Magnetic tape follows the contours of the twentieth century in striking ways, from the overtly sonic and musical to less obvious political and social transformations. This introductory article sets the tone for this special issue, an effort to connect discrete histories of tape through a focus on its materialities. We posit the existence of a phonographic regime that coheres around a loose set of assumptions that often appear in tandem with broad claims about what ‘sound recording’ or even ‘analogue media’ are. This regime dates back to the invention of phonography but persists through many contemporary histories of sound recording. We challenge the regime by thinking with and through tape recording. One of tape's critical media operations, ‘rewind’, serves as a central focus for our push-back against the regime. As a button-interface, it highlights the physical engagement of humans with materialities, including the corporal labours of using technology, with iconography that digital technologies still employ. As a mechanism of respooling, it points to the industrial histories of various spooling forerunners from textiles to film reels. As we explore its cultural techniques in musical practices, we consider rewind, above all, as a temporal gesture that offers new paths backward into history.

中文翻译：

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磁带：或者，倒带唱片制度

磁带以惊人的方式追随 20 世纪的轮廓，从明显的声音和音乐到不太明显的政治和社会变革。这篇介绍性文章为本期特刊定下了基调，努力通过关注磁带的重要性将离散的磁带历史联系起来。我们假设存在一种录音体制，它围绕着一套松散的假设，这些假设通常与关于什么是“录音”甚至“模拟媒体”的广泛主张同时出现。这种制度可以追溯到留声机的发明，但在许多当代录音历史中仍然存在。我们通过录音思考和通过录音来挑战政权。磁带的关键媒体操作之一，“倒带”，是我们反击政权的核心焦点。作为按钮界面，它突出了人类与物质的物理接触，包括使用技术的体力劳动，以及数字技术仍在使用的图像。作为一种重绕机制，它指出了从纺织品到胶片卷轴的各种绕线先行者的工业历史。当我们探索它在音乐实践中的文化技巧时，我们首先将倒带视为一种时间姿态，它提供了回到历史的新路径。