The impact of dakou generation on Chinese underground music and youth subcultures

Abstract

After the reforms and opening up by Deng Xiaoping, cultural flows from abroad, audio-visual products from Western countries, the influx of pop music from Hong Kong and Taiwan influenced different aspects of Chinese music production. Urban youths from mainland China produced musical genres that interpreted the zeitgeist of the mid-1980s cultural fever: “rock with Chinese characteristics” was born in Beijing, having Cui Jian as a pioneer. Experimentations were temporarily interrupted by 1989 after the students’ protests repression at Tiananmen Square: being the expression of political idealism and rebelliousness some music genres, especially rock, were silenced and censored. However, from the nineties onwards, dakou CDs and tapes – initially imported to China as plastic waste – were illegally resold and spread on the black market. This dissertation describes musical and stylistic influences starting from the nineties during and after the dakou phenomenon: youths who have benefited from these influences (i.e. the musicians and their audience) in order to overcome state restrictions, have in turn opened underground spaces to create and propagate alternative music. As a result, urban subcultures also emerged as a response to the increasing social changes of post-modern China: for linglei youths music (usually de-politicized) is a medium to express alienation, satire and social pressures. Although opposing both traditions and forces of commodification, Chinese alternative bands also relied on local record labels and music festivals to promote themselves. Besides, the marketization of linglei lifestyle also occurred: local and global firms are merchandising bands, promoting clothes and brands.