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But even in history's dustbin, old formats feed new art for those savvy enough to see its affordable potential. 'This technology, which was considered to be very high end in the '70s, was available for almost nothing in the early '90s,' says Tom Greenwood of the improv ensemble Jackie-O Motherfucker. On the band's recent Flags of the Sacred Harp album, tape loops, some made from eight-tracks, hover like crumbling rust behind the band's ghostly Americana. 'The constant updating of technology is an ugly facet of capitalism,' Greenwood says, 'but it keeps the thrift stores and pawn shops full of great gizmos that broke musicians never could have afforded when they came onto the market.'

Before recorded music, songs were something to be learned, performed, shared, and passed along, enriching cultural knowledge in the homes of people who could not afford music in any other way. Recorded music didn't destroy this, it only hid it, until it flourished once more with the advent of the cassette (and now digital formats). A 9-year- old recording an atrocious rock band is not a crime; it is a part of the human experience, and no format change can ever stop it.

Brian Joseph Davis is a multimedia artist and writer.

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