:: The Chinese red army performing Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” No biggie. Bravo!  // AjS

:: the acoustic guitars, harmonicas, and this retro Hohner Melodica came out recently while I was picnicking in Shanghai with friends. One of those friends was Zhang Feng (张峰, aka Bono), the frontman for the well-known Shanghai-based indie rock band Banana Monkey. See below for a short video catching Zhang Feng play a few crowd-pleasers, namely (and in order) Qi Qin’s The World Outside, Wang Fei’s One Little Wish, Luo Dayou’s Childhood, Qi Qin’s Sometime Around Winter, and Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight.

If the VIMEO video loads slowly, try viewing it on Tudou. For more from Banana Monkey on NeochaEDGE, link here. For more from Zhang Feng on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

:: for more from Blueprint on NeochaEDGE, link here. // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

:: for more from ww1way on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

:: for more from Sulumi on NeochaEDGE, link here. /// AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

:: over the past year or so, Converse (China) has made a big push in China to align itself with local indie / creative culture, particularly the music scene. Last August, as part of its LoveNoise (爱噪音) tour, Converse sponsored two well-known Chinese indie rock bands ( and Queen Sea Big Shark) for a 6000 km, one-bus road trip that included concerts in five second-tier Chinese cities: Xi’an, Wuhan, Changsha, Hangzhou, and Nanjing (plus a free grand finale show at Mao Live House in Beijing).

Bravo to W+K Shanghai and Split Works for engineering and executing the effort. It’s proven itself to be the most successful example to-date of a big brand engaging the Chinese indie music community – the verdict is still out on Pepsi’s Battle of the Bands / Voice of the Next Generation campaign.

See below for a full-length documentary capturing the Converse LoveNoise tour. The film was directed by the Beijing filmmaker Liu Feng and features interviews with the bands and their fans, as well as appearances and performance footage of Echo Rush, Hualun, 48V, Self Party, and , among other Chinese indie bands. Enjoy.

For more NeochaEDGE posts on Converse, link here.  // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

:: for more from Leto on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

“It’s Your Turn” (到你了) is what Converse (China) has aptly titled its latest campaign featuring “flagship” spokespeople, Queen Sea Big Shark – one of China’s better-known indie bands. The campaign crowd-sources not only lyrics for the band’s new song Let’s Play, but also extras for cameo appearances in the song’s music video.

Once again Converse, bravo, well done.

Our friends at W+K Shanghai also deserve a chest bump for their work on this campaign – they are Converse’s agency of record in China.

What do I like about the “It’s Your Turn” campaign? Find out just below this mad hot Queen Sea Big Shark band photo.

First, it’s leveraging web basics (social media, user-generated content, etc.) to co-create with, among other target-audiences, the Chinese creative community. I love the web and I love the Chinese creative community, using the former to get through to the latter makes me happy and is just plain smart, kudos!

Second, it’s providing a Chinese indie band yet another platform of exposure, promotion, and “packaging;” and it’s doing it in a non-intrusive, non-corporate way. Converse is just playing a facilitator role to make it all happen – none of the hype is focused on the brand, it’s all about the band. This campaign is not only good for Queen Sea Big Shark’s prospects, but also for the healthy development indie music scene and creative community as a whole.

Third, whether Converse wants to admit it or not, it’s not just for the indie crowd in China, or anywhere really. It’s a massive brand with the majority of it’s consumers falling into the “mainstream” crowd. The efforts Converse is making to align itself with Chinese indie culture and the Chinese creative community does well to establish / accentuate the brand’s personality and distinguish it among competitors in the China market, but more importantly (to us anyway), it helps educate “the mainstream” (i.e. the 90%) about the indie / creative scene (i.e. the 10%). This is something the former desires and the latter of course welcomes, and in the end, the brand wins too. This kind of education / awareness raising is a great service that (in some ways, only) big commercial brands and mainstream media can provide both demographics. Involving a mass audience in an indie band’s creative process is a nice way to achieve this.

Fourth, related to the third reason, the offline auditions for music video cameos are being held in Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Shenyang, Wuhan, and Xian – all second tier cities (except Guangzhou). This is a smart move for Converse on many levels, but what I most like about it is that the brand is bringing indie / creative culture to new demographics, not just the tried and true 1st-tier markets of Beijing and Shanghai.

Fifth, there is half compelling prize. It’s depressing how many of these user-generated content / co-creation efforts by big brands (most of which probably have significantly larger marketing budgets than Converse) are incentivized with lame awards. “It’s Your Turn” winners get an all-expense-paid 5-day trip for two to Beijing to attend Modern Sky’s MIDI Music Festival in October. Winners are also given a RMB 2000 shopping spree at a Converse store. Both of these things are in addition to the obvious – winners either having lyrics they wrote used in a Queen Sea Big Shark song (Let’s Play) or appearing in the band’s Let’s Play music video, both of which will be high-profile, nationally promoted pieces of content. (Hell, I’m thinking about participating.)

