By Zafka Zhang, Lisa Li

It seems to be the season for ‘music festivals’. Strawberry Festival in Beijing (May 1st – 3rd), Di Tan Folk Festival in Beijing (May 1st – 2nd), D-22 3-year Anniversary Party in Beijing (Arp 30th – May 3rd), Midi Festival in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province (May 1st – 3rd), Hot Wave Festival in Chengdu (May 1st – 3rd), West Lake Festival in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province (May 28th – 29th)…

We spent 2 days in Strawberry Festival, had much fun, and some thoughts/ questions to discuss here: from background, youth culture, to branding.

These music festivals are stages for the independent bands/ musicians. The first music festival of this kind dated back to nearly 10 years ago (Midi Festival in 2000). Over the last decade, not only the number of independent musicians and listeners largely increased, but also the scene of independent music becomes much more developed and diversified. Music festivals come to be a concentrated manifestation of the youth subculture.

1. MUSIC FESTIVALS AND INDEPENDENT MUSIC IN CHINA - BACKGROUND

Growth of community: There has been a lot of discussion on the development on China’s independent music scene. CNN covers Beijing’s rock scene here (in English), <City Pictorial> threw a special issue on ‘the Age of Independent Music in China’ (in Chinese), and Transmit China 2009 conference recently  I attended explores the changing face of Asia’s music marketplace.

The independent music group have developed to a greater diversity: from rock, punk, to electronic, hip-hop, folk, experimental, indie pop, jazz, etc. With less than a year, more than 2,000 bands/ musicians have opened their homepages on Douban.com, among which indie pop, electronic and folk tend to stay on top. Online creative community Neocha.com has launched its music player NEXT for independent music. Sean Leow, the CEO of Neocha.com has written about the local jazz, electronic, hip-hop, and rock here.

Local independent music is now enjoyed by a growing base of youth. More people are happy to spend on live concerts. Although in its early stage of development, the market of live concerts is growing rapidly. The major music festivals have become iconic events. Events like Strawberry, Midi, and Hot Wave each attracts much more than ten thousands of audience (this year 25 thousands for Midi, 30 thousands for Strawberry, and 150 thousands for Hot Wave according to the media reports).

Establishment of music festivals: Aside from geography, the music festivals are becoming differentiated on branding. Strawberry, as a new brand under Modern Sky Music Festival (on every Oct), features new genres including indie pop, folk, electronic, with well-selected old and new rock bands. Midi retains its focus on ‘classical’ rock genres including metal, punk, hip-hop, etc. Hot Wave is more all-inclusive, with even some mainstream stars like S.H.E. also invited.

Music festivals have started to make profit since 2007. Unlike years ago when government tend to restrict events like music festivals, today, As part of ‘creative industry’ , music festivals are supported by local government (for example, in the cases of Midi and Hot Wave this year).  With more exposure on both online and offline media, the influence of the festivals grew.

Involvement of youth brands: Pioneering marketers started to try to communicate with youth via campaigns around local independent music. We have talked about the case of Converse’ ‘Love Noise’ in our paper. Recently Pepsi and Kang Shifu (or Master Kong) threw campaigns on band competition.

Music festivals themselves started to attract some brands to participate as well. However, on one hand forms of involvement are limited. On the other, much more youth brands are still not sure about this new ‘touch point’.

On Strawberry, Kirin was the only supplier of soft drinks. There were Kirin’s and Converse’ TVCs shown on the main LCD during breaks. Also presented were Myspace.cn, 1626 (youth magazine), City Pictorial with their stands on the spot.

On Hot Wave, the venue/property owner “Poly Park 198” claimed to received good ROI for sponsoring the festival. Also seen on Hot Wave were NGOs including WWF, 1 KG, etc.

2.  MUSIC FESTIVALS AND YOUTH CULTURE

From a tribe to a diversified group: As carnivals of independent music, the festivals have become an iconic experience of youth today. More than 10 years ago, the first music festival – Midi Festival – was considered as a utopia of the very edgy rock geeks. Today music festival goers are not limiting to the hardcore music geeks, but including a lot of occasional listeners, cool hunters, and those ‘just-come-for-fun’. They make a community that is more diversified, tolerant, and influential. Music festivals are becoming an important part of the ‘collective memories’ of youth.

