Category Archives: brands

Review: Dior Homme x Hurts, Beijing, April 25, 2013

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Hurts came to town as part of the Dior Homme presentation in Beijing on April 25. A re-creation of the line’s Autumn/Winter 2013 show staged at Paris Fashion Week in January, this is creative director Kriss van Assche and the storied French fashion house’s first full presentation in Beijing. The line previously reproduced the Haute Couture show at Shanghai’s House of Roosevelt in January 2013.

Taking place at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), the same location as Prada’s Beijing event in 2011, the show also included three tuxedo ensembles manufactured especially for the Chinese market. This, along with actress Fan Bingbing’s China-only appearance in the upcoming Marvel action film Iron Man 3, highlights the attempts by international luxury and entertainment entities to target Chinese consumers. After the models had left the runway, Hurts took the stage, attired in head-to-toe Dior Homme, of course. An informal poll of the guests present concluded that most were also fans of the band in addition to being part of the fashion world.

The performance, which lasted a respectable 40 minutes or so, featured a good mix of tunes from their first and second albums, including hit singles “Wonderful Life” and “Better Than Love.” Near the end of the set, a live bat that had flown through the venue earlier returned, a fitting coda to both the show’s somber tones and Hurts’ gothic sensibilities.  Continue reading →

Preview: Dior Homme x Hurts

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Calling all fashionistas – this Thursday sees the arrival of the Dior Homme (that’s menswear) Autumn/Winter 2013 collection. The brand, which has been making considerable forays into the Chinese luxury-goods market, will present the collection at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) Museum (a popular venue for high-fashion shows in Beijing). The brand has also tapped British synthpop Hurts to perform at the fashion show’s afterparty. Similar to the brand’s Haute Couture presentation in Shanghai a couple of weeks ago, the event is meant to be quite exclusive in it’s guestlist and without the usual media scrum common to other fashion shows in China and around the world. Check back here next week for a more detailed report of this latest collaboration between music and luxury goods.

In the meantime, check out our earlier coverage of Keane x Burberry and Prada x Pet Shop Boys. At this point, we are seeing the luxury brands still relying on Western musical acts for collaboration. Even though many mainstream Chinese celebrities have already secured lucrative brand ambassadorships with the major fashion and accessory brands, the same brands have been more reluctant to tap into the Chinese music world for those same deals (and calling Angelababy a “singer” just isn’t something we are willing to do).

Mr. Chelonian vs. AMC Group: Using Weibo To Get What You Want

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that Sina Weibo is a homegrown marvel of the Chinese Internet. Everything from the fact that 140 characters in Chinese can express a whole lot more meaning than the equivalent letters and spaces in English, to its use as a tool of citizen journalism and documentation, have rendered Weibo an indispensible part of daily life. But even beyond a steady diet of food scandals, corrupt officials and live giraffes in trucks on the highway, Weibo has become an essential part of musicians’ daily communications with their fans from all over the country. Bands and artists use Weibo as a platform to conduct live chats with fans, post photos and videos after gigs and in the case of erstwhile Chengdu Britpoppers Mr. Chelonian, shame an event management company into paying them a long-overdue performance fee.

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Creators Project 2012 in review

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Words + Photos: Ami Li

At The Creators Project Beijing, September 8th, 2012

Photo: Beijing Cream

The Beijing editorial staff of China Music Radar spent a very enjoyable, work-free evening at the Creators Project last week, September 8th, 2012. The Vice-curated and Intel-sponsored project, now in its third year in Beijing, has struck a more or less winning formula: 1-2 big foreign names to draw out crowds, a couple of cred-building local acts and a few more thrown in for kicks. After inviting the likes of Major Lazer, Delorean, Glasser, Optimo and Mt. Kimbie, this year’s big score was erstwhile LCD Soundsystem musicians James Murphy and Pat Mahoney. They were joined on stage by CNdY, Shanghai’s Duck Fight Goose, Real Estate, FM3 and The Chromatics.

