ABSTRACT
This chapter examines contemporary cassette cultures and the various ways in which the format subsists. The cassette tape, once seemingly on the brink of extinction, continues to survive. In the contemporary landscape of music production, there has been a significant revival in the distribution and consumption of cassettes. Regardless of whether cassettes have persisted or revived, the contemporary presence of the format requires investigation in an age when physical audio releases are no longer a necessity for most music labels and artists. The chapter explores the approach through an investigation of the infrastructures of music scenes in Berlin that produce and distribute music on cassette tapes, the interconnection of cassettes with digital technologies and the use of cassette for defining a genre identity. Berlin, as an important European music centre for various genres and international artistic exchanges, constitutes an ideal field for research.
