High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape

Music journalist Masters (No Wave) unspools an affectionate ode to the cassette tape and how it revolutionized the music industry by freeing artists and fans to “create, invent, individualize” and distribute sound in innovative ways. The author begins in 1963, when Philips debuted the first portable tape recorder and licensed the design to other companies, stoking increased sales. Later, amid the “boom box phenomenon” that began in the 1970s, Sony invented the Walkman by “replacing the recording capability [of a tape recorder] with a stereo amplifier,” allowing users to “listen to music on the go without subjecting other people to it,” while at nearly the same time, the Tokyo Electro-Acoustic Company introduced its Portastudio, a multitrack home recording device. The two technologies propelled the cassette into a “category of artistic creation” and distribution all its own, according to Masters: hip-hop music fans circulated cutting-edge sounds not yet available on the radio, and even Bruce Springsteen recorded his 1982 album Nebraska on a four-track. Wending his way through the 1980s and ’90s mixtape “glory days” and the cassette’s eventual decline with the 1980s advent of CDs, 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. (Oct.)