We arrived at 798′s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) just after 9PM that night, just in time to see one of our favorite Chinese bands – Duck Fight Goose – take the stage. Han Han and company were sharp and tight on stage, their complicated sound making the best of a vast, semi-empty room. DFG is a band that we’ve always preferred seeing in smaller, more intimate venues that big concrete airplane hangars that virtually swallow all the band’s complexities, but we’re really happy to see the band get more and more recognition whilst committing to their musical integrity.

Duck Fight Goose. Photo: Ami Li

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Cindy Gallop at Music Matters

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We were at the Asian music industry powwow Music Matters in Singapore in May this year. We’ve been a little critical of MM in the past, but in 2012, the team stepped it up many notches. The keynotes were mostly great, there were fantastic additions like mentoring sessions for local musicians and the live component was massively improved. We still wish there would be less of the selling on stage (Facebook, Youtube, we’re looking at you with your boring, scripted monologues) and we still believe that the panel format is a hopelessly inefficient format that gives little to the audience – I mean 7 people chatting Asia live music for 50 minutes – nothing of interest there – but overall, it was a very fulfilling few days.

The highlight for us was Cindy Gallop – former chair of the advertising agency BBH, she now runs a start up called IfWeRanTheWorld, which focuses on microactions to help brands make a statement while making the world a better place. The video of her speech is below – we urge you to take 10 minutes to watch it.

Chinese Festival Consumers are Smart, Don’t Ya Know?

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Editor’s note: a bit delayed, but this piece is as much about the general state of branding and commercial presence at large outdoor music festivals as it is about any specific event. It was written after attending Midi 2012 in Shanghai.

China’s Midi Festival is a crazy beast. The first time we attended was in May 2006; it was our first sighting of the paradox that was modern China: a park full of rock and metal fans stomping and moshing to mohawked and dreadlocked bands who in turn were singing about those issues close to their hearts and sensitive to the country surrounding this little enclave in time and space.  It took our collective breaths away.

Midi is the Glastonbury of China in so many ways: the fans who attend Midi are a coalescence of the disaffected 90’s generation of punks and rockers who worked in the margins of the margins because of a heartfelt desire to change things.  The people that come really contribute to the vibe of the festival rather than expecting to be passively entertained.  The merchandise is better, the people are crazier, there are more smiles, more impromptu jam sessions, more hugging and general random acts of kindness than anywhere else in China.

The other thing that Glastonbury and Midi share is a generous and powerful gesture to give up the massively lucrative “billboards” that are their respective mainstages, and instead give them to good causes.  In Glastonbury’s case, the charities Wateraid and Greenpeace have pride of place on the Pyramid Stage. In Midi’s case the Tang Stages in 2011 and 2012 plus the overall festival VI (programmes, flyers, posters) were devoted to causes that the organizers consider important: in 2011 the eradication of the Chinese trade in bear bile in, and in 2012, drawing attention to urban China’s dangerous pollution levels: PM2.5.

[this was true at the time of writing: in fact, in 2012 Midi did succumb and sold main stage branding to Vans for the Beijing festival].

We’d like to put it out there that WE THINK THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME.  We don’t know of any other examples of powerful social movements in China using their influence to stand up to some of the systemic problems that exist here.  (We would love some comments to share what inevitable others are out there)

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Music Matters is a week away

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Music Matters has become Asia Matters and now includes a Digital and Gaming component. All 3 events will be held in the Ritz Carlton in Singapore across the course of next week.

Although the programme has diversified and perhaps feels a little overwhelming, and a move to Singapore in 2011 has definitely altered its focus towards South East Asia (and away from China), the organizers have taken a big step forward with the list of speakers and contributors at Music Matters the most heavyweight group ever to make the event. If you are interested in Music in Asia, this is definitely worth considering. From AEG Live’s global President John Meglen to Lady Gaga’s Manager Troy Carter, to high level executives from the worlds of sports, advertising and digital tech, there is something here for everyone.

