他们在地下干什么？

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他们在地下干什么？ / What Are They Doing Underground?

颜峻

1998年，一个叫做“地下”的词开始在青年中传播。出于对主流文化的失望，他们兴高采烈地探听和交流着有关地下音乐的消息，当《音乐天堂》有声杂志推出物美价廉的《朋克时代》特刊后，立刻成了抢购的对象，而其中收录的“苍蝇”和“盘古”两支中国乐队，则迅速成为明星级人物。

地下明星？地下乐队也会有明星？几年来，日益无聊的中国摇滚养活了大堆大堆白胖的、善于通过媒体兜售大道理的、苦尽甘来的摇滚明星，他们搞坏了市场的胃口，却培养了没有鉴赏力的唱片商；一队又一队和他们当年一样有着热血的新人有幸在恶劣的环境中自生自灭，在饥饿、性压抑和绝望中，真正有创造性和斗争精神的那些活了下来。是的，在地下活着，出没于各个城市的陋巷和小酒吧，为同时代人歌唱，并接受不需要刺激的观众的恶毒投诉。很可笑，那些来自现实的声音最直接地暴露着现实，却持续地遭到现实的拒绝。所谓地下，就是这么一种与破残的设备、混乱的演出现场、流失的观众群为伍的状况，而音乐，则是普遍一意孤行、满怀愤怒或委屈、超前于群众美学水平的声音。

没有一个教授能告诉你，南京的“PK14”为什么热爱着阴郁和痉挛，难道虚无主义也能给人安慰么？没有一个电视歌手大奖赛评委愿意谈论武汉的“生命之饼”或南昌的“盘古”，方言口音倒也罢了，可他们为什么要在地上打滚？以阅读《读者》做为道德自恋的人士来到兰州，会撞见营养不良的“直径3.3”，或者新成立的“解散”，那令人生畏的形象会让热爱生活的人惶恐不安；好容易在北京的酒吧里遇见了“野孩子”和张浅潜，温和的木吉他响起来了，可是前者那劳动一般的声音太过淳朴，后者梦游的歌唱显得高傲，谁也不是咱们那个老百姓的浪漫。今年（1998）5月，特别特别大的大牌“零点”在成都演出，群众出于对偶像的热爱冒雨涌入深夜的酒吧，和刚刚下课的“零点”观摩“失眠”、“襁褓”和“菠莱”的摇滚课——老师们分别用黑金属和Grunge粉碎了小资产阶级的好梦，对于他们内心的伤与怒，大牌及其爱戴者以退学回家表示了不屑……

他们在地下干什么？做一种无人理解的精英艺术吗？被传媒和唱片业蒙骗的中国青年会这样想。但是“奇迹就像石头里的火”，罗曼·罗兰这样说，“轻轻一碰就会迸出来”，当生存环境被剥去面纱，思想和口味得到不同的刺激，尤其是当人们再一次（被迫？）关注现实，那听起来像噪音的声音很快变得容易理解了。事实上，人群一直在分化，为了生活得更加真实，就总会有人隐约觉得，地上地下的分野并不是出名与否、商业与否，而是粉饰与否，虚伪与否，当真实的伤口迸裂之时，又岂是升平的歌舞能够抚慰？《朋克时代》的畅销，其实早就在地下埋藏着伏笔，因为新生的青少年并不想知道，关心现实是不是要付出代价。他们只是在不多的文字介绍、打口磁带、交谈和傍晚的闲逛中体会着解放般的自由——在这里不用穿校服，也不用接受多年来如影随行的驯养。

而地下音乐还是音乐，还是旧艺术的恶梦和新美学的号角。被可怜的几种听觉体验弄得乏味、奄奄一息的中国青年再也忍不住了，他们要想一想其他的道理、听一听陌生的魅力，找一找内心的冲动。随着时间的推移，地下乐队将会注意到，他们的支持者最终还是身后这广大的一代青年。在互联网上，你可以发现对“舌头”的热烈讨论；在广州，王磊拥有了大量的观众；在北京，无论是迅速崛起的各色新朋克少年和新朋克少女，还是苦心孤诣的大龄艺术家，他们不仅造成了今夏轰轰烈烈的酒吧演出热潮，而且直接地促进着首都人民精神生活的多元化；在西安，天哪，甚至形成了一个不无封建意味的“地下音乐联盟”！

是的，今天粗糙的地下音乐终将被商业机制看中，予以包装和热炒，他们中会有明星的出现，在那一天，只有创造的本能和自由的天性让他们分化，一部分加入苦尽甘来的偶像殿堂，另一部分，则依然骄傲地做着地下的明星。

Contents 1 Translation 2 Remarks 2.1 Licensing 2.2 Translation 2.3 Further information

Translation

Translation by Julia Gao

In 1998, the word “underground” began to spread among young people. Out of the disappointment of the mainstream culture, they collected and exchanged information of underground music in high spirits. When the voiced magazine 《Music Heaven》 introduced a special issue 《Punk Age》, it was snapped up immediately while the two Chinese bands recorded there, “Flies” and “Pan Gu”, quickly became superstars.

