Chinese rock (; also , lit. "Chinese rock and roll music") is a wide variety of rock and roll music made by rock bands and solo artists from Mainland China (other regions such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau are considered separate scenes). Rock music as an independent music genre first appeared in China in the 1980s, during the age of New Enlightenment. Typically, Chinese rock is described as an anti-traditional instrument, a music that defies mainstream ideology, commercial establishment, and cultural hegemony. Chinese rock is a fusion of forms integrating Western popular music and traditional Chinese music.
History
The Northwest Wind (1980s)
The birth of Chinese rock was a rather unique phenomenon. The Asian country had closed its borders and didn't allow anything Western that might cause disunity or cultural confusion to enter, so the government only promoted art with communist aims. They didn't want anything Western within their walls, much less a musical genre like rock. The high command believed that this genre had an anti-revolutionary character that could easily infect the Chinese masses. A clear example is the Soviet Union, where a Chinese politician mentioned that the end of the USSR came "when children started listening to rock."
The dakou was one of the main causes of the yaogun phenomenon. Because the practice went beyond its literal meaning of "cutting" or "tearing," young people found a form of mental escape through their ingenuity. At that time, China had a kind of vast continental landfill, where a lot of waste was transported, including music cassettes. Many people who worked in these garbage dumps salvaged tapes that had been discarded by Western countries because they were damaged. Many Chinese saw this as an opportunity, so some skilled young people, rebuilt the audio tapes so they would work again and then sold them on the underground circuit or simply listened to them with friends.
Despite the entry of some films and their positive reception among young people, the Chinese communist government completely stigmatized Western music, especially rock, because they knew it was the sound of rebellion in the West. This stigma was partly due to a rather curious incident: a young rocker wanted to assassinate Mao Zhedong.
In the early 1970s, Lin Liguo, nicknamed "the Tiger" (son of Lin Biao, a military officer and one of Mao's main collaborators), planned to kill the founder of the People's Republic of China because of the discontent and oppression his family suffered at the hands of Mao. He even once said, "One day I will let the Chinese people know that there is such wonderful music in the world!" His plan was later discovered, and he and his father fled to the USSR, but two hours later, their plane crashed, and they were burned to death. Thanks to their vision of rock and this precedent, they had logical reasons to prohibit the genre, or at least censor it.
Rock music did not take hold in Mainland China until the end of the Cultural Revolution and the onset of the Reform and Opening. Peking All-Stars were a rock band formed in Beijing in 1979, by foreigners then resident in the Chinese capital. While the first rock band in China, they were not Chinese. The following year, Wan Xing, Li Shichao, Ma Xiaoyi, and Wang Xinbo formed their first rock band, Wanli Ma Wang, at Beijing Second Foreign Languages College (now Beijing Foreign Studies University), playing Western classic rock.
Chinese rock had its origins in Northwest Wind style of music, which emerged as a main genre in Mainland China.Garofalo, Reebee. (1992). Rockin' the Boat: mass music and mass movements. South End Press. The new style was triggered by two new songs, "Xintianyou" () and "Nothing To My Name" (), both of which drew heavily on the folk song traditions of northern Shaanxi. They combined this with a western-style fast tempo, strong beat and aggressive bass lines. In contrast to the contemporary mellow cantopop style, Northwest Wind songs were sung loudly and forcefully. It represented the musical branch of the large-scale root-seeking (, xungen) cultural movement that also manifested itself in literature and in film. Cui Jian's Northwest Wind album Rock 'N' Roll on the New Long March, which included "Nothing To My Name", has been called "China's first rock album".
Many Northwest Wind songs were highly idealistic and heavily political, parodying or alluding to the revolutionary songs of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), such as "Nanniwan" and "The Internationale". It is associated with a non-Communist national music perspective instead of CCP revolutionary fervor. The music reflected disillusionment among Chinese youth, as well as the growing influence of Western concepts such as individuality and self-empowerment. Both the music and lyrics articulated a sense of pride in the independence and power of the northwest's peasantry. Songs such as "Sister Go Boldly Forward" () came to represent an earthy, virile masculine (Yang) image of Mainland China, as opposed to the soft (Yin), civilized, polished urban gangtai Hong Kong style.
Birth of Chinese rock and roll (1984) The birthplace of Chinese rock was the city of Beijing.Jones. Andrew F. (2001). Yellow Music – CL: Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age. Duke University Press. In the nation's capital, rock music was highly politicized and open to a wide range of foreign influences. For most of the 1980s, rock music existed on the margins, represented by live performances in small bars and hotels. The music was almost exclusively the domain of university students and "underground" bohemian intelligentsia circles. By the late 1989 and early 1990 Chinese rock partially emerged into mainstream music as a combination of the growing popularity of Northwest Wind and prison song fads.
