Perhaps the success, money and fame in the secular eyes are not the most important thing for them.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “drugs” (ID: youhaoxifilm ), author Zhang Ying, editor Jiang Yuqi.
One night in early July, at the entrance of the Jianghu Bar in Beijing’s East Cotton Hutong, a musician who was ready to improvise was anxious to find his lost mobile phone. The teammates in the bar urged him to hurry to prepare for the stage. He could only borrow friends. The mobile phone dialed his own number, and after several attempts, he left a sentence “Well, I also scored a loan to buy a new one”, then turned and took the stage.
The Jianghu Bar is one of the Utopias of the Bruce fans in Beijing. For a long time, the audience in the audience was mostly Bruce fans. The player who lost the phone like the drug smack (Wechaox ID: youhaoxifilm) may be one of the protagonists on the stage of the river and lake and the national size Livehouse, but the spotlights and traffic are rarely able to bring them together – even if they do it hard All kinds of performances can only be exchanged for meager income, and even a mobile phone may have to be insured. 
Jianghu Bar in Beijing East Cotton Alley
The fate of these bands is reminiscent of Zhao Zijian, the lead singer of the Hedgehog band who borrowed money to buy a new piano when recording the “Summer of the Band” program. The taxi fare can save the province’s Click#15, many The bands all showed “poverty” that did not match their music and fame.
Fortunately, this summer, the fate of a group of good bands has been reversed because of “The Summer of the Band.”
The river and lake bar was full of people that night, and most of the girls who were ridiculed by the boss were Yang Ce, the keyboard player of Click #15 in the “Summer of the Band”. Before the show, Yang Ce and his other blues band mojohand often performed in the rivers and lakes, but the scene was far less popular. As for the performance of Click#15 itself in the country, it is as hard as the other popular bands in the show, and it has become difficult to get a ticket, even in the case of “second space” – while on the show, the lead singer of Click#15 Ricky also revealed that the income of playing music in the past month may be less than 1,000 yuan..
Click#15’s national show is hard to find
But behind these few lucky ones, there are still a lot of bands and musicians who are struggling on the edge of food and clothing. According to incomplete statistics, there are nearly 30,000 bands in the country at this stage, but on the show and suddenly the fire is only a fraction of a thousand, the larger band has not been surrounded by the “summer” heat wave, the rivers and lakes The scene in front of the bar seems to be the most authentic Chinese band illustration.
In fact, since the 1980s and 1990s when the band was in its infancy and rise in China, this culture has always been in the “winter” in the country: people who played rock music in the early years gathered in Shucun. In the area of Huoying, even instant noodles must go to the next door to eat; nowadays, instant noodles are basically realized, but it is still a luxury to make money by playing music. “If you are referring to the money of the play team, everyone has long been starving”.
Young musicians
Because the current domestic performance market, copyright system and band operation capabilities are still not mature, a large number of independent music people lurking underground have not yet waited for a mature market that embraces them and rewards them. However, in opposition to this seemingly hopeless situation, those who are unwilling to describe themselves with the words “poor and hard” are themselves. Their insistence on music also seems to confirm the words that Bai Yansong said in the “Summer of the Band” finals: “Maybe you think this is a nostalgic program, no, this is a program related to tomorrow.” /span>
The only reason to motivate them to go to this “tomorrow” is nothing but “love”.
“Single to play with music to support yourself? Arabian Nights!”
“I didn’t make much money before 2000, but I also worked hard. I did it twice a week, earning 150, 130 at a time, and I didn’t have a meal.” After the fame, the musician Yu Hongfei is remembering the hardship of his time.