Chinese rock and pop

This post is based on the article "Sonic Sturdiness: The Globalization of "Chinese" Rock and Pop" published in Critical Studies in Media Communication Vol.22 No. 4, October 2005, p.325-338 by Jeroen de Kloet. This article was found in the Communication and Mass media complete database from the North Carolina State University library. He compares China's interest in rock music of the West to India's interest in the sport of cricket during British colonization of India between 1870-1930. But the interest remained throughout the 20th century far after India was decolonized. The popularity of rock music rose with "urban consumerism" and globalization in China in the 1990s. However, Chinese rock musicians definitely put their own stamp on their music which works as a form of localization. For example, pop music coming from Taiwan and Hong Kong are more popular than Western influenced rock music. Picture can be found at http://www.danwei.org/magazines/rolling_stone_rolls_back_onto.php

Cui Jian song "Nothing to my name" became a hit in 1986 and was the start of Chinese rock and the video can be found here. He is still considered the king of Chinese rock. The first video is his first song that made him famous the second is a more recent music video from 2007 found here. Unlike pop, however, rock music is about authenticity and if it was just a copy-cat of the West, then it could not be appreciated by rock audiences, so localization is vital. It is not just important to avoid copying Western rock, but also copying other Chinese rockers therefore Chinese rock has a distinctly different sound than any other form of rock. Chinese rock has not gained the popularity of pop because of the lack of support by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), calling it a "spiritual pollution from the West." But the West doesn't view Chinese rock any better by calling it "old-fashioned." The flow of music in China only seems to be one way- from the West to China, but there is little popularity of Chinese music outside China. This "copying" of the west can be seen as the global connectivity that John Tomlinson (2011) speaks about in his book.

So while the U.S. is met with a lot of criticism of "westernization" and "west v.s the rest" are we forcing our views on others or are other cultures more interested in absorbing western ideas? Then when we hear what sounds like copycats of our music, of course we don't react positively. Just as much as they like to keep parts of their culture distinctly theirs, perhaps we like parts of our culture, such as rock, ours. This is another example of why Chinese rock bands attempt to create their own sound, such as adding Mongolian sounds or Chinese Mandarin to the mix. "Localization results in a profound hybridization of the Western sound" (Kloet 334). The video shows the first thrash metal band in China, called Overload. The first video can be found here and is from their early days. However, they later switched to a pop sound, which shows the sometimes in-authenticity of Chinese rock music and the video can be found here. 

The anarchist, political messages of Western rock are also seen in Chinese rock. This explains why the CCP is not supportive. To avoid the censorship of the CCP, these political messages are usually said in broken English, such as an all female punk rock band called Hang on the Box who had a flyer which read "Will Hold Power, Just Saying 'No' to Leader" as seen in the photo from 1997 in Jeroen de Kloet's article. Localization is incorporated in Chinese punk as well by containing messages and influences from the Cultural Revolution of the 50s and 60s. 


Overall, it seems like Chinese pop is more widely accepted because of the ambiguity and generic sound of pop. Anything can be pop, there aren't distinct rules in pop like there are in rock. This may be why Overload switched to pop, because they had a better chance at broadening their audience in China and globally. No one, Chinese or from the West, gets offended or is too dismissive of Chinese pop. Chinese rock is a relatively new culture in China and it will take more time, more localization, more CCP approval, and more media attention for it to be widely recognized.