The Tumultuous Link between Pop Music and Politics

During my college years in Taiwan, in the late 1970s, boys who were good at singing while strumming a guitar were the idols on campus. Although I envied these amateurs, I didn't realize at the time, that pop music served as a barometer of social transition in modern China.

Compared to classical and operatic music that was mainly appreciated by intellectuals and the elite, pop music, with its catchy melodies and lyrics that reflected on real life, was a genre popular among the masses. It had a wide appeal although many traditional musicians despised it.