Chinese songs irk tunesmiths

A group of conservative Chinese songwriters has denounced the emergence of “vulgar” pop music on the Internet that they say is poisoning youth with weird lyrics and lustful themes.

The 40 composers, some of who have written songs for Peng Liyuan, a famous singer married to Shanghai Communist Party boss Xi Jinping, signed a petition calling for a boycott of unhealthy online music and vowed to improve young people’s music appreciation through their own “outstanding” output.

“Music workers should . . . resist the incursion of unseemly content, abandon vulgarity . . . and work hard to compose outstanding online works that the people, and especially the broader youth, love to hear,” a transcript of the petition carried by the official People’s Daily Website said.

China’s censors have failed to control the Internet, despite a massive surveillance machine and government campaigns to stamp out “unhealthy content.”