Rethinking independence : sonic infrastructures and youth participation in post-socialist China's independent music scene

Abstract

Based on fieldwork conducted in Lanzhou, a middle-sized city in China’s hinterland, this ethnographic study aims to understand independent music’s ever-increasing popularity in post-socialist China. In particular, I examine how Lanzhou’s unique socio-cultural conditions shape the local youth’ participation in this culture. This thesis first reviews the history of Chinese rock music, the predecessor of independent music, since its birth in the 1980s. I propose that Chinese rock music has entered the post-dakou era as a result of changing sonic infrastructures, and that the young subjects active in the music scene constitute the post-dakou generation, most of whom are “only-children” born in the 1990s. Second, this thesis examines three types of sonic infrastructures: the media matrix, music events and high-speed railways, which have considerably broadened people’s access to music and encouraged them to participate in independent music. I argue that post-dakou sonic infrastructures foster “participatory sociality”, where fans connect and interact with a broader community in their musical experience. Third, I suggest that in Lanzhou, conflicts between personal aspirations and societal expectations characterise fans’ everyday lives. In a city where economic opportunities are limited, young people’ experience of these conflicts is all the more acute. Through a textual reading on a selection of musical works, I argue that independent music is not thematically unique, yet, fans find it an “authentic” expression of their lives, because they relate to the music in personal and deeply felt ways. Moreover, fans perceive music events as an independent world outside their everyday lives, where they escape from “the self” for a celebrated “us”. Lastly, through the lens of Bourdieu, I argue that the taste for independent music is a habitus. Participation in independent music, therefore, is a meaning-making process, where fans use their agency to navigate the complexities and challenges of their daily lives.