作 家: dxtl (Terry) on board 'music'
题 目: Development of Rock Music in China(FWD)
来 源: 哈尔滨紫丁香站
日 期: Wed May 14 11:57:23 1997
出 处: bbs@bbs.orange.sjtu.edu.cn
发信人: RGao (胖胖), 信区: rock
标 题: Development of Rock Music in China(FWD)
发信站: 饮水思源站 (Sat May 10 02:11:39 1997) , 转信
本文转载自香港滚石WEB站点
http://zero.com.hk/rock
The Early Days
The development of pop music culture in mainland
China kicked off in the early 1980s, just after the
breakdown of the "Gang of Four". The vulnerability
which followed the breakdown had a mind-refreshing
effect on the Chinese. People liberated from
propaganda anthems were bewitched by the sweet
voices of Teresa Tang and other female vocalists,
whose tender melodies flew out from radios
nationwide. The growth of the music scene was limited;
lack of musical instruments, performing experience, and
money injection from music publishers and distributors
-- most of them were government owned. On the other
end, low market demand and low creative motivation
for original works brought in numerous cover versions
from Hong Kong and Taiwan. The music industry's
booming growth in other regions throughout 1980s lead
to a huge leap-ahead music scene in Mainland China,
while at the same time China overflowed with pirated
copies. Tough censorship also kept potential musicians
from putting their heartbeats into words and melodies.
The first breakout was achieved in 1986. A compilation
album was made and put out onto the streets by several
artists from the northern part of China. The passionate
rock music was brought out by these frontier rockers
from Beijing who named this new music style "The
North-West Trend." Unfortunately, the album was
buried by fake copies and imitations thereafter.
Influence from Taiwan
Before 1988 the Taiwanese were not allowed to visit
their motherland, Mainland China. After that, people
from Taiwan brought music cassettes as gifts to their
relatives in China. Pop music from Taiwan, mostly
easy-listening ballads at that time -- along with
workpieces from singer-songwriters like Lo Tayu and
Jonathan Lee -- eventually swept the China market
with their honesty and sincerity -- emotionally moving
to those young listeners on the other side of the Taiwan
Straits.
But the domestic problem of music products piracy
became more and more serious; not a cent of royalty
was paid to any foreign artist or song publisher for their
musical assets. By early 1990, more and more
domestic government-owned publishers were aware of
the international copyright systems and started to
publish and distribute through licensee deals with
Taiwan and Hong Kong labels even though the market
seemed shrinking at that moment. Foreign labels and
domestic licensees held their breath, waited and
observed the changes carefully.
The Awakening
While everyone was confused by the gloomy situation,
one compilation released by China Records's Shanghai
Branch, "The Red Sun", effortlessly sold more than 7
million copies all over China within three months. The
album was a kind of "Star-On-45" version of
propaganda songs praising Chairman Mao, and the
Ultimate Communism. "Red Sun Fever" is still blazing in
some remote territories of China today.
We tried to understand theressive, and conscious
of musical trends. Some of them come from families
glorified by great virtuosos. These young musicians
learned basic music theory from their family elders who
equipped them with enough knowledge to read the
messages from foreign music, and, in turn, to strengthen
their minds toward creating a unique Chinese music for
their generation.
Before 1992, rock concerts were the last thing you
could find in Beijing -- there were very few
opportunities to play on stage. Sometimes musicians
toured for little pay, sometimes they played at "parties"
organized by foreign embassies or by foreign students.
Their music, filled with anger and raving rhythms, drove
everyone in the underground gigs into a nation-
without-boundary. They didn't play for pay, but for
self-confidence and self-accomplishment. "It feels good
on the stage," the young musicians said.
Big Time of Chinese Rock Music
In 1989, Cui Jian, a Chinese rock 'n' roll rave-raiser
launched his debut album with financial backup from a
Taiwanese record company. The album was praised as
one of the pioneer epics of New Chinese Rock music
filled with colorful musical arrangements, socially
self-defining words and mood-driven vocals that
instantly built Cui Jian's musical personality. Cui Jian
woke his audience, as well as the foreign media, with
the coming of age of New Chinese Rock music.
In late 1990, a private rock concert held in Capital
Stadium in Beijing sent Tang Dynasty, ADO, Breathing,
1989, Cobra, Hei Bao (Black Panther) performing in
front of a delirious audience of 20,000. Everyone who
attended the concert experienced the enormous power
of the rock 'n' roll music of their generation. The
concert grew so wild that no other concert was
approved by the authorities for the next 12 months.
However, the band received warm and great critical
acclaim from their young audience especially
intellectuals, literary circles and college students.
Mainland China is undergoing a dramatic
transformation now in both commerce and culture
reform, and Chinese rock bands, especially those from
Beijing, are surviving the restrictive political
environment and insufficiency of recording and
performing experience. But what delights us most are
the wealth of musical originality they display in their
works, and the comprehensiveness in their masterly
borrowing of new, Western music formats into which
they inject Chinese ethnic elements creating a music of
their own.
This latest music development has already gained great
attention domestically and internationally and has drawn
news coverage from international media such as BBC,
NHK, MTV networks, Billboard magazine, Spin
magazine and numerous press media all over Asia and
Europe.
As cited by Tang Dynasty's lead singer Ding Wu, "New
Chinese Rock music is what we have, in fact, all we
have. Nothing seems more virtual without it."
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一个人一时胖并不困难 难能可贵的是： 一辈子胖！
“路漫漫其修远兮，吾将... ”
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※ 修改:·RGao 於 May 10 02:16:27 修改本文·[FROM: ]
※ 来源:·饮水思源站 bbs.sjtu.edu.cn·[FROM: ]
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※ 来源:·哈尔滨紫丁香站 bbs1.hit.edu.cn·[FROM: bbs@bbs.orange.sjtu.]