Shidaiqu music is rooted in both traditional Chinese folk music and the introduction of Western jazz during the years when Shanghai was under the
Shanghai International Settlement. In the 1920s, the intellectual elite in
Shanghai and
Beijing embraced the influx of Western music and movies that entered through trade. The first jazz clubs in Shanghai initially served as dance halls for the Western elite. Beginning in the 1920s, shidaiqu entered into the mainstream of popular music. The Chinese pop song "
Drizzle" was composed by Li Jinhui around 1927 and sung by his daughter
Li Minghui. The song exemplifies the early
shidaiqu in its fusion of jazz and Chinese folk music – the tune is in the style of a traditional
pentatonic folk melody, but the instrumentation is similar to that of an American jazz orchestra.
Mainstream Shidaiqu reached peak popularity during 1940s. Famous jazz musicians from both the US and China played to packed dance halls. Chinese female singers grew in popularity. Additionally, nightclubs such as the Paramount Dance Hall became a meeting point for businessmen from Western countries and China. The western
jazz influences were shaped predominately by American
jazz musician
Buck Clayton. Shidaiqu has inspired
Gary Lucas for his album
The Edge of Heaven and DJs such as
Ian Widgery and his
Shanghai Lounge Divas project. On the other hand, if cinema was the origin of many songs,
Wong Kar-wai used them again for illustrating his film
In the Mood for Love;
Rebecca Pan, one of the actresses in this film, was also one of those famous shidaiqu singers.
Political connotations Shanghai was divided into the International Concession and the
French Concession in the 1930s and early 1940s. Owing to the protection of foreign nations (e.g., Britain and France), Shanghai was a prosperous and a rather politically stable city. Some shidaiqu songs are related to particular historical events (e.g., the
Second Sino-Japanese War). The euphemism of presenting love, which was always found in old Chinese novels, is kept in shidaiqu.
Decline Throughout the decades leading up to the
Great Leap Forward, the reputation of shidaiqu outside of its target audience was degrading. Despite some of the songs intended to nation build, the government deemed shidaiqu as "
yellow music" and described it as "pornographic and commercial". The tradition then moved to
Hong Kong and reached its height from the 1950s to the late 1960s, when it was replaced by Taiwanese pop (sung in Mandarin) and later
Cantopop (Cantonese popular music). While it is considered a prototype, music enthusiasts may see it as an early version of
Mandopop (Mandarin popular music).
Revival While the tradition continued to thrive in Taiwan and Hong Kong, shidaiqu gained popularity in mainland China once more during the 1980s. Shanghai opened up for the first time after WWII and interest in what used to be forbidden music peaked. Surviving musicians were invited to play once more in hotel lobbies In more recent years, a group called the
Shanghai Restoration Project uses both the 1980s and 1940s pop songs to create electronic music. ==Representatives==