(China Daily) The country's music scene is dominated by good-looking pop idols who are chart-toppers, give sold-out concerts and bathe in the adulation of screaming fans. All very good for them, but it means rock bands that tend to be associated with bad boy images are often overshadowed.
However, with summer in full swing, indie bands are set to prove that the spirit of rock 'n' roll lives on, and some of the thanks for that can go to a reality show, The Big Band, produced by the online streaming service iQiyi that premiered on the platform on May 25.
With the first group of 31 Chinese bands-both established and new-taking turns to display their songs and techniques, the reality show introduces this particular indie culture, which engenders passion and zeal.
For this feature story China Daily talked with a handful of Chinese bands and people who have experienced the golden days of Chinese rock music and who have helped indie music and bands find their own voices. They are the established Beijing-based rock band The Face, two Chinese rock bands that combine their local dialects with rock beats: Black Head from Xi'an, Shaanxi province, and Jiulian Zhenren from Lianping county in Guangdong province and the indie music promoter Liu Fei.
For an older generation of Chinese rock music fans, when the veteran rock band The Face appeared in the reality show they were awash in '90s nostalgia.
The Face, founded in 1989 and comprising lead vocalist Chen Hui, the guitarists Liu Jingwei and Wu Jindi, the bassist Ou Yang and the drummer Liu Zhong, performed a song titled Dream in the first episode of the reality show. The song was released in 1994, during a period often regarded as a golden era for the Chinese rock scene.
"This song is even older than some of the people who are watching the show," the bassist Ou says in the show. "Witnessing the evolution of Chinese rock music is a fascinating experience. We are proud that we are part of it as The Face."
Western rock music first gained popularity in China in the 1980s with a performance given by the rock singer-songwriter Cui Jian on May 9, 1986, during a concert at Beijing Workers' Stadium. At the packed venue, the then 25-year-old Cui performed his most well-known song, Nothing to My Name, which opened a chapter in China's rock music story at a time when few Chinese knew what rock 'n' roll was.
The song also marked the start of a journey that would later make Cui China's godfather of rock 'n' roll. It also ushered in a golden era of original Chinese rock bands influenced by the Western music genre and expressing themselves in their mother tongue. The first rock bands included the heavy metal band Tang Dynasty, founded in 1988, the pop-rock band Black Panther, formed in 1987, and The Face.
"Material possessions like big houses and fast cars were the last things on our mind," Ou says. "Instead, we were hungry for rock music and found any possible way to get the latest music from Western bands. Compared with young bands today, we had few opportunities to perform onstage because the audiences were smaller and there were few live house venues. But we were very happy because we truly loved the music."
In 1994 Ou, then 23, performed as a bassist at the Chinese Rock Power concert at the Hong Kong Arena. Bringing together He Yong, Dou Wei, the former lead vocalist of Black Panther, Zhang Chu and Tang Dynasty, the concert was the first showcase for musicians from the mainland to perform in Hong Kong. It stunned Hong Kong audiences and created the momentum for a wave of rock music to wash across the country.
"Looking back, those legendary musicians and their works are still inspiring for the young bands," Ou says. "They shaped the golden era of China's rock music. The band members are different people and enjoy different music styles. They come together and contribute to the band as one person. That's the most interesting part of being in a band."
Then with the birth of Modern Sky, one of the country's biggest indie labels, which former rock singer-songwriter Shen Lihui founded in 1997 in Beijing as a way to distribute both his own and his friends' music, more and more indie bands emerged in the country while developing their own unique styles. The punk-rock band New Pants, the pop-rock band Queen Sea Big Shark and the heavy rock band Miserable Faith were among the most-watched bands then.
The company is now home to more than 100 indie bands and has expanded into the United States and Britain by signing Western bands. It also promotes one of the country's most popular outdoor musical events, the Strawberry Music Festival, which was launched in Beijing by the company in 2009 and has since expanded into dozens of Chinese cities.
"The first reason to form a band was to attract more girls," says the singer-songwriter Gao Xiaosong, who formed his own band in 1990 while he was studying radar engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing. "But the most important thing was that when I learned to play guitar I wanted to explore more beautiful sounds of the instruments, so I was eager to find people who shared my interests and who wanted to play music together with me."
Gao is credited with creating a music genre during the 1990s called "campus folk music", which won a large fan base in China then with poetic lyrics about youth, romance and friendship, accompanied by guitar.
One of the major contributors to indie music' development in the country is the emerging live house venues and small bars, which offer the indie rock bands stages to perform.
A live bar called School is among the most popular places for indie music bands and music fans.
School, tucked in a narrow hutong in downtown Beijing, was co-founded by Liu Fei, a former band agent and music festival organizer, about nine years ago.
"We wanted to have a place to enjoy music and drink together so we decided to launch School," says Liu, 36, a Beijing native. "The place connects like-minded people."
As Liu sat in the two-floor venue he was accompanied by a black dog that he adopted last year. He spotted the stray sitting outside the live bar and decided to take it in. It was the Year of the Dog, so Liu considers her as an omen of good things and named her School, after the club.
"Like us, she really enjoys crowds and loves to listen to music," Liu says.
Among the young bands that started to give performances at School and gained a fan base is Penicillin, an indie rock group whose members were all born after 1990.
"They started with performing in front of fewer than 10 people and now they have a stable fan base with about 100,000 followers on their Sina Weibo account," says Liu, adding that the lead vocalist and guitarist, nicked-named Xiaole, has the natural charisma of a rock star with his solid technique, songwriting talent and onstage composure.
Music fans are more diverse in their tastes than they were 10 years ago, he says, enjoying a wide range of styles, young bands and musical influences.
"I'm keen on putting together a group of good-looking young singer-songwriters, guitarists, bassists and drummers to form a rock band," Liu says. "They could compete with the pop idols not only with their looks but also by winning a large following with their great songs and technique. I've been dreaming of this for 10 years, and now with the many ways you can help new talent stand out, such as reality shows, that dream can finally be realized."
Source: China Daily