Seductive Narratives

In this song, singer Wang Feng from the band Baojiajie 43 expresses a global concern that assumes commercialisation to be harmful to creativity. The artist collapses along with the world when thrown into the money-blender called society. This assumption is often accompanied by nostalgia for the good old days, when everything was pure, wonderful, and authentic. All that is considered authentic melts into the thin air of commercialism. Money corrupts the true rock spirit. The early rock bands of China represent the real rock spirit; their pure and authentic voices are not yet disturbed by the cruel forces of a market economy. The new bands only go for the money. The critical voice is most likely to be silenced.

Following this line of argument, Barmé writes disapprovingly that ‘Cui Jian found the market, whether in political or commercial guise, to be an indulgent if fickle master’ (1999: 361). The general line in his work is that commodification signifies a full stop to subversion and rebellion. According to Steen, ‘the engagement towards the Long March of Rock’n’Roll evaporates, it becomes impossible to identify [rock] with provocative ideals’ (1996: 237). Jones argues along the same lines, and states that ‘rock music's gradual absorption into China's burgeoning market economy has defused much of its politically oppositional potential’ (1994: 149). Chinese rock musicians often express similar opinions. As Cui Jian told me:

The rock mythology produces a narrative – in both China and the West – that interprets the record industry and related forces of commercialisation that are assumed to have swept over China during the 1990s as being hostile to the ‘true rock spirit.’