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Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture
Stop. Pause. Fast-forward. Rewind. It has become part of our vocabulary when talking about the momentum of our lives...
Since Phillips launched the compact audio cassette at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show, our relationship with music has never been the same. Portable, inexpensive, and durable, the new format was an instant success. By the early 1970s, we were voraciously recording music onto blank cassettes: LPs, concerts, tunes from the radio. It allowed us to listen to music in a new way, privately.
Artist and musician Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) looks back at the plastic gadget that first let us make our own compilations. Mix Tape shares the treasured works (and the stories behind them) of over 50 dedicated home tapers, including Elizabeth Peyton, DJ Spooky, Jim O'Rourke, Allison Anders, and Mike Watt. 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 resequencing music to make sense of our most stubbornly inexpressible feelings—a way of explaining ourselves to someone we love, or to ourselves.
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
Since Phillips launched the compact audio cassette at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show, our relationship with music has never been the same. Portable, inexpensive, and durable, the new format was an instant success. By the early 1970s, we were voraciously recording music onto blank cassettes: LPs, concerts, tunes from the radio. It allowed us to listen to music in a new way, privately.
Artist and musician Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) looks back at the plastic gadget that first let us make our own compilations. Mix Tape shares the treasured works (and the stories behind them) of over 50 dedicated home tapers, including Elizabeth Peyton, DJ Spooky, Jim O'Rourke, Allison Anders, and Mike Watt. 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 resequencing music to make sense of our most stubbornly inexpressible feelings—a way of explaining ourselves to someone we love, or to ourselves.
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
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 28, 2005
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749 people want to read
About the author
Thurston Moore
74 books80 followersThurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running a small record label.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
March 7, 2009
Visually stimulating, highly entertaining, and deeply nostalgic is how I would describe Thurston Moore's book Mixtape. Moore and his crew of 30-odd friends gather to share their mixtape stories and photos of mixtapes given and received. They are a generation (or two?) older than me, so I enjoyed Moore's introduction on buying a cassette player for the van while Sonic Youth went on tour in the mid-80s. The player took 16 double D batteries and took up space equal to another band member. I
didn't start making mixtapes until the mid-90s and even then, I was just recording songs off the radio. In high school, I began to make real mixtapes, lots of them. I was selfish with them though. I never gave them to friends or boys, as many do in this book. I played one or two mixtapes for Luke a couple of months ago...it was semi-embarassing/ super awesome. Anyways, my favorite mixtape contribution is "Goodbye's Too Good A Word" from Daniella Meeker. (She's comically tells us why Black Flag makes her sentimental.)
Anybody who remembers what a joyful pain it was to make a mixtape should read this book.
didn't start making mixtapes until the mid-90s and even then, I was just recording songs off the radio. In high school, I began to make real mixtapes, lots of them. I was selfish with them though. I never gave them to friends or boys, as many do in this book. I played one or two mixtapes for Luke a couple of months ago...it was semi-embarassing/ super awesome. Anyways, my favorite mixtape contribution is "Goodbye's Too Good A Word" from Daniella Meeker. (She's comically tells us why Black Flag makes her sentimental.)
Anybody who remembers what a joyful pain it was to make a mixtape should read this book.
December 9, 2008
i had high hopes for this book, because i am a devotee of the mix tape even in this age of the ipod, but ultimately, i was disappointed. why is it that every publishing project thurston moore touches is sullied by his involvement? at least he has more of a legitimate claim to being into mix tapes than punk houses. moving on. what i was really hoping for with this book was that maybe it would be a kind of history of the mix tape--how did cassette tapes supplant 8-tracks? what was the motivation for blank cassettes coming on to the market? how did this culture start up, of people making tapes & swapping them around to their pals? what are the different kinds of mix tapes & the cultures/traditions that surround them (ie, the road trip mix, the new romantic partner mix, the you-gotta-check-out-this-band mix, etc)? i thought maybe contributers would swap a few especially pognant mix tape stories (example from my own life: the first time i ever heard "smells like teen spirit" was when my dad played me a mix tape that included it--the tape was from a friend in the music business in chicago who had gotten ahold of a promo copy of "nevermind," so i heard "smells like teen spirit" a month before "nevermind" was released, & it definitely captured my attention). instead, the book took a kind of weird art book route, with lots of photos of mix tape collages & shit. dude, what the fuck? the text meandered & said nothing of consequence. & the book was so porly-constructed that the cover fell off after about two days, so i couldn't even sell it back to the bookstore. bah.
