If You Were Born in the 70's

Create Art Using Your Old Cassette Tapes

 

Being that I'm a huge fan of anything artistic in nature, I had to share these awesome images from artist, Erika Iris Simmons. She used old cassette tapes and created art by using the tape running inside these little boxes of music.  From Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson, and Bob Marley to Blondie, The Beatles, and John Lennon - they are all pretty darn cool.  She even created art using old film reels and video cassette tapes - you can check those out on her Flickr page.

Source: Erika is a self-taught artist currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia. In her incredible series titled Ghost in the Machine, Erika uses film from recycled cassette tapes and old film reels to create fantastic portraits of iconic artists and musicians. Below is a small sample of this wonderful series. You can find the complete gallery on iri5′s Flickr page.

Flashback to the 1980's

On my way to work this morning, fumbling through the darkness in my car (I go in at 5 AM), I reached for my cassette case and pulled out the single by Taylor Dayne, "Love Will Lead You Back."

Okay, first things first...

Yes, I still have cassettes; you know, those little rectangular boxes with some tape running through it, like in the image to the right?  Well, the Toyota Avalon I got from Ryan's parents has a cassette player in it, and I thought I might as well utilize it; so hence, the reason I pulled out my cassette case.

Anyway, "Love Will Lead You Back," debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on January 27, 1990, but was recorded by Arista in 1989.  Courtesy of Wikipedia, the song, written by Diane Warren, is about a woman who is willing to set her lover free because she is confident that one day his love will lead him back to her: "Sometimes it takes some time out on your own now / to find your way back home."  Warren has stated that she began writing the song while in a hotel in Russia, and that she had originally intended the song to be offered to R&B singer Whitney Houston, but Arista Records president Clive Davis wanted to let Dayne record the song. It became Dayne's only Number One single.

While I'm sure they played this song on prom night eons ago, it was nice listening to an old track on cassette.  I don't know, there's something about hearing a cassette or record that makes it so different from the digital sounds that come from a CD or MP3 download. It's soothing.

Back to the Miss Dayne...  Just because she only had one #1 hit doesn't mean she was a one hit wonder.  She's actually had 17 Top Ten hits on the Billboard Charts, including most recently, her 2008 Billboard #1 "Beautiful".  Due to having a huge gay following, in July, 2010, she released "Facing A Miracle", the official theme song to the 2010 Gay Games. Dayne performed the song to an audience of 50,000 fans on July 31, 2010 in Cologne, Germany.

Let's take a "Flashback to 1989" and listen to "Love Will Lead You Back."