Home tape dubbing is an early form of active, compositional listening

Oswald frames consumer cassette dubbing — selecting and assembling tracks from multiple records — as a creative act that the music industry delegitimized. Listeners making personal compilations were doing something the industry could not: curating across labels, styles, and eras to produce a diversity unavailable commercially. The PAUSE button on a cassette deck, used for real-time editing and collage, is described by some composers as an instrument with its own sonic personality. This positions the ‘passive recipient’ model of music consumption as an ideological construction, not a natural state. The concept connects to broader arguments about listener agency and the democratization of composition.

Examples

A listener recording a compilation of dub reggae, Ives orchestral, and Pygmy chant from their record collection, curating across unavailable commercial combinations. Composers preferring specific Sony TC 153-158 cassette decks for their distinctive PAUSE button ‘edit sound.‘

Assessment

In what sense does home cassette dubbing constitute ‘composition’? What distinguishes it from merely listening, and what are its limits as a creative act?