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Abstract

The redevelopment of popular music in mainland China had gone through the transformation from banned ‘porno music’ in the early 1980s to officially acknowledged ‘Tongsu’ music in 1986 to commercialized popular music since 1992. This transformation triggered the constant negotiation between politics and economy, ideology and market, propaganda and entertainment. The government compromized for market and economy, but this did not suggest that the government was willing to give up control over popular music. On the contrary, the government aimed to establish double hegemony over market and ideology control. As the mouthpiece of the government, CCTV (China Central Television) had played a vital role in structuring and solidifying this double hegemony, which allowed CCTV to influence the conversion between different types of capital. CCTV demonstrated its tremendous power by transforming ‘the Same Song’ (Tongyi Shou Ge) from a song in 1990 into a money-maker concert/show in 2000, and rearticulated its social significance from sports, the reunification of China, domestic stability to a society in harmony. When this hegemony was eventually resisted, and challenged by various social forces in 2009, CCTV stopped ‘the Same Song’ concert/show as a democratic gesture, but immediately introduced other similar concert/shows to maintain its double hegemony.

Keywords

double hegemony market and ideology control the Same Song Chinese popular music

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Double Hegemony-Market and Ideology Control of ‘the Same Song’

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