Respawn Entertainment: Days of Glory

Chapter 995 The Territory of Rock and Roll

Bian Lang didn't seem too bothered by the report: "Report what? Disturbing the peace?"

"What are you thinking? If it were disturbing the peace, there would be no need to notify us. The equipment we registered long ago isn't overpowered. Complaining to the point of exhaustion won't do any good! They say we're indecent and affecting the children..."

Upon hearing this, Bian Lang became angry: "Reported by a fan? That's unlikely, isn't it?"

"Anonymous reports, over 100 calls, they can't just ignore this, can they..."

Bian Lang wasn't clear on the reporting process, but he found it absurd: "Why should the preferences of just over 100 people lead to the decision-making of tens of thousands of people?"

Bian Lang hadn't thought anything was wrong with the matter just now, but now that he'd thought about it, he was furious: "Does 'studying how to solve it' mean we should pause?"

Sensing the change in Bian Lang's tone and voice, Pan Jianhu knew this matter was unlikely to end well: "Bian Lang, listen to me..."

"They can't wait, the fans can't wait! Tiger, you know that yourself. If they say they're going to discuss how to do it, how can things possibly turn out well?"

Pan Jianhu knew, of course, that Bian Lang was being very restrained in his words, but since he could say this to Bian Lang, the problem Bian Lang mentioned would certainly not occur: "They are just discussing how to respond and wrap things up afterwards; we won't be affected at all!"

"Tiger, you can't just fool people like that!" Bian Lang had originally planned to make a big call to action and do something that would get a lot of support but wasn't too extreme. Now that Pan Jianhu said this, he felt relieved.

After all, it's not the original Earth anymore, so there are some differences in how things are done.

Bian Lang was unwilling to end up like Qiao Xiaodao, who, despite the support of countless netizens, ultimately chose to dismantle Liang Chongchong.

"Should the next music festival simply prohibit minors from entering?" This is the simplest solution, but whether such a one-size-fits-all approach will cause a backlash remains to be seen.

In Pan Jianhu's view, such a one-size-fits-all approach could indeed avoid a lot of trouble, but Bian Lang's question left him speechless: "Tiger? How old were you when you started listening to rock music?"

"I was already an adult by then, but if I had a choice, I would have preferred it to be as early as possible!"

Bian Lang didn't draw any conclusions. He pointed to the next stage and said as he walked, "Only when you have a longing in your heart will you keep thinking about it and then it will surely come true... You, the generation of BJ people, must have been among the first to be exposed to rock music, right?"

"Yes, I started listening to it in the 80s. The band was called 'Buried.' I can't find any of the musicians from that band anymore, but the drummer was Kong Liang's mentor..."

As Pan Jianhu reminisced about the past, Bian Lang's thoughts also returned to the rock and roll chronicle of the original Earth.

Chinese rock music is a process that started with BJ and spread throughout the country. During this process, many different styles emerged in different regions.

Music can be a city's calling card, and there are many examples to prove this.

When you think of Memphis, who comes to mind? It has to be Elvis Presley!

Liverpool's Beatles, New York's underground Velvet, Seattle's Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Manchester's Oasis, and Zibo's Xie Tianxiao.

When music connects with a city, it often generates a kind of inexplicable emotional power, because the music has a real space, especially when the music has the unique character of the city, listeners are more willing to explore the connotation of the music and more willing to try to empathize.

When considering the musical regions of a country, it's important to look at the number of cities and musicians produced, as that's meaningless beyond statistics. Instead, it's about understanding how different regions, with their diverse economic and cultural backgrounds, have created different kinds of music that collectively form the musical landscape of a nation.

Geographically, the development of rock music in mainland China has progressed from being centered in Beijing to spreading throughout the country. In the early days, it was all about Beijing, with Beijingers making very Beijing-style rock music. Later, people from all over the country came to Beijing to make slightly different kinds of rock music, and in recent years, people from all over the country have been making all kinds of rock music in different places.

From the very beginning of Chinese rock music until the mid-1990s, BJ and BJ artists held an unquestionable central position.

Early and mid-period representatives such as Wanlima Wang, Lao Cui, Dou Wei, Zang Tianshuo, Gao Qi, and He Yong were all from Beijing.

