The History of the Grateful Dead and Taping Culture

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This chapter explores the early days of the Grateful Dead, their connection with tape recording, and the rise of taping culture among their fans. It discusses the challenges faced by tapers, the role of cassette tapes in spreading their music, and the obsession of Deadheads with collecting and cataloging tapes.

The Cassette tape was great in so many ways, but let’s be honest, they never really sounded great. But because the cassette was so much cheaper and easier to use and portable, a lot of people didn't care so much about the audio quality. They just wanted to be able to use something that they could carry around with them. The cassette’s other big advantage: it was easy to record on.

We talked to Marc Masters about his new book High Bias, about the history of the cassette. One chapter about concert bootleggers covers perhaps the greatest success story of the cassette: Grateful Dead live tapes.

Long Strange Tape

Plus we're featuring a bonus story that we produced in 2016 in collaboration with Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything about a place where cassettes were of vital importance.