Magores is a Music Whore

As most people who know me will attest, I'm a "music whore".

I like music.

Can't create it. Can barely remember lyrics even after the 150th listening. But, the fact remains... I dig music.

So, here's... Magores' Views on Music in China:

It pretty much sucks.

----

But, it's not that bad.

----

The mass-produced music in China is:
1) Bad karaoke
2) Backstreet Boys - style
3) Bad R&B
4) Techno/Dance

And that's about it.

----

There ARE glimmers of hope though.

My watering hole has a Chinese Guy that sings the standard bar songs. Plus, a few that I don't remember hearing before. "Alice? Alice? Who the Fuck is the Alice?" - This is a crowd pleaser.

A restaraunt that I've been to a couple times does the New Orleans jazz and blues thing. Too expensive though.

My local DVD/CD store has some decent stuff. I've bought:
-A Rammstein DVD
-A Bruce Springsteen DVD
-A Dream Theater DVD (Lots of "Metal" fans seems to like them. Turns out, I'm one that doesn't.)
-A Kronos Quartet DVD
-Pink Floyd The Wall DVD (I think I mentioned this one about 4-5 months ago.)
-Tee Elvis '68 Special DVD
-An Abba (Double) CD, Elvis (Double) CD, Sex Pistols (Double) CD, AC/DC (Double), Scorpions (Double), Metallica (Double), the new Jet CD, a Jackson 5 (Double). The Chieftans (Double), Some Really Weird Thing That Had a Cool Cover (Double).
-And.. A few Chinese language CDs - 3 good, 1 so-so


---
It turns out that the Chinese Guy I mentioned a few posts ago is actually pretty well known.

Cui Jian is the "Father of Chinese Rock". At some festival or another, he plugged in, and rocked the crowd. I have that song on one of the CDs I bought. It's actually a good sounding song, even if I can't understand the lyrics. It SOUNDS good.

For what it's worth, (as far as I can tell,) Chinese Rock is 20 years old this year (2006).

---
One of the other Cds I bought was a compilation of 4 different Chinese Punk bands. It's cool

---
One thing I have missed very much since I've been here is "crunchy guitars and screaming". What can I say? I like "Punk". I like "Metal". I like "Noise". (Believe it or not, "noise" is a style of music. Do a google for "Merzbow" if you don't believe me)

Of course, I also like:
-blues-based rock like G Thorogood, and ZZ Top. (BTW, the Stones played in Shanghai less than a month ago. Not BJ yet though.)
-Jazz. I'm willing to bet that I literally have the largest collection of Miles Davis bootlegs in Mainland China. (Even if I lose the bet, so what? I just found another person with similar tastes.) (I KNOW I have more Mahavishnu Orchestra bootlegs that anyone else here. I'd stake my last RMB on it.)
-Funk. Parliament, The Commodores, EW&F, etc
-Hippie Stuff. THe Dead, Phish, and all that.

---
I haven't found a place to satisfy ALL of my musical tates, but I may have discovered an outlet or two for the "harder" side.

It turns out that Beijing has a decent "underground" scene. (At least, this is what I have read on a particular website. (Well-done, up-to-date. comprhensive))

As of earlier tonight, I now know where to go if I want to find the hard-core punk, metal, etc CDs. I now know the names of the clubs where this kind of stuff is played live. I have addresses and directions.

----
So, to summarize...

Bar tunes / Folk : CHECK
Jazz: CHECK
Bad Karaoke: CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, TOO MANY CHECKS
Techno/Dance: CHECK
Punk, Metal: (Tentative) CHECK
Blues: sorta CHECK (if you include the jazz place)
Funk: ?
Hippie: ?

----

Sorry for the long post, but I dig music, so I tend to ramble on this subject.

Anyway....

My name is Magores, and I'm a Music Whore, and these are my findings on Music in Beijing.