{"id":11777,"date":"2026-04-09T10:47:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T10:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/?p=11777"},"modified":"2026-04-09T10:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T10:51:21","slug":"rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/","title":{"rendered":"Rewind and Record: The Cultural Legacy of VHS, from Solid Soul to the 2026 Resurgence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This analysis broadly explores the <strong>cultural legacy, archival importance, and modern resurgence of VHS tapes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The VHS Era as a &#8220;Labour of Love&#8221;<\/strong> Before frictionless, on-demand streaming, recording television onto blank cassettes\u2014such as the iconic TDK E-180, known for its dolphin cover art\u2014was a highly involved creative process. Home viewers painstakingly curated their own physical media libraries, which required intense focus to manually pause recordings during commercial breaks and handwritten labels for the spines. This effort transformed VHS tapes into a &#8220;physical CV&#8221; of a person&#8217;s tastes, creating a cherished, tactile media experience that modern streaming platforms struggle to replicate.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The Friction We Missed  Why 2026 is Renting VHS Tapes\" width=\"604\" height=\"340\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Anzk9_MGOUM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>VHS Tapes as Accidental Time Capsules<\/strong> Because original television networks frequently wiped their own broadcast archives to save money, home-recorded VHS tapes have become vital pieces of historical preservation. A dedicated modern community of amateur archivists and &#8220;tape diggers&#8221; now scour eBay, Freegle, and charity shops to salvage these forgotten collections. By digitizing these tapes, they unearth lost media, including early 1980s television, rare regional commercials, channel idents, and long-lost music performances. The archival value of VHS is so significant that even some official, label-sourced music videos on YouTube rely on glitchy dubs salvaged from old VHS tapes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The 2026 VHS Rental Resurgence<\/strong> By 2026, North America is experiencing a cultural revival of the VHS format, with physical video rental shops opening up in various cities. This resurgence is driven by older generations seeking the nostalgia of weekend video rentals and Gen Z users wanting to experience physical media firsthand. Ultimately, the revival represents a societal pushback against digital isolation, fueled by a desire for analog aesthetics, tactile media, and real-world community building.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jonathan Ross and British Television History<\/strong> The sources also chronicle the extensive career of British broadcaster Jonathan Ross, who became a major figure on the BBC and ITV. His early career is rooted in the classic era of 1980s television; he worked as a researcher and producer on the Channel 4 program <em>Solid Soul<\/em>, a show designed to highlight emerging British and Caribbean soul music. Ross himself shares the archivist spirit seen in the VHS community; as a massive pop-culture collector, he recently allowed video game archivists to access his personal collection to preserve a rare, thought-to-be-lost <em>Um Jammer Lammy<\/em> arcade cabinet.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From &#8220;Pause Button Ninjas&#8221; to Arcade Saviors: 5 Surprising Lessons from the Analogue Era<\/span><\/h3>\n<h5><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1. The Paradox of Frictionless Choice<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2026, the modern media consumer is drowning in an ocean of convenience. We open our streaming services to be met with 40,000 choices\u2014a monolithic wall of algorithm-approved &#8220;Suggestions For You&#8221; that frequently results in twenty minutes of paralyzed scrolling and a lingering, low-level anxiety. This &#8220;frictionless&#8221; abundance, while technically impressive, often leaves us feeling bloated and dissatisfied. We have everything, which in the economy of attention, often feels like having nothing.This stands in stark contrast to the deliberate, high-stakes curation of the VHS era. In the 1980s and 90s, media was not a utility like water from a tap; it was something we had to hunt, capture, and maintain. That effort\u2014the analogue &#8220;faff&#8221;\u2014is exactly what gave the content its soul.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2. The Magnetic Archaeology of the &#8220;Pause Button Ninja&#8221;<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recording television in the analogue era was not a passive act of consumption; it was a high-stakes performance where the viewer functioned as both audience and editor. To capture a film off-air was an act of magnetic archaeology. It required the physical mastery of a concert pianist and a specific ritual of tools: a fresh TDK E-180, a VCR with a clock eternally flashing &#8220;12:00,&#8221; and the creative decision of whether to label the spine with a ballpoint pen (prone to smudging) or a felt-tip (destined to bleed into the cardboard).The true test of skill was the battle against the commercial break. To maintain a clean recording, viewers became &#8220;Pause Button Ninjas,&#8221; lunging toward the machine to hit pause within a 1.5-second window. This created a deep, tactile connection to the media. As the archives of the &#8220;Genology&#8221; historians remind us, these recordings were rarely perfect, but their imperfections were precisely what made them ours:&#8221;The second the film re-appeared\u2014BAM!