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Article: Unspooled; In the Digital Age, The Quaint Cassette Is Sent Reeling Into History's Dustbin
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- October 29, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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In 1923, Fritz Pfleumer, a chemist in Dresden, was coating thin
strips of paper with magnetizing chemicals, so that he could attempt
to record sound on them. Sixty years after that, a girl said, "Your
music depresses me," and handed a boy back the cassette tape he had
made for her on the stereo in his bedroom.
Another 20 years drift by: Someone has left a ripped Dean & DeLuca
grocery bag filled with some cassette tapes, a broken telephone,
three sweaters and two T-shirts on a sidewalk on Connecticut Avenue.
The tapes include, but are not limited to, Squeeze, Willie Nelson,
something called "Burning '70s Disco Party," and the soundtracks to
"Dances With Wolves," "Dick Tracy" and ...