There is the return of the sometimes anaemic Music Matters live with a showing of bands from SE Asia, Australia and Canada. White+ are China’s sole representatives, which is a shame, but understandable. It’s an expensive trip for most of China’s artists.

We’ll be there repping the worlds of festivals (JUE | Music + Art, Black Rabbit), bands (Split Works) and brands (Splatter) in China. If you’d like to meet up, reach out through the comments.

Vans敢放 “Dare to Play” online mixtape

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Love is a mixtape, so they say. But for Vans x Midi Festival 2012, your mixtape is more of a risk than a love letter. Working with China’s favorite semi-legal streaming service Xiami as well as Sina Weibo and Renren, Vans敢放 is a new breed of social mixtape, where users are making it for themselves, their friends, and that cute girl from 2nd period chemistry class.

A simple (and completely Chinese) interface that lets users login with either their Xiami, Sina Weibo or Renren accounts. Once you’re in, you pick songs according to 5 questions posed by Vans:

1) The song you could play over and over again for the rest of your life
2) Your secret guilty pleasure song
3) The song you practise a lot but wouldn’t dare sing in KTV
4) A song that you want to recommend to someone you know (they give you the option to @ anyone on Weibo), that they wouldn’t think of listening to given the choice
5) A fantastic song that someone hasn’t listened to yet (you can also @ the person)

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Love Music! Respect Music!

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Some disheartening news passed by our desks earlier today. Shenzhen-based electronic musician Gavintoo has been embroiled in an IP dispute with one of China’s largest cosmetics companies, the L’Oreal-owned Yue-Sai. The root of the conflict is simple: Gavintoo discovered that Yue-Sai had appropriated, without a peep or hint of compensation, his original song “Si je t’aime” as the opening-credits theme in a web-only TV series produced by the company. In 2010.

At the beginning of April 2012, Gavintoo and his label, Mintelec Records, posted an open letter on their Sina Weibo accounts with the bold headline “Please Respect Musicians, Do You Understand?” In the letter, which has been re-posted almost 2000 times, Gavintoo details the dismissive treatment he received from both the cosmetics giant as well as the agency responsible for the campaign. When early inquiries to Yue-Sai were rebuffed, they upped the ante to cease & desist letters sent to both Yue-Sai and the production company. The letter concludes with a reiteration of their demands: remove the song from the web series and justly compensate the artist for the use of his creative property, as well as a general appeal for greater respect of musicians and their work.

Forgive us the cliché, but China is still the Wild West of copyright and intellectual property rights. Shanzhai knockoffs, software clones and blatant theft of creative property all thrive right now, and we’re not positive when that’s all going to change. When it’s this easy to go unnoticed for nearly 2 years, why would you?

Sina Music news story

The original post on Mintelec Records’ Sina Weibo:

The web series, Gui Mi Men (“Sweet Boudoir Door”):  [Youku links not loading when we visited the site today]

Brad Ferguson over at S24/7

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There is a great (and very long) interview over at Shanghai 24/7 with Brad Ferguson. Brad has been in and around Shanghai’s nascent music community since 2002 and has variously managed venues, bands and gear production. You can discover more by going and reading the interview. There is also healthy debate in the comments section.

If we were to pick out one part of the interview that hasn’t been a focus of the commentary, it was Brad’s healthy dislike of the way music is being used in the corporate context. Brands are often one of the only sources of real revenue for struggling artists in China, and it’s a huge shame (and inevitable) that a less-than-transparent industry has emerged here to take advantage of the creators. Anyway, over to Brad:

BF: Yeah, so put up your Tiger poster and your Jagermeister banner or whatever, and then there is some benefit. I don’t see any of it as ‘selling out’; all these people should be getting paid, whether they’re getting paid by door sales or by a beer sponsor, to me that doesn’t really make any difference as long as they’re not getting screwed by the sponsors.

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