By Wong J-min, Muhammad A'qasha Bin Sabruddin, Phua Jian Le
Roxy Record's interior. Being the oldest record store in Singapore, how have they survived the music business and continue to thrive? (PHOTO: Muhammad A'qasha)
When he was 20, Tan E-Reng bought his first vinyl record - Pet Shop Boys’ Disco, meant to be a gift for his father. “Funnily enough, the vinyl renaissance bug never caught my dad,” E-Reng says, “so I ended up being the one listening to the record more.”
Now aged 24, he boasts a collection of 121 records, spanning from classics like “the odd The Police record” to rarities like vaporwave classic Floral Shoppe. “I have always just felt an affinity with having a physical copy of something, be it with books, music, or art,” explains Tan. A student, his part time job as a music production teacher helps to fund the collection.
A part of Tan's collection, a pink splatter vinyl from the soundtrack from Neon Genesis Evangelion. (PHOTO: Tan E-Reng)
Tan is not the only one amassing records - a quick Google search and a scroll through a listicle on cool things to do in Singapore - there is an abundance of record stores to find in Singapore. It is not just a haven for hipsters, jazz lovers, indie kids, but has also been a long time haunt for lovers of nostalgia and hi-fi enthusiasts. There is indeed a reemerging market for vinyl records in Singapore, riding the wave of vinyl’s popularity since the 2010s.
According to Luminate Data, a data provider for the music industry, vinyl record sales have been increasing every year for more than 10 years in a row. In the US, vinyl sales have overtaken CD sales for the first time in 30 years. In the UK, vinyl sales are set to overtake CD sales in 2022. Although there are no available datasets available for Singapore specifically, the ongoing vinyl boom can be seen in the numerous record stores that pop up in areas like Kampung Glam, Peninsula Plaza, and Joo Chiat, each catering to a different audience.
Singapore record stores on keeping up with the trend
Roxy Records & Trading is the oldest record store in Singapore, having being founded exactly 60 years ago. Located in Excelsior Shopping Centre, the family business is a direct continuation from Singapore’s musical past. The reason that Roxy is still alive and kicking today - monthly shipments with the latest hip records and an ordering service for any music lover to get their fill.
Roxy Records & Trading's storefront. They have been a staple for record collectors in Singapore for 60 years. (PHOTO: Muhammad A'qasha)
“Honestly, young people who come to my store order things like Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift and similar artists,” says Paul Ling, one of the brothers in the 2nd generation running the business.
“It’s a cycle… vinyls became popular again and then pop artists start producing vinyls to meet the demand and it just keeps rising.” As a record store owner and managing customers’ preorders, Ling has witnessed the sale of vinyl “goodie bags”, limited-run packages or additional merchandise - his most memorable being the “Madonna 6LP box set which cost around US$160 and has a much higher resale value”.
There is something to be said about “stan culture” - the phenomenon bearing an Eminem song’s name and becoming prominent in the late 2010s. The portmanteau between “stalker” and “fan”, being an online stan of a celebrity has become much more commonplace towards the tail end of 2014 and 2015.
Essentially, stan culture’s explosion on the internet resulted in a bigger market for musicians to sell things to. There’s a reason why the top selling vinyl records in 2021 belong to the likes of pop kings and queens like Adele, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish. Pop stans buy these vinyls, not merely content with streaming. According to the New York Times, the main factor for albums to go number 1 on a chart is physical sales, where stans’ purchasing of their favourite artist’s records have a tangible impact on pop culture as a whole.
Do people purchase pop records here? Yes, says Gen Z record store Wildflower Waxed Co. “Actually, around 40% of my sales are strictly pop albums,” says Ashley Wong, 19, owner of Wildflower.
Passionate about music? Express it through your collection!
Wong started Wildflower on Carousell halfway through her polytechnic studies as a side hustle. “It was an extension of my music writing and music taste,” she says. The way that Wildflower works is that Wong stocks a selected list of records, a mix of current in-demand pop as well as more niche ones. On the site, Wong’s own picks include modern soul, a dance act from Belfast, as well as The Strokes’ new album.
“I curated Wildflower in a very peculiar way because it was never meant to be a business. It was meant to be my passion project mixed with certain entrepreneurial and creative goals that I wanted to complete before I ended school. The records I stock hinge a lot on just the music that I’m exposed to and aware of, and music that I want to elevate to a larger scene amongst Singaporeans.”
Ashley Wong, owner of Wildflower Waxed Co, sorting through records. (PHOTO: Wildflower Waxed Co)
Starting a business while in school might be a daunting prospect for many, but for Wong, she found her niche and dug in. Much like the resurgence of vintage clothing and 35mm film cameras, there would be people who were looking for more in their music. “I always thought that there’d be a market of people who aren’t just satisfied with the very digital, inauthentic experience of music streaming,” says Wong.
