Late on Friday night, a little the worse for wear, we posted on the iniquity of the great DJ Shadow coming to China with 5 weeks notice and playing in the musical obscurity that Clubs Richy and Angel will afford. You can find our comments here.
We first contacted Shadow’s people 4 years ago to see if we could bring his prodigious talent to China, and we know that many other serious music biz people here have done the same. He is one of a handful of artists that we felt would be able to change the musical perceptions of young Chinese. He has the profile (the celebrity if you will) to be marketable and attractive for the recalcitrant youth-facing publications that we are forced to work with, but has the ear and the repertoire to actually expand the horizons of the more mainstream young Chinese. Plus, he has been described in some circles as hip-hop, which will guarantee a certain door.
A well-produced and well marketed show in an interesting venue would have created enough of a stir to push Chinese music along just a little (every little helps!). However, the people that make his decisions have gone with the easy cash on offer from clubs that have more-money-than-sense.
So why are we Radar-kids even bothered? What is wrong with Shadow performing at clubs that are consistently packed full of young Chinese every week, Monday to Sunday. Is it just sour grapes that we don’t get to control the show, the production, the audience? Are we just bitter, disenchanted expats who should get over ourselves????
The quick answer to this is perhaps! On the other hand, our heads tell us that DJ Shadow in China for the first time should be a massive event. It should be well marketed and produced, with a focus on the artist. Unfortunately (and again, this is just the personal opinion of this blog), Chinese clubs use big artists as self promotional loss leaders. The people in the clubs certainly don’t care whether it is DJ Shadow or DJ Sinbad behind the decks. On the infrequent (but regularly spaced) occasions that we venture into these venues, we find the usual quota of status conscious Chinese “party people” who go to the place simply because they are told they should, a little like the Radar used to when 15 years old and eminently impressionable. We didn’t know who was playing (we probably couldn’t have even named the genre) – all we cared about was whether our friends were going and whether we could get smashed out of our skulls. One of our close acquaintances who used to edit (and write most of the content) for a popular resource for all things Shanghai nightlife described Richy thus:
Richy, owned by Babyface, has never done any promotion for their event apart from the first 2 months for some weekly events. I think the reason they are popular is:
- Its run by the same company as babyface
- Good location. next to partyworld and guandii. (a lot of people go back and forth in between richy and partyworld – EDIT: partyworld is a famous chain of Karaoke bars)
- Chinese decoration. bling bling, flashy, cheesy….very very local.
- Full of hot girls
- Pop music
- Not so expensive drinks
like the other clubs, they probably have so-called PR girls help asking friends and people to go there. (girl serve the table to open the bottle)
Those who go Richy are locals (mostly) and ABC (EDIT: American born Chinese), most age are ranged from 18 (definitely lower) to 25. Those people don’t care what event it is, who the dj is. They are used to going there, reserving a table, finding some girl friends to go with. They feel comfortable with the atmosphere, especially if the dj play some pop music they know, they’ll be excited and go dancing to it. I doubt while shadow plays, you will notice the sound of dice is louder than the music or you can hear exactly what number people are yelling during the silence of music. And people who dancing in front of the dj booth will only be those who find the promotion and go for it.
Those who are into shadow will definitely hate Richy. They don’t like the place, they dont like the people there, not to say the music. They’re totally the opposite target market.
Conversely, there are many, many Chinese who are “getting it”. They know what’s what in music, art and fashion and it is my contention that a “serious” musician like Shadow should be putting himself in front of “serious” Chinese music lovers. Yes, there will be diehard fans who will go to Club Richy/ Club Angel to brave the generic neon/ mirror/ laser/ smoke machine design and disinterested punters. In a twist of bittersweet irony, most people in these clubs will actively dislike what Shadow plays – it will be way too far from the commercial Hip Pop and trance that is usual fodder.
The occasion of DJ Shadow’s first China tour will pass without notice and be mourned, at least by this pen.
NOTE:
So far, with three weeks to go until the event, there is no news about DJ Shadow in either Chinese or English language media, apart from a short post on both Clubzone and Hiphop.cn.