Unspooled How the Cassette Made Music Shareable
Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable by Rob Drew, published by Duke University Press on March 5, 2024, explores the enduring relevance of the analog cassette tape in contemporary culture. This 232-page book delves into the cassette’s evolution from a basic recording tool to a symbol of intimate musical expression and cultural significance. Drew examines the cassette’s journey, highlighting its role in the music industry and its resurgence in various forms, including merchandise and new cassette labels.
Readers will find a thorough investigation into the cassette’s impact on music sharing and community building, particularly within indie rock culture. The book discusses how the cassette became a medium for personal expression and a means of fostering connections among music enthusiasts. By analyzing diverse sources, including music zines and Congressional hearings, Drew illustrates how the cassette facilitated rituals of recording and gifting, ultimately shaping a unique cultural landscape. This edition provides insights into the intersection of music, media studies, and social dynamics, making it a valuable resource for those interested in the history and significance of music formats.
Official synopsis Publisher
Well into the new millennium, the analog cassette tape continues to claw its way back from obsolescence. New cassette labels emerge from hipster enclaves while the cassette’s likeness pops up on T-shirts, coffee mugs, belt buckles, and cell phone cases. In Unspooled, Rob Drew traces how a lowly, hissy format that began life in office dictation machines and cheap portable players came to be regarded as a token of intimate expression through music and a source of cultural capital. Drawing on sources ranging from obscure music zines to transcripts of Congressional hearings, Drew examines a moment in the early 1980s when music industry representatives argued that the cassette encouraged piracy. At the same time, 1980s indie rock culture used the cassette as a symbol to define itself as an outsider community. Indie’s love affair with the cassette culminated in the mixtape, which advanced indie’s image as a gift economy. By telling the cassette’s long and winding history, Drew demonstrates that sharing cassettes became an acceptable and meaningful mode of communication that initiated rituals of independent music recording, re-recording, and gifting.
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