l O The Dally Collegian
Internet trading networks, DAT technology
introduce music fans to artists new and old
By BRIAN RAFTERY
Collegian Arts Writer
It was the fall of 1995, Jerry Garcia had died,
and it was obvious that the Grateful Dead would
never tour again.
But Gabriel Montemurro wasn’t about to give
up listening to the band’s live performances.
“I thought if I couldn’t see the new shows, I’d
buy tape equipment and start to get old shows,”
said Montemurro (senior-marketing), who
heads Fifty Inspired Barton’s Knights, a collec
tive of Grateful Dead fans. “That’s when I got
involved with the tape trading scene,” he said.
Montemurro isn’t alone. The practice of tape
trading in which music fans exchange copies
of their favorite bands’ concerts or outtakes
has grown rapidly during the last few years.
And with the Internet providing a new forum
for traders to meet and communicate with other
fans, it shows no signs of slowing down.
Just as the means of meeting fellow music
fans has gone high-tech, though, so has the
method many of them use.
Although standard analog audio tapes remain
the mainstay, DAT (digital audio tape) has
emerged as the format of choice among audio
philes.
The digital audio tape came into prominence
in the early ’9os after years of being held up for
legal reasons. It’s considered by many music
fans to be superior not only to regular analog
cassettes (the kind used in car stereos and
boom boxes), but also to CDs.
DATs are available in a variety of time for
mats, including 60-, 90- and 120-minutes, and
generally run a few dollars higher than stan
dard analog tapes.
“It’s definitely the best format out there,”
said Mike Walsh (junior-communications), who
Sci-fi class hits campus with new perspectives on life, future
By CHRIS KREWSON
Collegian Arts Writer
The University was started as an agricultural
school. As such, the focus was probably on little green
plants.
This summer the focus is on little green men.
Aliens are the order of the day in English 191 (Sci
ence Fiction), a reading and discussion class that tack
les a genre that seems to be in the spotlight in recent
years.
The class is taught by Anne Gossage, who said the
University is a pioneer in the instruction of science
fiction.
“Penn State was one of the first schools to teach it,
which really acknowledges it as a respectable literary
form,” Gossage said. “The prevailing attitude of some
students is ‘I can’t believe I’m getting college credit
for reading science fiction!’ ” she said.
Despite a low interest in general humanities classes
during Summer Semester, Gossage had an initial
attendance of 18 students, which she accredits to the
advertising she did for the class.
Flyers could be seen in local bookstores and coffee
shops, as well as on bulletin boards on campus. The
unusual method certainly bore fruit, Gossage said,
“which is good, because I probably spent 50 to 60
hours on advertising.”
The class is small; Gossage pegged the current ros
ter at 13 students, and said she had a good mix of sci
fi veterans and newcomers.
“Last year and this year, we’ve had a couple of die
hards,” she said. “We also have a couple of people who
only read fantasy. I can always count on people hav
ing read the big authors.”
One student who is an avid fan is Brett Borger
(junior-letters, arts and sciences). The class is good
for longtime fans for many reasons, Borger said, with
discussion as the foremost.
trades and tapes with
DATs and who main
tains a trading World
Wide Web site. “It’s a
lot more expensive,
but the quality is
there.”
Like many other
Internet-based
traders, Walsh sub
scribes and posts
messages on the
DAT-Heads Digest, a
daily E-mail digest
that connects music
fans worldwide.
The list covers a
wide range of topics
from the most
obscure technical
questions to U 2 con
cert ticket informa
tion.
The list is at times
also a starting ground
for “tape trees,” a
system of organizing
large groups of
traders so they can
each receive copies of
specific shows.
“Using the tape
tree is a really good
way to get a copy of a
certain show,” Walsh
said. “It’s almost like
a pyramid scheme,
but it actually works,”
he said.
Another method often used by traders is the
two-for-one trade.
Collegian Graphic/Christopher Kellehei
“We can learn concepts behind the stories I hadn’t
thought of before,” he said. “Plus, the stories that I
hadn’t already read were ones that I wanted to
(read).”
