Saturday, January 23, 2010

Chinese Rock

Foreign Policy magazine has an interesting photo-essay this week on the budding rock music scene in China titled "Anarchy in the PRC". Authors Matthew Niederhauser and Christina Larson make the point that while usually identified with Western culture, rock music is more accurately an urban phenomenon and that rapidly urbanizing China is spawning its own generation of disaffected youth who are increasingly using rock as their preferred method of self-expression (the article's title is a take off on the 70's punk anthem Anarchy in the UK, by the seminal punk band the Sex Pistols). The authors run through a collection of the most popular acts in China's underground music scene, along with the government's reaction to them (no surprise, the Central Committee isn't all that happy). The essay is illustrated with some great photographs of the different bands, though points off FP for not including at least a few samples of some of the featured bands music.
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