\u2014you\u2019d un-pause. You\u2019d do this eight times&#8230; You\u2019d always, always get a tiny sliver of an advert. The last half-second of the \u2018R. White\u2019s Lemonade\u2019 song was a permanent fixture on my copy of Terminator&#8230; or the start of the &#8216;Shake &#8216;n&#8217; Vac&#8217; jingle.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3. Jonathan Ross: From Researcher to Arcade Custodian<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The career of Jonathan Ross offers a perfect study in &#8220;technological hauntology&#8221;\u2014the way past formats continue to haunt and shape our present. Long before he was the host of\u00a0 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Friday Night with Jonathan Ross<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> , he was a researcher on shows like\u00a0 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loose Talk<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 and the seminal\u00a0 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solid Soul<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> . Ross didn\u2019t just live through the era of physical media; he became one of its most dedicated custodians.Beyond his well-known television persona, Ross is a creator-archivist with a profound respect for the ephemeral. He is a prolific writer of comics like\u00a0 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Turf<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> , a massive collector of Hayao Miyazaki\u2019s work (even providing a voice role in the Ghibli-related\u00a0 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ronja, the Robber&#8217;s Daughter<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ), and a man whose private toy collection rivals museums.In 2023, this passion for preservation turned into a vital service for digital history. The arcade version of the game\u00a0 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Um Jammer Lammy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 was considered a lost relic until Ross allowed video game archivists access to his private arcade cabinet\u2014one of the last surviving examples in the world. Ross represents the ultimate evolution of the Pause Button Ninja: a pop culture icon turned technical savior.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4. The Hauntology of the Official Music Video<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a delicious irony buried in the &#8220;high-definition&#8221; libraries of modern streaming platforms. Many official, label-sourced music videos on Vevo are actually &#8220;glitchy dubs&#8221; harvested from ancient home-recorded tapes.This reliance on amateur recordings is a direct result of the &#8220;impermanence&#8221; of digital history. Because original studio masters were frequently lost or destroyed, labels have been forced to go hat-in-hand to the archives of home recorders.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>The Early YouTube Era:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 Populated by &#8220;flickery&#8221; user uploads from personal VHS collections.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>The Vevo Era:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 Attempted to standardize quality, but often simply upscaled those same &#8220;magnetic ghosts.&#8221;Today, when you watch a crisp 80s hit, you are often seeing the flickering tracking lines of a TDK tape recorded decades ago. The &#8220;official&#8221; version is a copy of a copy, haunted by its own analogue origins.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5. 2026: The Year the Tactile Returned<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The year 2026 has witnessed a startling resurgence of VHS rentals across North America. This isn&#8217;t merely a mid-life crisis for those in their 50s; it is a radical rejection of &#8220;isolated lives&#8221; by younger generations who find social media disconnect increasingly intolerable. In an era of digital ghosts, there is a yearning for the &#8220;analog purity&#8221; of something you can hold.However, the &#8220;Tech Review Guy&#8221; archives provide a necessary reality check regarding rumors that Sony or Panasonic are remanufacturing VCRs. While the cultural interest is high, the financial logic is absent. The costs of spinning up mass production lines for complex mechanical hardware cannot be recuperated by a niche audience, no matter how vocal. As one observer noted:&#8221;There&#8217;s a certain aesthetic&#8230; people want to experience that sort of analog purity&#8230; people want to experience tactile things, they want to actually see and feel and hold VHS tapes. That sort of tactile media, physical media, has definitely been making a comeback.