A highlight of the class was a visit from local author
James Morrow, who came to discuss one of his books,
Towing Jehovah.
Tale of the tapes
Two-for-one trading
is when two copies of
a blank tape are sent
to one trader, who
keeps one tape for his
own collection, and
copies a show on the
other tape. No money
is exchanged except
for the cost of buying
and shipping the
tapes.
Brian Liska (junior
mechanical engineer
ing), whose collection
of analog and digital
audio tapes contains
over 200 shows, said
he used the system to
help build his own
collection.
“If someone doesn’t
have anything and is
trying to start a col
lection, they can just
send a blank one,”
Liska said. “It’s a
good way to get some
live music,” he said.
Both Montemurro
and Walsh, however,
dislike the two-for
one system.
“It’s immoral,”
Walsh said. “Why
should I pay for a
tape when I can get
one sent to me for
ir free? Besides, there
Collegian Graphic/Christopher Kelleher
are always people on the lists who are willing to
help you start out a collection,” he said.
Though there are charitable members will
ing to help start a collection, there are also
some traders who rip off collectors, Liska said.
“There’s always a few people who never send
a tape, or who say they’ve sent one when they
haven’t,” he said. “I’ve only been ripped off a
couple of times,” he said.
Such traders often have their names posted
on “bad trader lists,” a listing of collectors who
have allegedly ripped off other collectors.
Another problem within the trading commu
nity is the sale of tapes, which many collectors
dislike.
“I think it’s wrong,” Liska said. “It can ruin it
for everyone else.”
Montemurro said collecting solely for the
sake of money ultimately hurts legitimate
traders.
“It’s just ridiculous,” he said. “It’s what gives
the whole image of bootleggers. That word
makes me cringe,” he said.
All of the traders said their main reason for
collecting grew out of an appreciation for the
music not the hopes of making a profit.
And though the Grateful Dead one of the
first bands to allow music to be taped and trad
ed is clearly still the granddaddy of live tape
collecting, many new music acts are beginning
to pop up on the trading lists, including jazz and
folk artists, and younger bands like Widespread
Panic and Yo La Tengo.
For music fans like Montemurro, the hobby
has pointed him to the direction of bands he
never listened to before.
“There’s so many musical styles out there,”
he said. “But you can find it all if you look hard
enough. It’s just a great way to find new
music.”
“That was good. A lot of times, we discuss interpre
tations of the stories. This time, we got the answers
from the horse’s mouth,” Gossage said.
Students enjoyed the experience as well, Borger
said.
“In many classes we’ve analyzed stories. I had one
teacher who found a phallus in every story. It was
Bootleg concert CDs with
rare material carve a niche
in music stores
By BRIAN RAFTERY
Collegian Arts Writer
As many artists are learning,
it’s getting harder to beat the
boots.
Once buried in the back of
record stores, bootleg CDs now
often can be found displayed
prominently in many indepen
dent record stores.
Despite the stigma attached
to the term “bootleg” by many
traders, the. fact remains that it
is a lucrative and constantly
expanding field.
Labels like Swingin’ Pig have
made big money off of the con
traband, sometimes charging
about $25 for a single CD and
$5O for a double disc set.
Usually, the CDs are taken
from high-quality DAT tapes
and brought overseas to be
pressed in Europe, where copy
right laws are sometimes hazy.
The bootlegs then return to
the United States, where they
are found at record conventions
and among the ad-ridden pages
of record collecting magazines
such as Goldmine.
However, one would be hard
pressed to find a successful
record store proudly boasting of
a bootleg section.
Often the discs are branded
as imports, even though illegal
ly-produced CDs can often come
from New York or Los Angeles.
It’s important to note that not
every CD marked as an import
is illegal in fact, many bands
release special editions of their
singles and LPs overseas, often
containing a hard-to-find B-side
or rare live track.
But if the Pearl Jam CD you
just shelled $3O for is manufac
tured by an obscure label in
Germany and half the songs are
misspelled, chances are the
album is not on the up-and-up.
