New Books Network Marc Masters, "High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape" (UNC Press, 2023)
Feb 22, 2026
Marc Masters, music journalist and author of High Bias, traces the compact cassette’s surprising cultural journey. He explores home-taping controversies, mixtape culture and hip hop’s rise, DIY scenes and bootleg trading, mail-art and experimental tape art, and why indie labels and collectors are reviving tapes today.
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Cassettes Broke Gatekeeper Control
- Cassettes upended the producer-consumer hierarchy by letting listeners and musicians control distribution and content.
- Masters shows cheap, recordable tapes enabled artists to bypass studios, labels, and expensive demos to build parallel DIY ecosystems.
Taping Could Grow Fanbases Not Just Steal Sales
- Industry arguments that taping was common-sense theft missed that sharing often converted listeners into stronger fans.
- Masters argues a lost sale could yield concert attendance or word-of-mouth, benefiting artists more than the labels realized.
How Hip Hop Circulated On Cassettes
- Early hip hop spread through taped DJ mixes recorded at parties and sold or traded on cassette.
- Masters recounts DJs like Grandmaster Flash and Kid Capri dubbing mixes, selling street tapes, and accelerating breakbeat diffusion.
