Songs of innocence from the campus folk music era This crop of songs came from a generation of young people who picked up battered old guitars and sang about whatever was on their minds. Often the themes were sensitive and melancholy, but often also idealistic and high-minded. The music spoke of youth and its inexplicable discontent. The music was neither Western nor overflowing with the sweetness often encountered in Chinese musical traditions. Instead the songs were pages from the lives of young people, their touching stories carried by the varied styles of the new music. Listening to them takes one back to the purity and innocence of the 1970s. These are songs like “Olive Tree,” which carries one off to distant and exotic places; “Autumn Cicada,” gathering up the memories of the past; or “Farewell, Cambridge,” which recalls the lost joys and forgotten cares of the old times.