The Last Mixtape : Physical Media and Nostalgic Cycles / Seth Long.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Long, Seth, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mixtapes--History.

Mixtapes.

Sound recordings--History.

Sound recordings.

Sound recordings--Social aspects.

Nostalgia in music.

Copyright--Music.

Copyright.

Computer file sharing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (247 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press, 2025.

Summary:

A reflection on the evolution of physical media into metaphor, through the history of music curation. Obsolescence makes the heart grow fonder, at least in the case of the mixtape. Not all technologies are so lucky. Some (say, wax cylinders) fade almost completely from cultural memory. A lucky few pass into metaphor: we still “hang up” our smartphones, “cut” film, and “patch” computer code. As digital streaming completes the obsolescence of physical media, what will become of the humble cassette? In The Last Mixtape, Seth Long offers a microhistory of music curation, anchored by the cassette, from which he explores the meanings of obsolescence, ownership, nostalgia, and the speed of cultural change. A moving meditation on our relationship with music, memory, and curation in the digital century, Long ultimately calls for a return to the media ecology represented by the mixtape: a world in which media is cheap and abundant but tactile and meaningfully engaged.

Contents:

The First Mixtapes : A Top 10 Countdown

Hot Wax Pirates

The Cassette Mixtape (Side A : Romantic Stuff)

The Cassette Mixtape (Side B : Industrial Noise)

A Rhetoric and Poetics of the Mixtape

Music without a Medium

The Infinite Playlist.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780226840475

OCLC:

1525619377