus Thing...
Its not something I was going to bring up as it has little if anything to do with this blog, it is not at all China related and his 2 week suspension seemed like it would be the end of things, but now the guy, who is truly a legend, has been fired and will probably never work in radio again. I can understand people being angry about what he said, but I don't understand why the racial rabblerouser preachers Jackson and Sharpton had to step in, both of them have their own extremely checkered past, which for whatever reason the black community (and basically everyone else) ignores. That sort of thing is what I expect from Jackson, but I like Rev Al and feel bad that he'd do this just to get his name in the papers (what other motivation could he have?). He's never going to be president, but his brand of "straight talk" made McCain look like any other politician in 2004. The Rev really could be a leader in the Democratic party if he gave up this kind of shit.
Imus has been in the radio game forever and can probably be credited, more than anyone else, with making William Jefferson Clinton the President of the United States in '92, again, the man's a legend. What he said was wrong, there's no getting around that, though a lot of the whole debate is lost on people. His statements mirror prejudices/fears/insecurities that have long existed among African American women and are understandably offensive to the black community as a whole.
Off Wing Opinion, one of my favorite hockey blogs, had an interesting offering from Jason Whitlock that almost led me to blog on the topic. Witlock had this to say:
The entire article is well worth your time and can be found here. As I said, I was going to sit out this discussion, but then I saw a quote from Snoop Dogg on the fat, pink haired freak's website. Snoop, who regularly raps about "bitches" and ho's" had this to say:
This is the definition of a double standard, but nobody cares. The white a&r's and presidents of record labels don't care because its bringing in the money, the rappers don't care because its bringing in the money, but why is it okay? Why is it wrong for Imus to say this on the am dial when you can here so many worse insults against black women on the fm side of the dial?
Imus has been in the radio game forever and can probably be credited, more than anyone else, with making William Jefferson Clinton the President of the United States in '92, again, the man's a legend. What he said was wrong, there's no getting around that, though a lot of the whole debate is lost on people. His statements mirror prejudices/fears/insecurities that have long existed among African American women and are understandably offensive to the black community as a whole.
Off Wing Opinion, one of my favorite hockey blogs, had an interesting offering from Jason Whitlock that almost led me to blog on the topic. Witlock had this to say:
While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.
I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.
The entire article is well worth your time and can be found here. As I said, I was going to sit out this discussion, but then I saw a quote from Snoop Dogg on the fat, pink haired freak's website. Snoop, who regularly raps about "bitches" and ho's" had this to say:
"It's a completely different scenario. (Rappers) are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We're talking about hoes that's in the 'hood that ain't doing shit, that's trying to get a nigga for his money. These are two separate things. First of all, we ain't no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them muthafuckas say we are in the same league as him. Kick him off the air forever."Are. You. Serious? I love hip hop and will defend it to my death (or its death if you don't believe Nas that its already dead). There are a lot of really good, positive rappers out there who have a message that society should be hearing. Hip hop still serves as "Black people's CNN" like Chuck D said, but there is so much crap out there that, as Whitlock points out, is so much more insulting to black women. Snoop, I'm not putting you in the same league as Imus, you and your brethren are clearly in a league of your own. If you, being a black man, are able to make your living by "going hard" on black girls record after record, why can't Imus make one statement, especially because he at least makes a distinction, one that is never clear in Snoop's songs.
This is the definition of a double standard, but nobody cares. The white a&r's and presidents of record labels don't care because its bringing in the money, the rappers don't care because its bringing in the money, but why is it okay? Why is it wrong for Imus to say this on the am dial when you can here so many worse insults against black women on the fm side of the dial?
2007/03/29
"Since Most Kids Are Spoiled Today, We Let 'em Have It"
The one comment I get on a regular basis is about my music selection, its too old. I always considered myself a hip, happening individual, but I guess when it comes to Chinese music, I'm like Carlton from the Fresh Prince (complete with goofy dancing). So you want new music, taking a cue from Dilated Peoples, I'm giving it to you...
孙燕姿 - 我怀念的 : Sun Yanzi - I Cherish
I'm not a hater, she does have some good songs, but to me, this isn't one of them, its like all the other songs out there, especially all of her other songs. However, it's the most popular new song according to Baidu.
