One Day in May…

The BBC had an interesting article this week about music piracy in China and internationally. It explains how Chinese record companies have pretty much thrown in the towel and given up on the idea that they will get profits from selling albums in the face of rampant piracy and illegal downloads. Instead, they rely on things like commercial connections – the inevitable “spokesman for” trend – to make up the difference. Sponsored appearances, then, make up one of the major ways that Chinese bands earn money.

Certainly anyone paying attention has noticed that there is a Benq product in about half of Mayday’s recent videos; it is a rare Leehom video that does not feature some form of Sony product. (I always wonder, too, about the special guests at concerts – to what extent is that just a promotional opportunity, and to what extent is it a moneymaker? It’s been pretty much a guarantee of late that if you see a concert by an artist under the B’in Music flag, you’ll be seeing another affiliated artist. Case in point: special guests for Victor Wong’s concert next month will be Fish Leong and Mayday.)

The story features some comments from Agi of Long Kuan Jiu Duan (龙宽九段) (watch an MV here). I was a little amused by her comment that in Europe, people go see bands for the music, but in China, it’s for the looks or the product or the overall packaging. I’d argue that there are plenty of teenyboppers in the West who also go for looks over substance, and plenty of music fans in Asia who do the reverse, but it’s an interesting observation nonetheless. With corporate sponsorship of events and concerts, she could earn more money in China, but she has decided to perform in Europe. (A few mainland bands have made waves in Europe – offhand, I know Second-hand Rose played at a Swiss music festival at some point in the last few years; P.K. 14 also toured Europe.)

Anyway, it is an interesting story, and I liked that it also included some thoughts from the head of the mainland’s largest independent label, Modern Sky. Just a few of the great acts formerly or currently affiliated with Modern Sky include: Convenience Store (便利商店), Supermarket (超级市场) (erm, don’t get those two mixed up…), New Pants (新裤子), Milk@Coffee (牛奶咖啡), Wan Xiaoli (万晓利) and my much-beloved P.K. 14.

Here’s the thing about P.K. 14: normally I’m not a big fan of punk/post-punk. Actually, I’m not even sure that I know what “post-punk” is, other than that it is 后朋克 in Chinese. I bought their second album, Who who who and who who who (谁谁谁和谁谁谁) because it had a neat cover. Yup, that’s how I roll: I judge CDs by their covers. It took months for the band to grow on me. Months and months. But then last year one of my co-workers went to Beijing on vacation, and I asked him to try to find their third album White Paper (白皮书) if he had a chance. I felt a little guilty about it – even more so when he got back and said he had to go to several shops before he found it – but actually it seems like he felt that asking for P.K. 14 from Chinese shopkeepers trying to sell him the latest from Justin Timberlake earned him some street cred. Anyway, after White Paper I realized the truth that had thus far eluded me: whatever the hell “post-punk” is doesn’t matter. I just love P.K. 14.

Here’s the video for their song, “Them (他们).” Great song, but a fantastic video. They were also named one of the five best Asian bands by Time Magazine. That article puts their next album out in March, which is very exciting. It also makes one start scratching one’s head about how on earth one will manage to get ahold of a copy… but never mind that for a minute. There’s lots more on the band at Chaile, a site everyone should know who is interested in Chinese rock music. (Though I don’t think it’s being updated anymore – it was in 2006, but not since then, and a lot of the links don’t work. But what is still there is great.)

Update: Oohh, I take it back! I think the Chaile content is just getting shifted over to newly reformatted Rock in China, which is getting updated. Oh, there’s a goldmine of information there.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Mainland China Bands, Mandopop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.