The first Chinese rock song was arguably the Northwest Wind anthem "Nothing To My Name", first performed in 1984 by Cui Jian, widely recognized as the father of Chinese rock. The song introduced into post-revolutionary China a whole new ethos that combined individualism, direct and bold expression. It soon came to symbolize the frustration harbored by a disillusioned generation of young intellectuals who had grown cynical about Communism and critical of China's the sterility and hypocrisy in traditional and contemporary culture. It also expressed, even for older Chinese, a dissatisfaction with unrealized promises of the CCP.At that time, the media introduced and evaluated Cui Jian in such a voice: "Rock music precisely meets the emotional needs of a generation of young people like him, and rock music has become another form of" social criticism ".".
In the spring of 1989, "Nothing To My Name" became the de facto anthem of the student protestors at Tiananmen Square. Additionally, in May and July of that year, three of China's famous rock bands were established: Breathing (Huxi, ), Cobra (), and Zang Tianshuo's () 1989. Earlier rock music groups include "Infallible" (Budaoweng ), formed by Zang Tianshuo and Tang Dynasty (Tang Chao, ) lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Ding Wu (), and probably the most famous of all Chinese rock bands: "Black Panther" (Hei Bao ), originally fronted by China's alternative music pioneer Dou Wei ().
Prison songs (1988–1989) "Prison songs" () became popular in 1988 and early 1989, parallel to the Northwest Wind style. The fad was initiated by Chi Zhiqiang (), who wrote lyrics about his time in jail and set them to folk melodies from northeast China. In contrast to Northwest Wind songs, prison songs were slow, "weepy" and invoked negative role models, often using vulgar language and expressing despair and cynicism. Their non-conformist values are apparent in such songs as "Mother Is Very Muddle-Headed" and "There Is Not a Drop of Oil in the Dish". The popularity of these songs reflected the fact that many Chinese during the 1980s became tired of official artistic representations and discourse. The patrons of prison songs were the urban youth, and private entrepreneurs, who at that time were mostly from marginal backgrounds.
Popular Chinese rock (1990–1993)
After the Tiananmen Square protests, rock became part of general urban youth Chinese culture. At the same time, the central authorities of the CCP immediately adopted a crackdown, banning the performance and dissemination of rock music. Its rise from the margins was celebrated on 17 and 18 February 1990, when Beijing's largest ever all-rock concert was held in the Capital Gymnasium, one of the city's largest halls. The concert featured six rock bands, among them are Cui Jian's ADO and Tang Dynasty. The criterion that the organizers set as qualification to participate was "originality".
Chinese rock reached a peak of creativity and popularity between 1990 and 1993. In 1991, the glam metal band Black Panther released their self-titled debut album. With glossy production and hard rock melodies backing the sincere voice of lead singer Dou Wei, it featured hit singles such as "Don't Break My Heart and "Ashamed". A year later, the album went on to sell more than 1,000,000 copies nationwide, a standard never before achieved in Chinese rock history. Another band, Tang Dynasty, whose style was comparable to British heavy metal, successfully broke another barrier. Their singles "9/4 (a reference to the song's time signature)", "The Sun", and "Choice" climbed the charts. Once again, it was not until 1992, that their debut A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty sold over 2,000,000 copies throughout Asia, including Japan, Korea, and the Southeast. From there, other previously formed rock bands, such as the first all female band, Cobra, and hard rockers The Face (each established in 1989), achieved greater success than ever. In addition, dozens of newer bands formed during the peak of their success, and rock music was performed on a regular basis. Big name artists and bands were featured in media such as CCTV and MTV, while other lesser known acts made a presence in small-scale, underground rock parties such as band leader Fa Zi who was perhaps the most well-known musician at art colony Yuan Ming Yuan near Bei Da in Beijing before it was closed down. The core participants in rock subculture adopted characteristic nonconformist appearance and behaviour. These included glam rock styles: pretty face, long hair, jeans, silver metal ornaments, black leather coats, as well as emerging grunge styles: flannel shirts, and do it yourself ethics, coupled with a carefree, hippie-style behaviour. The decline of Northwest Wind and simultaneous rise of rock music represented a shift in the attitude of many of China's intellectuals. Nostalgia changed into an unequivocally fierce negation, a sense of alienation from China's traditional and rural culture.In 1993, the Southern Music Group organized the "Music Commune" in Guangzhou to hold a concert "Remembrance of the Year Like Water".This is the first time Southern rock music has surfaced on a large scale.In the same year, a large-scale rock concert "Olympics - China Dream" was held at the Capital Gymnasium.
Rock goes underground, earns newfound respect (1994-1998)