Over forty years ago Phillips launched the compact audio cassette at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show and our relationship with music has never been the same. Durable, inexpensive, and portable, the new format was an instant success. By the 1970s, we were voraciously recording music onto blank cassettes. It allowed us to listen to, and, in effect, curate music in a new way. Privately. Mix tapes let us become our own DJs, creating mixes for friends, lovers, and family, for parties and road trips. Artist and musician Thurston Moore looks back at the plastic gadget that first let us make our own compilations. Over eighty home tapers, including artists, musicians, actors, writers, directors, comediennes, talk show hosts, and, of course, record store employees were invited to tell the stories behind their mixes. From the Romantic Tape, to the Break-up Tape, the Road Trip Tape, to the "Indoctrination" Tape-the art and text that emerged was of the mix cassette as a new way of re-sequencing music to make sense of our most stubbornly inexpressible feelings-a way of explaining ourselves to someone else, or to ourselves.



About the Author

Thurston Moore is founding member of the rock group Sonic Youth, as well as a published poet. His books include Alabama Wildman, Fuck a Hippie, But Be a Punk, and Total Poon. He also runs EcstaticPeace.com, a music, art, and literature website.

'Ask any ex of yours from the early ‘90s about the amorous mix tapes you once made, and chances are, Sonic Youth appears somewhere among the track listing. So, perhaps it’s fitting that Thurston Moore is working on a book that takes a nostalgic look at that most humble vehicle of adolescent expression. Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture explores the sound mixes and art we created in our bedrooms long before iTunes and Photoshop.' ¯Michael Dougherty, Blackbook Magazine. Fall 2004

Product Details
ISBN:9780789311993
Editor:Moore, Thurston
Publisher:Universe
Editor:Moore, Thurston
Subject:Genres & Styles - Pop Vocal
Subject:Popular
Publication Date:May 2005
Binding:Paperback
Language:English
Illustrations:Y
Pages:95