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Years on the scene, musician and promoter
Jon Campbell has learned what China’s music fans want to
hear – and pay for.
 If
you want to play to China’s masses, what kind of music should
you play? “Pop music is pop music for a reason. It appeals
to the most people.” As a musician, Jon Campbell has drummed
and sang in bars, malls and corporate parties across China. From
beach parties in sunny, southerly Sanya to real estate launches
in dusty Henan and club gigs in north Beijing, the bearded Canadian
learned there is no one type of music that fits the Chinese audience.
“The audience here is like everywhere else. They know when
they hear good music, and they like good music.”
The problem is getting the Chinese to go out and see concerts
- and to pay for the pleasure. Since establishing himself in mid-2005
as a promoter for expat groups and visiting foreign acts in China,
Campbell, 30, has promoted all kinds of shows, from DJ sets to
rock and hip hop. He’s also taken jazz and folk acts to audiences
in several Chinese cities. Crowds of locals and expats in Beijing
“…have loved all of it,” says Campbell. He’s
discovered a difference between audiences in Beijing, traditionally
China’s cultural and political capital, and brasher, more
commercial Shanghai to the east. “In Shanghai, the way you
show you’re important is to buy tickets to events that are
seen as ‘hip.’ In Beijing, the way you show you’re
important is by letting people know that you’ve gotten in
for free.”
The more loyal audiences are in Beijing but the money is in Shanghai.
Thus American soul legend James Brown snubbed Beijing for a pay-day
in Shanghai with his 19-piece band: The aging hedonist, renowned
for his lusty lyrics and financial problems, played the Yunfeng
Theater in Shanghai on February 22. Meanwhile, Campbell points
out, “unbelievable” jazz acts go through Shanghai jazz
festivals while the “once-great” Beijing International
Jazz Festival, starved of cash, stuttered out after its 2001 edition.
But the real fans are in the capital, says Campbell. “People
who are truly into music will always come out, and there are more
of these people in Beijing than anywhere else in the country.
Of course, the biggest fans aren’t generally the ones with
much money. And those with money don’t want to spend it on
the stuff that those without money know are absolutely essential.”
It’s not a lack of audiences that’s holding the Chinese
market back. It’s infrastructure. Equipment is available,
but those with money don’t see it as an important enough
investment to justify the cost. A dearth of technicians qualified
to work sound systems is another block. “Why invest in an
amazing-sounding high-cost system that won’t be operated
properly and won’t sound like the price tag?” asks Campbell.
Live venues have trouble maintaining their systems. The logic
is that they made the investment in the equipment when they bought
it, so why should they have to spend more money on it after that?”
Corporate sponsorship of contemporary music, already a staple
earner for domestic Mandopop acts hurting from CD piracy, is an
answer to foreign acts worried about poor ticket sales in price-conscious
but enthusiastic Chinese audiences. “Audiences have to be
able to afford the ticket, and it’s difficult to offer a
show for an affordable price without the help of sponsorship.”
But before they even search for locally-based companies willing
to back them, musicians, warns Campbell, must be able to ensure
ticket prices are justified by quality shows. “There have
been too many sub-par events for above-average prices and now
it’s difficult to get audiences to believe that they are
paying for a quality experience.”
A flood of artists coming to China will eventually force standards
up, believes Campbell. What started in the 1980s as a handful
of expatriates playing light-pop at diplomatic parties has since
2000 become a flood of foreign acts visiting – and in some
cases, relocating to, China. Campbell himself is involved in three
Beijing-based bands, playing variously blues, rock and world music.
Before Campbell, one of the pioneers of foreign music, was Madagascaran
Eddie Lulasoa, who would eventually find fame as a guitarist in
Chinese rock legend Cui Jian’s early group. Though its faces
are Chinese and African, Lulasoa’s other group Mitabe sticks
to an African beat in periodic gigs at Beijing rock clubs. The
name, a Madagascan term meaning “togetherness,” was
chosen for the family band originally formed in 1983 by Lulasoa’s
father, a Madagascar diplomat in Beijing. The group wrote its
own reggae, soukous and zouk songs but when some band members
went to diplomatic postings in other countries, those that stayed
recruited Chinese, American and Indian musicians.
Despite current headaches finding suitable venues, sound technicians,
and audiences willing to pay for concert tickets, Campbell is
optimistic China will become a fertile paying ground for foreign
acts and locally based expat-Chinese groups like Mitabe. “There
is great music being made here, and so eyes will be on China not
just because of the potential to play here, but also because of
the potential for its musical exports. There are great people
doing great things here, and that will continue.”
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