―Songs for the people‖ in their lyrics and musical styles represent the dominant culture.39
This type of song creates a communal public image, sings about national integrity and prosperity,
hopes for social stability, and establishes moral standards. ―Songs of artistic taste‖ are of a gaoya
(highbrow) type. It is interesting yet reasonable that Hu puts the milestone rock song ―I Have
Nothing‖ by Cui Jian in this cultural category because he relates the elites to those well-educated
intellectuals who have critical minds and artistic tastes and who play with words and entrust their
dreams in a gaoya type of song. For Hu, gaoya songs represent elite culture in China. However,
we should be aware that this elite class is not equal to the Western aristocratic elite class; it
stresses more on intellectually advantaged. The third category, ―folk songs‖ or ―popularized
songs,‖ represents the folk culture, traditional, original, and widespread creativity of a specific
group of people. For example, the song ―qianfu de ai (Love of Boat Trackers)‖ describes the love
and life of a man in a particular folk occupation. The last cultural type, ―popular songs,‖
represents mass culture. It is melodic in sound, artistic in its lyrics, and covers diverse topics.
Hu‘s classification illustrates one way to understand a song in mainstream Chinese popular
music, i.e., every song denotes a cultural type. Hall states that, ―the event must become a ‗story‘
before it can become a communicative event.‖40When a popular song is performed on a TV
program, both the song and the program have been incorporated into the ruling ideology. When
we study mainstream popular music, we are therefore studying how a song expresses the
ideology in one cultural form. For example, ―I Have Nothing‖ expresses the elite‘s reaction
towards the dominant ideology of that time, how members of elite culture respond to the
dominant culture.
China is believed to be ruled by its people and the working class. Article 1 of the
Constitution of the People‘s Republic of China declares that ―The People‘s Republic of China is
a socialist state under the people‘s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on
the alliance of workers and peasants.‖41
Article 2 asserts that ―all power in the People‘s Republic
of China belongs to the people;‖42 restating the emphasis on people‘s overwhelming power. The
line that ―the basis of the socialist economic system of the People‘s Republic of China is socialist
public ownership of the means of production;‖43 in Article 6 seems to justify the economic
impetus for the popularity of collectivism in China. Ironically, however, after the Reform and