NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Cassette culture

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Cassette culture refers to the trading of home-made audio cassettes, usually of rock or alternative music. The culture was in part an offshoot of the mail art movement of the 1970s and 1980s. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, it owed a lot to the DIY ethic of punk. In the UK cassette culture was at its peak in what is known as the post-punk period, 1978–1984; in the US, activity extended through the late 80s and into the 90s. It was largely postal-based (though there were a few retail outlets, such as Rough Trade in the UK) with the artists selling or more likely exchanging music on compact audio cassettes via a loose network of other artists and fanzine readers. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Mail art is art which uses the postal system as a medium. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, also called The Seventies. ... The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ... The DIY punk ethic refers to the idea of doing it yourself, i. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... Post punk generally refers to the particularly fertile and creative period following the initial punk rock explosion. During the first wave of punk, roughly spanning 1976-1983, bands such as The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Ramones and The Damned began to challenge the current styles and conventions of rock... Rough Trade on 130 Talbot Road The Rough Trade Shop is an independent music store in the Portobello district of West London, England. ... Typical 60-minute Compact Cassette. ... Not to be confused with social network services such as MySpace, etc. ... A fanzine (see also: zine) is a nonprofessional publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest. ...

Several factors made the "cassette" boom occur. Obviously the recording format of the cassette tape was important. However, it was the fact that bands did not need to go into expensive recording studios any more. Multi-track recording equipment was becoming affordable, portable and of fairly high quality during the early 1980s. For example, one could purchase a "four track" cassette recorder and get a reasonable sound at home.

Therefore, due to inexpensive (or less expensive) recording and the ease of duplicating tape there was an increase of recording artists. Add to this the fact that college radio was coming into its own. For many years there were college radio stations but they had a new found freedom and power. With the influx of new music from sources other than the major record companies and a quasi-major medium of college radio to lend support the boom was on.

1 United Kingdom
2 United States
3 Creative packaging
4 21st century
5 See also
6 External links

United Kingdom

In the UK Cassette Culture was championed by marginal musicians and performers such as Storm Bugs, the insane picnic, Instant Automatons, Stripey Zebras, What is Oil?, The APF Brigade, Blyth Power, The Peace & Freedom Band, Academy 23, Cleaners From Venus, Chumbawamba, 5ive Ximes of Dust and many of the purveyors of Industrial music, e.g. Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, and Clock DVA . Artists self-releasing would often copy their music in exchange for "a blank tape plus self-addressed envelope". But there also existed many small 'tape labels' such as Snatch Tapes, Falling A Records, Datenverarbeitung (in Germany), Deleted Records, Fuck Off Records, ISC Compilation Tapes, New Crimes Tapes, Rasquap Products, Sterile Records and Third Mind Records that operated in opposition to the capitalistic aim of maximizing profit. There was great diversity amongst such labels, some were entirely 'bedroom based', utilising new home tape copying technologies (see below) whilst others were more organised, functioning in a similar way to more established record labels. Some also did vinyl releases, or later developed into vinyl labels. Many compilation albums were released, presenting samples of work from various artists. It was not uncommon for artists who had a vinyl contract to release on cassette compilations, or to continue to do cassette-only album releases (of live recordings, work-in-progress material, etc.) after they had started releasing records. Storm Bugs were formed by Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball in 1978. ... In the early 1980s, English band the insane picnic (always printed in lower case) were one of the pioneering D.I.Y. cassette bands, comprised of members Peter Ashby , Barry Lamb and Owen Turley. ... The Instant Automatons flourished between 1977 and 1982. ... Headline text We are Mighty, we are Stripey. ... The APF Brigade were an anarcho-punk duo (Andi Export (later Xport) and Jon Hindle) from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in England during the early 1980s. ... Blyth Power are a British rock band formed in 1983 by singer/drummer Joseph Porter, and are a well-respected band among the underground scene, along with the likes of Chumbawamba and Crass. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Academy 23 was the name given to the new experimental music project created by Andy Martin and Dave Fanning immediately after disbanding their former group The Apostles. ... Martin Newell (born 1953), also known as the Wild Man of Wivenhoe, is an English rock and roll musician, poet and author. ... Chumbawamba are an English band that started out playing punk rock, but over a 25-year career have gone on to play music ranging from pop influenced dance music and world music to acoustic folk music. ... It has been suggested that Chicago Industrial be merged into this article or section. ... Throbbing Gristle (formed on September 3, 1975, in London) are a British Avant-Garde group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions. ... Cabaret Voltaire was a British music group from Sheffield, England. ... Clock DVA is an electronic music group from Sheffield, England. ... Falling A Records was a very important Essex, England based Independent record label formed in the late 1970`s, and heavily involved with the D.I.Y cassette movement of the early 1980s. ... ISC Compilation Tapes came out of Peterborough, England, in the mid-80s, and were the brainchild of ex-APF Brigade, and one-time The Peace & Freedom Band member Andi Xport. ... The Sterile Records label was formed in London in 1979 by Nigel Ayers and Caroline K of the post-industrial music group Nocturnal Emissions. ...

