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Format: Paperback
Description
The cassette tape was revolutionary. Cheap, portable, and reusable, this small plastic rectangle changed music history. Make your own tapes! Trade them with friends! Tape over the ones you don’t like! The cassette tape upended pop culture, creating movements and uniting communities. This entertaining book charts the journey of the cassette from its invention in the early 1960s to its Walkman-led domination in the 1980s to decline at the birth of compact discs to resurgence among independent music makers. Scorned by the record industry for “killing music,” the cassette tape rippled through scenes corporations couldn’t control. For so many, tapes meant freedom—to create, to invent, to connect. Marc Masters introduces readers to the tape artists who thrive underground; concert tapers who trade bootlegs; mixtape makers who send messages with cassettes; tape hunters who rescue forgotten sounds; and today’s labels, which reject streaming and sell music on cassette. Their stories celebrate the cassette tape as dangerous, vital, and radical. Read more
Publisher : The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date : October 3, 2023
Language : English
Print length : 224 pages
ISBN-10 : 1469675986
ISBN-13 : 85
Item Weight : 12.8 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 1 x 9 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #699,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #37 in Antique & Collectible Records (Books) #145 in Ethnomusicology (Books) #355 in Music Recording & Sound (Books)
#37 in Antique & Collectible Records (Books):
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Paperback
Cassettes were a huge part of my teenage years in the early-mid-1980s. I spent countless hours recording and decorating mixtapes, as well as duplicating, trading and selling tapes for my band. And now, many decades and lifetimes later, I still love the cassette and the many scenes it has nurtured. There aren’t many in-depth books on the subject – though Cassette Culture by Jerry Kranitz is outstanding – so I was happy to get a copy of High Bias by Marc Masters, and it was a joy to read! To make a long review short, High Bias is super readable (not a dry academic tome that you may expect from a university publisher), entertaining (Masters can tell a story!), and educational. While I’ve been involved in the noise scene and know how important – and affordable – cassettes are to these artists, I didn’t know the depth of cassette culture when it came to Deadheads, metal fans, and some other, more obscure groups. It was the stories of the scenes that were built with – and still utilize – tapes that really drew me in. The compact cassette isn’t just a tool, it was – and for many, still is – the great equalizer. It allowed a level of freedom for artists to create and distribute their sounds that no other format has been able to match. This book explains why. A great read from start to finish!
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Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2023 by Gabe K
Format: Kindle
This book is interesting and contains plenty of information, historical records, interviews, and quotes. Among other things, this book covers the impact of the cassette in culture, not only on music but also on other dimensions.
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2024 by Cristian
Format: Paperback
A great read for anyone who ever had a car strewn with functional, and semi-functional cassettes in and out of cases. The democratization that the cassette player brought to the music world reminds me of the webcomic movement of the late 1990's and early 2000's. If someone wants to make a tape, you can't stop them. And there's something romantic in that. I think my favorite chapters were the ones on artists being able to make their own demos, before they could even afford studio time or anything, and the one on people that scour the world looking for old cassettes to see what's on them, and keep those sounds from effervescing into the void. There are tape collectors whose cause is just as noble as the people who have scoured the American South preserving blues and country 78's like so many Paleozoic-era fossils. And just like fossils from 70 million years ago, their very rarity produces a sweet mourning for all that we've already lost.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2023 by Marie V.
Format: Paperback
As I first delved into this I experienced a warm and fuzzy nostalgia trip into my own love of personal recording using cassette tapes. The history of its creation and evolution along with citing certain listening devices like those Panasonic tape recorders from the 60s, boomboxes from the 70s, and the Sony Walkman from the 80s were covered in words and pictures. Caught up in good memories, I happily unearthed my vintage Radio Shack brand Realistic personal cassette player with radio as well as my Sony Walkman- both in perfect working condition. I could write my own book about how much I loved making my own tapes for myself as well as creating loving gifts for others- but I won't bore everyone. Let me just say that I would use nothing less than the superior Maxell XLII-S 90 "High Epilaxial" cassettes with the beautiful gold metallic label. Once the book proceeded beyond this point I became less engaged, as it was an endless dirge of examples of people that record on and exchange these tapes, establishing friend relationships in the process- with many creating a business for themselves. The practice initially took off with DJs in the burgeoning hip hop industry, but also became a huge thing for Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan and Metallica fans, among others. Also, the personal cassette tape is portable, can be personalized and re-used. The author did a very good job of covering the subject, but it's up to the reader how interested they are in the many obscure "tapers" who were recounted in this book. Thank you to the publisher University of North Carolina Press for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2023 by *TUDOR^QUEEN*
Format: Paperback
Marc Masters tells the whole tale of the cassette tape's origins, it's meteoric rise > fall from favior > rise again, while visiting the people who have used it most creatively over the years. That's quite a wide net to cast, but Masters reels in the story efficiently, succinctly and with flair. A fine and satisfying read.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2023 by J. Economy
Format: Paperback
Marc has written another superb book here - it's a totally compelling book that gripped me within the first few pages and held on to the very end. Masters accomplishes the difficult feat of balancing amazing historical information with various stories of people whose lives have been transformed by the medium of cassette tape. A great gift for any music lover you know!
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Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2023 by Eric
Format: Kindle
I was an early adapter. I saw adverts for cassettes in Paris Match magazine when I was in French class, well before they were available in the US. Yes, it was a rip-off of RCA's "Sound Tape Cartridge." But it was miniaturized, and therefore portable. I bought a little GE machine as soon as they were in stores. This book does a good job of tracing the early history of tape recording in general, avoiding the common misconception that Lou Ottens "invented" cassettes at the Philips company. As mentioned above, he merely miniaturized RCA's idea. There are special sections about how different genres of music benefited from cassette, which enabled the music industry equivalent of self-publishing. No longer held back by the expense of pressing a record, or having to get signed by a record company, musicians could easily crank out their own product. You may find yourself skipping over sections about genres that don't interest you (e.g., rap, heavy metal, etc.). There is also much space devoted to people making self-indulgent experimental recordings, which were probably more fun to produce than to listen to. I was reminded of this saying about poetry: "Millions of poets, hundreds of readers." I also skipped over a long chapter about mix tapes. It was a shock to see mention of my own neighborhood shop, Jacknife Records, where I actually sold off my pre-recorded cassettes a few years ago when I was copying my music and video collection to the computer. The discussion of break-out tabs, which prevented accidentally recording over something you want to save - and using a piece of Scotch tape to effectively reestablish the tab - should have also mentioned similar design in high-bias cassettes, where there is a cavity which causes the tape machine to automatically adjust recording and playback for high bias. When playing a high-bias master tape to record a copy on a lower quality normal bias tape, I used to cover over the cavity in the high-bias tape so that the resulting playback had considerably more treble, thereby compensating for the high frequency loss in the cheaper tape.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2024 by ELECTRIC EARL
Format: Paperback
I absolutely loved this book. The content spoke to me as a Gen-Xer who was always about cassettes! I also was a fan of how the book was organized. Each chapter could stand for itself and be read separately. In this aspect, I found it to be academic, almost as if it were a dissertation turned into a book. - Harris K.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2023 by A. Smith