The Survival Struggle and Resistant Politics of a DIY Music Career in East Asia: Case Studies of China and Taiwan

Abstract

Indie music in East Asia has experienced tremendous growth in popularity since the mid-2000s, especially in China and Taiwan. This trend has encouraged a number of indie bands to pursue more radical and alternative ‘do-it-yourself’ (DIY) careers within their local underground music scenes. Taking two bands from Beijing and Taipei as case studies, this article argues that their DIY music careers help them both to survive through their aesthetic freedom and to confront the paradoxical government involvement in the local music market. P.K. 14, a band from China, practice a pragmatic DIY music career with an oblique resistance to political authorities. Touming Magazine, a band from Taiwan, pursue a DIY career through punk ethics to fight against an overwhelming neoliberal discourse and a promotional state policy of developing a cultural and creative industry. While DIY career practitioners have opened up alternative possibilities to preserve the autonomy of making music, such a career path is still challenged by an unsustainable market, a shortage of financing, and the continued dominance of major music companies’ own platforms. The situations these musicians face illustrate a more ambivalent type of politics, beyond mere emancipation, in their pursuit of a DIY career.

So close yet so far: DIY cultures in Portugal and Brazil

“…Because the concept of DIY careers occupies centre stage in this analysis, we consider it appropriate to postulate the meaning of the term. Jian (2018) warns that any analysis of DIY musical careers implies a new paradox: the fast appropriation of the DIY ethos by neoliberal ideology. For example, Chapman (2013) refers to the emergence of the DIY "one-man band", and the way such idea is rooted in a neoliberal logic that prioritizes individual success above else (McRobbie, 2016).…”

“…Faced with this scenario of a redefinition of the concept of DIY music production and of the sphere of DIY creative practices, some authors (e.g. Jian, 2018;Threadgold, 2018) even go so far as to say that the concept of DIY has been co-opted. Converging with the arguments put forward by some authors previously referred to in this article (Hesmondhalgh & Baker, 2011;McRobbie, 2016), Jian alerts us to the danger of excessively celebrating this new wave of DIY careers, arguing that they may rapidly become an "unconscious and involuntary neoliberal conspiracy" (Jian, 2018, p. 237) that encourages people to live in precarious, unstable, and self-exploratory situations.…”

Introduction: Nomadism, Fragmentation, and Marginality - The Hong Kong Music Underground in the East Asian Context

“…Within this turn to global underground music studies, increasing attention has been paid to various types of subcultural musical expression in the contemporary Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese contexts (Amar 2020, n.d.;de Seta 2011;Kloet 2010;Steen 2008;Tsai et al 2019;Yan 2017;Jian 2018;Xiao 2018). Yet, analyses of undergrounds in specific regional East Asian locales, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, are still under-represented.…”

Intervenção social pelas/através das artes: Predisposições, desafios e propostas

“…Passamos agora à sexta característica semelhante: um ethos DIY 39 que por metade dos/as entrevistados/as é rejeitado ou desvalorizado, e pela outra metade assumido, verificando-se um sentimento de identificação por essa categorização. O DIY é um conceito polissémico e, hoje, tanto pode consolidar-se como um ato de oposição ao capitalismo como pode tornar-se num instrumento deste (Bennett, 2018;Threadgold, 2018;Jian, 2018).…”