A stage for all: On the music festivals, ‘celebrities’, ‘geeks’, and common ‘fans’ mingle. It is a stage for everyone to present and express him/herself. It is also a wonderful opportunity for cool hunting, and very likely a spot for trend to spread. (Read our post on last year’s Modern Sky Festival here)

Independent, original, and creative spirits: on the festivals, the spirits of independence and originality are strongly manifested. Great majority of the music are original, stuff sold in the creative flee-market are original (and often hand-made), many in the audience put on some do-it-yourself stuff.

3.  MUSIC FESTIVALS, INDEPENDENT MUSIC AND BRANDS

Independent music and music festivals, are they tooooooo edgy for most of the youth brands?

Yes and no. Yes because they may be known to a smaller group of youth, and their ‘style/ taste’ may be pretty cutting-edge.

No, however, because they live with the same desires, anxieties, and tensions under the same social context as mass youth. As a matter of fact, they are more conscious to these desires, anxieties and tensions and more capable/ eager to express them in their works in which the mass youth cohort may find resonance and connection.

Would products in creative flee-market be too edgy for mass youth? (see our discussion on independent design in China here and here)  It’s true that music is harder to comprehend than designs, but as more and more ‘new’ genres become popular (such as folk, indie pop, electronic, etc), these ‘easy-to-listen’ genres are shortening the distance between ‘edgy’ and ‘mass’.

Unlike the categories of apparel for which people tend to choose brands that are neither too out-dated nor too cutting-edge, when it comes to drinks, snacks, or even digital gadgets, we sometimes hear edgy youth say ‘I don’t want it because it’s silly’, while less likely to hear mass youth say ‘I don’t want it because it is too cool’.

In short, similar to approaching the ‘mass’ or ‘popular’ icons, emotional connection can be built upon ‘edgy’ subculture only if the underlying meanings of the subculture are understood and leveraged. And the mass youth would not be handicapped at all to ‘get it’ and resonate when the shared desires and anxieties are addressed.

Music per se: independent ≠ heavy/ coarse; bands ≠ independent

Unlike 10 years ago, independent music in China today does not equal to rock. ‘New’ genres (that tend to be more easy-to-listen and posh), such as folk, indie pop, electronic, post-rock, and hip-hop, are becoming more and more popular.

At the same time, despite the large number of bands in pubs, universities and sometimes high schools, most of them are cover bands (or they don’t write any but play the songs of others). Musicians with originality still account for a minority.

Worthy of notice, although still small in quantity, more and more local top independent bands/ musicians are qualified as worldwide excellent independent musicians. Examples are Re-TROS，B6， Carsick Cars， Queensea Big Shark, etc. Michael Pettis, the founder of D-22 club and Maybe Mars lable made an interesting comment on TransmitChina 2009 conference that ‘the new generation of the sophisticated music lovers started to consider local independent musicians/ bands as their idols while a few years ago their idols tend to be oversea ones.’

Recently pioneering youth brands started to explore the band scene in China. We are interested to see how well the events will be able to embrace the diversity of the independent music scene, incl. bands and individual musicians, and how much originality, or the soul of independent music scene, can be manifested and encouraged.

Independent music vs. grass-roots contest

Because of its nature of originality, independence, and diversity, the conventional way of grass-roots contest (such as ‘Super Girl’) that is based on the quantity of voters and experts’ choice may not be suitable for ‘bands’, or more precisely, independent music. By ‘suitable’, we mean capable to present the quality scene of local independent music and hence foster its development on one side, and convey the spirits of youthfulness and build emotional connection with youth for the brands on the other.

Building emotional connection by empowering the independent music community

We’ve been ‘promoting’ the idea of building connection with youth by empowering them. In fact, commercial campaigns can add value to the independent music community by providing precious opportunities for networking, communication, touring, distributing, etc. Converse ‘Love Noise’ gives a new perspective on this.

We look forward to see the further development of the independent music scene in China and explore/ discuss the new marketing platform for youth brands.

Filed under: Creative culture, Music, So What?, band, China youth culture, independent music, Lisa Li, marketing, midi festival, Modern sky, music industry, pepsi, strawberry festival, Zafka Zhang