Research On The Criticism Practice Of Contemporary Chinese Pop Music

As a form of literary and art criticism, music criticism is an indispensable link in music activities. Music criticism has emerged and evolved along with the production, communication, consumption and acceptance of music and constituted an integral part of music theories and a guiding and constructive factor in music activities. Music criticism influences the development of musical thoughts and music theories while promoting the communication and acceptance of music. The author studies the criticism of pop music over the past 30 years, during which pop music and music criticism presented different features. Taking the music critic Li Wan as an example, the author starts with studying the background of pop music and music criticism and analyzing the music criticism of Li Wan, attempting to reveal the predicament of pop music and music criticism in contemporary China.Part One mainly studies the current context of pop music and music criticism. By analyzing the context of pop music and music criticism, this part reveals the complex looks of the two under the influence of three modes of discourse, which modes are consumer culture, “mainstream” mode of discourse, and post-colonialism respectively. This part also discusses the relations among pop music, “academic” research, and music criticism.Part Two analyzes the music criticism of Li Wan before summarizing the characteristics of Li's music criticism and his esthetic principles and value orientation of music. Pursuant to this standard, the author analyzes and probes into Li's attitudes towards and evaluation of current pop music.Part Three conducts a comparative study of Li Wan, “academic” scholars and other relevant music critics, analyzes their similarities and differences, and looks at their criticism practices under the general literary and artistic trend to reveal the changing process of the research paradigm of music criticism.Part Four discusses the cultural meaning of Li Wan's music criticism under the multiple modes of discourse in current China, and meanwhile analyzes the negative relationship between music criticism, on the one hand, and pop music and audience, on the other. On this basis, this part further points out that the loss of function of music criticism leads to the “aphasia” of music criticism.Finally, the author concludes through analysis the new trend of the public when accepting music, and that diversification and enclosure are two important characteristics of such new trend. The choice of the public and the predicament of music criticism increasingly separate the two from each other, and the author finally probes into the possibility of changing such predicament.