(12 Aug 2024)
IRAQ CASSETTE TAPES
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 2:30
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Baghdad, Iraq – 27 July 2024
1. Various of audio cassette shop owner Sabah Abbas sitting in his shop
2. Various of cassette tapes stacked by wall
3. Various of Abbas playing tape
4. Pan of cassette tapes in shop
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sabah Abbas, tape collector and cassette shop owner:
"I am obsessed with and passionate about buying and selling cassette tapes, videos tapes, and (gramophone) records. I currently have approximately 250,000 cassette tapes. I collected them along the years from Baghdad, other Iraqi provinces and abroad."
6. Close of cassettes in shop
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sabah Abbas, tape collector and cassette shop owner:
"There are some people who have a passion for this. When they listen to a cassette (recorder), it feels different from listening to it a mobile phone. I know people who are brought to tears when they listen to audio cassettes. They remember (old times) and say: ‘Oh, my grandfather had this (tape) and this is how he listened to it… My father had this (tape), or my uncle had this.’ But it is not the same with music over the phone."
8. Various of customer Rahim Najm looking at cassette tapes
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Rahim Najm, cassette hobbyist and customer:
"When I come here and enter this shop, I see a great work of art, these wonderful cassettes with music by our old singers. It is nice. It is a masterpiece. I am a regular customer and I always buy (tapes) from him. I even came to buy some tapes today and by chance, you are here filming me. It reminds us of our old family members, old singers, and our old history. I told you, he has cassettes from the 1950’s and they are amazing. It is like a painting, a beautiful painting."
10. Various of shops selling antiques in the market
STORYLINE:
The success of the classic audio cassette tape, the medium of choice for millions of bedroom mix tapes, lives on in a shop in Baghdad, Iraq.
The shop’s stacks upon stacks of cassette tapes are a nod to the past, capturing a snapshot in music history.
Cassette tapes were first created in 1962 and eventually became a worldwide hit.
More than 100 billion units were sold, many of which were bought by music fans who recorded their own compilations directly from the radio.
Its popularity waned with the development of the compact disc, eventually becoming a thing of the past for many as music-playing became more digitized.
In many homes, people’s collection of cassette tapes filled with dust while others gave them away.
But shop owner Sabah Abbas never let go of the tape, collecting one after the other.
"I am obsessed and passionate about buying and selling cassette tapes, videos tapes, and (gramophone) records," he said.
"I know people who are brought to tears when they listen to audio cassettes," Abbas added.
The tape collector’s shop boasts a collection of around 250,000 cassettes, featuring music by local Iraqi singers and other Arabic stars.
Not too many people frequent his shop, but his regular customers go on a true trip down memory lane when they visit.
Cassette hobbyist Rahim Najm, a regular at the shop, comes to the store to find the next tape to add to his collection at home.
He often loses himself in memories of "old family members" and "old singers" when he visits the store, which he likens to a work of art.
"It is like a painting, a beautiful painting," he said.
AP video shot by Ali Jabar
===========================================================
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/2ab7cfc94043427eba6a14e234fe1ee6
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in August 17, 2024, 12:04 pm.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
