When I lived in China in the early '90s a nascent music scene was forming post-Tiananmen. I caught early glimpses of it and found myself connecting musical dots in the songs I listened to. Singing along helped me with my Mandarin pronunciation, also.
I discovered that sometimes by understanding the music you can better understand the country, and move away from the zero-sum thinking that often plagues our interpretations. This is especially true when you’re dealing with complex issues interwoven with cultural context.
For me, I naively assumed Chinese rock and the underground scene had reached its apex in the '90s. Thanks to some discoveries I made last week — in particular, finding a Substack called
— I found my way to new-to-me music, and proved to myself that I was wrong.In this case, being wrong is brilliant!
That's because I've been sleeping on a vibrant Chinese music scene throughout much of the new millennium. I woke up last week and I am listening again.
Check out Hiperson, Hualun, Dream Can (Canned Dream) and others.
There’s so much creative energy and music out there. And don’t you just love that feeling when you find a new favorite song that you can’t stop listening to?
If I’ve piqued your curiosity, you can go deeper on Hiperson in this article.
Algorithms have no rhythm
In other words, don’t settle for the same old tune that corporate playlists have programmed you to listen to. That’s a damaging, pervasive algorithm that has been shielding listeners from new discoveries in music way before we even knew what an algorithm was.
Contemporary algorithms are herding us in particular musical directions also. That said, websites like Bandcamp and independent music labels all over the world are generating fresh tracks that you can believe in.
If you do some extra work, you just might discover something you’ve never, ever listened to before.
And you’ll be better for it.