Last, the campaign simply works. It’s achieving exactly what Converse wants it to – pushing the brand’s image / traits / attributes further in the direction it wants to go.

I only have two small critiques:

First, I think the campaign could be amplified better. It has been live for two weeks and besides some banner ads on Douban.com and the official Converse China website, I haven’t really heard much else about it. (Hopefully this post helps get the word out further.) Connecting with influential bloggers / online communities and courting brand fans to spread the word would help give an already great idea more legs within the indie community, but more importantly, among mainstream audiences. And of course, tapping more mainstream channels (online and off) would help increase the reach of the campaign across multiple demographics / localities.

Second, although I think this “one-off” campaign is a great thing all around (as was the LoveNoise campaign), I would like to see Converse communicate more openly about long-term commitments and plans for the brand’s involvement in the Chinese indie music scene. This is something that Pepsi has done quite well (albeit only in words and on paper at this point) with its Battle of the Bands / Voice of the Next Generation campaign and QMusic label.

I’m all for leading through action, which Converse has done admirably, but research we’ve done at NeochaEDGE has found that brands have much to gain from publicly stating their long-term commitments or plans to engage with the Chinese creative community and local indie culture.

To learn more about the “It’s Your Turn” campaign’s lyric-writing contest, link here; for more on the campaign’s “be an extra in the Let’s Play music video” contest, link here. See below for two videos introducing both elements of the campaign. For more NeochaEDGE posts on Converse, link here. For more from W+K on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

:: John Varvatos USA, SPIN Earth and Island Records present “FREE THE NOISE,” a global online search for the next great rock n’ roll band. The contest invites up-and-coming, unsigned bands to upload a video of a recent performance of original music here. The winning band will receive a development deal with Island Records and be featured in the next John Varvatos USA international advertising campaign, as well as featured on SPIN Earth. Entries will be accepted through July 31, 2009 (only one more day!). For more information and contest rules, or to check out talent discovered around the globe, link here.  // AjS

:: there is nothing that makes me smile more than 8-bit music and ice cream. Check out this new website / video game music netlabel called Pterodactyl Squad. Pretty amazing. I just downloaded their 8-bit Weezer album – which btw has all the classics! Link here to check out their other releases. H/T to Jenn Wong. Bravo, well done.  // AjS

:: see below for an excellent tribute to the late Michael Jackson by famed Chinese sand-painter Su Dabao. The soundtrack is a Jackson song titled 2 Bad, one of his lesser-known but better tracks (a personal favorite of mine actually). Enjoy. // AjS

[To give credit where credits due, Youku Buzz also featured this today in its email newsletter; however, I first saw it on Kaixin001.com.]

:: Neocha.com’s Editor-in-Chief (not China, as printed below) Liu Hao was recently interviewed by City Weekend about the Neocha NEXT player. Link here for the full interview on City Weekend’s website.  // AjS

[full disclosure: 56minus1 is a partner at Neocha.com]

:: last week, Lindi (林笛), the lead singer and pipa player for the well-known Shanghainese band Cold Fairyland, shared with me some videos from a recent performance by her new band Bad Himo at Shanghai’s Yuyintang music club. Bad Himo is a two-person band (Lindi and her husband) whose songs are written entirely about the couple’s cat, Himo. In chatting with Lindi about Bad Himo, she said they formed the band because she has always wanted to play more straight forward rock and punk-styled music, but is too shy to actually write overly aggressive / provocative lyrics with curse words, etc. According to Lindi, the next best thing was to write songs that complain about her naughty cat, Himo.

The songs are silly, playful, definitely not punk, and sung in Mandarin, Shanghainese, and English, as those are the three languages Lindi and her husband speak to the cat at home. However, Lindi admits that during the show she forgot most of lyrics and just sorta made them up as she went along. Lindi is unsure how often, or even if, the band will play again, but they are looking for a drummer if anyone knows anyone.

Below I’ve shared a video from the performance last week. The song in the video, titled Little White Horse (小白马), is mostly sung in Shanghainese. For videos of all the songs from the Yuyintang performance, link here. Related, I recently produced a short video with Lindi performing solo / acoustic out of her home studio, link here to check it out. // AjS

:: a fun animation short / MV titled Road from Chinese photo-blogger Wang Chengzhi (王承之, A.K.A. Photobluer) about an upset child running away from his bickering parents and an overbearing teacher. The clip ends with “我们一直奔跑, 但找不到尽头,” meaning: “We are always running, but we can’t escape.” Background music by Beijing-based band The Gar (嘎调), a song titled Quan (圈). The Gar is also on Douban.  // AjS