Spotted: Harry Styles — icon of a generation of lustily devoted millennial fangirls, and former face of Western pop culture’s most adored British boyband (stop me before I get lost in describing this man’s dreamy features) — was just seen at an Ariana Grande concert… repping China’s alt music scene?
Rather than donning one of Ariana Grande’s numerous items of self-branded merchandise, Harry opted for a Spacefruity Records tee. It’s a surprising choice — Spacefruity Records is a Beijing-based independent tape and vinyl label.
Launched by one of the oldest and most respected hands in Beijing’s music scene, Zhai Ruixin, Spacefruity Records specializes in publishing vintage psychedelic rock — think of Chinese acts like Boiled Hippo and The Molds.
Beijing native Zhai also owns a number of fruit-named music endeavors in the mainland’s capital, including fRUITYSHOP, a large vinyl store with a diverse catalogue, and fRUITYSPACE, a cozy noise basement offering arguably the best selection of vinyl, CDs and cassettes in Beijing. The basement also doubles as a live venue, frequented by China’s most ardent noise makers, rappers, and indie rockers.
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In typical fashion, ex-One Direction member Styles stirred up quite a bit of social media buzz for this choice of tee, even inspiring fRUITYSPACE to post photos of Harry’s concert outfit on their official Weibo, in documentation of the beautiful man, I mean moment.
Zhai himself seemed unbothered, even blissfully immune to the debilitating beauty of the British pop icon. “That was so weird,” he told That’s in response to the onslaught of media attention sparked by Harry. “Actually, I didn’t know this guy before. I don’t know why he has this T-shirt.”
