Twenty years ago, it was the epicentre of the nascent punk scene, home to bands like SMZB (Shengming Zhi Bing, or Bread of Life).

Their songs were short, fast and not at all shy about addressing topics suppressed in mainstream media, such as the Tiananmen massacre.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn't an easy road for these pioneering punk bands. Without official approval of their music, they had to stay under the radar to keep out of trouble.

Shuibo Wang's 2015 documentary, Never Release My Fist, recalls how broke young punks scraped by on odd jobs and dumpster diving, releasing their music themselves on cassette tapes and CDs.

Even so, they clashed with authorities both in China and abroad.

According to the doco, a Chinese government arts bureaucrat once slapped SMZB's manager when the band strayed from their approved set list and bantered between songs.

Then on their first trip to the US, they were turned back at the airport for having tourist visas instead of performing visas, even as they promised to cancel their gigs.

China's alternative music scene hits the mainstream

Fast forward to today and Wuhan's live music scene looks very different, despite retaining some of the same players.

In 2005, SMZB's ex-drummer, Zhu Ning, established Vox Live-house, which has since become a cornerstone of the gig circuit for all kinds of genres. 

Though pandemic lockdowns and travel restrictions have interrupted the venue's programming, when shows are on, the crowd is roaring.

"To be honest, the fact that international acts can't tour China has actually given young local bands a lot of opportunities," says Li Ke, who works at Vox and its associated label, Wild Records.

"Without international acts, we have more money to spend on local bands."

Interest in alternative music is also booming in China, in part thanks to a television show called The Big Band which has featured indie stalwarts like Carsick Cars and Re-TROS.

"The TV series built a new audience for indie and underground rock, putting them in the public sphere," Li says.

"People in the past who didn't listen to rock, who only went to shows in concert halls and stadiums, are now coming to livehouses and bars."

Beijing-based music journalist Krish Raghav says the phenomenon is transforming the industry. Suddenly, decade-old bands are finding their shows sell out in minutes, and their back catalogues are available at karaoke.

"It's a level of attention that the scene has never seen before, and it's also for the first time created the sense that indie rock is lucrative as a career choice," he says.

Fame puts punk scene back under the political gaze

But these new opportunities also come with a cost: growing mainstream attention means that previously underground scenes are now visible to the state, with all the censorship, red tape and risk that entails.

"The risk is not just from authorities at the Ministry of Culture finding out about your show," Raghav says.

"It's about competitors, disgruntled fans, nationalists who just report you, having seen something that they think is either illegal or not kosher."

Technology is another factor: these days, music needs to be made available online, but every streaming platform comes with its own regulations. 

There are also frequent content sweeps on domestic websites like Douban where fans gather, and earlier this year, authorities added Bandcamp to the list of international websites blocked by the country's firewall.

All these commercial and political pressures combine to make the indie music industry more insular and segmented by genre, Raghav says.

Instead of offering social critique, he argues that "Where the music has something to say has shifted from the level of the lyric and the band's story to just tone and mood".

The rapid growth of the market has also dissolved the boundaries between independent and mainstream music, Li says, as indie labels like Modern Sky have developed into major commercial enterprises.

Some of the newcomers flocking to the scene are just here for the hype.

"If you can't get tickets, everyone wants tickets," Li says.

"That's something we can take advantage of — if people think something's scarce, it becomes a hot commodity."

The challenge will be for indie bands to revel in these opportunities while protecting the artistic integrity, experimentation and dash of rebellion that distinguishes them.

Story By | Jinghua Qian