何洁+黄雅莉 - 花儿开了 : He Jie and Huang Yali - The Flower's Bloom
So I like the optimism of this song and the fact that its spring and so "topical." As a northerner, the fact they sing it as "hua er" instead of the more appropriate "huar" is annoying to me, but what the hell, spring is here, love is in the air, and I'm happy!
周迅 - 伴侣 : Zhou Xun - Partner
I'm a huge fan of Zhou Xun's acting career, though her singing leaves something to be desired. Amongst the "Four Flowers," I think Xu Jinglei is the only one not to have released some kind of music album. Its kind of different, especially her voice, so out of all these, its probably the best.
萧亚轩 - l.o.v.e : Elva Xu - L.O.V.E
This is the classic example of American pop (think Britney Spears) influencing Taiwanese pop music. It's catchy if you listen to it enough I guess, but who actually enjoys this stuff?
黄征 - 春梦 : Huang Zheng - Spring Dream
I needed a song from a guy so I went with this. Not sure what I can say, though it does stay within the theme.
So there you go, new music and even a theme, let's call it "spring love." Do you prefer this or my older choices of good music focusing on a certain singer or theme? Personally, much of this music isn't what I enjoy listening to, but that's what happens when you look at the most popular new music. It caters to such a large swath of the population, otherwise known as teenage high school girls across China, that its simply blah. Not good, not bad, just blah...
孙燕姿 - 我怀念的 : Sun Yanzi - I Cherish
I'm not a hater, she does have some good songs, but to me, this isn't one of them, its like all the other songs out there, especially all of her other songs. However, it's the most popular new song according to Baidu.
何洁+黄雅莉 - 花儿开了 : He Jie and Huang Yali - The Flower's Bloom
So I like the optimism of this song and the fact that its spring and so "topical." As a northerner, the fact they sing it as "hua er" instead of the more appropriate "huar" is annoying to me, but what the hell, spring is here, love is in the air, and I'm happy!
周迅 - 伴侣 : Zhou Xun - Partner
I'm a huge fan of Zhou Xun's acting career, though her singing leaves something to be desired. Amongst the "Four Flowers," I think Xu Jinglei is the only one not to have released some kind of music album. Its kind of different, especially her voice, so out of all these, its probably the best.
萧亚轩 - l.o.v.e : Elva Xu - L.O.V.E
This is the classic example of American pop (think Britney Spears) influencing Taiwanese pop music. It's catchy if you listen to it enough I guess, but who actually enjoys this stuff?
黄征 - 春梦 : Huang Zheng - Spring Dream
I needed a song from a guy so I went with this. Not sure what I can say, though it does stay within the theme.
So there you go, new music and even a theme, let's call it "spring love." Do you prefer this or my older choices of good music focusing on a certain singer or theme? Personally, much of this music isn't what I enjoy listening to, but that's what happens when you look at the most popular new music. It caters to such a large swath of the population, otherwise known as teenage high school girls across China, that its simply blah. Not good, not bad, just blah...
2007/03/21
Music of Minorities 1 - Siqin Gerile （斯琴各日乐）
Its hard enough coming up with good content for the blog, but mp3 posts are particularly difficult, especially putting together the content (I know, I know, I should stop whining about it). One subject that I thought might work is minority music, especially those artists who have went mainstream with it. Arguably, this thread started with Cui Jian, as he is ethnically Korean, but we'll kick it off with Gerile, a favorite of mine. Obvious future entries could be Han Hong, Dao Lang, and...well, not sure beyond that. So, on to Siqin Gerile, for those interested here is her webpage and here is the blog...Gerile is born and raised in Inner Mongolia and (if it wasn't already obvious), she is ethnically Mongolian. Her first album called New Century (新世纪）was released in 2001 to much popular acclaim and led to an appearance on that year's Spring Festival special. I really enjoyed that album, though I haven't really followed her career much since (which has included 2 more album releases). She has a very interesting style, remaking some old school sohttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifngs, using some traditional elements, and throwing in heavy guitar riffs and rock or techno music. Without further adu, the music:
斯琴各日乐 － 山歌好比江春水
斯琴各日乐 - 故乡 ： Siqin Gerile - Hometown
斯琴各日乐 - 新世纪 : Siqin Gerile - New Century
斯琴各日乐 - 捍卫 : Siqin Gerile - Defender
斯琴各日乐 - 我自己 : Siqin Gerile - Myself
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