In the studies on Chinese popular music under Western dominance, some genres such as hip hop, punk, metal, and especially Chinese rock, are defined as subcultures or counter-cultures. The discussions on these genres are often embedded in dualist agendas such as authority vs. resistance, authentic vs. commercial, and mainstream vs. alternatives, etc. However, can these theoretical frameworks properly explain the phenomena in today’s Chinese context? What are the local participants’ interpretations on their experiences and practices?
To explore these questions, this study chooses Beijing, the capital city of China, as a representative, and inquires how local participants construct individual and collective meanings through their subcultural participations. Also, this study tries to locate music subcultures in contemporary Chinese context of neoliberalism and postsocialism, and illustrates how participants negotiate their identifications and reflect on Chinese modernity. In this way, this study plans to provide empirical analyses on Chinese popular music, through perspectives of ethnomusicology, popular music studies, and sociology.