“The world is not as perfect as we think. We should face the lancinating facts rather than pretending being unknown.”The first doctoral candidate of pop music in China, Guo Xin of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, came to Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) this April to share his feelings for 60 years’ rock time.
“Rock music reminds us all the time that the world is not as perfect as we think. We should face the lancinating facts rather than pretending being unknown.” Guo Xin said.
In the 1950s, rock music became popular from the the United States to all over the world. Though been revolted at the beginning, it was recognized and appreciated in the late 1980s. Guo Xin thought that rock music was related with population. The boom in the late 1940s made rock music a totally new music style.
The young generation were once called “the beat generation” after going through Vietnam War, racial discrimination, civil rights movement and so on. They lost their trust to the adult world and wanted to escape from the society. So, the counter-culture movement emerged. The so-called dominant culture was the wielded the scepter. Baby boomers who didn’t held the power started to fight against the stress and everything in the industrial society.
“In the past, I listened to music without knowing so much background.” A freshman majoring in English literature said.
Guo Xin believes that the rock music has its own attitudes and a positive strength, which helps to criticize the society and fake policy. It is different from pop music in that pop music urges to be dominant in the market and make itself perfect.
“Though we don’t want to face up with some topics on which rock music focused, we can’t deny that it pushed the society to further development,” Guo said.
