Indie songwriters and performers are grabbing their share of attention and sales as the internet opens up the music scene. Chen Nan reports.

This time last year, Zhao Lei was a relatively unknown indie folk singer-songwriter. His trademark contemporary style, minyao in Chinese, literally meaning folk music or ballads, captivated a small but stable fan base in China with its guitar-driven gentle melodies and poetic lyrics.

Then something unexpected happened.

In early February, he performed on the popular variety show Singer, broadcast on Hunan Satellite TV, in which veteran Chinese singers compete and audiences vote. Dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans, the 30-year-old Zhao performed one of his songs, Chengdu, which relates his memories of the city.

The new-generation indie folk singer-songwriters (from top) Li Zhi, Zhao Lei and Ma Di captivate much bigger audiences now with their trademark contemporary minyao style. Photos Provided to China Daily

 

His performance soon brought Zhao wide fame and acclaim. The number of followers on his Sina Weibo account increased by 50,000 overnight and some fans wrote on his Weibo that they wanted to visit Chengdu after listening to the song.

"Everything took off a little bit faster than we had imagined," says Zhao. "I just performed a song on TV. I didn't want to become a superstar overnight."

Chengdu was released on Zhao's album Almost Grown Up, in October 2016. So far, the album has sold more than 200,000 copies.

Zhao Qi, a 24-year-old lawyer in Beijing, is one of the singer's fans. She says his song Mother resonates with her life.

"My mother was in hospital then and the song immediately touched me because it tells a story of Zhao Lei and his mother," says Zhao Qi.

She attended almost all the live performances of Zhao Lei. Now she is a leader of Zhao Lei's fan club online.

"He is special because he writes about his life, rather than following any trend. I love his lyrics, which are real and close to me," Zhao Qi says. "I believe that many people share my feelings about Zhao Lei's music."

After singing Chengdu on the popular variety show Singer, Zhao Lei sang Thirty-Year-Old Women, a song from his second album, Jim Restaurant, released in 2014. Unlike the universally positive feedback Zhao received from listeners with Chengdu, Thirty-Year-Old Women stirred controversy with its lyrics about single women over 30. Zhao sings: "She is 30 and unmarried. She smiles with wrinkles around her eyes. I can hear your laughter and loneliness."

As one of the country's biggest new music stars now, Zhao is credited with enabling other young Chinese indie performers to find the limelight.

Like Zhao, Beijing-based indie folk singer-songwriter Ma Di also rose to fame when one of his songs, Nan Shan Nan (South of the South Mountain) was sung on TV, in this case by other singers on variety shows. Fans enjoyed the smooth melody and autobiographical lyrics.

Beyond the Chinese market, Ma, 28, toured the United States in 2016, visiting Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other US cities.

"I write songs for fun and for myself. I do not plan anything. It (the fame) just happened," says Ma, who launched the indie label Sesame Leaves in 2011 and has gained millions of followers thanks to the internet.

His parents were against him becoming a singer-songwriter, so Ma once worked at a government office earning 1,200 yuan ($180) per month. However, he quit the job after signing a contract with Modern Sky in 2013 and became a full-time singer-songwriter.

"Unlike my classmates, who listened to pop music, I felt connected only when I listened to indie music as a student.

Though the lyrics of those songs were difficult to understand, I found that I could relate to them," says Ma, who regards Chinese indie folk singer-songwriter Song Dongye as one of his influences.

Student appeal

This type of music - minyao - was very popular in China a few decades ago. At its peak in the 1990s, indie folk music was closely associated with campus life in China.

A group of Chinese singer-songwriters defined those years with their music, known as "campus folk songs".

"It's almost a pilgrimage," says Hao Yun, a Beijing-based indie folk-rock singer-songwriter, whose folksy and humorous music style made him one of the best-received performers at outdoor music festivals in China. "A fair number of high school and university students who were born in the 1970s and early '80s grew up with those songs and were influenced by them, like me."

"Folk music, unlike heavy rock or catchy pop songs, is inspiring and healing," Hao adds.

One of the representative figures of the era of "campus folk songs" is Gao Xiaosong.

Born in an intellectual family in Beijing, Gao picked up the guitar while studying at Tsinghua University as a way to attract women, he said. Through his heartfelt lyrics, he talked about romance, friendship, and everything inspired by his life. The rhythms, which are mainly guitar-driven, are soft and simple. Singers who performed Gao's songs, such as Lao Lang and Ye Pei, also became icons among fans.

"Indie folk songs are about expressing the songwriters' emotions. The music is relatable and makes the listeners think about their own lives. That's why the music genre attracts fans of different generations," says Gao, who is now mostly focused on judging TV variety shows and hosting talk programs on the internet.

Today the audience for indie folk music is not limited to university students but embraces people of various social classes, says Gao.

What's more, indie folk singer-songwriters are not just eager to produce new songs but also have an entrepreneurial spirit as they manage their careers. The internet and social media help folk singer-songwriters promote their music.

Online success

One of the most popular indie folk singer-songwriters, who launched his career via the internet, is Li Zhi.

Born in Jintan, Jiangsu province, he moved to Beijing in 1999. The 39-year-old Li now has nearly 600,000 followers on his Sina Weibo micro blog, despite having no manager, agent, or record company. He has rarely been covered by mainstream television and newspapers, but his concerts sell out fast.

Li sings about love, society and his unrealized dreams, themes that appeal to young urban Chinese.

"I think what makes many Chinese artists unique are their lyrics. When people listen to these singer-songwriters' songs about everyday life, they connect with them," says Michael LoJudice, director of the New York offices of Modern Sky, one of China's largest independent record labels, founded by rock singer-songwriter-turned-entrepreneur Shen Lihui in 1997.

In 2014, the company launched its first Modern Sky Festival outside China in New York's Central Park, with a mix of lineups from China and the US - including indie folk singer-songwriters Song Dongye, Ma Di and Su Yang.

LoJudice notes that while rock, hip-hop and electronic acts from China are more inspired by Western music, indie folk music in China is more localized, which builds a strong connection with Chinese music fans.

Since the company launched its first annual outdoor music festival in China in 2007 and Strawberry Music Festival in 2009, these stages for Chinese indie folk singer-songwriters have attracted hundreds of thousands of fans.

"Two decades ago, music lovers had little choice in bands," says the promoter Shen Lihui of the days before the internet and social media. "Now, you can see the variety of China's indie bands. These bands have their fan bases and young Chinese music lovers are open to different music genres," Shen says.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn