Pocket Rocker, personal stereo, Fisher-Price, designed USA, manufactured Thailand and Hong Kong, 1988

Small electronic personal cassette-player made from white plastic, printed with a bright geometric pattern. On top of the player is a slot for the micro cassette and a purple plastic track selection switch. On the proper left side, a sliding stop/eject switch and a headphone jack. On the front is the loudspeaker and a circular volume control. On the proper right is an attachment point for the woven black cord wrist strap.

The cassette is of transparent green neon plastic, with a printed paper sticker showing the names of the two tracks, which are played on a continuous loop. The two songs featured are La Bamba and Tequila by the American band Los Lobos. There is a matching clip which the cassette can be connected to, and then attached to clothing.

With the player is a folded card, printed with bold graphics with the track names. Inside is a trivia quiz printed in black. Separately, there is a folding sheet of printed instructions.

The whole is contained in a printed card box, side-opening, with plastic bubble-front to view the tape-player and cassette. The box is printed with product information and images of the object in use.

Purchased by the museum in 2018/19 [2019/355]

Portable music players have been utilised as fashionable accessories since they first became available. Some were designed specifically with this intent, such as 1960s and ‘70s bangle-style transistor radios worn around a wrist (see W.29-1992). Sony launched the first portable cassette-playing ‘Walkman’ in 1979 (see W.22-1992 and CD.95-2016), it revolutionised people’s relationships with music, creating a private space in which to enjoy music publicly. Its appeal over transistor radios was largely due to the offer of user control provided by interchangeable audio cassettes, which was not possible with radio. In the 1980s, the portable Walkman offered a more personal and private counterpoint to the brash territorialism of large battery-powered ‘boombox’ stereos.

The ability to make something portable relies on an ability to manufacture smaller, lighter components. Examples have included transistors developed in the post-war years which replaced glass vacuum tubes, Compact and Mini-discs, MP3s, to contemporary broadband cellular network technology for streaming music directly from the internet.

Hoping to develop a stake in the portable market, Fisher-Price developed the Pocket Rocker. Launched in 1988 and targeted at children of primary school age, it was marketed a mode of self-expression through a combination of popular music choices and visual style. It utilised a unique type of cassette which was, essentially, a miniature version of an 8-track tape, which would play on a continuous loop. Each cassette carried two songs, one on each side. The units were decorated with bold, colourful graphics of a typically 1980s mode, and the even the tapes could be accessorised and worn on clothing using clips. Pocket Rockers were equipped with a built-in loudspeaker and an audio jack, creating opportunities for both public and private enjoyment.

Pocket Rockers were briefly popular but diminishing sales in the face of competition from ‘traditional’ portable audio cassette players (for which there was significantly more choice) meant they were discontinued in 1991.

B.12:1 to 7-2018