Boiler Room Signals End Of Chinese Rock?

EDM, according to Vice, is becoming the fastest-growing music form in China. Even the government has shown interest in sponsoring dance music as a cultural phenomenon. The Beijing event, in fact, was broadcast on the Boiler Room’s own online video channel through a tie-up with video company LeTV that Chinese viewers could watch. As it stands, YouTube is blocked in China.

On the other hand, Beijing’s legendary rock club, Mao Live House, closed last weekend, according to Reuters, “due to tighter rules on live performances and rising rent.”

The club opened nine years ago and was the city’s most famous venue for punk, metal and alternative rock. As the owner told Reuters, when he opened no one paid attention because the “market was small.” A lot has changed in the meantime, including the government itself and commercial prerogatives. So while music is thriving in China, official restrictions have become tighter, and not just in terms of content.

The owner said he is looking for a new place to do business in Beijing, but as it turns out, Mao Live House isn’t the only rock club that has had problems in recent weeks. The Dusk Dawn Club released a message on a chat app that it was “forced to close on April 21” but has since reopened. A website quoted a local culture committee as saying the club had to quit its business and “rectify” its situation, though it’s not clear what exactly needed to be rectified.

Fans who showed up at Mao’s told the Reuters reporter that there may be “new ways to hold concerts, like on the street or just find any random place to hold one.” However, a musician said that another problem was that rock may have lost out to dance music, whose popularity is surging, as indicated by the entrance of Boiler Room.