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6. Hunting the &#8220;Holy Grail&#8221; of Wiped History<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the masses scroll through Netflix, a dedicated group of &#8220;tapeographers&#8221; like Greg Molloy and Neil Miles engage in a different kind of scrolling\u2014wading through miles of mouldy magnetic tape. They hunt for footage &#8220;wiped&#8221; by broadcasters who once viewed their archives as disposable. Irish broadcaster RTE, for instance, had a ruthless wiping policy until the mid-90s, making home recordings the only extant evidence of entire cultural eras.These archivists search for &#8220;Holy Grails&#8221; that represent cultural badges of honor:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Jools Holland\u2019s 1987 Tube Promo:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 Infamous for the moment he swore at unsuspecting CITV viewers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Regional ITV Franchises:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 Continuity and idents from Southern, Westward, or ATV\u2014lost to time at the end of 1981.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Smithy&#8217;s Kaff:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 Bizarre local ads that remain legendary for their sheer enthusiastic weirdness.For the tapeographer, a hand-labeled E-180 containing a &#8220;dodgy copy&#8221; of a regional news broadcast isn&#8217;t junk; it\u2019s a fragment of a lost civilization.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conclusion: The Value of the Faff<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The overarching lesson of the analogue era is that the &#8220;faff&#8221;\u2014the struggle, the timing, the smudged labels\u2014is exactly what gave our media meaning. Our frictionless present offers unparalleled convenience, but it has traded the soul of our cultural memory for the convenience of an expiration date.As we look toward a future where &#8220;official&#8221; masters vanish and algorithms dictate our tastes, we must ask ourselves: In our rush to remove all friction from our lives, have we accidentally made our own history disposable? Perhaps there was more value in the struggle of the Pause Button Ninja than we ever cared to admit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This analysis broadly explores the cultural legacy, archival importance, and modern resurgence of VHS tapes. The VHS Era as a &#8220;Labour of Love&#8221; Before<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAowu7GVCw:productID":"","_crdt_document":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[926,18300,1666,18295,18297,18287,18294,18292,18301,18293,472,8029,18296,3047,14020,18288,16110,18298,18299,18289],"class_list":["post-11777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-digital-media","tag-dv","tag-ebay","tag-greg-molloy","tag-high-definition-television","tag-home-video","tag-jammer-lammy","tag-jonathan-ross","tag-magnetic-tape","tag-neil-miles","tag-netflix","tag-panasonic","tag-ronja","tag-sony","tag-tdk","tag-vhs","tag-video","tag-video-rental-shop","tag-videocassette-recorder","tag-videotape"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Solid-Soul.png","blog_images":{"medium":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Solid-Soul-300x163.png","large":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Solid-Soul.png"},"ams_acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rewind and Record: The Cultural Legacy of VHS, from Solid Soul to the 2026 Resurgence - Mpelembe Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jonathan Ross and British Television History. His early career is rooted in the classic era of 1980s television; he worked as a researcher and producer on the Channel 4 program Solid Soul, a show designed to highlight emerging British and Caribbean soul music\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rewind and Record: The Cultural Legacy of VHS, from Solid Soul to the 2026 Resurgence - Mpelembe Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jonathan Ross and British Television History. His early career is rooted in the classic era of 1980s television; he worked as a researcher and producer on the Channel 4 program Solid Soul, a show designed to highlight emerging British and Caribbean soul music\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mpelembe Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-09T10:47:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-09T10:51:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Solid-Soul.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"555\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2421ebbf3150931b1066b10a196d7608\"},\"headline\":\"Rewind and Record: The Cultural Legacy of VHS, from Solid Soul to the 2026 Resurgence\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-09T10:47:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-09T10:51:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1523,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Solid-Soul.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Digital media\",\"DV\",\"eBay\",\"Greg Molloy\",\"High-definition television\",\"Home video\",\"Jammer Lammy\",\"Jonathan Ross\",\"Magnetic tape\",\"Neil Miles\",\"Netflix\",\"Panasonic\",\"Ronja\",\"Sony\",\"TDK\",\"VHS\",\"Video\",\"Video rental shop\",\"Videocassette recorder\",\"Videotape\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\\\/\",\"name\":\"Rewind and Record: The Cultural Legacy of VHS, from Solid Soul to the 2026 Resurgence - Mpelembe Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Solid-Soul.