Jerry Kranitz is pleased to announce the publication of his book Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age. Originally published in 2020 in a now sold-out edition by Frank Maier’s Vinyl-on-Demand imprint, the book takes a social history/analytical approach to the growth of the global homemade music/cassette culture network that sprouted and flourished from the post-punk era through the early 1990s. Kranitz explores how the participants communicated, traded, collaborated, and set up cottage industry labels to distribute their work. A long overdue study of this pivotal yet less than comprehensively documented chapter in the post-punk and 20th century independent arts movement stories.
This second edition includes multiple updates. The Introduction has been reworked, multiple people quoted from the 1980s-90s small press publications/zines have been tapped for feedback from a contemporary perspective, plus other ‘bits and pieces’ additions. The scope of the book has not changed. Kranitz is still laser focused on the hometapers and post-punk era network of communication, collaboration and exchange.
Paperback and Kindle editions are available from Amazon stores worldwide.
PLEASE consider purchasing the paperback from one of these esteemed vendors:
· Soleilmoon (US)
· Tapehead City (US - Coming soon)
· Resident Music (UK)
Direct links to purchase are available on my website at https://www.jerrykranitzwriter.com/books/
If you are a retailer and would like to stock the book, it is available through IngramSpark (ISBN 979-8-218-81983-5), or email me at jerry@jerrykranitzwriter.com for details.
Check out Cassette Culture Podcast host Martin Franklin’s video review of the book on YouTube…
https://youtu.be/KW8ZIgO_Llo?si=NSrAfu76HrSfEuJ2
Alan Rider posted a detailed review in Outsideleft Magazine…
https://outsideleft.com/main.php?story=flying-the-flag-for-independence
Acclaim for Cassette Culture…
In Cassette Culture, Jerry Kranitz has achieved the near impossible, that of summing up the nature, reach and impact of the radical and democratizing technology that was the cassette tape. The invention of the compact cassette wrestled control out of the hands of the record industry and placed it firmly into the laps of you and I, to create, communicate, collaborate and innovate like never before. Drawing on original sources and prime movers in the underground cassette scenes that sprang up all over, Kranitz paints an evocative picture of an era now passed, but whose influence is still with us. The humble cassette offered true emancipation to those seeking to share and exchange music with others across the world and enabled small bands to record and release their own music without the need to go into a studio or chase a recording contract. Kranitz opens the door to this world through the eyes of some of its key protagonists and brings it alive for us through his clear passion for the topic. Cassette Culture acts as an eye-opening introduction, a selection box, and a guidebook into the incredible world of the underground cassette revolution, from which once experienced, there is no going back.
- Alan Rider, Outsideleft Magazine/Adventures in Reality
The humble cassette has received quite a lot of interest of late with a number of books exploring its social and cultural significance across a range of genres, but Jerry Kranitz’s book remains one of the few publications to focus on the cassette’s significance as a means of DIY music production and distribution. Starting firstly in the heady days of late 1970s post-punk and then outlining the cassette’s role in the 1980s and 90s in the development of an alternative network of hometapers. Out of print since its initial hardback publication on Vinyl-on-Demand, this new and updated version is therefore very much appreciated.
- Philip Sanderson, founder of Snatch Tapes
Jerry Kranitz’s book evokes the almost-clandestine networks, the home-dubbed love and revolution that snailed its way through the mail, a thing that didn’t need permission, a thing that thrived precisely because it was excluded. It was raw, unruly, and totally outside of the algorithm’s grasp. It was rough, slow and amateur, but it built real connections across borders and physical isolation. The is how we misfits found each other, making noise outside of commerce. A countercultural web stuck together with trust, photocopies and international reply coupons.
- Nigel Ayers, Nocturnal Emissions
The cassette culture wasn’t just about underground music and art, it was a way of looking at the world. Jerry Kranitz’s Cassette Culture illuminates this grassroots network where kindred spirits were only a letter away and exchanges were always mutual. We created a Christmas Day every day, with quirky packages arriving through mailboxes the world over. This meticulously researched book is full of firsthand information and anecdotes from artists and innovators that join the dots to show how the network grew and interconnected creators and audiences. Embracing the bold challenges of assembling a comprehensive cultural history that straddles countries, musical genres and ideologies, Cassette Culture is an engrossing and weighty read. Uniquely, Kranitz roots the artist networks of the cassette scene within earlier fan communities of 1930s sci-fi and the scrupulously DIY approach of 1950s Sun Ra. Kranitz’s wide lens contextualizes what emerged with the arrival of the hometapers with foundational concepts from the Dada and Fluxus movements. You will emerge from reading this book not just with an understanding of the connections of contemporary music and culture but with a thought that maybe, just maybe, there is another way of doing things.
- Martin Franklin, The Cassette Culture Podcast
Jerry Kranitz’s entry into music journalism began in the late 1990s with the fanzine Aural Innovations and in 2000 he began an online podcast under the same name. Recently he sent me an advance copy of a fascinating new book titled Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age. This is a fascinating and in-depth survey of indie music artists, labels and music collectors that covers the entire spectrum of music stylistically featuring musicians from all corners of the world. As someone who has been immersed in ‘Music from Around the World’ since the 1970s, as I read through it there were hundreds of artists, labels, music fans and musicians referenced that I had never heard. I was amazed and overwhelmed by the amount of information contained in the book. Cassette Culture is an essential musical reference source. I recommend you check it out.
- Archie Patterson, EUROCK
Cassette Culture is the result of 10 years of painstaking research. It is an enjoyable and captivating read and, although meticulously researched, it thankfully avoids becoming too dry and academic and will appeal to both lay and scholarly readers alike. As someone who was thoroughly immersed in the DIY cassette scene of the late 1970s and early 80s, I recommend this book to anyone who was directly involved and would like to relive those exciting times, or simply wishes to discover more about this fascinating - and often forgotten - period in the history of underground music.
- Richard Rupenus, The New Blockaders
