the mixed tape – as revolutionary as sliced bread?
June 13th, 2009It is Saturday morning, and I’m making banana bread listening to an Apple iTunes Genius composed playlist that I seeded with Led Zepplin’s Going to California. Listening to this poorly composed playlist (Pandora would have created a better mix), it dawned on me that the invention of home recording devices like tape recorders which allowed the invention of the mix tape, must have been ground breaking. Listening to my playlist pulling Allman Brothers, Led Zepplin, Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams, and others, I can’t even imagine a time when people had two choices – to listen to the radio (a playlist composed by advertisers and producers) or single artist records – much less a time long before, when they were lucky to have a hand cranked record player. How much more rich life must be since the dawn of accessible music devices and the home concocted playlist.
June 14th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
We didn’t know any better. It was pure delight to have a transistor radio, despite the fact that it only worked on a single ear bud, that was the size of my Dad’s cigarette pack. I’m not sure you ever saw the first generation tape recorder…the size of a sewing machine with the 10″ spools. I know you’ve seen the 8 track. And owned a cassette recorder…and even the micro-cassette. Yeah…there was a time before Toyotas, when Chevy was king, Ford was a major player and Chrysler had big block hemis. We didn’t know any better.