Source: The China Project (9/28/23)
The eclectic, anti-mainstream, surprisingly popular music of Dao Lang
By Charles Laughlin
Dao Lang’s latest studio album, “There Are Few Folk Songs,” with its incorporation of multiethnic instruments and strange rhythms, has touched a nerve among the Chinese public. Listen very carefully and you just might hear the cracks forming in China’s pop culture edifice.
Veteran Chinese pop singer Dāo Láng’s 刀郎 purported comeback, signaled by the release of the new album There Are Few Folk Songs (山歌寥哉 shāngē liáo zāi) in July, has created a huge sensation on the Chinese internet. In particular, fans have claimed that the strange song “Luochahai City” has broken the Guinness Book of World Records’ record for impressions for a music video, because the aggregate number of clicks on Chinese social media platforms (8.5 billion) has far surpassed the record held by “Despacito” on YouTube (5 billion impressions). Regardless of whether that’s true, Dao Lang’s immense popularity indicates a deep sympathy for the artist among listeners, and identification with the satire apparently embedded in the song’s lyrics.
The album’s Chinese title phonetically suggests the title of Pu Songling’s Qing-dynasty short story collection Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (聊斋志异 liáozhāi zhì yì). The titles of all the songs are titles of Pu’s stories, and like much of Dao’s music ever since his breakout hits of almost 20 years ago, there is a mixture of traditional Chinese elements and an eclectic take on contemporary Western music.
After a jazzy instrumental overture, “Luochahai City” is the first song on the album, with a Western musical aspect that dominates throughout. “Luochahai City” is framed in a recognizably reggae style, with chords sounding on the heavy backbeats, but the time signature is 7/4, which may be unprecedented in reggae music. (Notable exceptions are songs by non-reggae bands using 7/4 with a “reggae feel,” such as Pink Floyd’s “Money” and The Grateful Dead’s “Estimated Prophet.”) With the exception of 3/4, odd time signatures give a song a backward-moving feel, and make it harder to dance to. The instrumentation is classic rhythm and blues — bass, guitar, drums, and synthesizer — but at midpoint there is a suona (a double-reed Central Asian instrument akin to the oboe) solo, which remains until the end, embellishing the verses and refrains. Continue reading