Fusion

The concept of fusion is hot now. A new type of music which combines traditional element and modern element has shown up. Bond is an example. But what I want to talk about here is a music group named Twelve Girls Band. There are twelve female Chinese artists in this music group. They play traditional Chinese folk music instruments, but perform various music, such as classical, jazz, rock, etc. This new type of performance is an innovation, I would say, at least to Chinese people. The sound played by traditional instruments, such as erhu(Chinese violin) or guzheng(zither), is very unique and different from the sound played by western music instruments such as piano or violin. So before the appearance of Twelve Girls Band, I guess not a lot of people can imagine or link the Chinese folk traditional music to the modern western music. But Twelve Girls Band combines them well, the modern music played by traditional Chinese instruments sounds well instead of wierd.

The popularity of Twelve Girls Band shows that lots of people are able to accept the idea of fusion in music. Although their performance is controversial in professional field, I'd say it is not a bad phenomenon. No matter what kind of form music is played, as long as it can touch people and bring us enjoyment, it is valuable. In addition, their perfomance is pretty cool.

Twelve Girls Band makes the world know Chinese folk music and Chinese traditional music instruments. Their CDs are realeased in different languages in different countries. It also makes Chinese people to rethink and refocus on our tradition. In fact, Chinese folk music is not that popular compared to modern or pop music. People who can play traditional Chinese music instruments are not a lot. The popularity of Twelve Girls Band makes traditional Chinese music instruments popular, too. Chinese tradition is well expressed by them.