As part of Group 13's studies on the music in China, I went ahead and picked the Chinese metal group, Tang Dynasty. The video we're given is a music video of one of their most popular songs they ever created, A Dream Return To. In this short paper discussing what I researched, I will discuss the history of heavy metal in China as well as how Tang Dynasty came into form and their overall meaning. .
Tang Dynasty was a band that was founded in 1988 by two Chinese locals as well as a Chinese American oversea student. Their story of how they formed is pretty interesting: while playing outside of a music store, they draw in the attention of the passersby as well as the manager, which then invited them to play on stage.Tang Dynasty is the first band in China that was heavily influenced by Western heavy metal performances. And although they had mimicked the styles of Western heavy metal performances, they are most widely known in the PRC (People's Republic of China) as a "heavy metal band with a splash of China. " Tang Dynasty had a high sense of Chinese pride and was a symbol of native masculinity, and thus wanted to further exemplify it through their heavy metal music band. The band identified itself with the wen-wu philosophy, which was a conceptual pair describing the opposition and complementarity of civil and military government (or for better terms, cultural vs. martial). .They really do take on this form in retrospect. Each band member are a scaling six feet tall, to my surprise, and are in good shape and physique. The long hair is also rather notable, and it really gives them this 80's rock band feel. They even did the same motions as 80's rock bands in America did in concerts: headbanging to their guitar solos, fast paced drum and bass, and their screaming, but awesome vocals. What makes them further amazing is that the quality of their lyrics aren't something to look over. A lot of the band's lyrics throughout their songs are actually based and modeled around classical poetry from the Tang Dynasty, hence their band name and dedication.
