In 1986, Jen Chiang-Ta, Ho Ying-yi, Wang Ming-hui, and Cheng Ganghui formed the record appreciation club Wax Club. The following year, Crystal Audio Publishing (referred to as “Crystal Records”) was established, and the Crystal Records Fan Club was initiated in 1995, just nine years later. In retrospect, one can’t help but wonder: how did Crystal Records, praised for being “Operates Beyond the Vulgar,” experience both glorious success and operational challenges from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s?
During this interview, Crystal Records founder Jen Chiang-Ta traced the cultural Cold War and neoliberalism from the 1970s to the 1980s on a global scale. He candidly mentioned that in the early 1990s, Crystal Records faced the monopolistic power of transnational capital. In the non-commercial public sphere in Taiwan, there was a sharp decline, leading to the monopoly of music promotion channels by capital-oriented logic. This, in turn, resulted in a decrease in sales for Crystal Records, which was not oriented towards commercial or entertainment purposes. In a vicious cycle, Crystal Records encountered an operational crisis crucial to its survival in the mid-1990s.
Supplemented by this in-depth interviews with Jen Chiang-Ta, this section, “Operates Beyond the Vulgar: Crystal Records,” excerpts publications from the 1980s issued by Crystal Records, including “Wax Club” (August 1986 to February 1987), “The Rocker” Magazine (June 1987 to probably 1991), and the program booklet for the “Taipei New Music Seminar” (1987 to 1990).
Interview with Jen Chiang-Ta
Jen Chiang-Ta talks about Crystal Records Wax Club, “Taipei New Music Seminar”, and Crystal Records’ awareness of establishing a “public archive” in the 1990s (“Sounds from Taiwan’s Underclass” “Sound of Taiwan: The Taiwan Sound Archive” quarterly , “Index Crystal” Blog, and the wave of mergers and acquisitions in the global music market that occurred at the same time.
Interviewer Yeh Hsing-Jou.
Time: August 18, 2023.
Wax Club
The predecessor of “The Rocker” was a vinyl listening club called Wax Club, which was established in 1986. The Wax Club published a magazine with four pages, introducing the foreign campus ranking bands and independent music circles at that time, and placed it in record stores for free access. The main members of Wax Club included Jen Chiang-Ta (the overseas manager of 金聲唱片 [predecessor of PolyGram]), Cheng Ganghui(overseas manager of Crystal Records), Wang Minghui the overseas manager of Rolling Stone Records), Ho Yingyi (was writing a “Western Music Review” column for the Min Sheng Daily and Independence Evening Post). These four people regularly hold record appreciation sessions called Wax Shows.
Excerpted from: “Index Crystal” Blog.
Digital file provided by: Ho Yingyi.