Underground superstars? There are superstars even among underground bands? Years passed, the increasingly boring Chinese rock has raised a bunch of fat and sweet-after-sweat rock stars selling empty talks; they ruined the appetite of the market while bringing up tasteless record companies. New blood in one line after another, who were exactly what the rock stars had been years ago, lived and died on their own in the harsh environment; in face of starvation, sex repression, and desperation, only those who were truly creative and courageous survived. Yes, living underground, haunting slums and small bars in cities, singing for contemporaries, and accepting malicious complaints from audience who didn’t need excitement. It’s ridiculous that voices from reality, which reveal the reality most directly, are constantly rejected by reality. The so-called underground means nothing but a condition of broken equipments, chaotic live performances, and lost crowds. But music is a sound that is willful, full of anger or grievance, and above the aesthetic level of the mass.

No one single professor can tell you why “PK14” from Nanjing loves gloom and convulsion – even nihilism can give people comfort? No one single judge of any TV singing contest is willing to talk about “Cake of Life” from Wuhan or “Pan Gu” from Nanjing – accents and dialects are tolerable, but why do they have to roll about on the floor? When those who regard reading 《Reader》 as moral narcissism come to Lanzhou, they will meet the malnourished “3.3 in Diameter” or the newly set-up “Disband”, whose horrifying appearance will panic the life lovers. When they have managed to meet “Wild Children” and Zhang Qianqian in Beijing, the mild sound of the wooden guitar starts, but the former’s voice is far too artless and the latter’s sleepwalking voice appears too proud – neither belongs to the romance of us ordinary people. This year (1998) in May, the biggest big shot “Zero Point” performed in Chengdu, where people, for the love for their idols, crowded into the midnight bar to attend the rock class of “Insomnia”, “Cradle”, and “Spinach” with “Zero Point” who had just finished their class – teachers each broke the dreams of the petty bourgeoisie with black metal and Grunge while the big shot and their fans expressed distain for the wounds and fury in their minds by cancelling the class and going home……

What are they doing underground? Doing a kind of elite art that no one understands? The Chinese young men who have been cheated by the media and recording industry will think this way. But “miracles are like fire in the stones”, as Romain Rolland put it, “a slight touch makes it burst forth”. When the living environment is unveiled, when ideas and tastes are stimulated differently, especially when people once again (are forced to?) focus on reality, the noisy sound soon becomes easy to understand. In fact, the crowd has been constantly divided – to make life more real, some may vaguely feel that the distinction between on-the-ground and underground is not famous or not, commercial or not, but pretentious or not, artificial or not. When the real wound splits, will a show of peace and prosperity be able to soothe the pain? The popularity of 《Punk Age》 was actually foreshadowed underground because youngsters didn’t want to know whether they would have to pay for caring about reality. They were only experiencing freedom, like liberty, through the few articles, cracked tapes, talks, and evening wanderings – no need to wear school uniforms here or be domesticated as they had been for so many years.

However, underground music is still music, still the nightmare of old art, and the bugle of new aesthetics. Chinese youngsters, bored and suffocated by the pitiably few kinds of listening experience, long to think about other truths, listen to unfamiliar charm, and look for impulse in their minds. As times goes by, underground bands will notice that finally their supporters will still be the crowd of young men standing behind them. On the Internet, you can find heated debates on “Tongue”; in Guangzhou, Wand Lei has won great number of audience; in Beijing, fast-growing punk boys and punk girls as well as painstaking old artists have not only created this summer’s upsurge of night bar shows but also directly diversified people’s cultural lives; in Xi’an, oh my, there is even a “Underground Music Association” with some feudal meaning!

Yes, the crude underground music today will finally take the fancy of the commercial mechanism; it will be packaged and lavishly praised. Superstars will stand out among these musicians on the day when they are divided only by creative instinct and free nature. Some of them join the sweet-after-sweat idols in palaces, while others will still be the proud underground superstars.

Remarks