I feel like I've been living in a musical abyss for the last couple months.
I haven't found a decent live venue anywhere in China that's not an expensive jazz bar, and nothing coming from America looks interesting enough to buy. I'm a little nervous; I managed to flee the States right around the release of "Soulja Boy," and I dread finding out what other trashy hip-pop is lurking around the corner.
However, I was curious: Had Soulja Boy made it to China? Are there vast stockpiles of pirated CDs like there are DVDs? I went to my local pirated DVD store to find out.
Unlike the store's DVD section, loaded with countless Western titles, the music section was about half-and-half. I asked an employee about her opinion of Western music. She shrugged.
"I like it all right," she said, "but a lot of it is loud; I really don't like rap." That's a fairly reasonable response, but as far as I'm concerned, the louder the better. Searching the shelves, I realized that Britney's new album was about the loudest title they carried. No rock, no rap, not a single death metal title.
I asked her which albums sold the best, and she knew immediately: James Blunt.
"Is that just with foreigners or Chinese customers as well?" I asked.
"Oh, everybody loves James Blunt," she replied. I found that hard to believe, but the guy at the next store said the same thing.
How could an audience who, for the most part, can't understand a word of the lyrics enjoy listening to the squeaky sounds of an awkward, pubescent boy whose voice is still changing? If you disagree, go to a bar mitzvah or two; you'll see what I mean.
In the Chinese section, I searched for something original. All I found on the covers, though, were young, shy girls staring wistfully at the camera and sensitive-looking men casually strumming guitars. There wasn't even a single band.
Again, I asked the employee for her thoughts. I grabbed the first two albums she mentioned - when it's less than $1 per album, I'll take her word for it.
One of the albums was "The Feeling" by a generic, sensitive-looking singer-songwriter by the name of Jacky Cheung. Known as one of the four "Golden Kings" of the Hong Kong pop scene, Cheung does have a pretty good voice. Chinese people apparently can't get enough of him, as his "partial" discography on Wikipedia spans 20 years and three pages. He is also, interestingly enough, the spokesman for Disneyland Hong Kong, which should place him just below Mickey Mouse on the hierarchy of Chinese sex symbols.
Anita Mui, also from Hong Kong, had been in the music business about as long as Jacky before her death in 2004. She is known as China's Madonna, though all her songs sort of sound the same - something along the lines of Vanessa Williams' "Save the Best for Last." Basically, I'm pretty embarrassed listening to it right now...
I didn't really find any Chinese music, despite my best efforts, so I conclude that China hasn't really developed its own music scene yet. That could be a good thing, because if mainlanders want to compete with Hong Kong and Taiwan, they will need to find a fresh approach, maybe even something "loud." This is one of the many reasons I am eager to hear my Chinese tutor's reactions to the CD of American music I burned for her, which contains some songs and styles I'm certain have yet to reach the ears of any ordinary Chinese student.
Next week, I'll share a shy Chinese girl's reaction to Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box."
Mike Adams is a junior majoring in international relations. He can be reached at michael_j.adams@tufts.edu.
