All of them have lived in China for generations. Every one of them has its own traditional music which is more or less different from every other group's. The most numerous of all the groups is the Han, who make up over 90 percent of all Chinese. Sadly, I know nothing about the music of China's minority peoples, except that it is very different from that of the Han. Secondly, recent Han music has been strongly influenced by western music.
Pop bands use largely western instrumentation and processing techniques.
All of these are attempts to adapt thousands of years of tradition to the new circumstances which every one faces in industrial and post-industrial societies. But they are not what I want to discuss. As will be seen, Han music to a large extent lacks harmony. It has little triple or compound rhythm. Many of its vocal forms seem to aim deliberately for shrillness and to be punctuated by, more frenzied than rhythmic, banging on drums, clappers, cymbals and gongs.