personal stereo

Description

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.When the Sony Walkman debuted in 1979, people were enthralled by the novel experience it offered: immersion in the music of their choice, anytime, anywhere. But the Walkman was also denounced as self-indulgent and antisocial—the quintessential accessory for the “me” generation. In Personal Stereo, Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow takes us back to the birth of the device, exploring legal battles over credit for its invention, its ambivalent reception in 1980s America, and its lasting effects on social norms and public space. Ranging from postwar Japan to the present, Tuhus-Dubrow tells an illuminating story about our emotional responses to technological change Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic Title Page Copyright Page Contents Introduction 1 Novelty Tokyo Telecommunications Research Institute Trapping sound The Walkman’s fathers The case of Andreas Pavel Invention or evolution? Enter the Walkman “The thinking man’s box” The Walkman, culottes, and moccasins “Outside of reality” 2 Norm Hear Muffs and baladeurs Symbol of the 1980s A public health problem Death by Walkman “Home taping is killing music” “First, drug abuse; now, earphone abuse” “There is no such thing as society” A nonstop masturbational fantasy Fondalepsy and Walkman’s Oblivion Cosmetics, Walkmans, and Mars Bars “Remember Pearl Harbor” The management of everyday life A listening, enjoying unit What would Miss Manners say? 3 Nostalgia Music wants to be free The iPod arrives Whatever happened to Sony? From crazy to normal, from glares to shrugs “I only listen to cassettes” Why the analog nostalgia? Revenge of the Walkman A force that bends logic Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Index