Linkin Park, Imagine Dragons, Robbie Williams ... Is the Beijing Live Music Drought Over?

admin wrote:

The third implication is that the local live music scene is alive.

Yeah it's breathing, so it's technically alive.

But in a city of 20 million people, I think there might be somewhere around a dozen venues that regularly show live original music.

Every year in our bar and club awards we struggle to get our nomination panel of 200 to even name an original local band. This pisses me off because I'd love to see Beijing local bands make it as professional musicians, but there's simply not the interest.

Not sure why. Long ago we used to put together concerts to support local acts. We did it for fun and for publicity but made no money out of the deal. That was OK, but even after significant promotion, the bands would be walking away with something like RMB 1000 to split amongst each other. To me, that didn't seem like a fair wage given the fact that from sound check to finishing the gig, the bands end up working somewhere around 8 hours.

I'd like to see more venues, more new bands, and the ability for more musicians to make a living from their music.

And I'd love to see Tom share more of his knowledge of local bands via our website here -- the more publicity we can give the scene, the better.

Other than the lack of venues, I think you just described the local music scene in nearly any city. No one makes any money doing this stuff, other than maybe Houhai bar bands or guys who plow through jazz standards for weekend corporate gigs or whatever. But I don't think any original rock/electronic/etc. musicians in Beijing start their bands with the intention of making a living, or even making any kind of money at all really. Everyone's got a day job.

That the nomination panel isn't aware of any original local bands probably says more about the panel members than it does about the scene - I know a pile of good original locals and I'm not even as well-versed as some of my mates. We're out here. Live Beijing Music, SmartBeijing and Aweh have done a lot of solid coverage on the local underground scene.

Hey guys: Full disclosure: I'm an old fart. I typically don't go to any concerts anymore because I can't stand the smoke, the noise and the crowds. 

But I was once twentysomething and totally into the local music scene (Taipei's at the time, not Beijing), and proudly defined myself by shitting all over any musical act that showed any elements of commercial success. I felt there was a time limit on how cool a band could be, and turned my back on any fringe artist that I loved if I discovered everyone around me liked them as well: if everyone likes them, well damn I'm not getting caught listening to popular music -- my cutting-edge, indie credentials will be shot!

Then as I got older I realized that I no longer need to define myself by the music I love. More importantly, I realized I no longer needed to define myself by the music I professed to hate.

I don't blame others for doing this; it's a phase that I think a lot of people go through beginning around puberty and usually grow out of by their 30s.

These days I can't be bothered to worry about whether something is popular or not. There's commercial pop I love and underground indie stuff I love. Likewise, there's tons of shitty pop and tons of shitty indie stuff. I listen to what I like and I don't worry about which genre the music belongs to or which subculture it is championed by.

I don't happen to listen to Robbie Williams, Linkin Park or Imagine Dragons. But still I'm happy to see them performing concerts here.

Beijing is a tough place to put on any act, and there was a time when any foreign band that came here was big news.

I'm always hoping the floodgates open for all acts, so any time anyone plans an East Asian leg of their tour, they put Beijing on their list of places to play (usually they do not). 

So frankly I appreciate any and all international acts that come and visit out fine city, be they mega-stars, has-beens, nobodies, up-and-comers, whatever.

And when things are looking up, I hate to see a smackdown of these changes using criticisms that are off the cuff and incorrect.

The original assertion was that these bands are coming to Beijing because they can't make money back home.

Not true.

The second implication is that they are somehow dinosaurs from days gone by.

You'll probably be shocked to learn that many of the local indie bands plying the circuit in 2015 Beijing have been around far longer than Imagine Dragons and Mika, and likely around almost as long as Linkin Park (I believe Robbie Williams is sufficiently ancient to pre-date pretty much all the bands in Beijing).

The third implication is that the local live music scene is alive.

Yeah it's breathing, so it's technically alive.

But in a city of 20 million people, I think there might be somewhere around a dozen venues that regularly show live original music.

Every year in our bar and club awards we struggle to get our nomination panel of 200 to even name an original local band. This pisses me off because I'd love to see Beijing local bands make it as professional musicians, but there's simply not the interest.

Not sure why. Long ago we used to put together concerts to support local acts. We did it for fun and for publicity but made no money out of the deal. That was OK, but even after significant promotion, the bands would be walking away with something like RMB 1000 to split amongst each other. To me, that didn't seem like a fair wage given the fact that from sound check to finishing the gig, the bands end up working somewhere around 8 hours.

I'd like to see more venues, more new bands, and the ability for more musicians to make a living from their music.

And I'd love to see Tom share more of his knowledge of local bands via our website here -- the more publicity we can give the scene, the better.

admin wrote:

Please go ask a local band. I'm guessing they will tell you it is very difficult to make a living without a day job and may not entirely agree with your characterization of the scene being very much alive.

I think you've misinterpreted my meaning of alive as "making boatloads of money." The world is full of bands not making a single buck from their output and Beijing is no different. The fact is, I could go out on any day of the week and have the choice of dozens of venues to see a gigging band, playing purely for the fun of it and having no interest whatsoever in what monetary gain that may or may not come from their hard work. That's alive to me. It's no secret that bands in China have a relatively hard time making bank from their output but if playing at the MasterCard Center is what deems their music/ethos "alive" then I think they'd probably skip the opportunity.