Yellow music
The term yellow music ( Chinese 黃色 音樂 / 黄色 音乐 , Pinyin huángsè yīnyuè ), from 黃色 / 黄色 - " yellow " but also " vulgar , dirty, pornographic, obscene ", comes from the propaganda language of the People's Republic of China and describes music that is personal Concerns, especially the topic of love.
History of origin
In the 1920s, music influenced by the West reached eastern Asia and also made its way to Taiwan , Hong Kong and China . In Shanghai , which in its time in the 1930s and 1940s was often referred to as the “ Paris of the East”, yellow music developed into its own genre as a mixture of Chinese folk music , American film music and jazz . Well-known interpreters of this time were Li Xiang Lan ( Chinese 李香蘭 / 李香兰 , Pinyin Lǐ Xīanglán ), ( Japanese大鷹 淑 子, Ōtaka Yoshiko ) or Lu Ming.
After the so-called Cultural Revolution , Mao Zedong's regime only allowed music that was approved by the government. The yellow music, which for the first time openly dealt with personal issues, especially love and relationships, was banned by the regime as decadent and incompatible with Chinese values.
Further development
Yellow music continued to develop in Taiwan and Hong Kong, areas to which the People's Republic of China had no access. Teresa Teng and Feng Fei Fei were among the most famous interpreters, Li Jinhui as the most important songwriter and composer. When Deng Xiaoping took over power in the 1970s, China also opened up to western musical influences. With the “music of the masses” ( Chinese 通俗 音乐 , tongsu yinyue), a new popular music, the Chinese regime adopted the western styles, imitating the yellow music. Nevertheless, song content was still controlled and dealt mainly with patriotic and only occasionally personal topics.
Today's meaning
With the privatization of companies in China, the increase in the range of goods and individuality, the influence of government agencies continued to decline at the end of the 1980s, but continues to exist. Yellow music was now able to spread more widely in the People's Republic of China.
Today, yellow music is very popular in Asia. There was a renaissance at the beginning of the 21st century, for example with the release of albums such as “Shanghai Lounge Divas”. It consists of original recordings and versions sampled from them . Because of the original recordings, the album also met with great interest in the West.
swell
- ↑ Jones. Andrew F. [2001] (2001). Yellow Music - CL: Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822326949
- ^ The Tyee The Triumphant Return of the Shanghai Lounge Divas