A reflection on the evolution of physical media into metaphor, through the history of music curation. Obsolescence     makes the heart grow fonder, at least in the case of the mixtape. Not all technologies are so lucky. Some (say, wax     cylinders) fade almost completely from cultural memory. A lucky few pass into metaphor: we still 'hang up' our   smartphones, 'cut' film, and 'patch' computer code. As digital streaming completes the obsolescence of physical   media, what will become of the humble cassette? In The Last Mixtape, Seth Long offers a microhistory of music   curation, anchored by the cassette, from which he explores the meanings of obsolescence, ownership, nostalgia, and   the speed of cultural change. A moving meditation on our relationship with music, memory, and curation in the digital   century, Long ultimately calls for a return to the media ecology represented by the mixtape: a world in which media is   cheap and abundant but tactile and meaningfully engaged

By Seth Long