THE days of choral music as a means of propaganda may be counted. Increasingly, young, modern bands adapt the style, and their audience and stages are getting bigger and bigger.

Earlier this week, a video clip of the Rainbow Chamber Singers performing “The Song of Five-ring Road” went viral on the Internet. During a recent concert in Beijing, the Shanghai-based amateur chorus adapted the Chinese movie music into a choral song. The audience loved it, and their video has received about 700,000 views in four days on bilibili.tv, a popular online streaming website.

The song’s success comes on the heels of a video that shows Rainbow performing “Where the hell did you take my keys, Zhang Shichao” in Shanghai. Since its release in January, the clip garnered some 900 million views online, according to the latest figures by search engine provider Baidu Inc. Jin Chengzhi, conductor of the chorus, wrote the song in three hours after his roommate Zhang Shichao had left with the keys to their shared apartment.

Within 10 hours, the song became a sensation, with some 100,000 views on bilibili.tv. The lyrics are catchy, the rhythm is stimulating, and pop songs and film soundtracks are part of the mix. Rainbow’s July concert at Shanghai Oriental Art Center was sold out in 43 minutes, “a record of choral music concert (in China),” Jin wrote on his Sina Weibo page.

Rainbow’s rise to fame has caused ripples through the industry, and has put other chorus and choir groups in the spotlight as well.

“All of a sudden I also received media calls, asking me about Rainbow,” said Hong Chuan, conductor and art director of Shanghai-based Echo Chamber Singers, who is a friend of Jin.

While most choruses in China, either professional or amateur, are sponsored or subsidized, independent ones have recently entered the stage, including Rainbow and Echo, also based in Shanghai.

Although their songs have gone viral online some critics argue that the songs are “vulgar and unfit” for choral music. “Controversial things are often meaningful,” Hong said during a recent interview with Shanghai Daily.

“Songs like this go back to the very forms when music originated. People went to the theater for live performances before wire recorders were invented; they wrote music based on daily life, like cantatas.

“Works based on life must have a strong vitality, which, in this case, has proved to be a market success,” he added.

There’s a danger of being stereotyped, Hong said. “People will have great expectation for works like this, but they will only be one or two in a concert to enliven the atmosphere,” he explained.

“I am glad he (Jin) knows clearly what he wants and will stick to theatrical performances,” Hong said.

Jin, when talking to Shanghai Daily, said he has no fear of people putting a label on him, adding that expectation drives people into the theater. “I told the audience at our last concert that if they want to hear works like ‘Zhang Shichao,’ they have to be patient and sit through the whole concert,” he recalled.

They did. “If songs like these can interest them in our other works, the efforts paid off,” Jin said.

Both Echo and Rainbow started on campus. Initiated by eight students, including Jin, who majored in conducting at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Rainbow now developed into a 40-member chamber chorus. Half on the chorus are students from a dozen Shanghai colleges.

Established in 2009, Echo was originally formed by a group of Fudan University students who had already joined the school’s choir but wanted to try “something different.”

In the past, choral music has been widely used as a means of propaganda. Common choral works the Chinese audiences are exposed to include revolutionary songs and so-called “evening songs,” which often praise the government and socio-economic development.

Although the students enjoyed singing as a group, the type of songs and their themes weren’t to their liking as they lacked the melodic appeal of international choir music, Hong said.

After Hong took over the baton, the chorus has been performing a series of choral works from the West. The Western alternatives, he said, are growing in popularity.

In 2012, Echo won the silver medal at the 11th China International Choral Festival in Beijing. Five years after they started, they gave their first ticket-selling concert at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.

Today, the choir counts about 100 members, with a chamber of 40 people. They have released CDs, are regular guests at He Lu-Ting Concert Hall of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and now hold concerts every six months.

A long way to go

Professionalism and the willingness to rehearse on a regular basis are essential to the success of both groups, the two conductors agree.

Echo rehearses about 16 times before they take a new show to the stage, which is “just about enough,” Hong said.

They are strict about attendance. Members with a poor attendance record aren’t allowed to perform on stage. Members of Rainbow are required to hand in a vocal “homework,” which is part of the evaluation that decides whether the singer will get to perform publicly or not.

In the first couple of years, Echo had to rely on donations. Now, they can cover basic expenses for each of their concerts, but still struggle to make ends meet.

“A chorus has a limited business value. The expenses of going on a tour are too high to be covered only by ticket sales,” he explained. “You have to sit in on a live show to fully get the appeal of a chamber choir. Nothing can completely represent the audio or even visual effects on site. Chamber choirs can be staged in a concert hall with an audience of no more than 2,000 people, or else the experience will be affected,” he said.

However, Hong never considered chorus a “marginalized” style of music. The audience, he says, is out there.

“It’s just that they have little access to high-quality choir performances,” he said, adding that choir music has a universal appeal.

Even if someone hasn’t been exposed to much music, a good choir will gives people goose bumps, he said.

In 2011, Hong gave a speech on choir music at Shanghai Oriental Arts Center. While he was talking, he had signers perform a some chords from Canon D.

Afterwards, people approached him to tell him that they never thought that chorus music could be so “melodic.”

A failure to understand the needs of the audience is one of the major hurdles of Chinese classic music, said Jin. “There is no help for feeling superior and keeping your distance,” he added.

He is planning a concert designed especially for children. “Children are usually a pain in the ass in theater. Why not just give them a concert of their own?” he said.

Hong said his dream is for Echo to one day stage a concert featuring new Chinese choral works. “Echo would like to invite talented composers to write songs, not just for Echo but for all choruses in China — songs the current market will accept and applaud,” he said.

At the moment, that doesn’t really exist, he said, but Echo’s resident composer, Pan Xingzimin, is among the few who have given it a shot.

In their upcoming concert at He Lu-Ting Concert Hall on May 29, Echo will, for the first time, perform Pan’s modern Chinese choral works.