Overview

"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."

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9781469675985

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Reviews

"An affectionate ode . . . Masters constructs a lively and detailed case for the cassette as a vital driver of cultural creation. This charming history is sure to please anyone nostalgic for the mixtapes of yesteryear.""—Publishers Weekly A thoroughly enjoyable romp . . . With energy, insight, and wit, Masters provides a welcome examination of an often overlooked cultural turning point.""—Kirkus Reviews (STARRED review) This accessible primer unravels past and present uses and misuses of cassettes. . . . Masters builds a generous lineage, where it is clear that as much as 'sounds realign magnetic particles on a tape . . . the tape realigns your brain.'""—The Wire Knowingly written from the perspective of an entangled enthusiast rather than a distanced observer, [High Bias] carries an awareness that an objective history of the impact of a piece of technology isn't possible, all we can do is collect the stories we tell through it. . . . High Bias is a material history, but it's also a folk history.""—The Quietus ""Masters, whose work often goes far below the surface of all things sonic . . . offers a fascinating look at the shifting role of cassettes over the years—and some of the fascinating ways in which people have used them.""—InsideHook A wonderful book, whose title is derived from the term for tape quality.""—The Goo"

“A thoroughly enjoyable romp . . . With energy, insight, and wit, Masters provides a welcome examination of an often overlooked cultural turning point.” - Kirkus Reviews (STARRED review)

Author Information

Marc Masters is a music journalist whose work has appeared on NPR and in the Washington Post, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and Bandcamp Daily. He is author of No Wave.

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