Chinese Street Music: Complicating Musical Community

Musical community is a notion commonly evoked in situations of intensive collective activity and negotiation of identities. Passion Square shows in Wuhan have an ambivalent relationship with these ideas, inspiring modest outward signs of engagement and guided by individualistic concerns. This Element addresses community as a quality rather than an entity, exploring its ebbs and flows as associations between people, other bodies, and the wider street music environment intersect with its various theoretical implications.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 75 pages
Publication date: 29 April 2021
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Musical community is a concept that often arises in contexts of intense collective activity and passionate negotiations of identities. Passion Square shows, the daily singing of Chinese pop classics in parks and on street corners in the city of Wuhan, exhibit an ambivalent relationship with these ideas. While they inspire modest outward expressions of engagement, they are guided by seemingly individualistic concerns; singers are primarily motivated by earning a livelihood through the relationships they establish with patrons, and reflection on group belonging is of lesser importance. How do these orientations complicate the foundations of typical musical community discourses? This Element explores community as a quality rather than as an entity to which people belong, examining its ebbs and flows as associations between people, other bodies, and the wider street music environment intersect with its various theoretical implications. A de-idealized picture of musical community better acknowledges the complexities of everyday musical experiences.

Musical community is a concept that often arises in contexts of intense collective activity and passionate negotiations of identities. Passion Square shows, the daily singing of Chinese pop classics in parks and on street corners in the city of Wuhan, exhibit an ambivalent relationship with these ideas. While they inspire modest outward expressions of engagement, they are guided by seemingly individualistic concerns; singers are primarily motivated by earning a livelihood through the relationships they establish with patrons, and reflection on group belonging is of lesser importance. How do these orientations complicate the foundations of typical musical community discourses? This Element explores community as a quality rather than as an entity to which people belong, examining its ebbs and flows as associations between people, other bodies, and the wider street music environment intersect with its various theoretical implications. A de-idealized picture of musical community better acknowledges the complexities of everyday musical experiences.

Weight: 120g
Dimension: 151 x 228 x 9 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781108822930