This month's That's Beijing features a trio of articles about the history and future of Beijing's music scene.
Kaiser Kuo and editor Jerry Chan start with Old School: "The people and players who helped launch a scene."
Once upon a time (and not so long ago) there was no live music scene in Beijing: no smoky live houses, no leather-clad metal boys, no blue-haired punks, not so much as one Filipino cover band. It was Peking Opera, the Yellow River Concerto, the guy in the park with the erhu, or nothing.
Next is an interesting roundtable discussion with musicians, managers, and others involved in the business. Most of the discussion centers on what's wrong with the scene; fingers are pointed at the bands' creativity, fans' unwillingness to pay, and record companies. Wang Yuqi, guitarist for Second Hand Rose, Muma, and Zhang Chu gets it right, I think:
On the difficulties of performing:
I find that there is a lot of live music in Beijing, but there are few good live music events. It's a mess. People who go to watch live music have high hopes for the event, and if it isn't organized well, people will give up watching. Bands shouldn't play music at random. Both bands and their companies should have a plan for the performance - but nobody has a clear idea of what a really good stage performance is. I believe that if you play music well, you'll have a large audience.
I agree. I don't have a stake in the shows here, in any sense; I'm just a fan. But it's hard to evangelize when shows are cancelled or changed without notice (I'm looking at you, Get Lucky), there's little to no promotion, and the lineups are haphazard.
The recurring theme of the conversation is numbers: how can we (those of us that care about the music) get more people interested? Is there any way we can get those kids at the University show to come out to Wuming Gaodi?
Last, Jon Campbell (an awfully nice guy, by the way) writes a follow-up to their selection of 2003's best bands, looking at what Ruins, Second Hand Rose, Long Kuan, and others are up to these days.
All are excellent reads, and the print version has some great photography.
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