The Cassette tape was great in so many ways, but let’s be honest, they never really sounded great. But because the cassette was so much cheaper and easier to use and portable, a lot of people didn't care so much about the audio quality. They just wanted to be able to use something that they could carry around with them. The cassette’s other big advantage: it was easy to record on.
We talked to Marc Masters about his new book High Bias, about the history of the cassette. One chapter about concert bootleggers covers perhaps the greatest success story of the cassette: Grateful Dead live tapes.
Long Strange Tape
Plus we're featuring a bonus story that we produced in 2016 in collaboration with Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything about a place where cassettes were of vital importance.
The Six-Week Cure
The Fever Tree Hunt
Model Village
Devolutionary Redesign
You Ain’t Nothin But a Postmark
The Big Dig
Devil in the Details
Cautionary Tales of the Sydney Opera House
Blood in the Machine
Whomst Among Us Let the Dogs Out AGAIN
Office Space
Melanie Speaks
Trail Mix: Track Two
Trail Mix
Cooking with Gas
The Country of the Blind
Shade Redux
Chick Tracts
In Proximity: Ryan Coogler and Roman Mars
Player Piano
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It is Free
This Day in Esoteric Political History
The Allusionist
On the Media
The Turn of the Screw
Gulliver’s Travels
The Atlas Obscura Podcast
Unexplainable