Editing Cassette culture (section)

==Background==
“Cassette culture” is an international [[Music community|music scene]] that developed in the wake of [[Punk rock|punk]] in the second half of the 1970s and continued through into the first half of the 1980s (the "[[Post-punk|postpunk]]" period), and in some territories into the 1990s, in which a large number of amateur musicians outside the established [[music industry]], usually recording in their [[Home recording|homes]] and usually recording to [[Cassette deck|cassette-tape]] devices, produced music, very often of a [[Underground music|non-mainstream]] or alternative character, that was then duplicated on cassette in very limited quantities and distributed free or sold at low cost to others involved in the scene and those who followed it. Often, these cassette-only albums of original music were completely self-produced by the artists, but small companies or labels also flourished during the period, producing cassette-only releases in small runs, both single-artist albums and compilations by various artists (in a few cases these labels also released vinyl). Numerous artists who first emerged at this time remain active today, some of them now releasing through [[Independent record label|commercial companies]], others continuing with the [[Do it yourself|DIY]] ethic of self-releasing on CD and the Internet. Since 2000 there has been a revival of the use of the cassette tape for the release of independent music (very often in conjunction with digital release) and a new “cassette scene” has sprung up.