摘要
时至今日，运用民族音乐学的方法对中国传统音乐展开研究可谓是成果显著，队伍庞大。但将民族音乐学的方法引入到当代流行音乐研究中的趋势和努力似乎还并不明显，真正具有田野性质的中国当代流行音乐研究的理论成果更是呈现为空白状态。正因如此，Nimrod Baranovitch的《中国新声音：流行音乐、民族、性别和政治1978--1997》（以下简称为《新声音》）一书尤其吸引笔者的注意力。
In contrast to the remarkable achievements and immense professionals in researching traditional Chinese music from the ethnomusicological approach,the present trends and efforts of adopting the ethnomusicological approach in the research of contemporary Chinese pop music seem to be obscure,and furthermore,theoretical achievements in the research of contemporary Chinese popular music with real fieldwork turns out to be null. It is because of this that Nimrod Baranovitch's Book China's New Voices:Popular Music,Ethnicity,Gender,and Politics,1978-1997 has attracted my peculiar attention. This is a comprehensive study of the rich popular music scene in contemporary China. Focusing on the rock-and-roll and other major popular music forms during the period 1978-1995,the book shows how popular music,against the background of the new market econo-my in the country,has enabled marginalized groups to achieve a new ″ public voice″ that is often independent of the mainstream society. The author analyzes this phenomenon by focusing on three importantcontexts:ethnicity,gender,and state politics,with a further look at the relationship between popular music in China and broad cultural,social,and political changes that are taking place here. In a sense,this is an important perspective from which popular music in China can be studied academically. The book was completed after the author's two visits to China (mostly in Beijing) for fieldwork,respectively in 1995 and 1996. The ethnographic research method was adopted in describing popular music in China with the first person ″I″ appearing in several chapters,displaying apparent features of ethnographic research,such as combination of both macrocosmic and microcosmic approaches,of both participation and observation,and of both description and explanation. The book has an Introduction and four Chapters. Chapter I provides an overview of popular music in China during the period 1978-1997,focusing on introduction of Hong Kong and Taiwan popular music into China's Mainland,the so-called ″Northwestern Wind″,″Prison Song″,rock and roll and Kara OK since the beginning of opening up and reforms. Chapter II looks at the ethnic minority music in the overall process of popular music development in China with case studies on ethnic minority singers. Chapter III studies manhood and wom-anhood in popular music from the perspective of gender identification,with focus on performance practice and reconstruction of social gender. Chapter IV explores the relationship between popular music and state politics by looking at the paradox of hegemony and resistance,and that of symbiosis and unity. More can be said about the book after we finish reading. It is definitely not wrong to research on today's popular music by relying on documentation and personal life experience. However,the contemporaneity and the reality of lively cultural background for popular music have already proved that it is far from enough to use various documentation or even ″second-hand″ materials prepared by others without first-hand investigation. What would Chinese scholars say when facing this distinctive monograph full of ethnomusicological characteristics in fieldwork written by a foreigner Why didn't Chinese scholars make all these cultural observation and fieldwork on popular music and write a book of the same kind Apart from the fact that traditionally,popular music has been neglected and despised in academic research,another important reason is perhaps that it is too familiar and too common to us while our foreign counterparts,or outsiders,who are curious about Chinese culture,have taken the lead. This should be a reminder to our Chinese scholars that our knowledge and academic endeavour should not be overwhelmed by the foreign voices,and that we should try to use the outsider's language to tell our own story.
出处
《人民音乐》
CSSCI
北大核心
2009年第11期86-88,共3页
People’s Music
