Let’s Immerse in the Ocean of Music
Are you a music lover? Do you wear your earphone whenever
and wherever you go? If your answers to the questions above are yes, then you
will definitely be interested in our plan today. On a beautiful afternoon, we
decided to spend our day immersed in the world of music, so our destination
today was the record store.
Record Stores in Taiwan
Record stores are also a popular place for people in Taiwan in the 80s. Unlike people nowadays, listening to music was not that convenient at that time. If people want to listen to music, people nowadays can just simply take out their phones and open the music apps, and then they can enjoy the music immediately. Moreover, they can listen to diverse genres of music through the same device or the same app.
However, back then, people had to select and buy the cassettes they want and play them through the cassette players. The different situation makes it reasonable that physical record store nowadays is not as prevalent as it was in the 80s. Despite the decreasing popularity of record stores, we can still find them in Taiwan. For example, today we want to introduce you to one of the record stores in Taipei city, Five Music.
"Five Music" Record Store
Located in Ximending, a lively district in Taipei, Five Music appeals to students and music lovers. When we stepped into the store, we saw various posters and albums on the shelves. Due to globalization, people have more options for music, and we can enjoy music from all over the world. Five Music has well categorized its products and put them into different sections, so we can easily find the music genres that we are interested in.
As we wandered around in the store, we found that most albums here tend to contain many additional commodities. For example, we might obtain a poster or a small card of the singer when we purchase an album, which seems to be a modern trend. This trend relates to the difference that I mentioned earlier. Nowadays, people can simply access music through electronic devices, and it is unnecessary to buy a physical form of music; therefore, the reasons for people purchasing albums or CDs is no longer the music itself but the value in the collection, and thus the merchandise in an album is to create the additional value. What's more, the media of music we found in Five Music varied. Besides the form of CDs, people now can also purchase albums that offer the form of USB. In this way, it is easier for people to carry the albums because of the small size of the medium.
FIVE MUSIC Record Store
Address: 2F., No. 18, Sec. 2, Wuchang St., Wanhua Dist., Taipei City
Opening Hours: 10:30-22:30
The Memories of Cassettes
On the other hand, unlike people in modern society, due to the poorer accessibility of music, people who lived in the 80s depended a lot on the physical record store, and the popular media of music was cassettes. You might have seen cassettes in TV dramas, heard of them from your parents, or you even had the experience of using them. Cassette is almost a symbol in the 80s in Taiwan. Without a fancy design and various additional merchandise, the cassette is just a small box that we can hold with one hand. When we put it into a cassette player and press the "play" button, we can see the gears slowly rolling, and we can change into the other side of the cassette when we finish one. If we want to listen again, we need to roll the scroll wheel backward with our finger or a pen. Even though it may seem to be a bit troublesome, but it also adds a sense of ceremony to our life.
Unfortunately, according to the information on wikipedia [1], the popularity of cassettes has been decreasing since the end of 1980. After the invention of a new music medium, CD, people change their ways to listen to music because CDs are more convenient to use. Since 1990, cassettes have gradually become history in Taiwan.
"Indimusic" Record Store
In addition to the Five Music record store, we also visited the Indimusic record store, which is located in Daan district in Taipei city. Compared with the Five Music record store, Indimusic is more similar to the record stores in the 80s. The design of Indimusic is like a library, and the shelves are full of every kind of CD. Here, we didn't see albums with abundant merchandise or USBs; instead, there were only various CDs available for the customers. As mentioned, the CDs in Indimusic were piled together like the books in libraries, so we had to patiently view every shelf to see whether there was anything that we wanted. Hence, this record store is suitable for people who happen to have leisure time and don't know how to kill the time. We also found some vinyl records here, which is a symbolic element in the 80s as well. Therefore, if you like to collect old CDs or vinyl records, you might as well come here and take a look. You may find your own treasure here.
INDIMUSIC Record Store
Address: 3F., No. 297-5, Sec. 3, Roosevelt Rd., Da'an Dist., Taipei City
Opening Hours:
Monday: 12:30-21:00
Wednesday-Friday: 12:30-21:00
Saturday-Sunday: 13:30-22:00
"Kind of Blue" Record Store
For those people who want to know more about the culture of the record store in the 80s or those who want to collect cassettes for memories, you are recommended that you go to Taichung and visit "Kind of Blue" record store, which is a store that only sells cassettes. Kind of Blue record store was originally a pop-up shop that only opened temporarily; however, the shop manager wanted to preserve this commemorative shop and share the memories with more people, so it became a long lasted store we see now. Even though people may think cassettes are outdated, it is always meaningful to preserve memories and to share to story with the next generations, and I believe it is the original intention of this record store. [2]
Kind of Blue Record Store
Address: No. 12, Ln. 564, Sec. 1, Meicun Rd., West Dist., Taichung City
Opening Hours: 13:00-21:00
Today, we have introduced to you lots of record stores and the culture of music in the 80s in Taiwan. So, if you are a music lover, or you are interested in Taiwan's culture in the 80s, please join us, and visit these fabulous places to have a romantic date back to the 80s.
Written by
Joy Kuo