Every country has its own unique music scene with its own lineage of artists and influences. And within each of these scenes exists the silent voices of those who ride the margins of taste and audience expectations. This playlist aims to present some of China’s subaltern sounds. Look at the construction of this word: the prefix sub i.e. that which lays beneath, and altern, that which is alternate, which flies against the norm. The underground. That which operates outside the perceived centre of Chinese music, and the hegemony of Beijing rock. Can the subaltern speak? What might the elite do to watch out for the continuing construction of the subaltern?
This playlist was inspired by a book published in 2010 called China With a Cut: Globalisation, Urban Youth and Popular Music by Jeroen De Kloet. The musical examples in some cases are a little old, but this is intentional. Consider the issues raised and think about where we are now, four years later. Is Beijing still the centre of the music industry? Are women acknowledged for their talent rather than gender? Can artists from other cities make an impact? Are Chinese artists internationally recognized for their talent alone rather than for simply performing some essential sense of ‘Chineseness’?
The Spectacular Performance of Male Power
The first subaltern sound we’ll look at is that which was created by women who wanted to participate in the rock and punk movements that emerged during the 90s and early 2000s. Genre and gender are entangled, and this has created difficulties for acts that disrupt mass audience expectations. Rock n’ roll is Elvis’ hips, it’s Lemmy guzzling beer, it’s Cui Jian in a black t-shirt and red bandana. It’s Hell’s Angels. In other words, it’s the spectacular performance of male power. Or at least it was. From 1989 – 2010 a wave of empowered women impinged on the stereotype of a masculine rocker, delivering their own take on whoop-ass. Cobra, Queen Sea Big Shark, Hang on the Box, Hopscotch, Luo Qi and others worked harder then most to position themselves within rock culture.
眼镜蛇(Cobra) – Illusion
This is one of their more popular tracks, and features elements of improv and effect-laden guitars. It’s quite a serious piece, removed from any association to girliness.
Cobra focused on showing fans their musicianship and craft, downplaying the fact they were a band of women. It’s a shame their record label didn’t get this. They wanted to use gender as a ‘selling point’ – look at their Douban! ‘.com/Cobrafemaleband’. They were not ‘nice and funny’ girls with guitars, they were serious musicians who deserved recognition from their peers.
龙宽 (Long Kuan) – 乐活女王
Long Kuan played in a Japanese punk band in London, the Mika Bombs. Tired of being punk, she moved on a few years later, in 2001, to the Netherlands to join the electronic duo Arling and Cameron. A traffic accident in Spain cut their tour short, after which Long Kuan was forced to move back to Beijing in 2002. There she hooked up with Tian Peng from Supermarket. She explained in an interview that gender did not play a role in her musical career. She did not consider it important and in general did not feel part of the rock culture. Her words very much resonated with Cobra’ s tactic of a denial of gender.
罗琦 (Luo Qi) – 回来
Notorious Luo Qi chose to exaggerate her femininity by playing ‘the bad girl’. Her life story rendered her music authentic, as the story of the rebel who sleeps around, drinks, uses drugs, and gets into dangerous fights (she lost an eye in a brawl outside a club). Luo Qi negotiated the masculine bias of rock not so much by denying gender, as was the case with Cobra, as by dramatising it – by performing the bad girl. She did the things Chinese girls are not supposed to do, and thereby marginalised herself, from both the rock culture (only boys may be naughty) and mainstream society.
Subs – Queen Of Fucking Everything
This is a classic tune, and is included because it really enforces the story being told by the playlist. Say goodbye to elegance and innocence. This song’s pretty real.
In the wake of Hang on the Box, many bands began to adopt English lyrics, among them Joyside, Subs, Hopscotch, and Queen Sea Big Shark. Out of all of these bands, only Joyside is all-male; all the others have female vocalists. Some might argue it seems as if female bands or singers are less involved in performing ‘Chineseness’, and can more easily adopt singing in English.
On the international scene there has been a wave of female-led bands coming through, following on The XX bandwagon. CHVRCHES, London Grammar, HAIM, Purity Ring and MØ are just a few.
Out Of Bounds
Moving beyond gender, lets look at how geography renders a sound subaltern. Why has Beijing always been considered the center of the independent music scene? What happened to Shanghai, with its booming arts industry and foreign influences? Well, there is some truth in the stereotypical claim that the hyper-economy of Shanghai is hostile to sounds that do not sell that well, including rock.
Nevertheless as of 2014, we’ve had many showcases from upcoming labels like ‘Shanghai Calling’, presented by Miniless, and Hangzhou New Noise – a collaboration with Hangzhou label Lost Manual and JUE | Music + Art Festival. Featured artists have included those from neighboring cities that often get lumped together with Shanghai, such as Muscle Snog (Shanghai), Grace Latecomer (Suzhou), Self Party (Hangzhou), Spice (Hangzhou) and LAVA|OX|SEA (Hefei). We also had the ‘Made in Shanghai’ series, as well as the annual ‘We Are Shanghai’ compilation (which is open to applications – send your music to ScottishMike and maybe he’ll feature your band!).
香料 (Spice) – Tumor (Hangzhou)
LAVA | OX | SEA – 你好！陌生人 Hey! Stranger (Hefei)
Other cities including Guangzhou (where Wang Lei reigned supreme), Chengdu, and Dalian (which recently held Dansheng Music Festival) are revolutionizing China’s sound. In fact, as the years pass maybe we’ll move beyond the feudal mentality that’s typically driven artists to do things a certain way. Maybe artists will become free to explore themselves and their crafts without needing to uphold ideals based on who they are and where they’re from. When this happens, the subaltern will simply become the new; there will be no division between those who uphold golden standards versus those marginalized others who work on the periphery of what is acceptable.
秘密後院 (Secret Backyard) – 早秋 Early Autumn (Guangzhou)
Bare and uncomplicated, the slide technique used on the guitar adds to the ethnicity of the overall sound.