Many of the earliest record companies were based in Beijing, as was the business of Moyan Culture in mainland China. The earliest behind-the-scenes personnel were also based in Beijing, such as sound engineer Jin Shaogang and recording engineer Wang Xinbo. Venues for rock music performances were in Beijing, as were early Western restaurants, diplomatic hotels, and many music schools and groups.

The fact that rock music took root and flourished in Beijing is directly related to the family background and resources of these people; they were either children of high-ranking officials or had parents who were involved in the arts.

Old Cui's father was a military musician, and his mother was an actress with the Central National Song and Dance Troupe. Ding Wu's parents were a soldier and a civil servant, respectively. Dou Wei and He Yong's fathers were both folk music performers. Gao Qi's parents both graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music. Wang Feng's father was a soldier, and he himself graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music. There are many more examples like these.

Because of their family backgrounds, these people had access to Western art and literature that was difficult for ordinary people to access. In particular, those who came earlier could listen to Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and watch foreign films through internal screenings in the 1970s.

Including music, film, and literature, the arts and culture of China in the 1980s were largely defined by the children of high-ranking officials in Beijing's military compounds or those from artistic families. As the era of high-ranking officials passed, the main force of Beijing rock music gradually shifted to ordinary Beijingers.

For example, Peng Lei, Da Zhangwei, Zhang Shouwang, Zhao Ciwei, and so on... But even if they are ordinary, Beijing's leading economic position cannot be ignored. Bian Lang had never even touched a computer before he was a "Beijing drifter" on Earth, but many families in Beijing had Macs in the 90s. Not to mention Beijing's unparalleled cultural resources.

Rock music in the West is an art form that grows from the soil, while in China it developed somewhat from the top down. This created a grand vision for early Chinese rock music, a cultural awareness that went beyond the realm of music, and also created its deep-seated bitterness and resentment.

Early practitioners mostly had professional music backgrounds, which enabled some rock music at that time to reach a very high level of musicality. Compared with many non-professional singers who later relied on intuition to write songs, their work was much more solid.

Sometimes Bianlang wonders, what if Chinese rock music had emerged at the forefront of China's reform and opening up, and bootleg CDs had taken off in Guangdong? It would definitely be very different!

They might catch up with the world music trends of the 1980s and create more down-to-earth, relaxed, and modern music. Of course, everyone knows that this is impossible. Guangdong has its own unique Cantonese pop music culture. Compared to the pragmatic people of Guangdong, rock music needs to be more abstract!
From all perspectives, Chinese rock music was born only in Beijing and was written by Beijing rock musicians.

The same situation applies to Water Blue Star. It's just that Spring City will become the revival center of rock and roll in the future!
Returning to Earth, what did outsiders do for rock and roll back then? In short, they participated as musicians, rather than being the ones in control of the work!
Lao Wu from Tianjin became the guitarist for the Tang Dynasty band, while Liu Xiaosong from Northeast China participated in Lao Cui's album recording and performances as a percussionist.

Luan Shu from Shandong became the keyboardist for the Black Panther band, Zhao Muyang from the Northwest became the drummer for No. 43 Baojia Street, and so on... From the mid-1990s until the first few years of the new century, BJ remained the sole center of rock music.

As the influence of rock music spread to other regions, people from other parts of the country began to appear in the industry. They flocked to universities, Shucun, Sanlitun, and various live houses in Beijing. Together with somewhat unreliable record companies, they began to bring a different flavor to Chinese rock music.

Zhang Chu, Zheng Jun, and Xu Wei from Xi'an came to Beijing...

Zhang Chu arrived much earlier than the mid-1990s. He brought works like "Westward Out of Yangguan" with Northwest melodies and "Sister," a delicate folk rock style rarely seen in BJ rock, until he became a new idol in 1994.

Zheng Jun came to Beijing in 1992 and later signed with Red Star Music. According to him, he was the company's first artist and also its first employee. He found his own manager and musicians. He inexplicably built his own company and participated in the entire Red Star Records industry chain.

Then came the release of "Naked" in 1994, which fueled the development of hard rock in China. Although it didn't have many Northwest elements, it became a symbol of the commercialization of rock music.

Xu Wei arrived in Beijing in 1994, but like Zheng Jun, he didn't bring much of the Northwest flavor. In 1997, he released "Elsewhere," which, after Dou Wei, once again brought alternative rock to a high level of attention in China.

