ABOUT THIS BOOK

A reflection on the evolution of physical media into metaphor, through the history of music curation.

Obsolescence makes the heart grow fonder, at least in the case of the mixtape. Not all technologies are so lucky. Some (say, wax cylinders) fade almost completely from cultural memory. A lucky few pass into metaphor: we still “hang up” our smartphones, “cut” film, and “patch” computer code. As digital streaming completes the obsolescence of physical media, what will become of the humble cassette?

In The Last Mixtape, Seth Long offers a microhistory of music curation, anchored by the cassette, from which he explores the meanings of obsolescence, ownership, nostalgia, and the speed of cultural change. A moving meditation on our relationship with music, memory, and curation in the digital century, Long ultimately calls for a return to the media ecology represented by the mixtape: a world in which media is cheap and abundant but tactile and meaningfully engaged.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Seth Long is associate professor of English at the University of Nebraska.

REVIEWS

"Comprehensive and meticulous, this will fascinate media scholars and audiophiles."

— Publishers Weekly

“The Last Mixtape demonstrates that in a world of intangible content and instant gratification, people grow nostalgic and gravitate towards things they can touch, collect, and own. . . . By exploring the cycles of media obsolescence, the book makes a substantial contribution to technology-related cultural studies, and its strength lies in Long’s conscious and passionate effort to defend physical media.”

— Cultural Studies

“Long is right. The whole technology and culture of music is degraded at the hands of our current political economy of media.”

— Kyle Devine, Technology and Culture

"In The Last Mixtape, Long (English, Univ. of Nebraska) offers a nuanced history of the mixtape. His book examines the
mixtape not only as a nostalgic cultural artifact for members of Generation X but also as a representation of the speed of
cultural change and technological obsolescence. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals."

— CHOICE

“In this brilliant, thought-provoking book, Long uses the mixtape–as an object, as an art form, as a concept–to launch into a wide-ranging meditation on the way we relate to music, media, memory, and so much more. Deftly analyzing how shifts in technology and culture have changed us, Long stands up for physical media, championing how the mixtape 'showed the world what it looked like for culture to co-opt capitalism for a change rather than the other way around.'”

— Marc Masters, author of 'High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape'

“Is there a more talismanic piece of Jurassic technology, a greater Gen X madeleine, than the cassette? Long can tell you why that might be. The Last Mixtape is a vibrantly smart media history of ownership, in-built obsolesce, and nostalgia—but it’s also a rousing defense of the singular intimacies, with music and with one another, afforded by obdurately physical media, in all their creaking, buzzing, analog glory.”

— Peter Coviello, University of Illinois Chicago

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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