The chequered history of Shanghainese culture is laden with smatterings of influences from foreign invaders and ancient Chinese tradition. The city is bisected by the Yangtze River, with the Bund conservatively nodding to an expat-driven past and the ambitious skyline of Pudong exploding out of a fanciful sci-fi novel.
Turn on the TV and you see a broadcast culture filled with historical dramas, reality shows and state-run news. However if you peel back the pop-cultural veil, a more dynamic scene emerges, something hidden and more enigmatic, ironically tucked away in the large, burgeoning 'livehouses' spread throughout the city — the Shanghainese music scene.
Cyclic in nature, reflecting the transience of the world's largest urban populace, local bands had risen to prominence in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics and World Expo in 2008 and 2010. However, government intervention and red-tape made it more challenging for venues to acquire performance licenses and the local scene suffered.
Time Out Shanghai Editor Jake Newby was a witness to the ongoing rise and fall of the local music scene, having run the music blog Kungfuology. He suggests the recent lull in the scene was due to a number of factors, ranging from the appeal of the musician lifestyle as perceived by Shanghainese youth to the simple transitory nature of local bands coming and going.
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"Playing in a rock band to 100 to 250 people on a Saturday night a couple of times a month just isn't making anybody that much money," he explains. "It's not really seen as an appropriate lifestyle choice by a lot of parents here."
For a city of 24 million people, the numbers of punters attending gigs seems surprisingly small.
"A lot of the bands who have been going for a while share the same members; it's quite a small, clustery scene, given that Shanghai is a city of 20-odd million people. A city at least twice the size of London and when you think London you have every street corner gigging each weekend, every little bar has a band playing. Here, if you pack out Yuyintang as a local band with two to three hundred people, that's considered a pretty big deal, you've done pretty well and at a city this large it's kind of sad."
Newby's observation was partly confirmed by a visit to MAO Livehouse, a popular venue for local rock bands. A large venue with enough space to house a sizeable crowd of patrons, it felt oddly half-full. However, there was still an active gig atmosphere, with a large feeling of enthusiasm among the crowd.
Welcomed by the deep, guttural vocals and violent drumming of local duo Little Monster, I interviewed drummer "F" backstage after singer Alex had taken the idiom "dropping the mic" to new heights, causing the backstage staff to rapidly place the mic upright in an orderly fashion.
F said the Shanghai music scene differed from other cities like the nation's capital Beijing; he felt it was more open, with the potential to end up playing with anyone. However there was still a large disinterest in Chinese rock music among local youth.
"I think it takes time to make them understand what we are doing and what playing underground music is really about,"she explained.
"I think the more they come to the shows and talk to people they will understand. I think it's a problem here in China because strangers don't normally talk to each other."
The second band to hit the livehouse stage was Cherry Cherry. Filling the venue with addictive pop-rock, their take on the state of the local music scene was more optimistic.
"People can accept all different kinds of music; it's easier to make music here," Cherry Cherry lead singer Sisi said.
Marquee VII, who presented a more theatrical performance, echoed a similar sentiment.
"Shanghai people, you know, have different band musicians that play different styles, much more than other cities. In Shanghai you can find the best metal band, the best British band, British pop band, best post-rock band," guitarist Joey said.
"Most Shanghainese musicians usually have daily work to do; to do music is their hobby. They are not actually a full-time musician. But they are talented."
By the final band interview, the crowd had noticeably shrunk in size. Whether it was because the metro closed at a certain time or something else it was hard to tell.
I left the live-house with mixed feelings about the state of the Shanghai music scene. But there was something which all the Shanghainese bands interviewed had in common — a desire to create something unique and present it to the world, even if that said world was a half-packed livehouse. The Shanghai music scene may expand and contract, it may continue to remain hidden to the wider world, but it'll never disappear for those who are willing to seek it out.