Cassette culture received something of a mainstream boost when acknowledged by the major music press. Both the New Musical Express (NME) and Sounds, the main weekly music papers of the time in the UK, launched their own 'cassette culture' features, in which new releases would be briefly reviewed and ordering information given. In the U.S. magazines such as Op Magazine, Factsheet Five and Unsound rose to fill the void. The New Musical Express (better known as the NME) is a weekly magazine about popular music published in the UK. It is unlike many other popular music magazines due to its intended focus on guitar-based music and indie rock bands, instead of mainstream pop acts. ... Sounds was a British music paper, published weekly from October 10, 1970 â€“ April 6, 1991. ... OP Magazine, based in Olympia, Washington, was a music fanzine published by John Foster and the Lost Music Network (leading to the title, which extends the abbreviation LMN to LMNOP). ... Factsheet Five is a periodical originally published by Mike Gunderloy of Albany, New York. ... // Info Unsound is the second album by industrial metal band Shardhead. ...

United States

Although larger operators made use of commercial copying services, anybody who had access to copying equipment (such as the portable tape to tape cassette players that first became common around the early 1980s) could release a tape, and publicise it in the network of fanzines and newsletters that existed around this scene. Therefore cassette culture was an ideal and very democratic method for making available music that was never likely to have mainstream appeal. Arguably, such freedom led to a large output of poor quality and self-indulgent material in the name of 'artistic creativity'. On the other hand, many found in cassette-culture music that was more imaginative, challenging, beautiful, and ground breaking, than output released on vinyl. A fanzine (see also: zine) is a nonprofessional publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest. ...

In the United States, Cassette Culture was associated with DIY music, and blossomed strongly across the country on labels like Swinging Axe, Sound of Pig which released over 300 titles, Portland's Eurock and in Olympia, Washington on labels like K Records and brown interiour music. Artists such as Zan Hoffman, Minoy, The Haters, Dino DiMuro, Don Campau, Ken Clinger, Ordinary Boys, Ray Carmen, and hundreds of others recorded numerous albums available only on cassette throughout the late 80s and well into the 90s. See also: DIY Network, a cable TV network. ... A significant cassette culture label started in the early 1980s by Al Margolis in New York City. ... Coordinates: , Country State County Thurston Incorporated January 28, 1859 Government - Mayor Mark Foutch Area - Total 18. ... K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington, co-founded, owned, and operated by Calvin Johnson, formerly of the bands Cool Rays, Beat Happening, The Go Team, The Halo Benders and, at present, in the band Dub Narcotic Sound System. ... The Haters are a noise music and conceptual art troupe from the United States. ... The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ...

A notable pioneer of cassette culture and 'outsider' music in the United States is R. Stevie Moore, who, through the 'R. Stevie Moore Cassette Club', has been releasing DIY, home-recorded music steadily since the 1970s. Moore lives in New Jersey and continues to make many releases in the cassette-only format. Robert Steven Moore (born January 18, 1952) is an American musician. ...

Creative packaging

The packaging of cassette releases, whilst often amateurish, was also an aspect of the format in which a high degree of creativity and originality could be found. For the most part packaging relied on traditional plastic shells with a photocopied insert, but some labels made more of an effort. The Chocolate Monk-released album "Anusol" by A-Band for instance came packaged with a "suppository" unique to each copy - one of which was a used condom wrapped in tissue. BWCD released a cassette by Japanese noise artist Aube that came tied to a blue plastic ashtray shaped like a fish. Aube is the name used by Japanese musician Akifumi Nakajima (born) for his experimental noise records. ...

21st century

Though, in the mid-'90s cassette culture seemed to decline with the appearance of new technologies and methods of distribution such as the Internet, MP3 files, file sharing, and CD-Rs, in recent years it has once again seen a revival, with the rise of tape labels like American Tapes, Obsolete Audio Formats, Heresee, Object Tapes, Brown Interiour Music, and U.S.A. Surpasses All Nazi Genocide Records. Some perceive this as a direct result of the questionable quality and the "anybody can do it" nature of CD-rs. The arrival of this technology may have given everybody the ability to put out a CD-r but in the mind of the underground music collector, this very thing cheapens the CD-r's perceived value.^{[citation needed]} The very easy, but sometimes unwanted transfer of music from CDs and CD-rs to a file sharing network may also be some of the motivation behind a movement back to cassette, although nostalgia for the past is probably a more likely explanation. For other uses, see MP3 (disambiguation). ... File sharing is the activity of making files available to other users for download over the Internet, but also over smaller networks. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

External links

Categories: Subcultures | Music history

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Contents

United Kingdom var ACE_AR = {Site: '756743', Size: '300250'};

United States

Creative packaging

21st century

See also

External links

United Kingdom