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Published: October 26th 2015
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Hey everyone!
This past week was the week of midterms, so it was filled with lots of late nights (later than usual, that is). Also I will admit that there was the normal obligatory last-minute studying involved. After the exam on Friday morning, though, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief, and celebrated by going to get 15元 burritos.
Friday night, I went with my music class to a concert. A Mongolian alt-rock concert, that is. Originally, we were all a bit wary of what it would be like, especially since we found out about it super last-minute (Wednesday evening). It was actually super fun, though! Mongolian alt-rock is very interesting as it is an odd mix of traditional Mongolian instruments and sounds with western instruments and more modern rock sounds. One of the prominent Mongolian traditional instruments commonly used is the horse-head fiddle, which this group, 走馬電台 Horse Radio, had plugged in variant of. The music itself was a fun mix of slow and fast songs, many which (so I was told) were traditional songs that had been remixed and given a new sound. The drummer of the band hails from Sweden, and we got to chat with
him a bit about his experiences before the concert. Although all of the songs were in Mongolian, he said that he communicates with the band members in Mandarin.
Previously, our professor introduced us to music from another Mongolian band called Hanggai. They also fall within the alt-rock genre, but they play up the minority music aspect a lot more. They use more of the traditional instruments, and often use a vocal technique that is unique to Mongolian music. It involves singing (just sounds, not words) in such a way that the singer is producing two different tones of sound at the same time. If you're interested, I would suggest checking out their “Four Seasons,” here:
. If that catches your interest, here they are on the Chinese TV program
Sing my Song, which is like
The Voice, but instead of singers competing against one another, it is the original compositions that are competing. According to my music professor, the judges help the bands/singers tweak their songs so that by the end they are theoretically the best they can be:
The crowd at the concert was also fascinating, as there was a large mix of various kinds of
people. We noticed that there were many foreigners, and heard a lot of English from other audience members. There was also a wide range of styles, from light punk-rocker to more classy. Most of the concerts that I have been to in the past seem to have a definite target audience. While there may be some variation, for the most part, the audience members look pretty similar, which was definitely not the case at this concert. I think it is so cool that the group appeals to such a wide variety of people, and I think that it tells a lot about the group when that happens.
Other than that, not much else happened this past week. We went out to celebrate one of the girl's birthday on Saturday (she's now joined the 20s, the youngest in our group), and ended up staying out far too late. I ended up going to bed at around 6am (after doing some homework, of course. To be fair, I only had one article left, and didn't want to wake up with that still on the table, considering how I had done basically no homework up until that point). Sunday was spent sleeping
With one of the singers of 走馬電台
From left to right: Anna, singer, Jude, me
Photo cred. Music prof and finally doing the homework, which is never fun on zero motivation.
Anyways, that's all for now! Until next time!
PS. If you want more indie Chinese music, here is a group from Taiwan called Soda Green:
Their music is much more mainstream/hipster indie, but I also like this song. Soda Green represents China's new generation of hipsters and their fight against the "little emperor/empress" title that the generation before them are known for. I am writing my final paper on it, actually.
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Terry May
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Hanggai Rocks!
Hey Katie, I have to say I really liked Hanggai on the Sing My Song Youtube - that combo of guitar, flute and erhu - rock erhu, who'd have guessed! The judges look just as way out as the ones on America's Got Talent. Great fun to see how it translates to a Chinese version of the show! Terry