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-09T10:47:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-09T10:51:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2421ebbf3150931b1066b10a196d7608\"},\"description\":\"Jonathan Ross and British Television History. His early career is rooted in the classic era of 1980s television; he worked as a researcher and producer on the Channel 4 program Solid Soul, a show designed to highlight emerging British and Caribbean soul music\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Solid-Soul.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Solid-Soul.png\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":555},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rewind and Record: The Cultural Legacy of VHS, from Solid Soul to the 2026 Resurgence\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mpelembe Network\",\"description\":\"Collaboration Platform\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2421ebbf3150931b1066b10a196d7608\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c66a2765397adfb52418f6f2310640167a0af23ce662da1b68c8a0b8650de556?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c66a2765397adfb52418f6f2310640167a0af23ce662da1b68c8a0b8650de556?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c66a2765397adfb52418f6f2310640167a0af23ce662da1b68c8a0b8650de556?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mpelembe.net\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rewind and Record: The Cultural Legacy of VHS, from Solid Soul to the 2026 Resurgence - Mpelembe Network","description":"Jonathan Ross and British Television History. His early career is rooted in the classic era of 1980s television; he worked as a researcher and producer on the Channel 4 program Solid Soul, a show designed to highlight emerging British and Caribbean soul music","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rewind and Record: The Cultural Legacy of VHS, from Solid Soul to the 2026 Resurgence - Mpelembe Network","og_description":"Jonathan Ross and British Television History. His early career is rooted in the classic era of 1980s television; he worked as a researcher and producer on the Channel 4 program Solid Soul, a show designed to highlight emerging British and Caribbean soul music","og_url":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/","og_site_name":"Mpelembe Network","article_published_time":"2026-04-09T10:47:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-09T10:51:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":555,"url":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Solid-Soul.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/#\/schema\/person\/2421ebbf3150931b1066b10a196d7608"},"headline":"Rewind and Record: The Cultural Legacy of VHS, from Solid Soul to the 2026 Resurgence","datePublished":"2026-04-09T10:47:26+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-09T10:51:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/"},"wordCount":1523,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Solid-Soul.png","keywords":["Digital media","DV","eBay","Greg Molloy","High-definition television","Home video","Jammer Lammy","Jonathan Ross","Magnetic tape","Neil Miles","Netflix","Panasonic","Ronja","Sony","TDK","VHS","Video","Video rental shop","Videocassette recorder","Videotape"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/","url":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/","name":"Rewind and Record: The Cultural Legacy of VHS, from Solid Soul to the 2026 Resurgence - Mpelembe Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Solid-Soul.png","datePublished":"2026-04-09T10:47:26+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-09T10:51:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/#\/schema\/person\/2421ebbf3150931b1066b10a196d7608"},"description":"Jonathan Ross and British Television History. His early career is rooted in the classic era of 1980s television; he worked as a researcher and producer on the Channel 4 program Solid Soul, a show designed to highlight emerging British and Caribbean soul music","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Solid-Soul.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Solid-Soul.png","width":1024,"height":555},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/rewind-and-record-the-cultural-legacy-of-vhs-from-solid-soul-to-the-2026-resurgence\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rewind and Record: The Cultural Legacy of VHS, from Solid Soul to the 2026 Resurgence"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/","name":"Mpelembe Network","description":"Collaboration Platform","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/#\/schema\/person\/2421ebbf3150931b1066b10a196d7608","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c66a2765397adfb52418f6f2310640167a0af23ce662da1b68c8a0b8650de556?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c66a2765397adfb52418f6f2310640167a0af23ce662da1b68c8a0b8650de556?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c66a2765397adfb52418f6f2310640167a0af23ce662da1b68c8a0b8650de556?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/mpelembe.net"],"url":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11777"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11786,"href":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11777\/revisions\/11786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}