Music of Xinjiang

Music of China
Timeline
General topics
Instruments Musicology Orchestra
Genres
C-pop: (Cantopop, Mandopop, Hokkien pop) Rock Heavy metal Hip hop Opera
Specific forms
Taoist music Yayue
Media and performance
Music festivals Midi Modern Music Festival Music media Radio stations China Record Corporation
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem Historical anthems Patriotic / Revolutionary March of the Volunteers Three Principles of the People
Regional music
Anhui Fujian Gansu Guangdong Guangxi Guizhou Hainan Hebei Heilongjiang Henan Hong Kong Hunan Hubei Inner Mongolia Jiangsu Jiangxi Jilin Liaoning Macau Northeast Qinghai Shandong Shaanxi Shanxi Sichuan Tibet Xinjiang Yunnan Zhejiang
v t e

There is much variation in the music of Xinjiang, including unique regional differences in

The best-known musical form of the

The sanam tradition is a kind of dance music popular among the Uyghurs, while spoken songs like Maida, Eytishish and Qoshaq are popular love songs with simple tunes.

The most popular performer of recent times is Turdi Akhun, who recorded most of the muqams in the 1950s. A regional popular music industry arose in the 1980s, alongside Deng Xiaoping's loosening of cultural restrictions. The resulting pop industry produced bands like Shireli, whose 1995 Trance 2 was a reggaeish version of a local folk song.^[2] Later prominent musicians include Pasha Isha, Äskär and his band Grey Wolf, Abdulla Abdurehim and Alim Jan, who appeared in such international releases as the soundtrack to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, where he plays the stringed rawap. Jan's father was also a renowned folk musician, known as Tursun Tanbur due to his skill with the tanbur, a stringed instrument like a lock-necked lute. Rock and heavy metal bands like Täklimakan and Riwäyat are also well known in Xinjiang, as is the flamenco guitar stylings of the Gipsy Kings.