Walkman time machine

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the recent boom of 1980s-set television period dramas, the Walkman appears again and again as a symbol of the decade. This article argues that the Walkman (or personal stereo) is not just a one-way ticket into the past but can unsettle the temporality of the television serials in which it appears. It functions as a time machine – figuratively and occasionally even literally – by creating allegorical connections between past and present. Halt and Catch Fire (AMC, 2014–2017), The Americans (FX, 2013–2018), and Deutschland 83 (Sundance TV, 2015–2020) recreate for viewers the initial experience of the Walkman as a wondrously new piece of personal, mobile technology. Oblique comparisons to the smartphone sidestep didacticism, instead creating a defamiliarized perspective on current technology that has otherwise become a source of both boredom and anxiety. The Walkman further provides a structural metaphor for the ‘complex’ temporality of shows like Halt and Catch Fire: the back-and-forth spooling/unspooling mechanism of cassette tape access suggests that backward and forward movement in time are inherently intertwined. The Walkman’s recurring appearances in these serial television narratives allow the shows to ponder how we arrived at our technological present and what might have gone differently.