In 1997, the XJ band Tongue arrived in Beijing. At that time, Wu Tun wasn't as bald as he is now. Their music was hardcore, and their lyrics were poetic yet fierce, making them one of the best representatives of underground music and influencing many later bands, including Bian Lang's band.

In the same year, Gao Hu, a Jiangsu native who grew up in XJ, came to BJ. His experience in Shucun and Painkiller's shift from hardcore to peaceful creation became typical microcosms of the development of rock bands from other places in BJ.

Compared to these bands, the folk singers from the Northwest brought more local style and earthy feel.

These musicians from the Northwest are making a name for themselves in Beijing for the first time as non-Beijing musicians. Perhaps it's because rock music resonates with the desolate and powerful spirit of the Northwest, or perhaps it's because the Northwest music, which has been nurturing Chinese pop music, has finally blossomed. In any case, we are beginning to see some different faces.

Apart from Northwest starting in the 1990s, most of the bands we know today have gradually settled in BJ, and some of the bands that brought new things are a very important part of them!

PK14, a band formed in Nanjing, came to Beijing in 99, bringing with them the city's strong artistic atmosphere and becoming a symbol of the burgeoning rise of alternative rock in China!
Nanjing is a magical city with a unique literary and musical atmosphere. As a World City of Literature, regardless of its great historical literary tradition, contemporary Nanjing is also a major center of Chinese literature, with older generations such as Su Tong, Ye Zhaoyan, Bi Feiyu, and Han Dong, and younger generations such as Cao Kou, Ge Liang, and Zhao Zhiming.

Wu Yuqing, a poet known as the "Director" of a rock music promotion program in Nanjing, and Yang Haisong, the lead singer of PK14 and a good friend of Wu Yuqing, are producers, musicians, company owners, and also writers from Nanjing.

When he went to PK14 in Beijing, he established post-punk, a form that had been influencing Chinese rock since Dou Wei. With the help of Yang Haisong, who co-founded Maybe Mars, Beijing ushered in a wave of alternative rock.

Xu Bo, the current guitarist of PK14, also runs an independent record label called Beautiful Records in Beijing, discovering unique musicians such as Ya Da E and Shii.

Nanjing possesses a truly artistic temperament, serious yet not obscure, profound yet vibrant—a quality unique in the country. This may be due to the accumulation and loss of Nanjing's thousand-year history as an ancient capital, or perhaps to the close connections within Nanjing's literary circles.

Musicians who hail from Nanjing, and even those from other parts of Jiangsu but with deep ties to Nanjing, all possess a certain scholarly air. Besides PK14, there are also Zuo Xiaozhou and Re-TROS.

Zuo Xiaozhou was born in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, and served in the army in Nanjing. He came to Beijing as early as 93, and in 98, he and the NO band released their first album "The Lost Master", which made him one of the most unconventional and controversial singers in Chinese rock music.

His relationship with Nanjing, as described in an interview, is this: I spent nearly five years in Nanjing from the age of fifteen to twenty. I spent my adolescence in Nanjing. Many of the songs I wrote are actually related to Nanjing, but I didn't mention Nanjing's name.

In 2020, he finally released a single called "I Love Nanjing"!
A narrative poem: "Nanjing, Nanjing, the city in my heart."

Perhaps it's a summary of his feelings for Nanjing, or perhaps it's just a remembrance of a friend who also loved Nanjing. Zuo Xiaotuzhou brings fragmented works, with early noise experiments and later folk rock. These two mismatched styles are his theme, with unrestrained lyrics and regular musical structures, strange singing style and beautiful arrangement melodies forming a stark contrast.

While his quirky style is constantly criticized, his lyrics, music, and arrangements have influenced many in the industry. To put it simply, his singing is terrible, but his songs are great. In one of Zuo Xiao's articles, he described his creative philosophy as follows: "Whatever you do, you should try your best, or you must, be different from others. My greatest value lies in creating tremendous possibilities in these fields!"

His self-summary was so convincing that Bian Lang now wanted to find someone whose voice had been hoofed by a donkey to recreate this ruthless man's music: "Wind crossing the wilderness, slow down..."

(End of this chapter)