Rocker Magazine Relaunches
《搖滾客》復刊
Source: Rocker Resurfaces — Notes on the Relaunch of the Magazine That Can Addict You
From: Break Weekly
Date: September 2000 · Author: Ouyang Shui-lei
Rocker (*Rocker Magazine*) was founded in 1987 (ceasing publication in 1991) as an expanded version of Crystal Records’ *Wax Club* newsletter. It was the single most important publication promoting “Taiwan New Music” in the late 1980s and served as a formative resource for many music fans of the era; early issues even came with a cassette tape.
On 9 September 2000, Rocker relaunched under the editorship of Cheng Keng-chang (who had previously edited the NTU music journal Andaman Islander). Like the 1980s original with its bundled cassette, the relaunched Rocker included a CD of original work by Taiwan’s underground bands. Although it ceased publication again in 2001 after only six issues, for the generation who lived through the information-starved late 1980s and early 1990s, Rocker was both a record of the transmission and transformation of rock knowledge and a vital sustenance and landmark for the rock generation of that era.
The appearance of Rocker at that time — for a society long suppressed — was nothing less than opening a small hole in the wall, and the small disturbances it created genuinely demonstrated the powerful force of subversion, reflection, and critique across culture, politics, and society that ran through Taiwan’s rapid transformations: martial law’s end, political liberalisation, and all that followed.
Tags
External Links
- Rocker Relaunch Gathering (PTT)
- Book — Crystal Records — Rocker Relaunch (The Bull’s Blog)
- A History of Rocker (Jeph Lo)
- Seeds of Taiwan’s Independent Music: A Brief Retrospective on Crystal Records’ 30th Anniversary — Prelude (FRESHMUSIC)