Showstart Honors Best Bands of 2017 With Live Power Awards and 3 Days of Gigs, Jan 12-14
Over the past few years, Taihe Music Group (TMG) has grown to become one of the largest music companies in China, essentially integrating the music industry's upstream and downstream resources through massive mergers (such as their landmark merger with Baidu Music in 2015) and acquisitions of all sorts (such as the prolific Maybe Mars label and the online radio platform Lava Radio). For me though, and millions of other music lovers, the real game changer has been the company’s online ticketing service and app Showstart, where you can find and purchase tickets for just any given show across China.
Since its introduction two years ago, the platform has been building a steady reputation thanks to its easy to navigate menu, it’s quick and efficient pay method, and most importantly it’s cohesive, vast cataloging of events within any given city (not to mention they emerged at the perfect moment as Wechat wallet and Alipay become ubiquitous). As a way to promote their own platform and to build their fanbase, Showstart itself has organized over a thousand shows across the country (without taking a cut from the profits). And from the looks it – an increase from 10,000 subscribers to 50,000 in just the last year – it’s been a massive success.
To celebrate their newfound success and further prominence in the music industry, Showstart and Taihe Music Group have put together the 2017 Live Power Awards (LPA), highlighting some of the platform’s most popular bands and artists from the past year (based on the site’s statistics and ticket sale numbers).
For the shows, there are some stellar nominated acts involved (which you can read in full here or listed below), and while the ‘Most Popular’ category is brimming with the usual suspects (Buyi, Miserable Faith, SMZB, Twisted Machine), it’s in the categories for ‘Best in Scene’ and ‘Most Potential’ that we see true contenders emerge. Those include Wuhan emo rock sensations Chinese Football, Dalian post-rockers Wang Wen (pictured at top), Beijing ska punk up-and-comers Underdog, electronic duo Earsnail, and Chengdu hip-hop breakthroughs Higher Brothers.
Although voting in the awards is limited to venue owners and organizers, with an awards ceremony being held on Jan 11, the true payout for us fans is the stretch of shows from Jan 12-14 where the winners of each of the categories (indie, punk, folk, rock, metal, hip-hop) will perform at venues such as Omni Space, Yugong Yishan, and Tango Live. Just looking at the list of nominees, no matter who emerges victorious, these are gonna to be some killer lineups and a hell of a way to break in 2018.
Showstart will be busy busy busy in 2018 – besides the LPA Awards, they’ll be bringing Australian hardcore group Scrotal Vice in January and are aiming to bring over both Ride and Wolf Alice in the first half of the year. Check their website for full listings as they come.
To buy tickets for the Jan 12-14 shows (RMB 100-180), click here. Otherwise, browse the full list of nominees via Showstart's official WeChat post, here.
LFA Nominations
Most Popular
Folk: Landlord’s Cat, Hua Zhou, Xie Chun Hua
Rock: Buyi, Mr. Deer, Miserable Faith
Punk: Reflector, SMZB, Finger Family
Metal: Nine Treasures, Twisted Machine, The Samans
Hip-hop: C-Block, 独壹不贰ONO厂牌, Higher Brothers
Indie: Sun of Morning, Sunset Rollercoaster, Suzi & The Paramecia
Jazz: Hot Club of Beijing, Mr.Miss, Zhang Le
Electronic: Carta, JungleMico Project, Liang Huan
Best in Scene
Folk: Dawn Moon Boss, Zhang Weiwei & Guo Long, Zhao Zhao
Rock: Re-TROS, Mosaic, ST.OL.EN
Punk: Reflector, SMZB, Finger Family
Metal: Nine Treasures, Die From Sorrow, Left Right
Hip-hop: C-Block, Higher Brothers, Shuangzi
Indie: Sparrow, Wang Wen, Zhaoze
Jazz: The Red Groove Project, J3, Li Xiaochuan
Electronic: Mars Radio, JUNGLEMICO PROJECT, Nova Heart
Most Potential
Folk: Cha Jiyang, Chefs & Actors, Zhang Yao
Rock: Chinese Football, Mercader, Penicillin
Punk: Underdog, Shave 'N' Shut, The Demonstrators
Metal: Laisee, Dark Haze , Mysterain
Hip-hop: Dungeon Beijing, Gosh, N/U
Indie: Sixi , Suzi & The Paramecia, Trains Lying on Tracks
Jazz: Mr.Miss, SEESAW, Xiongguan Zhang
Electronic: Earsnail, LOFIMAKER, Xu Mengyuan
Images: Live Beijing Music, Showstart
