The Flowers
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| Name(s): | The Flowers, Flowers Band, 花儿乐队 |
| Abbreviation(s): | |
| Scope/Focus: | |
| Date(s): | 1998-present |
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The Flowers were a Chinese pop punk band that was active between 1998 and 2009. When they started out in 1998, the band had three members, two of whom (Da Zhang Wei and Guo Yang) were teenagers; their third member, Wang Wenbo, was 20 years old. Later, a fourth member, Shi Xingyu, joined the band in 2001.
After releasing their first record in 1999, The Flowers quickly gained a large fan following among Chinese teenagers, who enjoyed their accessible, direct pop punk style. They have been called China's "first famous adolescent band".[1] According to China Internet Information Centre:
Flowers quickly became known as the voice of China's youth, and they certainly [gave] some disaffected Chinese youth a resonant voice. Teenagers around the country were deeply affected by their songs and felt that Flowers' lyrics reflected their own life experiences[1]
Influenced by western pop punk bands like Green Day and Blink-182, The Flowers have been credited with popularising punk in China,[2] although their music always contained strong elements of pop, and was not in any way political. Later, the band diversified into genres like hip-hop and techno.
The band was dogged by controversy in its later years, facing multiple accusations of plagiarism from overseas bands (including Japanese duo Puffy AmiYumi). In 2007, the band got into a fight in a Beijing restaurant, during which lead singer Da Zhang Wei hit guitarist Shi Xingyu. Shi was to depart the band in the summer of 2008; The Flowers disbanded a year later.
Their major hits are still widely recognised in China today and are popular choices at karaoke.
External Links
- 花儿乐队吧 (The Flowers board), a Flowers discussion board on Baidu
- The Flowers fanworks on AO3
References
- ^ a b An Adolescent Band -- Flowers , China Internet Information Centre. Published August 10, 2004 (Accessed August 22, 2021).
- ^ The Flowers - From punk pop to hip hop, Pietra Niemi, GBtimes (Archived link). Published March 7, 2008 (Archived October 8, 2016).