The Recording Industry in Singapore, 1903-1985

Singapore used to be a major recording centre in Southeast Asia, with over 10,000 local recordings made before 1960. Hear the story from sound archivist Ross Laird, author of From Keroncong to Xinyao.

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About the Guest

Ross Laird was formerly a sound archivist with the National Film & Sound Archive of Australia. He was awarded NLB’s Lee Kong Chian Research Fellowship in 2010, during which he conducted research into the history of the recording industry in Singapore. He is also the author of From Keroncong to Xinyao, which is a history of Singapore’s recording industry.

Resources

Ross Laird, “Local Music Reaches a Crescendo: The Singapore Record Industry in the 1960s,” BiblioAsia 19, no. 2 (2023).

Ross Laird, From Keroncong to Xinyao: The Record Industry in Singapore, 1903–1985 (Singapore: National Library Board, 2023). (From National Library, Singapore, call no. RSING 338.4778149095957 LAI)

Joseph C. Pereira, Apache over Singapore: The Story of Singapore Sixties Music, vol. 1 (Singapore: Select Publishing, 2011). (From National Library, Singapore, call no. RSING 781.64095957 PER)

Joseph C. Pereira, Beyond the Tea Dance: The Story of Singapore Sixties Music, vol. 2 (Singapore: Select Publishing, 2014). (From National Library, Singapore, call no. RSING 781.64095957 PER)

Tan Sooi Beng, Bangsawan: A Social and Stylistic History of Popular Malay Opera (Penang: The Asian Centre, 1997). (From National Library, Singapore, call no. RSEA 782.1095951 TAN)

Tan Sooi Beng, “The 78 rpm Record Industry in Malaya Prior to World War II,” Asian Music 28, no. 1 (1997): 1–41. (From JSTOR via NLB’s eResources website)

Credits

This episode of BiblioAsia+ was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Gibson Analytics. The background music “Di Tanjong Katong” was composed by Osman Ahmad and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Ross for coming on the show.

BiblioAsia+ is a podcast about Singapore history by the National Library of Singapore.