Mapping China: Music - Cities & Scenes: Beijing Scene

Beijing (21 million inhabitants) was never the center of production of Chinese language popular music. However it is political and cultural center of the PRC, which, with 1.35 billion people, is the major market for Chinese language popular music. Beijing produced mass music, and since the late 1980s became the capital of Chinese rock music.

Revolutionary Period 1949-1978

Beijing became the political and cultural center of the PRC in 1949. In the 1950s it banned Shanghai pop music, which it deemed colonial and decadent, and sought to replace it with the mass music of Nie Er and other composers, as well as with folk, classical and film music from fellow Communist countries (Russia, Yugoslavia). After 1958 a singing style based on Chinese folk traditions emerged. This new official music was deemed as scientific as Western bell canto but more suitable to represent China at official events.

Leftist intellectuals had collected folk songs since the 1920s and when the Communists had their base in Yan’an (1936-1948) they adopted folklore to their propaganda efforts.

“Nanniwan” and “The East is Red” are based on North-West Chinese folk tunes.

These songs continued to be popular during the 1950s and 1960s and more ‘songs from the battlefield’ appeared, often composed collectively. Additionally, the eight Model Opera’s (yangbanxi) dominated the mass media in the 1960s and 1970s. The film versions of Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy and The Red Detachment of Women captivated generations. Their mix of traditional Chinese melodies and Romantic Western orchestration and are one of the few cultural achievements of the violent period of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1978).

1986-1990s

In the early 1980s, popular music returned to the PRC. 1986 counts as the rebirth, because of the success of the songs “Let the World be Full of Love” and Cui Jian’s “Nothing to My Name”. Cui Jian and most rock musicians of the first hour grew up in the privileged military compounds of Beijing. Since the 1970s, these small communities did have access to foreign popular culture, which was distributed as negative examples and evidence of the West’s imminent demise.

Cui Jian was at first part of a short-lived genre called Northwest wind, which combined jumpy melodies and an uncouth singing with pop and rock instrumentation and song structures.

Cui recorded a folk rock version of Nanniwan, a revolutionary classic based on a Yan’an folk tune. This re-appropriation allegedly upset officials and led to Cui’s censorship in the 1990s.

Especially Taiwanese musicians and companies have tried to professionalize the pop music industry in mainland China:

The Taiwanese singer Hou Dejian defected to the PRC in the 1983, bringing professional knowledge and song-writing skills. After his active support of the 1989 protests he was expelled.
Rock Records subsidiary Magic Stone invested heavily in the early 1990s.

Although mainland China could not vie with Hong Kong and Taiwan, it produced a number of pop stars in the following genres:

Official pop singers, including Song Zuying, Teng Ge’er and Han Hong.
Rock stars, including Cui Jian, Dou Wei and Xu Wei.
Urban folk singers, including Ai Jing and Zhou Yunpeng.

Venues

Concerts

In these state-owned venues audiences typically are required to remain seated.

The Workers’ Stadium and Workers’ Gymnasium were built in the 1957 and 1961. After renovation for the 2008 Olympics, they can hold up to 70.000 and 13.000 people (less if the stage cuts the venue in half). They are located next to each other in Sanlitun, which is a nightlife area close to embassies and the Central Business District.
The Olympics brought a massive building project to the capital. Concerts have been held in the Birds Nest (officially the National Stadium, with 90.000 seats), which is located in the Olympic village to the north of the city. The prestigious National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA) was build next to Tian’anmen Square, and is used for opera, modern dance and art music. But the MasterCard Center北京万事达中心on the far west of Beijing has become the venue of choice for pop concerts. After renovation – partly sponsored by AEG – it has 18.000 seats.

Band Scene

Since the late 1990s, there always were at least 5 venues across the city. Over the years these have slowly grown in size and quality, even though there have been difficult periods around the SARS epidemic in 2003, the 2008 Olympics, and after the Shanghai stampede of 31 December 2014. The geography did change, with most venues for live music moving away from the university district in the northwest (Wudaokou) and the embassy area in the east (Sanlitun) to the centrally located old city area, roughly around (clockwise) the Drum Tower, Lama Temple, Zhangzizhonglu and Nanluoguxiang.

D.Live东区故事D·LIVE 生活馆. Newly opened (November 2015) venue in 751 (next to the 798 Art Zone, on the far northeast side of town) for around 2000 people, opened by LeTV and 城市理想. LeTV is a video streaming company, and hence the venue is fully equipped for web streaming of concerts. 城市理想is a cultural investor with government connections that recently also entered the festival market.
With space for around 1500 people, Tango rents out space on its 3rd floor (formerly StarLive) for concerts and events.
Yugong Yishan 愚公移山, opened in 2006, Beijing’s largest live house can hold up to a thousand people. Located near Zhangzizhonglu subway stop, Yugong Yishan (or ‘Old Man Moving a Mountain’) is a rectangular long space surrounded by monuments.
Japanese owned Mao Livehouse in Drum Tower East Street has space for 700 people. It is not part of the Mao Livehouse chain.
PostMountain 后山(around 500 people) is located in the back of the futuristic Moma complex. Its occasional events include modern dance, theater, experimental electronics and world music, and are mostly organized by the label Tree Music 树音乐.
The Dusk Dawn Club (DDC) opened in 2014 in a remodeled courtyard, it has space for 400 people. Because the traditional building has wooden beams it can’t possibly get clearance from the fire department. Mainly folk and world music.
China’s most influential indie label Modern Sky opened Modern Skylab in the fall of 2015 in the basement of the futuristic looking Galaxy Soho. Too clean for a rock joint, and too DIY to be really hip, named after Modern Sky but also hosting shows from other labels—the venue is clearly still looking for its place on the map of Beijing nightlife.
Temple is a rock dive with daily live shows. Usually no cover fee, expect a rowdy crowd of around 200 people, happily ignoring Beijing’s smoking ban.
A number of smaller venues such as What Bar, Hot Cat, School Bar and Caravan.

Clubs

Most of Beijing’s clubs are located between Sanlitun and CBD, and especially around the north and west gates of the Workers’ Stadium, including Vix & Mix, LiV, Spark and Elements. For instance, Dutch promotor Paul Neuteboom (Art of Dance, Release) periodically organizes parties with international DJ’s in LiV, in collaboration with Modern Sky.
After Haze closed (itself a reincarnation of White Rabbit), Lantern is the only place in the Sanlitun area devoted to techno and other less mainstream kinds of dance music, and, they will claim, to music rather than conspicuous consumption per se. Lantern is run by Dj Weng Weng, also known for the intermittent Intro festival.
Dada also offers a broader choice of music than the EDM, house and trance that dominate Chinese nightlife. Slightly smaller than its Shanghai sister, it is located near Temple and Mao Livehouse in Drum Tower East Street. In this more underground segment, Modernsky lab, mentioned above, also arranges DJ nights.
Propaganda and Solutions in Wudaokou on the northwest side of town cater to (exchange) students.

Festivals

Most nation-wide festival brands hail from Beijing. I have discussed them in the previous section in more detail.

Midi Festival
Strawberry and Modern Sky Festival
Zhangbei Festival is a four hour drive northeast of the city, on the prairie.
Several yearly indoor festivals take place in Beijing’s live houses, including Fete de la Musique, Sound of the Xity, Jue and China Drifting.

Mapping China: Music - Cities & Scenes: Beijing Scene