From The Tang And Song Dynasty To Contemporary Pop Music

Taking "pop songs" in broad sense as the notion and "popularity, amusement,commerciality, civicness, personality, marginality and subversiveness" as thestandards, the dissertation tries to figure out the main trends of development of popsongs from ancient to modern, the songs such as the song lyrics of Tang and Songdynasties, the vernacular independent songs of Yuan dynasty, the popular songs ofMing and Qing dynasties, and the popular songs of modern and the contemporaryperiod, with the method of breaking the border line between traditional and modernChinese literature.The dissertation takes the human nature as a key clue and follows the time asdifferent periods throughout the concrete analysis. It pays close attention to thedissimilarity of strength and mode in expression of the human nature between the popsongs and mainstream literature by probing horizontally into the development ofhuman nature shown by the pop songs in each historic stage on the one hand, andresearches vertically with the macroscopic angle of view on the developing andevolving process of the pop songs of all past generations on the other. It turns out thatthe pop songs with obvious personality not only concern more the individual ordinarylife and inner world, but also respect the reasonable expression of human nature andplease the human instinct.The dissertation falls into four chapters. Both chapter 1 and 2 investigatemainly how these ancient pop songs, as a marginalized literary style, express theworlds and needs of personal emotion oppressed by feudalistic ethic and orthodoxculture. The development trend of pop songs of each historic stage is affected todifferent extent by such factors as the growth of citizenry class, the dependence ofliterati on regime, and the change of elite culture. The individual sense, which wasmarked mainly by close attention to personal emotion and high valuation on a life ofcomforts and pleasure, was presented more and more obviously from song lyrics tovernacular independent songs. In Ming Dynasty, flagged by love and lust, popularsongs launched a drastic challenge against the feudalistic ethic with theoreticalsupport of some advanced intellectuals. Chapter 3 probes into the development of modern pop songs. With regard tolyrics, the heritage from ancient literature is the most important materials for modernpop songs. It is just in the more and more skilled practice and use of such materialsthat modern pop songs went mature by degrees and turned on new change anddevelopment in the new times. Although its focus on individual was consistent withthe concern of "Human" in the period of May Fourth Movement, modern pop songs,due to its insistence on amusement, were exposed to criticism from all aspects in thetime when the country faced great danger, even prohibited during early days after1949.Chapter 4 analyses and induces initially the contemporary pop songs, whichare still in the course of growing and changing. Although undergoing a few twists andturns, contemporary pop songs present unprecedented vitality. They delve into innerworld of human being more and more deliberately along with the contemporaryculture's respect and advocacy of personality and the booming development ofpopular culture. With an eye view of history and placing contemporary pop songs intoa historical frame of development of Chinese pop songs, we can prospect for the trendof its development in future.