Thus, the Wildflower passion project was born. From customer conversations via Carousell, to settling accounting and taxes, to manning pop-up booths, and running deliveries, the shop is entirely managed by Wong alone.
Wildflower's stock at Spades Room, an indie store and collective. (PHOTO: Wildflower Waxed Co)
For Tan, the part-time music production teacher, passion for music is a huge reason why he collects. He had gifted the Pet Shop Boys record to his father, but years ago the roles had reversed and his parents had given him a Pet Shop Boys CD. “Everyone in my family is really into music. We’ll all listen to a huge variety of tastes and genres,’ he says.
Music plays a huge part in Tan’s life. He doesn’t just teach music production, but makes his own music on Ableton Live. This reflects in his eclectic electronic record collection, one frequent artist on his shelf being vaporwave-electronic artist George Clanton.
“I usually consider whether or not an album resonates with me as a standalone work, before making a purchase,'' says Tan. “I tend to focus more on whether or not I enjoy an album, rather than just collecting for the sake of collecting a certain artist.” A large part of his record collection are 70s bubble-era Japanese records.
“The glittery synthesizers and bouncy basslines in the music… it just speaks to me.”
Seeking out the past
Purchasing records is a nice bonus for the music junkie in an era of streaming. Prior to this, physical media were all people had. Vinyls in Singapore were not for just people listening to the pop music of their day, but also included pressings of recordings in Mandarin, Malay, Cantonese and more. There was a common market for records - contemporary reports showed that record production at Singapore’s main record production plants had once reached one million discs per month.
Since the 1960s, local music thrived, and you can find second hand copies, yellowed sleeves and dated designs at record stores like Red Point Record Warehouse. Located in a warehouse in Tai Seng, Red Point is known for their extensive collection on shelves from floor to ceiling.
In contrast to Roxy and Wildflower, Red Point specializes in second hand records, all locally bought. Founded in 2001 by a couple who were avid record collectors, it spilled into a brick and mortar store. “We are hi-fi enthusiasts,” says husband Ong Chai Koon. “That’s why we began collecting records in the first place, because there is no other format that captures the studio quality so well.” A former carpenter, Ong ended up devoting his time to his shop in the 2000s.
Red Point has no monthly imports, and almost no trendy records, and they don’t import Record Store Day records. What Red Point have in store basically is their own record collection, a majority of the crates all purchased from their former owners in Singapore.
“Because most of our records are found locally, some customers come here just to look for records that is unique to Singapore, music that you can only find here.” When we visited the store, Ong showed us an “ah beng” record, a 1978 Hokkien language release by local getai band The Travellers.
Ong also mentioned that many DJs still visit Red Point. While vinyl DJing has disappeared into the past, some old school dance records cannot be found anywhere else. “It spreads through word of mouth, and people come to our store to see what we have, because it’s not something you can easily find outside.”
“That being said, we do see a lot of young people come in. There’s a good mix of young people, uncles, people of all backgrounds coming here now that vinyls are popular again. Some uncles come here to collect vinyls again, to remind them of their times in the 70s and 80s.”
Do they think that nostalgia plays a huge factor in young people coming to visit? Ong says it’s hard to tell, because their demographic is so mixed.
Wong from Wildflower concurs. “I think there's no clear answers,” she says.
“But from what I've seen from my customers, young people want to immortalize their feelings in some sort of tangible, physical art. Some people want nostalgia purely, but some also see vinyl as a ways to increase their understanding/connection to their favorite art. Feeling a record in front of you in your fingers, which maybe hailed from 1971 – it's just a beautiful thing to see.”
Will vinyl continue to soar?
There is a surefire way to know whether a trend is short lived. Would you still do it in five years? Vinyl has survived 10 and is thriving, but there is no way to really tell, is there?
Tan believes his record collection will expand. “As long as I am able to financially support this side hobby, I’ll do it. It is a really fun and fulfilling hobby. I'll try my best to only pick out records that really resonate with me to save money!”
Wong seems like a vinyl collector for life. “I'm trying to save up for a real 1967 pressing of my favourite album, "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys, because it just means that much to me. Every serious vinyl collector has an album like that they want the ultimate pressing of. “
The brick and mortar stores, tucked into corners of Singapore, seem unbothered. Ong and his wife at Red Point will be at their warehouse four days a week, greeting customers no matter how many show up. At Roxy, customers visiting the store might see a young woman standing by the counter. She is the Ling family niece, helping out at the family shop, carrying the flag of Singapore’s oldest record store onto the next generation.
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