With clenched fists filled with innovation and inspiration, underground music takes on convention in order to become the much-needed blood transfusion to sustain the longevity of popular music.

In all of China, there is perhaps no underground scene more ready or eager to force itself to the surface than that now playing in Xi'an.

This weekend's Fourth Annual Xi'an Popular Music Festival will be the coronation of the ancient capital's next rock generation.

Yang Fan of sucker performing at Moonkey Bar, Xi'an. [Global Times]

The Xi'an Popular Music Festival will tap the city's deep wells of underground talent, producing an event unlike any other seen in the city before.

Held at the Qujiang International Exhibition Center, ticket holders will get to see 40 bands spread over three days from June 26 to 28, with 15 of the bands representing universities throughout the city.

Not only will the festival host a congress of rock bands, but in true full-fledged festival style, it will also include extreme sports demonstrations, breakdancing crews, DJs, mic-battles, paintball teams, graffiti artists and other newly emerging subcultures in China.

The festival's mission statement is to get as many sides as possible into this snapshot of Xi'an youth culture, "using music as its subject, and culture as the background".

The festival's promoter, ChinaPai, has engineered the event from the standpoint of both the concertgoer and the local musician.

"We wanted to give Xi'an rock a stage to stand on, bring the underground above, and give them a chance that we didn't have in the past" says Zhang Lei, ChinaPai promotion director and former-lead singer of now disbanded Xi'an metal band Cankered Corpse. "The only thing that Xi'an musicians lack is exposure,"

Zhang continues, "and since 2003 we've been trying to provide that."

In most cases, underground music scenes are slow to garner support, struggling for air in an either hostile or indifferent environment. But Xi'an has had, in one form or another, a notable scene since the early 90s.

By the time ChinaPai promoted their first all-day event, organized by Xi'an rock veteran He Xiaoqiang in 2004, over 1,000 people showed up to unite in something they believed in, and the events just kept getting bigger.

"In 2007, our third ChinaPai event, the police came and shut us down. Over 10 bands didn't even get to play," Zhang recalls. "But it wasn't because we were too loud or anything, we were just too many."

By late afternoon, the crowd had swelled to an impressive 5,000, and the fans kept coming. "It was a capacity issue, the police just were concerned for everyone's safety." The large turnout was also partly due to the cooperation of Xi'an television and local radio stations covering the event and offering promotion spots. A far cry from paying out-of-pocket, the event has even drummed up enough attention for corporate sponsorship from the likes of Pepsi and Coors Light, among others.

Partly due to its successful establishment as a music center, Xi'an is now abound with music festivals large and small, where hundreds to thousands of kids in Ramones T-shirts and chain wallets line up in support of their local scene. Just last month, Xi'an hosted the "More and More Happy-Zhang Guan Li Dai" Music Festival, which brought in some of China's biggest national acts, including Beijing's Joyside, AK-47 as well as headliners Second-Hand Rose.

Although ChinaPai was not the main promoter of the event, it relished in what could be considered a class reunion of sorts. "We all know each other from back in the day, one way or another," Zhang said. More importantly, ChinaPai wanted to give local bands exposure to and a chance to play with these seasoned national acts. Zhang added, "This event was also about exchanging, giving everyone a chance to get together, learning from one another, and strengthening the rock community."

In the empire that is Chinese Rock, Xi'an is the undisputed northwestern capital. During early to mid 90's, the city produced some of China's most famed breakthrough rock artists – Xu Wei, Zhang Chu and Zheng Jun (aka Michael Zheng). Hailing a style that developed independently from other Chinese rock centers, Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha, Wuhan and Chengdu, Xi'an burrowed deep into the culture of the northwest and fostered its unique raw style.

The universities also provide fertile soil for developing new music. Xi'an has over 35 major colleges and universities, with a student population of over 300,000 – supplying deep wells from which to draw talent.

"Most of us didn't have such a wide range of exposure to different bands like in the West," said Yang Fan, lead singer and guitarist for Xi'an punk band, Sucker, set to play this weekend's festival.

"So, we kind of fill the rest in with our own creativity and energy," he added.

Surprisingly, this youth music hub still does not have a rock label promoting local talent.

"Most releases are like ours, all DIY," Yang explains.

Nevertheless, the future of Xi'an's popular music scene, like that of the other major music centers in China, is bright. Rich with style, spirit and the strength to "do-it-oneself", the Xi'an scene will only continue to mature and one day will be impossible to ignore.

(Global Times June 23, 2009)