QUORA ASKS ABOUT CHINESE MUSIC, AND I HAVE OPINIONS!

It asks, 1. who are your favorite Chinese indie bands? It asks, 2. what the best rock bands are in China currently.

The questions, IMHO should overlap a lot more than they do. The first seems to be more open to personal taste and various styles of music, while the second seems to be asking for consensus picks only in rock.

My answers, which should be or were in the list at one point:

1. Not sure if the question means stuff that sounds like Western "indie rock" or if it's more important that these not be on the CCP's Ministry of Culture payroll.

Since another question asks only about rock, I'll say my favorite Chinese folk, electronic, hip-hop, funk & reggae (etc.) groups are:

Hanggai, Cold Fairyland 冷酷仙境, Zhao Muyang 赵牧阳, Xi Ban 戏班, Haya, Zhang Weiwei & Guo Long 张玮玮 郭龙, Li Jianbin 李健儐, Liu Dongming 刘东明, Suyang 苏阳乐队, and Erguang's 耳光乐队18 & 狼局长十八MO series

Supermarket 超级市场, Singer Sen, iimmune, B6, 群星 also look out for an album by Shawn Lee & Bei Bei called "Into the Wind" for an electronic take on the guqin.

itsogoo, LMF 大懒堂, Continent Faultage, Hip-Hop Deetopia by 迪托帮

Long Shen Dao 龙神道, Gao Feng & G-ELEVEN, Icy Whiskey， Shanren 山人

Easily digestible lists of my favorite Chinese songs, bands, albums: http://www.omnifoo.info/pages/Favorite%20Chinalt.html

Welcome to peruse my personal site on Chinese Alternative Music: www.omnifoo.info/pages/Alternative%20Chinese.html

2. First off, don't limit yourself to rock music--as a former college radio DJ I much prefer to think of Chinese and most music around the world in a binary of sugary bubblegum pop intended mainly to lighten teenyboppers' wallets locked in odds-stacked competition with "independent" or "alternative" music I'd actually like to hear. http://www.omnifoo.info/pages/Blog.html#ALT

Second, I agree with most of the posts here, but I'd like to contribute more links and album reviews for those actually considering supporting "rock in a hard place" by buying a CD (yes, they still make/sell them). Granted, you could just listen to everything available streaming online, but that's going to be a crapshoot. Also, people aren't likely to seek out the more obscure stuff without more description. http://www.omnifoo.info/pages/Chinese%20Music%20Manifesto%204.html

Rock in China is too diverse to say what "the best" bands are, and it's good to see most have just taken the question as soliciting opinions. Limited to rock music, my current favorites are:

The Swamp 沼泽, NanWu 南无, The Diagon Alley, 自然卷Ziran Juan, LITTLE WIZARD, The Wet Clothes 衣湿乐队, Yang Meng 杨猛, Song Dongye 宋冬野, Yellow Submarine, Fancy World, The Fallacy 病医

A big seller in 2016 which I think is my favorite newer band is Taiwan's No Party for Cao Dong 草东没有派对, with a wide variety of harder rock that's not too loud. I should hope no one needs further reminder to pay respect to Second-Hand Roses 二手玫瑰, 痛仰 Miserable Faith, Slap 耳光乐队, P.K. 14, Omnipotent Youth Society 万能青年旅社, Queen Sea Big Shark 后海大鲨鱼, Re-TROS 重塑雕像的权利, or Gala.

Easily digestible lists of my favorite Chinese songs, bands, albums: http://www.omnifoo.info/pages/Favorite%20Chinalt.html

Welcome to peruse my personal site on Chinese Alternative Music: www.omnifoo.info/pages/Alternative%20Chinese.html

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