It’s my sense that pretty much no one had ever heard of Lou Ottens, so it’s interesting to watch the quickly brewing interest in him and his work. Most of it is in a ‘lite’ nostalgic/tribute mode, but it also seems like there’s a growing sense of just how deep and wide his impact was. This article notes, almost as an afterthought, that “In the lead-up to the Iranian revolution, the then-exiled Ayatollah Khomeini built up his following through sermons secretly shared on them.” That only begins to gesture in the direction of the cassette’s impact on Islam, and with that — among other things — its boggling effects. And I’m not even getting into the rise of ‘world music,’ which the cassette made possible. It really was a secret internet before the internet, except it wasn’t secret, everyone just took it for granted. There was a lot of room for a really stunning PhD here, the kind that could win some legit literary awards. That ship sailed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if his death has already prompted a race between a half-dozen authors to write ‘the’ book on the subject.