Mapping China's music culture to give overlooked R&B artists a stage through a Converse music variety show
Small Sounds Big
Converse wanted to return to its roots: music. But it had been over ten years since the brand's last music platform, Love Noise, and there was no clear starting point for picking that thread back up.
To find out where Converse could actually matter, we went deep into China's music culture itself. We interviewed musicians across genres, record label founders, music critics, streaming platform leads, and fans nationwide, mapping the culture across five lenses: the culture, the creators, the fandom, the experience, and the channels. The goal wasn't a brand campaign. It was to find the white space where Converse could make a real difference, not just show up.
What we found was a system working against its own talent. Making and releasing music had gotten easier, but getting discovered had gotten harder. Musicians were leaning on variety shows for exposure, but those shows were built almost entirely around hip hop and bands, leaving every other genre with nowhere to go. That gap became the opportunity. We proposed Converse launch an inclusive music variety show built for R&B artists specifically, giving a genre with real talent and no platform a stage to finally be seen.
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