April 14, 2009
Affectionate coffee-table browser edited by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, whose introductory essay about the boombox he once purchased for SY van rides ("plus, it had sick lights") is worth the price of admission. The rest is memoiry blurbs about mix tapes by avant-peeps from the SY sphere: Jim O'Rourke, Richard Kern, Mary Gaitskill, Alison Anders, Slim Moon, etc.. Coulda used a few well-researched essays about the culture, but whatevs.
January 31, 2018
"I don't imagine sociopaths make mix tapes, or serial killers, or presidents. Although I still think I might make one for President Clinton. What do you think?" -- Allison Anders
"Is the space woman crying because she is where there's no darkness to light?" -- Mary Gaitskill
"Dig it: normal bias cassettes rule. (Next to vinyl of course). And it's not a fetish either (well, not entirely...). Vinyl is analog--not a definitive sound wave like digital, which is numeric and perfect transcription. With digital, your brain hears all the information in its numeric perfection. Analog has the mystery arc where cosmos exist, which digital has not reined in. We used to listen to records over and over and each time they would offer something new because the ear-heart would respond to new resonations not previously detected. It was like each kiss had a new sensation. Digital format offers one cold kiss. . . . These are the 'dark ages,' but will ultimately serve to soothe the mother by 2018 thereabouts. Whoa, wait . . . what am I going on about . . . oh yes, since your records are in storage, make tapes, mix tapes, and stick them in the tape player in your car. Don't all cars still have cassette functionality? . . . Anyway, a cassette rocking at normal bias will bring healing analog tones to the ear-heart. Trust me. You won't crash." -- Thurston Moore
Amazing.
"Is the space woman crying because she is where there's no darkness to light?" -- Mary Gaitskill
"Dig it: normal bias cassettes rule. (Next to vinyl of course). And it's not a fetish either (well, not entirely...). Vinyl is analog--not a definitive sound wave like digital, which is numeric and perfect transcription. With digital, your brain hears all the information in its numeric perfection. Analog has the mystery arc where cosmos exist, which digital has not reined in. We used to listen to records over and over and each time they would offer something new because the ear-heart would respond to new resonations not previously detected. It was like each kiss had a new sensation. Digital format offers one cold kiss. . . . These are the 'dark ages,' but will ultimately serve to soothe the mother by 2018 thereabouts. Whoa, wait . . . what am I going on about . . . oh yes, since your records are in storage, make tapes, mix tapes, and stick them in the tape player in your car. Don't all cars still have cassette functionality? . . . Anyway, a cassette rocking at normal bias will bring healing analog tones to the ear-heart. Trust me. You won't crash." -- Thurston Moore
Amazing.
November 14, 2022
Neat, little board book that tells the story of the 'mixed tape' through various personal interviews and photo-collage.
A huge fan of the mixed tape artform, myself, I considered this a gem of a find when I discovered it in a Hay-on-Wye second-hand shop.
Nothing compares to the way in which we bare our souls when we spend hours crafting a tape for someone.
Playlists are great, but the physical artform has evaporated, and that, to me, is deeply sad.
A huge fan of the mixed tape artform, myself, I considered this a gem of a find when I discovered it in a Hay-on-Wye second-hand shop.
Nothing compares to the way in which we bare our souls when we spend hours crafting a tape for someone.
Playlists are great, but the physical artform has evaporated, and that, to me, is deeply sad.
April 20, 2009
Anyone, for the most part, that has ever grown up on, or listened to music when it happened in the late 1980's... this is a great book.
Take the H side and the C side, and make a mix tape out of it, and you will have the most amazing mix tape ever. Take any of the mixes that they put in this book, and you will have a great mix tape for a road trip or anything else.
