Young World

An imprint of The World Record Club in Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, the label was announced in April 1964, with a schedule of releases, one or two a month, for the next twelve months. The schedule featured odd numbers, perhaps with even numbers to be announced as new releases from month to month - but these were not well announced in the regular WRC publications (there was probably a separate newsletter, which hasn't surfaced). It was evidently not successful, as it folded after those first twelve months. The club's business model did not suit the faster-moving world of pop music, and there was an evident generation gap - the adverts, announcing the club to teenagers, appear to show a bunch of twenty-somethings dancing on a very cloudy Melbourne beach. The pink label used in Australia had the same font and layout of the later blue 'herald' label, used by World Record Club from 1971. In New Zealand, the closer ties to EMI probably gave the club a better shot, with LPs more attuned to the teenage market, but there was still a preponderance of folk singers and albums like "My Fair Lady" - not attractive to teenagers, and not marketed at those who might enjoy it. In the late 1960s, WRC started afresh, issuing contemporary music as part of its regular release schedule, without any overt targeting of a demographic. Month by month, the top half of the release schedule would be classical, and the lower half country/jazz/pop/rock. In 1974, with the Australian division now owned by EMI, WRC began a "Rock, Pop and Soul" catalogue - with the advent of the "R" numbering, contemporary music was allocated numbers from 90 000 upward, while new classical, light music and jazz releases started from R-02110 (numbers lower than this were reissues).