So where is the music coming
from? Sometimes it is a radio
show or an audio copy of a for
eign TV show performance.
For higher-quality sound, it is
a copy of show taken directly
from the soundman’s mixing
board.
Sometimes material is
released through more clandes
tine means. Artists such as
Bruce Springsteen have had
material stolen directly from
the studio, only to find it wind
up in the record bins years
later.
But most of the time, it is a
high-tech concert-goer with a
hidden microphone and
recorder.
One such concert-goer, who
spoke only on the condition of
good to hear from the author and hear it from the
source,” he said.
Followers of the genre feel that it does not often
receive the literary respect it should.
Classes that teach science fiction are long overdue,
said Fred Ramsey, co-owner of Seven Mountains
Books, 111 S. Pugh St.
“It must be obvious by now that pop culture is domi
nated by the stuff,” Ramsey said.
In addition to the pop-culture appeal, college towns
tend to generate interest in speculative literature.
Science fiction is one of the best selling genres at
Seven Mountains, Ramsey said. “It’s one of the things
that pays our rent.”
While popular culture may be seeing a peaked inter
est in science-fiction-geared television shows and
movies, the impact is not seen on similar literature,
Ramsey said.
“Generally, the big science fiction fans of popular
culture have been “Star Trek” and Star Wars fans, and
they don’t usually go beyond the movies and TV stuff.
They’re usually pretty happy with what they’re get
ting,” he said. “There are some people who cross over,
but not that many.”
However, avid fans have a different view about the
genre’s appeal.
Science fiction should be read by more people,
Borger said, because of its value in stimulating
thoughts.
“People should give it a try, because life isn’t
always about answers. It’s about questions,” Borger
said. “Science fiction asks those questions and makes
you ask them, too. It would be foolish not to give it a
try.”
There are other reasons why people should, and do,
pick up science fiction, said Gossage.
“If you’re not completely satisfied with life, it’s a
fun, intellectual escape,” she said. “It really makes
you think about society and what would happen.”
Friday, July 25, 1997
anonymity, has taped multiple
shows using analog and DAT
equipment, including January’s
Smashing Pumpkins perfor
mance at The Bryce Jordan
Center.
“It’s pretty hard to get
caught,” he said. “I have my
mikes covered when I go in, so
I’m mostly worried about get
ting stopped at the door,” he
said.
The taper claims the lack of
security at many venues makes
it easy to bring in recording
equipment.
“The hardest thing is the
metal detectors,” he said. “But
they only frisk you at a lot of
places, so it’s not a big prob
lem,” he said.
A 1 Karosas, event coordinator
at the center, said the venue
takes adequate measures to pre
vent shows from being taped.
“We have an announcement
outside that says no audio equip
ment is allowed, and the guards
will take tapes and equipment if
they see them,” he said. “We
don’t physically search people
unless it’s required by the
band,” he said.
In fact, many of the policies
regarding the taping of shows is
dictated by the artist, Karosas
said.
“If a guard finds someone tap
ing, we’ll then escort the indi
vidual out of the center,” he
said. “But it’s ultimately up to
the band and their management
to decide,” he said.
Taping opponents point out
that the sale of illegally
obtained or recorded material is
a serious offense.
In recent years, conventions
and record stores have been
raided and store owners have
been subjected to heavy fines or
even prison terms.
Some bands, including Hootie
& The Blowfish, have even
launched campaigns to crack
down on those who sell bootleg
CDs.
With the responsibility now
resting on the performers’
shoulders, many mainstream
bands including Phish, Dave
Matthews Band and Metallica
have established designated tap
ing sections at their shows.
Audience members are per
mitted to set up mikes and
equipment or sometimes even
hook up to the soundboard to get
a copy of the show.
The theory is that if they can
allow the fans to tape shows
themselves, they will not spend
money on bootleg CDs.
“It seems to be the direction
that a lot of bands are heading
toward,” Karosas said.