It's a great book, but it is more of a coffee table style book. It's not a chapter book, there are a lot of great graphics and descriptions of what was going on at that point in music, the graphics, how it was distributed, and who was behind it all. Not to mention who all of these mix tapes influenced almost everyone that influenced what is happening today.
For example, Kim and Thurston were influenced by bands like the Crucifux. Later on Steve would play drums for this band that has influenced everyone from Nirvana, Mudhoney, and Dinosaur Jr. What else do you need? A Sound Garden reference, or did I already accomplish that with the Nirvana name drop?
This is a great book, not a novel, but a great book and reference point for anyone that happened to live through that era (between the late 80's and early 90's)
And who better to do it than Thurston Moore?
It's worth the purchase, just don't expect a "novel"
Also, it's a very good restropect on things that, not have only happened, but what a mix tape says about the person that makes it and who they are making it for.
Take the H side and the C side, and make a mix tape out of it, and you will have the most amazing mix tape ever. Take any of the mixes that they put in this book, and you will have a great mix tape for a road trip or anything else.
It's a great book, but it is more of a coffee table style book. It's not a chapter book, there are a lot of great graphics and descriptions of what was going on at that point in music, the graphics, how it was distributed, and who was behind it all. Not to mention who all of these mix tapes influenced almost everyone that influenced what is happening today.
For example, Kim and Thurston were influenced by bands like the Crucifux. Later on Steve would play drums for this band that has influenced everyone from Nirvana, Mudhoney, and Dinosaur Jr. What else do you need? A Sound Garden reference, or did I already accomplish that with the Nirvana name drop?
This is a great book, not a novel, but a great book and reference point for anyone that happened to live through that era (between the late 80's and early 90's)
And who better to do it than Thurston Moore?
It's worth the purchase, just don't expect a "novel"
Also, it's a very good restropect on things that, not have only happened, but what a mix tape says about the person that makes it and who they are making it for.
June 21, 2010
For a music lover, this is quite a find. The mix tape always took so long to make but it was so great to hear the finished product. Reading through the mixes that are in this book made me smile and want to dig out my old cassettes. I just wish I would've spent more time decorating the case like the people in this book did.
January 26, 2011
Righteous, brief essays by Thurston Moore; photos of mix tapes and original cassette-inspired art; mix tape lists and blurbs by artists, musicians, writers and designers. I listened to mixes from friends (on cassette and CD) and starting compiling yet another one for my brother. Be they sonic self-portraits or aural love letters, long live mix tapes!
December 9, 2007
thurston moore and thirty of his closest friends gather for a eulogy of the mix tape, and as it turns out, of their youth. this informational collage is a must read for the music lover, and those who remember what a bitch it was to make mixtapes long ago.
June 29, 2018
Music as story, as gifts, as curation. Streaming playlists aren’t the same as tapes, are they? A little less personal. This book is fascinating just to skim through ....
January 3, 2023
Excelente.
February 27, 2011
This is less about the music put on mix tapes and more about the physical objects -- sort of an art book. It has images with brief reminiscences by the contributors about when and why they made or received the tapes. Moore has curated a book about the way we curated mix tapes back in the day. Very appealing.
May 7, 2007
Aging hipster coffee table book but hipsters really like coffee and they need crap to put on their tables just like everyone else!
It will make you nostalgic for analog.
It will make you nostalgic for analog.
May 22, 2008
For those of you who still love a good mix on tape!
June 4, 2008
i wanted this book to be so much cooler than it turned out to be.
October 20, 2008
An awesome compendium of mix.
September 18, 2009
very interesting, a little esoteric . . the basic idea that there's something to a mix tape is right on though, i think
October 4, 2009
why oh why am i constantly a sonicyouth android? Go out and make yr friend a mix CD and send it to them, it will be time better spent then perusing this book. FO REALS
December 16, 2010
This book is as much about the visuals as the words. Amazing college artwork fills the pages.
March 14, 2012
Dull.
May 25, 2012
An affectionate and visually stimulating look at the long gone cassette and the imprint it left in our collectively romantic(nostalgic) hearts.
June 23, 2013
A little artsy for my taste. Has a mix tape by Kate Spade.
November 21, 2015
Intriguing and creative.
March 25, 2008
Owning this book lets people know how down you are.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews