Cassettes Rule Everything Around Me

Plus, the musicians we lost in 2021

View this email online by Lars Gotrich Photo Illustration by Renee Klahr, Lars Gotrich/NPR Cassettes brought rock and roll to China, conjured ghosts in Vietnam and kickstarted the internet — that’s what Radiolab reported earlier this year in a five-part podcast series dubbed Mixtape that looked at the history and legacy of the format. Magnetic tape may have started revolutions in culture, PSYOPs and technology, but for me, here in 2021, it’s how I attach memory to music. From mixes made for friends to the tape deck of my ‘97 Ford Escort station wagon, the cassette has been my handheld companion. Its limitations are its features: Cassettes are small, cheap and degrade over time, an audible reminder of impermanence. Even once music went digital, I turned to these spools of sound not only to encourage full-album listens but to keep me tethered to music as a tangible, intentional experience. That proved especially true at the beginning of 2021 when, realizing our remote work situation had no end in sight, I took a Tandberg M2599LL — a tank of a tape machine originally built for educational purposes — up to my home office as a way to listen to music out in the open, without headphones, away from the constantly proliferating browser tabs of Bandcamp finds. I spent 2021 hitting kerchunk on a play button, so that’s why my year-end Viking’s Choice episode of All Songs Considered is a tribute to the Peruvian punk, chiptuned black metal and Brazilian dub that vibrated a corner of my desk and rattled my pandemic brain. None of this music appeared on other year-end lists from NPR; I like Japanese Breakfast and Turnstile too, but here’s a way out of consensus.  Because I can’t help myself — and there are stacks of tapes too good to miss — here’s a newsletter exclusive: a playlist of 25 songs found on cassettes that I loved in 2021. Hope y’all find something weird, loud or chill to start 2022.  Newsletter continues after sponsor message The Musicians We Lost In 2021 “But what is grief if not love persevering?” I think about that quote from WandaVision a lot — a profound rendering and realignment of loss, from a TV show about superheroes who tangle with trauma. The same grief can apply to the musicians and journalists who left an indelible mark — they encouraged us to dream bigger, listen wider and read deeper into the music that moves us. Lee “Scratch” Perry, The Supremes’ Mary Wilson, Alvin Lucier, SOPHIE, Milford Graves, Delta 5’s Julz Sale, Chick Corea, DMX, Jon Hassell, Biz Markie, Peter Rehberg, Alemayehu Eshete, Greg Tate, Lou Ottens (inventor of the cassette tape) — those are just some of the names that hit me hard when they died in 2021. NPR Music’s In Memoriam feature includes these and other rock and roll pioneers, groundbreaking music journalists and foundational jazz legends (many of those in that last group were recently honored in a video made by our colleagues at Jazz Night in America). Their music perseveres in our ears and hearts.  Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WBEZ (edit station). What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: nprmusic@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Books, Pop Culture, Health and more! Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music! You received this message because you're subscribed to NPR Music emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy