Monday, December 7, 2009

Rock'n to a New Youth Culture


The spirit of China's increasingly experimental and independent youth (the so-called "rising power generation") is conveyed in a famous chorus from Indie rock band Carsick-Cars' 2007 release, Maybe Mars. While the song paints a drippy, dreary night of Chinese conformity, an anthem blares out championing a lone hero who defies the darkness to become a "rock 'n' roll" hero:





Harmony (和声)


"it was late at night,
and all the people going to their hole
walking down the street
he talked to me just like crazy, real loud
he said this is all about your dreams
you should fight all the time
and he was the only one who wasn't scared,
to fall apart

hey, johnny, he doesn't want to,
he wants to be a rock and roll hero

hey, johnny, he doesn't want to,
he wants to be a rock and roll hero

hey, johnny, he doesn't want to,
he wants to be a rock and roll hero

hey, johnny, he doesn't want to,
he wants to be a rock and roll hero"

The lyrics lionize the youth as a recalcitrant, harmonizing (和声) element to the stagnant melody of his surroundings. While the population sleeps inside their holes, Johnny is made to see a heroic alternative that provides a new avenue for individual expression and in the process enriches the collective sounds of his society.

While Johnny and his rebel friend are by no means flooding the streets of contemporary China, the historically dormant frequencies of popular youth culture are markedly fluctuating. A recent article in The Telegraph (07 Dec 2009, UK) suggests notable rises in alternative band growth (~20,000 at the moment) and huge gains in concert attendance (up 30%). The nation's new found wealth and the radical contraction of the traditionally sprawling, Chinese nuclear family have given China's new youth immense new freedoms and resources to explore the world and to create themselves. Inspired by the retro80s and protopunk sounds and cultures of the West, Chinese bands and their listeners are blazing new avenues for self-expression. Grassroots jamming and lyrical and instrumental innovation have made Chinese Indie a big hit at home and abroad. The Carsick-Cars are close friends with NYC's own noise band Sonic Youth and their dependable opening act.

While excitement brews in cultural and academic circles over the stirrings of Chinese Indie (we anticipate Andrew Field's documentary on the scene early 2010), not everyone is as persuaded by its transformative powers and cultural significance. In fact, P.K. 14, the godfather of Chinese Indie, is pessimistic about its impact and skeptical about its popularization. Yang Haisong says that the fervor surrounding the scene is a marketing construct and that the youth's interest in new Chinese rock is more an expression of slavish conformatism than release of alternative energies. In other words, Indie rock is threatening to become a new catalyst for a classic case of homogenization.

We will look at and listen to some of the leading bands on the Chinese Indie scene and add our own voices to the sociological and cultural debate of what this all means for China's rising generation.

Readings:
*Han Han's His Own Country (他的国)
*Lonely China

*Carsick-Cars
*P.K. 14
*NY Times Article on Communist Sponsored Rockfests (2010)

Questions to consider:
(1) What are you first impressions about the sounds and the lyrics of the music? Thinking of the passage from His Own Country, how can rock be freeing for the Chinese?
(2) What do you perceive as being attractive to Chinese youth in Indie and punk music?
(3) How can what's new about Indie music threaten to snuff out its creative and liberational prospects?

Links:
*
Rock Music and China's Youth Market (Telegraph)