C81 was a cassette compiled for the British music paper NME in 1981 (hence (C)assette 81) and released in conjunction with the record label Rough Trade. Featuring a number of contemporary musical acts and performers, it was intended to mark the first five years of the independent label movement in the UK record industry and Rough Trade itself. It was the first in a series of many cassette releases from the paper, including the C86 compilation of 1986.
Background
C81 was compiled by NME journalist Roy Carr, and Christopher Rose, who worked in public relations for Rough Trade. To obtain a copy, NME readers needed to collect two coupons from the magazine and send off £1.50. The first printed coupons and advertisement for the cassette were in the issue dated 31 January 1981.[1] By the time C81 went on general sale at the end of May that year,[2] 25,500 copies had been sold through the coupon offer,[3] which represented a "big commercial success" according to Carr.[4]
Publishing a tape was an acknowledgment of the flourishing self-published cassette culture of the time that the NME had been supporting during its short-lived Garageland column.[citation needed] An alternative view, however, was that the C81 cassette was more akin to 'bandwagon jumping', drawing on the enthusiasm and momentum of the cassette culture movement and using this as a promotional tool, whilst failing to acknowledge that movement, and ignoring its inherent critique of the established music industry.[6] British music writer Simon Reynolds called it "post punk's swan song", noting the appearance of three acts from Scottish independent label Postcard Records and the emerging new pop tendency of bands such as Linx and Scritti Politti,[7] and that NME stopped publishing the Garageland column in the very same month that C81 went on general sale, an acknowledgement that the DIY cassette culture movement was on the wane.[8]
^"NME, though, disillusioned many of the more radical independent producers with its 1981 'C81' compilation cassette, produced in collaboration with Rough Trade. This release drew on the growing enthusiasm for cassettes being generated, not just by the independent cassette labels, but also by the appearance of the personal stereo. 'C81' gave no acknowledgement of the former, though, and was seen as being directed more at the consumer lifestyle market of the latter." - Rosen, P, '"It was easy, it was cheap, go and do it!" Technology and Anarchy in the UK Music Industry', 1997, published in: Twenty-First Century Anarchism; Unorthodox ideas for a new Millennium, Purkis, J & Bowen, J. (eds) Cassell Press. http://www.york.ac.uk/media/satsu/documents-papers/Rosen-1997-anarchy.pdf
