Electronic mediations have been central to Sundanese wayang golek purwa for almost 100 years: 78rpm recordings (c.1911 - c.1940), radio (since the mid-1930s), microphones and amplification (since the mid-1950s), audio cassettes (since the early 1970s), and television (since the mid-1980s). Yet, studies of wayang golek purwa produced within and outside Indonesia have largely ignored electronically mediated performances, either as the focus of analysis or as data for writing the history of the genre. Since the introduction of wayang golek cassette recordings circa 1970, hundreds of lakon have been recorded by leading dalang. However, cassette recordings, like other forms of electronic mediation, are rarely mentioned in studies of wayang golek.

Why have cassettes been excluded from the literature on wayang golek? Can cassette recordings help to illuminate why the genre developed in this way, and not in other ways? How have cassettes helped to define, rather than to degrade, a set of practices called Padalangan, the "art of the Sundanese dalang"? In this study, I construct an interpretation of wayang golek purwa by tracing the history and effects of cassette technology on the genre. While cassettes as a discursive practice may be said to constitute a specific form of "cassette culture" (Manuel 1993), my analysis hinges on the ways in which cassettes articulate with other forms of electronic mediations and representations. Therefore, analysis of cassettes cannot be separated from radio, television, and face-to-face performance contexts. In this paper, I focus on the ways in which cassettes have shaped wayang golek purwa as a genre, individual performance practices and styles, and audience configurations. I will also consider related cassette genres of wayang golek purwa, including wayang bodoran, a comedy form that exists solely in the realm of audio media. Data include a corpus of 16 lakon recorded during 1970-1980 and approximately 40 lakon recorded during 1980-present.