My Reflection on Chinese and Western Modern Music

I like listening to music. The classical music in the West and in China, such as symphony and Beijing Opera, both have their own specifics, and both of them were once popular. However, nowadays, they are not as popular as modern music, such as pop, rock and blue, especially for the young people. Modern music in the West varies from modern music in China in forms of the content (I don’t refer to the language), and the variety.

When it comes to content, the popular themes of the two kinds of music are different. Lots of the Chinese modern music use love as their theme, and a little of them care about other respects of life, while Western modern music cares various realms of personal life and the society, such as politics and religion. As for the variety, most of the Chinese modern music are Blue, R&B, Rap or Rock. Some artists also combine Chinese traditional music and modern music very well, and this kind of music called Zhongguofeng was popular with lots of people. In the west, there appears to be more kinds of music such as punk, jazz and heavy metal. And there are lots of branches under each kind of music, which make the Western modern music much more various than Chinese modern music.

I think there are three reasons for the differences between the two. First, the atmosphere of China is relatively conservative. Most people are not as open-minded as people in Western countries, and there are also some political factors. This conservative atmosphere makes the theme of the music be restricted, and some themes are forbidden. I don’t mean the atmosphere itself is wrong, but it does no good to the development of the music. However, there also appears to be lots of unique and popular singers, such as Cui Jian (The father of Chinese rock music). The second reason is the education. In China, people don’t learn art or music as an apart of their school education. So the talented people may not be found when they were young. Also in this condition, people are not aware of the function and importance of the music for people and society. Thirdly, China missed the rapid-developing period of rock music of the last century. At that time, rock music was popular and developed into different branches in America, while in China the Cultural Revolution was happening.

There are also some other factors causing Chinese modern music and West modern music to be different. But none of them makes one better than another. It depends on the taste of the listener. Although Chinese modern music has a long way to go, there are still lots of good songs. On the other hand, Chinese modern music needs to be more various, closer to the personal and social life. I hope Chinese modern music can develop better and better in terms of quality and quantity, and have its own features in the future.