The CD and Cassette - Left out in the cold

In the reading, “Vinyl Communion: The Record as Ritual Object in Girls’ Rites-of-Passage Films”, Robynn J. Stilwell states that, in film, “Digitally encoded CD’s have yet to achieve the same narrative resonance as the record” (page 158). Records have often been the centre of numerous films, such as Ghost World, but the CD, and even the cassette tape, are left in the cold.

A reason for the absence of the CD in film could be because it is the dominant means of (material) music distribution. CD’s potentially loose some of their prestige because of their commonness and mass production, as opposed to the record which is rarer in the 21^st century. Also, the characters in films that collect records, such as Enid in Ghost World, are unique and ‘anti-mainstream’ – another reason why they may identify more with the record.

As the popularity of music downloading increases, the CD could find itself becoming as rare as the record. Despite this, it still remains to be seen whether the CD will take on the significance the record achieves presently through film, in the future.

Stilwell, Robynn J, “Vinyl Communion: The Record as Ritual Object in Girls’ Rites-of-Passage Films” in Phil Powrie & Robynn Stilwell (eds.) Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film. Aldershot, U.K, Ashgate, 2006.