Once in a blue moon, a blog about music and sci-fi and dreams and as many topics as this one finds a way to come full circle – if only for a little bit. Speaking of, you can buy a copy of my science fiction Anthology here, and there’s more to come in a newsletter and a novel.
But your question as well as mine right now is probably what’s behind the 80’s alpha centauri-themed artwork of the Hollywood Star Trax?
非常偶然的，一个写音乐，科幻和梦的blog的题目可以重合，就算只是一点点。有兴趣的朋友们可以在上面购买我的科幻故事，在不久的将来还会有newsletter跟小说。但是你现在想问的是为什么会有这种80年代的科幻电音磁带出现在这里？
This WeChat write-up in Chinese covers more than what I could myself, a primary source account of underground disco parties that proliferated in small cities and towns during the mid-to-late 1980s China.
已经有人为这些“荷东”磁带做了中文简介，他们是Eurodisco或美国的士克在中国1980年代底的象征。
These tapes – in Cantonese, Hollywood Star Trax roughly sounds like Hedong, or Hollywood East in Mandarin – were part of a series still available online here and there of Euro and US disco/electronic dance mixes popular during the 1980s.
As the article above states, the “disco” would consist of a beat-up tape recorder, some reflective lighting, four old couches, and the hall monitors would turn a blind eye to moonwalking and other Western-inspired dance moves.
We hear the precursors to Minions in vaguely Spanish or Italian artists, and all the popular music of the era you can cut up and mix onto cassette, which is to say the tapes are novelty items and nostalgic for an era of relative cultural opening, according to the author of the cited piece. I would look for all editions of the Hedong tapes, but the music is catchy insipid rather than inspired.
You can be the judge of that yourself, as the three tapes I did find are on the Tape History. Of note, the songs are arrayed in “kebab style” (“串烧”) quick tracks one after another for continuity in a dance hall setting – or just generally getting hype.
https://c.mail.com/@649543521753114149/6KkYGbkTTG2tmanY6Kz43w
现在各位又可以随着迪士科的歌声起舞，我所买到的荷东还有“猛士”磁带上线了。“串烧”曲是指一首接一首，完全给跳舞有连贯性的party songs。
So what’s the deal? Did China become more socially conservative in the 1990s with the fall of the Soviet Union? Or did globalization require an obedient workforce and consumer base, one that China was all too happy to provide given the economic windfall…only to have it run aground decades later when globalization took its biggest hit yet with COVID-19?
所谓的社会保守是为了与国际经济同化的策略吗？同化而不同步，可能吗？
Bonus: The “Warrior” Mengshi tapes followed Hollywood Star Trax and their album art feature some fantastically unoriginal scenes from with equally mushy and effects-driven 80’s tunes. I’ve uploaded the music from these tapes for completeness. Many more of these await on secondary market, if anyone is interested in starting their own collection…
https://c.mail.com/@649543521753114149/rY45AwymQkSgHJ0U_5Rbzw
The full Tape History:
https://c.mail.com/@649543521753114149/A7iTxK5eS5ec797K4gH5rQ
