[Dixielandjazz] Controlling The Music

[Steve Barbone]

CAVEAT: Maybe considered to be off topic to some. Delete now if you are
narrowly focused.

For the rest, consider the below alternative to "The Media" forcing music
down our throats as past posts have suggested, which results in garbage
music rather than OKOM, which "we" know is superior music.

Or imagine what would happen if "we" gained control of the airwaves and
forced OKOM down everybody's throat.

How lucky we are to live in countries around the world where market dynamics
dictate in what music is seen or heard. And where individual bands are very
much in control of their own destinies.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone



The Sound, Not of Music, but of Control

By HOWARD W. FRENCH - October 25, 2007

SHANGHAI, Oct. 24 ‹ A song often heard on the radio these days begins with a
light and upbeat melody, and lyrics that are even bubblier.

³Don¹t care about loneliness,² croons the lead singer. ³I don¹t think it
really matters.²

Another much played song tries even harder to soothe. ³Ah, little man, ah,
succeed quickly,² it counsels. ³Enjoy being poor but happy every day.²

Marxists once referred to religion as the opium of the people, but in
today¹s China it is the music promoted on state-monopolized radio that
increasingly claims that role. China¹s leader, Hu Jintao, has talked since
he assumed power five years ago about ³building a harmonious society,² an
ambiguous phrase subject to countless interpretations.

But Chinese musicians, cultural critics and fans say that in entertainment,
the government¹s thrust seems clear: Harmonious means blandly homogeneous,
with virtually all contemporary music on the radio consisting of gentle love
songs and uplifting ballads.

In recent weeks, television networks have come under intense pressure from
Beijing to purge their programming of crime and even mildly suggestive
sexual references. Variety show producers are subject to new rules aimed at
enforcing official notions of dignity. Art galleries and theatrical
productions, meanwhile, have always been subject to review by censors.

Even without resorting to direct censorship, the state has formidable powers
for controlling popular music and shaping tastes. They include state
ownership of all broadcast media, the screening of lyrics for all commercial
music and strict control of performance sites.

Many say one result has been the dumbing down and deadening of popular music
culture. Fu Guoyong, an independent cultural critic in Hangzhou, likened
today¹s pop music culture to the politically enforced conformity of the
Cultural Revolution, when only eight highly idealized Socialist ³model
operas² could be performed in China.

³Nowadays singers can sing many songs, but in the end, they¹re all singing
the same song, the core of which is, ŒHave fun,¹² Mr. Fu said. ³Culture has
become an empty vessel.²

Nowhere is conformity enforced more vigorously than on broadcast radio,
where pop music programs are saturated with the Chinese equivalent of the
kind of easy listening often associated in other countries with elevators
and dentists¹ offices.

Rock ¹n¹ roll is mostly limited to special programs that are allowed brief
windows of airtime during the graveyard shift, and even then there are few
hints of angst, alienation or any but the very mildest expressions of
teenage rebellion.

Rock enjoyed a wave of popularity in China the early 1990s, but the works of
the country¹s most famous performer, Cui Jian, disappeared from the airwaves
around that time because, many fans believe, his lyrics began to flirt with
political themes. 

By this year, the rock groups felt so unwanted that when the Chinese Olympic
Committee called on musicians to submit songs for the 2008 Olympic Games in
Beijing, virtually none stepped forward, according to Shen Lihui, a music
company executive who was consulted by the committee.

Liu Sijia, the bass player and a vocalist for an underground Shanghai band
called Three Yellow Chicken, said alternative music in China today is much
like Western rock in the 1960s, with its frequent references to social
issues like war, poverty, civil rights and generational conflict. But
alternative rock is rarely heard on the radio.

³What prevails here is worse than garbage,² he said. ³Because China
emphasizes stability and harmony, the greatest utility of these pop songs is
that they aren¹t dangerous to the system. If people could hear underground
music, it would make them feel the problems in their lives and want to
change things.²

Chinese cultural officials and radio D.J.¹s insist that the overwhelming
prevalence of easy-listening pop merely reflects popular tastes. Many point
to a commonly invoked generational shift in China, with today¹s young people
too caught up in the country¹s economic boom to dwell on social problems or
ponder life¹s bigger questions.

³It¹s whether you¹re happy or not that counts, and not the substance,² said
Zheng Yang, a veteran D.J. on Music Radio in Beijing. ³Life is smooth, and
so music is more about soothing things. Anyone can criticize or blame. What
we need right now is guidance.²

Critics of the country¹s cultural policies acknowledge that compared with
past practices, direct censorship of popular music is relatively uncommon.
But in comments that hinted at the political agenda behind the state¹s
management of popular music, Zhang Zhuyi, an official of the State
Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said he doubted that a radio
station dedicated to rock ¹n¹ roll would be allowed in China.

³New radio stations need approval, and regulators would consider whether the
content fits with social trends and national policy,² Mr. Zhang said.

Asked what those were, he said, ³It¹s about how to orient the audience, and
provide them with a kind of spiritual food.²

At a small performance spot in Shanghai, one of the few places where
alternative music acts are able to perform, a group of college students
dismissed mainstream Chinese pop.

³What¹s on the radio are brainless mouthwash songs that all copy each
other,² said Xu Jinlu, a 20-year-old junior. ³What¹s produced here is all
about ŒYou don¹t love me¹ or ŒI don¹t love you.¹ It¹s lousy, and without
layers.²

At that, her friend Yu Yun spoke up. ³Once you hear the first rhythm,² she
said, ³you know the rest.