Music of the Republic of China Era (1912-1949)

The recent culture of the movement of the 1910s and 1920s  evoked a great deal of the lasting interest in the Western music, the number of Chinese musicians returned from studying from abroad to perform the western classical music, composing work hits on the western musical notation system. The Kuominatang tried to help the recent music adoptions via the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in spite of the on-going political problem.  The twentieth-century of the cultural inventors such as Xiao Youmei, Cai Yuanpei, Feng Zikai and Wang Guangqi wanted to see Chinese music accept the best standard that is possible. There were many various ideals regarding to the best standard.

source of picture: en.wikipedia.org

Symphony groups were formed in most of the cities and performed to a wide audience in the show halls and on radio. Several of the performers added the jazz powers to the traditional music, adding xylophones, saxophones and violins among other instrument. Lu Wencheng, Li Jinhui, Zhou Xuan, Qui Hechou, Yin Zizhong and He Dasha were among the most famous performers and singers during this period.

After the 1942 Yan’an Forum on the Literature and Art a large scale campaign was established in the Communist that controlled the area to accept the folk music to make the revolutionary songs to educate the largely uneducated rural people on party goals. The musical form sees the superstitions that were repressed and harmonies and bass lines were added to the traditional songs. One instant is the East id Red, a folksong from northern Shaanxi that was accepted into the nationalist hymn. Of the particular note is the singer, Xian Xinghai, who was active during the time, composed the Yellow River Cantata, which is the most famous of all his work.

Music of the People’s Republic of China Era 1949 -1990s

The golden age of the shidaiqu and the seven great singer stars that came to an end when the Communist party denounced the Chinese famous music as yellow music (pornography), Maoists considered pop music as a failure to the art form in mainland China. In the year 1949, the Kuomintang moved to Taiwan, and the People Republic of China was created. The revolutionary songs would become heavily promoted by the state, the Maoists, during the Cultural Revolution, pushed the revolutionary music as the only acceptable kind; because of the propaganda, this genre largely overshadowed all others and came to almost define the mainland Chinese music. It is still, in some form, an on-going process but some students and musician (Chinese and otherwise) are trying to recover old music.

The pop music in mainland China was recovered after the marketing reform by Deng Xiao Ping, now the music of China differ as a combination of pop and classical music. Just like in main recent countries, China has a fast production of different kinds of new music, while the old music is also kept alive.

After the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989, a recent fast tempo Northwest wind pattern that is launched by the people to counter the government, the music would progress into Chinese rock, and remained famous in the 1990s. While the music in China is very much state-owned as the Television, media, and major show hall are all managed by the Communist party. The government mainly pick not to support Chinese rock by limiting its exposure and airtime; as a result, the kind never reached the mainstream in its entirety.