[Hot on a cold day] I want to talk a bit about indie music in Hong Kong

Bun Ng takes you back through Hong Kong’s independent music history, to dig through the cold past and uncover some of the scene’s warmest moments and memories.

To start things off, I would like to tell you a story. One time I was in discussion with my Singaporean friend Robin Chua, and he pointed out to me that there is a certain consensus for what is a general stylistic definition for indie music. He told me this classification is what he would normally refer to as British indie music, which is a cross between rock, pop, throwing in a bit of alternative and everything in between, it’s your typical Oasis, Mansun, The La, The XX…etc. So I guess we have to be more careful whenever we use the term ‘indie music.’ For me, my classification of indie music is simple. It can be any type of alternative rock music that is not tied to major labels. Pretty much, if you don’t have a giant marketing machine behind you, and you don’t get picked up by commercial radios, you are indie to me.

Another time I was talking with a bunch of friends who I actually met through being active in the indie community, through going to band shows too much, or through the natural social network media, and we seem to agree that there are around 500+ but less than 1,000 active bands in Hong Kong. Hidden Agenda, a local livehouse said there are 2,000, but we probably base our numbers on different assumptions. However, what is important is that this would mean there are a lot of bands in Hong Kong. It also means, counting active and inactive bands, there are easily 10,000 or more people who PLAY music in the indie music scene in Hong Kong. Don’t underestimate that number, it means, just based on the musicians themselves, there is one in every 700 people who is INVOLVED in indie music. What is one in 700 people? It means each day, from waking up to going to sleep, you should at least meet one person who plays indie music.

I am in the peripheral. I do not play music, but I go to shows, I talk about indie music and critique the bands, I buy their albums and I often yell out for their shows. This also calls for one additional thing. We know for a fact that there are more than 50 releases (full album, EP, single, compilation) from these Hong Kong bands each year. That makes round about one each week. That is not a small number. Some of these bands do large concert-level shows that represent none other than a lot of love. A lot of bands. A lot of love. That’s why I am writing this.

So my point is this: I am going to start charting some moments that are great in Hong Kong indie music history. Incidentally, I am not going to be talking about new bands, as we have plenty of people who are doing that. Let’s count the moments that are so very precious that you would like to cut this article out and put it in your clipbook. We want you to know that we have a history so strong that you will think each piece I write is worth a movie by itself (including this one).

I can’t start talking about what I will write about, because people in that circle would probably be expecting my call, or be unhappy I don’t call them earlier. But, let’s just say, I will have some fascinating things for you to marvel over. It means you should come back and read this again and again, from next issue on. Or from this issue on, LOL.

-Bun

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