Presentation on cassettes in Japan for the joint symposium Musico-logica Exophonica between Georg August University Göttingen, Ōsaka and Kyōto University. Organised by Ryōto Akiyama.

Abstract

From the early to mid 2000s, cassette tapes appeared to be at the brink of extinction. Although there have been claims about a so-called ‘revival of the cassette’ in mass media based on growing sales over the past decade, it becomes apparent that in some DIY music scenes the format was never abandoned in the first place. Drawing on interviews conducted in Japan from 2018-2019 with more than 30 musicians, label and shop managers, I show that the current use of tapes ranges from cultural currencies in DIY music scenes to merchandise for Hollywood movies such as the Guardians of the Galaxy. These multi-layered occurrences demonstrate that the cassette is far from being dead and gone. This paper therefore explores the meaning and context of the cassette as a hybrid format for music production, consumption and distribution in the new media age.

Article in the Marshall Islands Journal highlighting the Your Favorite Place project for which I recorded video and audio time capsules across Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Your Favorite Place is part of the ERC project Sound Knowledge - Alternative Epistemologies of Music in the Western Pacific Island World hosted at Göttingen University, Germany.

SSHRED Seminar on Green Pressure

Hosted by Dr Indigo Willing on 24 August 2023.

My talk argues that recent environmental sustainability matters expressed in skateboarding’s culture and economy represent a reciprocal and often fragile power relation between producers and consumers’ expectations for continuously improving sustainability standards. Based on a post-greenwashing analysis of corporate environmentalism, this talk will categorise these expectations under the umbrella of ‘green pressure’. The primary concern of green pressure is to demonstrate the necessity for a conscious dealing with the symbolic characteristics of environmental practices in both skateboarding’s DIY and corporate production circuits.

Interview on ABC Brisbane’s Drive programme on 17 January 2023 talking with Steve Austin about rising cassette sales.

@griffith_uni #REWIND! The audio #cassette is making a #comeback! What’s driving its renewed popularity? DIY? Indie #music scene? Cost? #Nostalgia ? Dr @benjaminduester explains https://enlighten.griffith.edu.au/rewinding-the-times/ @K a t y a @julia ♬ original sound - Griffith University

Article on rising sales of cassette tapes in the Australian Financial Review from January 2023 featuring interviews with Mitch Ryan of Repressed Records in Warrane/Sydney, Andy Szetho in Naarm/Melbourne and yours truly in Meanjin/Brisbane.

Radio interview on the German radio station Deutschlandfunk for their culture programme Corso on tapes, DIY music scenes and the Enka industry in Japan. The show was broadcasted on 20 July 2020.