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 Day the Music Stopped
Six-on-Six Basketball
The Comrades
A Sea of Yellow
Mini-Stories: Volume 16
Balikbayan Boxes
Mini-Stories: Volume 15
The Divided Dial
Cougar Town
Super Citizens
Freedom House Ambulance Service: American Sirens
Train Set: Track Two
Articles of Interest: American Ivy
The Safety Bicycle
Walk of Fame
Vuvuzela
Wickedest Sound
Tale of the Jackalope
President Clinton Interviews Roman Mars
Search and Ye Might Find
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
This Day in Esoteric Political History
The Allusionist
On the Media
A Tale of Two Cities
The Federalist Papers
The Atlas Obscura Podcast
Unexplainable