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Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable

Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable

by Rob Drew

Published by Duke University Press

9"x6", 232p, softcover

$26.95

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Rob Drew traces the history of the cassette tape, showing how a lowly, hissy format that began life in office dictation machines and cheap portable players became a mode of musical and interpersonal communication as well as a source of cultural capital.

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. 

“Rob Drew is one of my favorite writers on music, and I wish more people knew about his work. This is the definitive cultural history of indie music’s tangled but fascinating love affair with the audiocassette.”

-David Hesmondhalgh, author of / Why Music Matters

 

"Divided into six sharp chapters, Unspooled walks readers through the rich history of music nerds who used cassettes in ever-evolving ways. By following the chronology, Drew provides a detailed exploration of the cassette in terms of format, medium, and artifact."

-Adam P. Newton / Treble Zine

 

 

 

*WE HAVE TO CHARGE TAX IF YOU'RE IN ILLINOIS. OUR WEBSITE ISN'T SET UP TO DO IT. APOLOGIES. IT IS 10.25%, WHICH ON THIS BOOK IS $2.76.