There's clearly a western bias to the fact that before Covid the only thing that non-Chinese people knew about Wuhan, if anything (and I'm including myself in that), is that it's the Detroit of the Chinese music scene. I asked a colleague from Wuhan about it once and she said she had never heard anything about it at all.
That said, this morning Google Nest read me some variation of this story about how the indie live houses opening up again, and I was just glad that there was a national news story about Wuhan that was about anything other than Covid -- I guess this does also count as a "life getting back to normal" Covid story, but I'll take it.
Detroit like Motown or Detroit like Eminem? Got any tunes as examples?
If you're looking for Chinese rap then Sichuan is where it's at. Last I checked Higher Brothers were still on top: https://youtu.be/23p11nppcyo. They started out a little gimmicky but got good real fast.
If you're looking for 90s altrock vibes I'm a big fan of Beijing-based Hedgehog (they've recorded with Steve Albino and toured on the US west coast): https://youtu.be/Xnocas7VkKo
If you're looking for Explosions in the Sky/Godspeed post-rock...lol I dunno there's too many of them to choose. This album from Wang Wen out of Dalian is my personal faves, it's goddamn fantastic: https://youtu.be/8MSQ-y3l58Q
Thank you! Been looking for a way into Chinese music in general, will check em out
Lol
Hah! Sorry not sorry on that autocorrect :anarchy-a-white:
Detroit like MC5 and the Stooges.
The article mentions these guys as the old guard of the garage rock scene: 生命之饼 (Bread of Life): https://youtu.be/AstEkQKzD4w
As it happens, depending on the song I'd put them somewhere on the intersection of the Pogues and Gogol Bordello.
I love both those bands, will check out