China dances to a new, electronic beat

Though pop still has a dominant position in the market, the music scene appears to be changing and becoming more diverse

It is midnight and the usually busy streets of Beijing are silent. But Dada Club, a small music venue hidden in an old narrow hutong, is just about to come alive with an electronic music feast for restless night crawling hipsters.

"I don't like catchy pop music or mainstream Billboard remixes that they play in most clubs," says Wang Xinzi, a 27-year-old Dada fan outside the crowded club. "I prefer music that excites me and I can dance to."

In China's culture hubs of Beijing and Shanghai, it is not rare to see electronic music venues such as Dada Club packed on weekday nights, especially when the venue has foreign guest DJs performing.

Though pop has a dominant position in the market, it seems that China's music scene is changing and becoming more diverse.

In May, thousands of music lovers climbed the Great Wall for an electronic music festival, disregarding pouring rain, and danced to music by DJs from home and abroad.

The annual Anheuser-Busch In Bev SA/NV-sponsored Storm Electronic Music Festival, which has been held since 2014, generated 388 million yuan ($57 million; 50.9 million euros; ￡44.6 million) in profit for five cities last year, with more than 150,000 tickets sold.

But to break into a market dominated by pop music is not as easy as it sounds.

Netease Cloud Music, one of China's mainstream music websites, says one of its most popular electronic music song lists has had more than 83 million user hits. But among the 120 songs on the list, there are hardly any Chinese producers. And, according to Netease data, a third of users prefer pop.

This is something even artists can relate to. In AB InBev's promotion film Fang, Eason Chan, better known as a pop singer, says that though he would like to go beyond pop into electronic dance music, he is unsure how his fans would react.

"I would love to try a different genre and I can definitely dance," he says.

"But most of my fans love my slow pop songs and they want me to sing such songs."

In the film, Eason plays a bartender who guides the main female character to release her inner wild side and enjoy life through electronic music.

In China, electronic music is still a young genre.

Tracing its background, Shen Lijia, the 29-year-old founder of Ran Music, a Beijing electronic music label, says: "Electronic music was introduced to China in the 1990s and was popular only with those who had lived abroad before."

"Many people still see it as simply messing around with tapes, and the audience dance like it is disco."

"It is not easy to run a young independent music label," says Shen, who has to work as a producer and DJ to keep the label running.

Electronic dance music is becoming trendy for Chinese youth, says Elaine Liu, connection director of AB-InBev APAC North, who adds: "Electronic dance music always inspires and encourages people to unleash themselves, which is the spirit that we hold dear.

"It's great to witness the growing popularity of electronic music among Chinese youth; more young people are starting to unleash their true selves."

In 2016, tickets for the Storm festival sold out in minutes, and the limited-edition aluminum Storm bottle became a fashion icon among electronic dance music fans.

Separately, Eric Zhou, CEO of A2LiVE, the China promoter of the Storm Music Festival, says this year's event was a way of taking Chinese electronic music abroad.

"For a long time, the domestic electronic music culture relied on other countries," says Zho.

"This year we will expand the market into Sydney so the world can listen to the music of China."

renxiaojin@chinadaily.com.cn