I conducted an email interview with author and amazing person Jerry Kranitz. Jerry used to run the incredible website/zine Aural Innovations
Jerry has published a second edition of his book on home cassette recording artists of the pre-internet age called Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age. For anyone who is as fascinated as I am in the creation of art for the sake of creating art, this book is a real treasure.
What made you decide to publish a second edition of your book?
The book was originally published in an edition of 500 in 2020. It only took a couple years for those to sell out. When I retired in late 2024 it was driving me crazy that this book I had spent ten years researching and writing was no longer available (except at crazy prices on Ebay and Discogs). Having already got my feet wet with self-publishing my Kenmore, New York memoir I decided to publish it myself. Plus, I saw lots of opportunities for updates. I had conducted a lot of interviews for the first edition. But I also quoted a lot of people from the 1980s/90s small press publications and zines I used as research material. I tracked down a lot of those people to get their feedback from a contemporary perspective. Those were the lion’s share of the additions. There were also major updates to the Introduction. Since my book was first published in 2020, three other books about cassettes were published. They approached cassettes from different angles but I brought them into the literature review that’s part of the Introduction.
What would you say are the key differences in the 2nd edition of your book?
As thrilled as I was with the original, it was a deluxe and very expensive hardback and limited to 500 copies. The real driver for the project was getting the darn thing back in print, more widely available, and at a ‘normal’ price. But there are enough updates to justify calling it a second edition. Other than the updates there are no differences. I didn’t want any expansion of my theme. Same book, with updates.
How much of a challenge was it to re-work for the second edition?
It was more of an update than a re-work. I spent a full year working on it and I’m pleased to say I hit no obstacles. Due to the growth of social media people were easier to find for interview purposes than when I was first researching during 2007 to 2017. There was also a fair bit of ‘clean up’ I came across from an editing standpoint. Grammar, making sentences and even entire paragraphs more concise, stuff like that. I’ll add that being retired and not juggling it with a day job made it SO much easier.
What was the response from the home taping community to the second edition?
People were happy to see it back in print and at the more accessible price point. Also, being the publisher and having ownership of the entire process gives me control over distribution and pounding the pavement trying to get reviews and interviews. People have been great about helping spread the word and sharing my posts whenever I publicize reviews and interviews.
Were you able to track down people you couldn’t reach for the first edition? If so, what insights did they provide that made some changes in the book?
I mentioned having more success tracking down people, but I’ll give you a couple examples of how the book benefitted. Not changes so much as providing more context.
One is a section where I talk about hometapers getting reviews in the old publications and commonly being more interested in trading with others or seemingly not caring about ‘sales’ by not listing a price. I included one example from a 1983 OP magazine review of a cassette that the artist made available for $.01 (a penny). In the first edition I speculated that the artist might be putting a humorous spin on the commerce component of making music available. In this case, I now happened to be acquainted with the artist and asked her what the thought was behind selling it for a penny and what response she got. She described it as a ‘marketing experiment’ and also a bit of a Fluxus joke. I was also curious if she regretted it by getting lots of requests and even overseas requests resulting in a hefty postage bill. She said she made about twenty sales, and none were from overseas. So, that really enhanced the example now that she was able to provide both context and how it turned out.
Another example from the publications was a call to contribute to what would be titled ‘Cheap Noise Cassette Compilation’. I thought the description of “music intended for cheap, noisy cassette tapes” was hysterical. In this case I found the compilation organizer on Facebook who not only explained what led to the project, but he also uploaded a digital version of the cassette for me to hear and comment on in the book along with his explanations.
I could go on, but hopefully this illustrates how getting feedback from the people behind those 1980s reviews and news items I found in the print publications made the examples more meaningful.
What did you find inspiring/surprising about the response to the second edition.
No surprises. But I was inspired by and… ecstatic really… over the response. Several vendors eagerly agreed to stock it. A couple have sold out and re-ordered a couple times. And I still from out of the blue am occasionally contacted by vendors in various countries wanting to stock it.
The first edition of the book included two CDs worth of pieces taken from cassettes. Is there any way for people to get a copy of them?
I’m afraid there is not, unless someone took it upon themselves as people do to digitize them and upload them to YouTube or wherever. Those CDs were Frank Maier’s idea. He runs the Vinyl-on-Demand imprint that published the first edition. I thought it was great. But I’ll be blunt and say I had zero interest in trying to make that happen in the second edition. I wanted the book as history to stand as it is.
The section at the end of the book when you review some tapes is wonderful. It really sparks a desire to listen to them. Are there any resources you could list where people could listen to some of them?
I just did a test where I randomly selected ten albums from that section of the book and did a Google search. Every single one of them came up on either Bandcamp, YouTube, or the Internet Archive. When I was first researching the book years ago I had access to a lot of tapes, but a lot of those reviews are from digital copies I found online. And much of those I found on private blog sites. It’s very different now. Lots are on YouTube and, even better, lots of artists in the years since have been endeavoring to archive their work and make it available on Bandcamp and/or the Internet Archive.
So, to answer your question, just do a search! Chances are better than not that you’ll find it.
With the recent resurgence of cassettes what do you think about the chance of there being another wave of cassette culture?
Cassette Culture, as defined for the purpose of my book, is the network of creation, communication, collaboration, and exchange that arose in the post-punk period. And cassettes + the postal service were the most practical and affordable mechanism by which home recording artists could make their work available. The ‘network’ was key to the ‘culture’.
As for the current popularity of cassettes, it’s very interesting. There are LOTS of artists and labels releasing music on cassettes. I’ll share an observation… at the Cassette Culture Fest held here in Columbus, Ohio this past May there were six people with vendor tables. Five of them were clearly of an age where they would have been very young during the pre-internet era I wrote about. One of the vendors was a veteran of that network and is mentioned in my book a couple times. He was the only one of the vendors not selling cassettes.
At the end of the book you encourage people to contact you. How has the response been so far? Any fun stories to share about it?
Nothing fun, exciting or weird. Several people have contacted me, mostly to tell me how much they enjoyed the book. Some have contacted me asking if I could put them in touch with someone mentioned in the book. And as I mentioned earlier it’s attracted the attention of various small vendors who have contacted me about stocking it.
If the Cassette Culture book has a third printing what do you want to add to it or change about it?
A third printing with additional updates is unlikely. This one will remain in print for as long as I care to keep it available. I spent a year on the updates and am satisfied that I’ve told the story I want to tell. There’s so much more, but anything else expands the scope to the point where it would be an entirely new project.
If someone wants to buy your books, where is the best place to get them from?
My website has a list of vendors with clickable links and indicates which country the vendor is in. Plus, it’s available in Amazon stores worldwide. If you’re partial to ebooks, Amazon is the only option for that. There’s also a note for interested vendors to contact me about how to stock the book.
https://www.jerrykranitzwriter.com/books/
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