Album: The First Album

Artist: Confucius Says

Label: Jingwen

Year: 1996

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Album: The Second Album

Artist: Yaoshi¡¤Confucius Says

Label: Jingwen

Year: 2002

Rating: ☆☆☆☆

After the release of their debut, The First Album, Confucius Says changed their name to Yaoshi¡¤Confucius Says, in deference to another band that claimed they had started using it first. But anyone who has heard the band knows that their unique style: so-called "cross-talk rock," "paper-cut rock" and "dialect rock" couldn't possibly be, reproduced or imitated by anyone else.

The historic opening of China to the outside world in the 1980s delivered the generation born in the late 1960s and 1970s into the complex and exciting era of booming contemporary arts -- painting, poetry and rock 'n' roll - of the early 1990s. Confucius Says represented a kind of watershed, the dark humor of their song lyrics epitomized the cavalier romanticism and criticism of the generation. The band's The First Album was groundbreaking for its combination of traditional Chinese music's alternate tension and lyricism and the rebellious exuberance of rock.

Six years later, their The Second Album, carried on the band's distinctive sound, but with more melodic songs. "These are so that the audience can sing along with us at concerts," says vocalist Qiu Ye. The band now has a more specific aim. As Qiu says with a smile: "To be mobile folk rockers."

Album: Lonely People Are Shameful

Artist: Zhang Chu

Label: Rolling Stone Records

Year: 1994

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Zhang Chu is first a poet, then a musician. Some might call him a folk rocker: China's own Bob Dylan. He has also been compared with R.E.M. In any event, the album Lonely People Are Shameful is an acknowledged milestone in Chinese rock 'n' roll, and its title is one of the best known of any in the past ten years as the song itself has become a classic. Although the album has been criticized for lacking tunefulness and consistency, it has nevertheless weathered the test of time. Even now, ten years since it was first released, it still holds surprises for the listener, particularly Zhang's tight lyrics.

Album: Bao Jia Jie No.43

Artist: Bao Jia Jie No.43

Label: Jingwen

Year: 1997

Rating: ☆☆☆☆

No. 43, Bao Jia Stree is the address of the Central Conservatory of Music, where the band Bao Jia Jie No. 43 was born. The title of the band's debut album also pays tribute to their alma mater. They first found fame with the song Good Night Beijing, a sad but soothing palliative for modern city animals, and their Little Bird voices the pain of a lost generation. The songs on this album that scream, cry, deride and hope, may sound a little na?ve, but are nonetheless moving as they embody the band's essential brave youth.