Rock and roll will never die of coronavirus
HONG KONG — There hasn’t been a live music show in China since late January.
Venues across the country have shuttered in the wake of the COVID-19 “coronavirus” outbreak, from large rock halls like Shanghai’s Modern Sky Lab to underground nightclubs like Beijing’s Zhaodai. With businesses indefinitely extending the spring festival holidays, and local governments enforcing strict “stay at home” rules, the normally lively music scene in China is temporarily dead and silent.
Enter live-streaming. Bored, anxious, isolated. and stuck at home under what feels like a nationwide quarantine, China’s musicians and musicheads are making the best of an unexpected situation by organizing “bedroom music festivals” and live-streamed club nights.
“As someone who likes to stay at home and do nothing,” writes one online meme, “It’s finally my time to shine.” These events allow China’s so-called “anti-social generation” to redefine sociality their way.
Initially an idea hatched by VOX Livehouse, the legendary punk rock dive located in Wuhan, the city at the heart of the COVID-19 outbreak, the “live-streamed music festival” is now a nationwide craze, with record labels, city-specific venues, clubs, and music festival organizers all diving in. Genre, too, is no barrier. Options range from pop and hardcore punk to techno and experimental improvisation, such as musician Zhao Cong’s “at home” series below...
