Compared with historical genres like kunqu or even suju, the ballad genre jingyun dagu-literally, Beijing tune with big drum-emerged much later and has always been largely favored by the ordinary people, not the social elite. Ballads with drum accompaniment were widespread in Northern China, with around fifty recorded subgenres that share their repertoires, singing patterns, and musical structures, and differ from one another in use of dialect and local musical materials. Although its history can be traced back to the mid-Qing dynasty, jingyun dagu, as we recognize it today, was actually formed in the Republican period (1912-49), with Liu Baoquan a key pioneer. His Liu style (school) is represented by his works 'Came to Fight Alone' and the 'Battle of Changsha'. A more narrative style of jingyun dagu can be seen in performances by Bai Yunpeng (1874-1952). Bai's repertory included many historical stories, such as The Three Kingdoms, A Dream of Red Mansions, and Lady Mengjiang. Bai also attracted rural audiences from Hebei province, outside Beijing, by adding lyrics in their local accents.

A group of female jingyun dagu performers became prominent in the 1930s and 1940s around Tianjin and Beijing, and they gradually overshadowed the male performers mentioned earlier. One such figure is Luo Yusheng (1914-2002). Luo combined styles from Liu Baoquan and Bai Yunpeng, while adding her own vocal characteristics, to form the Luo style. After the founding of the People Republic of China, Luo's performing style was adapted to became more vigorous and her content was updated to reflect the new political themes and positive outlook of the new era.

The lines of a jingyun dagu ballad usually consist of seven or ten Chinese characters (each character has one syllable). Each performer had their own distinct way of constructing texts with lines of ten syllables and patterns (for a ten-syllable line) such as 3/4/3, 3/3/4, and 3/2/2/3. Sometimes, performers add an extra 3 or 4 syllables in front of, in the middle of, or after the main line. Additionally, singers use their awareness of the linguistic tones of the dialect they are working with to heighten the musical feel of each verse (Yuan 2000: 164-176; Cai and Wu 1998: 133-135).

The classical jingyun dagu piece 'Hearing the Bell at Jianmen Gate' narrates a tragic love story involving the Tang dynasty emperor Xuanzong. Performed by Luo Yusheng since the 1940s, it is representative of her style. Its five-part form is comprised of sections entitled 'Review', 'Narration', 'Sadness', 'Regret', and 'Pain'. It is worth noting that the performer shifts among different perspectives as the story progresses: as a narrator in reviewing and telling the story, then as the first person (Emperor Xuanzong), and, at the very end, back to narrator again.