Sonic Sturdiness: The Globalization of “Chinese” Rock and Pop
2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 22; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/07393180500288444
ISSN1529-5036
Autores Tópico(s)Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics
ResumoAbstract To theorize further global and regional flows of popular culture, this article provides a critical analysis of “authentic” rock music from Beijing as well as “commercial” pop from Hong Kong. Following Appadurai, I theorize rock as a hard cultural form, which, under the scrutinizing eyes of the West, demands localization when it travels to places outside its perceived homeland, the West. By comparing hardcore punk from Beijing to Cantopop, I discuss whether the soft relates to the hard as pop does to rock. I conclude it does not. The transient, intertextual, and multivocal opaque voice of pop demands a different theorization. I therefore recast Appadurai's hard–soft distinction into a clear–opaque dualism as a more accurate theoretical tool for understanding cultural globalization. Keywords: GlobalizationChinaHong KongAppaduraiBeijing PunkCantopopAnthony WongOpacity Acknowledgments The author thanks Liesbet van Zoonen, Giselinde Kuipers, Peter Ho, and Yiufai Chow for valuable comments, as well as two anonymous reviewers and the editors. Notes 1. “The West” is as problematic a category as “the East” or “Asia.” In the case of rock music, the United States and the United Kingdom are, in particular, considered the authentic homeland. 2. It is now a truism in academic writing (though far less in journalistic writing) that, rather than producing a homogenized world, globalization leads to increasing heterogenization in terms of culture, economy, and politics (Appadurai, Citation1996; Colista & Leshner, Citation1998; Hannerz, Citation1992; Kraidy, Citation1999; Robertson, Citation1995). 3. I use Derrida's idea of constitutive outside to acknowledge how the Other, here pop, is crucial and hence constitutive for the formation of a “self,” here rock. In the words of Mouffe, “By affirming that an object has inscribed, in its very being, something other than itself and that as a result everything is constructed as difference, the notion of the ‘constitutive outside’ reveals that being cannot be conceived as pure ‘presence’ or ‘objectivity’” (Citation2000, p. 147). The difference is, in the case of rock, hegemonic, as rock mythology downplays pop as rock's inauthentic Other. 4. Combining the Gang of Xiang Gang (Hong Kong) with the Tai of Taiwan. Music magazines as well as radio stations have their own music charts in mainland China. 5. As explained by the creative director of Sony Taiwan (personal communication, June 8, 2004). This article is based on field research in Beijing and Hong Kong in 1997 (six months), 1999 (one month), 2000 (two months), and 2004 (three months), during which research assistant Qin Liwen was of invaluable help. 6. Although I am aware of the danger of essentializing notions such as “the West” versus “the East,” given the cultural proximity of continental Europe to the UK and the U.S., the Netherlands can be (and in China certainly is) considered a part of “the West.” 7. Both magazines are in Chinese, but their names appear on their covers in English as well as Chinese. Modern Sky Magazine applies a more fashionable style, and is directly linked to a record company. Music Heaven is more sober. By 2004 both titles were defunct. Two new magazines are So Rock! Magazine and Rock. Like their predecessors, the covers of both magazines present Chinese and English bands and an accompanying CD introduces both Western and Chinese rock music. Interestingly, So Rock! Magazine gives a lot of attention to bands from outside Beijing. 8. Examples of translations of genre terms are: underground punk (dixia pengke), punk pop (liuxing pengke), thrash metal (bianchi jinshu), hardcore punk (yinghe pengke), and drum'n'bass (guyu beisi) (Yuen, Citation1999). 9. Both on concert flyers and on CD jackets, band names are often indicated in Chinese and English. 10. The ideological horizon of punk in Beijing is remarkably broader than that of its Western counterparts, just as its class background differs: punk in Beijing is merely a middle- and upper-class phenomenon. By 2004, Peter had left the punk scene to work for an advertising agency. 11. In December 2004, the duo played four reunion concerts, all sold out, at the Hong Kong Coliseum, accommodating 10,000 fans per show. 12. Translated by its lyricist, Chow Yiufai. 13. I am indebted to Giselinde Kuipers for this observation, which deserves further study. 14. To Anthony Wong, the music of James Last, who leads a German orchestra known for its easy listening music, resembles the muzak played in Hong Kong shopping malls. 15. Under diverse colonial influences in the 1930s and 1940s, Shanghai produced its own music stars whose songs resemble those of, for example, the German diva Marlene Dietrich. The best known singer of that period is Zhou Xuan (Steen, Citation2000b). 16. The interpretation of this song is based on an interview (March 3, 2003) with its lyric writer, Chow Yiufai. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJeroen de Kloet Jeroen de Kloet is an assistant professor of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is affiliated with the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis
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