ROCK music has been officially recognized in China, even though it has been entertaining legions of fans across the country for several decades.

The state-run Beijing Musicians Association recently established a rock arm, with a national tour set to kick off next month. It will celebrate what is considered the 30th anniversary of rock music in China.

It’s been a rocky history for the music genre in a country where society was slow to embrace what was once branded Western decadence. Nowadays, however, there are dozens of outdoor music festivals featuring popular rock musicians. Bands and singers are frequent guests on reality TV shows. Eager fans collect pictures, gossip and merchandise related to their favorite rock celebrities.

However, the domestic rock music industry has never had it easy. Just ask Cui Jian, who is often called “the father of Chinese rock.”

In the early 1980s, when he was just into his 20s, Cui was first introduced to rock through recordings smuggled in from Hong Kong and Bangkok. Inspired by the likes of Simon and Garfunkel, he taught himself to play the guitar.

In 1986, at age 25, he played in a Beijing concert honoring the International Year of Peace. Wearing plain clothes and strumming his guitar, Cui sang “Nothing to My Name.” The appearance shot him to stardom and became what is now considered the birth of rock in China. Three years later, he released his first real album, entitled “Rock and Roll on the New Long March.”

The years that followed were heady for rock lovers, even though the music was considered decadent by many older people. Cui himself fell in and out of favor with officialdom.

“It was like a secret society,” Yang Haisong, chief executive of Maybe Mars Records, told Shanghai Daily in a phone interview. “Cassettes sold very well, but there was almost nothing about rock in the mainstream media.”

As China opened its doors wider to Western culture and ideas, young fans embraced the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other international rock groups. Domestic musicians tried to emulate the popular sounds.

Yang, a native of Nanjing, said he started listening to rock music in 1993, and started his own band PK 14 in 1997 as vocalist.

The band attracted a following and became a role model for young wannabe musicians.

Yang said he still remembers “the good old days,” when the band lived in a village in suburban Beijing and performed music day and night, even though the band members barely had the money to feed themselves.

“The industry and market are more commercialized today,” Yang said. “That may give musicians more opportunities, but for me, the genre has become too popularized to be fun. I still think the spirit of a rebel should always sit at the heart of rock music.”

Moving into the mainstream may have taken a certain edginess out of rock, but commercialization provided today’s rockers with more diversified sources of income.

“One thing is certain — the overall environment is so much better today than 10 or 20 years ago,” said Zhang Fan, founder of the Midi Music Festival, one of the earliest and largest of its kind.

“There are dozens of music festivals all around the country,” he said. “Tours over the entire year, live performances, road shows and even reality shows on TV. You can also compose for commercial ads, work with stage dramas and teach because more kids are learning guitar now.”

The Midi Festival, which started in the canteen of a Beijing music school 16 years ago, has now become a brand for a series of concerts every year. In recent years, Zhang has begun collaborating with local governments in Suzhou and Shenzhen as festivals become tourism spinners.

“The government has given more support in recent years as part of its cultural policies,” Zhang said. “In the cases of Suzhou and Shenzhen, the local governments provide financial support and leave the programming decisions to us.”

Companies, too, are eager to sponsor rock events as a way of marketing products or profile.

“When we started the music school 23 years ago and then the festival 16 years ago, nobody dared to go on television calling themselves as rock musician,” Zhang said. “Now it’s no big thing. We have come a long way.”

The big question: Is rock music on the cusp of the kind of big wave of popularity that has swept through the film industry?

“We have more platforms for rock music nowadays, like music festivals and reality TV shows,” Yang said. “But these opportunities don’t necessarily transform into big sales numbers. The traditional model for recording companies means all revenue comes from the music. We are exploring more channels to make money, including a more systemic way of marketing merchandise.”

In Yang’s youth, most rockers didn’t have or couldn’t find jobs. Income from musical gigs was limited.

“We were very idealistic and serious about music,” he said. “Kids today are also idealistic, but they also have a better grasp of finances, especially in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing. They are more relaxed about music.”

Today, young bands can communicate through the Internet, looking for job opportunities in the industry. Some band members even hold down full-time jobs unrelated to the music industry.

Many college students who form bands during their campus life turn to more serious jobs after graduation.

“It was a special period of my life, but it couldn’t go on forever,” said Matt Zhang, a 32-year-old software engineer who played bass in a few bands in his early 20s. “I always loved rock music, but I also knew that I couldn’t sacrifice my whole life for it.”

Others, like Li Qing, have stuck it out in the industry.

“I don’t want to repeat the classic story that I’ve had enough fun with a band, so now it’s time to find a proper job and live a normal life,” said Li, a rock musician who also works for the Ruby Eyes label.

She played drums in the band Carsick Cars and went on to play with other groups, including Snapline and Soviet Pop.

“But I’m not so optimistic about the future,” she admitted.

The heady days of 10 years ago, when she and other musicians experimented with new sounds and adapted what they heard online into adventurous variations are fading.

“It was quite a lot of fun,” she said. “But now, the concept of Chinese rock is actually narrower. It has been popularized. It is no longer strange and exciting. It has been homogenized into a standard style.”

It remains to be seen how the new affiliation with the Beijing Musicians Association will affect the industry. Perhaps, as the Beatles once crooned, it’s nice to have “a little help from my friends.”