Cassette Tapes
*Several months ago I started to write about my newfound affection for cassette tapes but never made time to finish writing it so I decided to pick this back up to finish it and share it with you guys because its all still quite true and since writing this I have fallen even further down the resurgence of cassette tape releases. So lets dig in.
I recently found myself realizing how many cassette tape releases I had collected from small, independent musicians and labels so I took to the net to find an affordable portable tape player so I could put them to better use. I never once thought about it being an outdated format during my dig, I only felt sad that the only new players left on the market are more or less junk which left me searching the depths of eBay for those willing to sell nice old players at a fair price.
My research lead me down a rabbit hole full of old Sony Walkman players among which I was left digging around a specific line of cassette tape Walkmen that I assume were manufactured somewhere toward the end of the tech’s lifespan as a popular medium. I discovered a number of thin, pocketable players constructed from metal rather than plastic and knew I was on the right track. These were actually some really great devices, even by todays standards. Many of the nicer later models were not all that much bigger than the plastic cases that house most cassette tapes. After settling on one that appeared to be in good shape I went digging around the fringes of Amazon for a couple of batteries and a charger to make it work and haven’t looked back since.
After a week or two of carrying it with me from day to day and doing my best not to get pigeonholed as a hipster with vintage tech in one pocket, iPhone 6 in the other, I was surprised at how much I really enjoyed having it around. It lead me to a few interesting observations on the state of physical media today and the illusion of its demise.
I see cassette tapes as an intentional format (in a similar way that vinyl or polaroid film is). It represents a physical connection between music and the listener and causes the listener to be intentional in his or her decision to listen to an album. There are no features to get in the way, just start, stop, and fast forward which could be seen as primitive compared to digital music access but it has the benefit of forcing you to simply leave the music playing and enjoy it beginning to end. Physical media is true fan service.
Looking at it from another angle, cassettes offer me something that vinyl does not, a portable, personal experience to add to the already intentional act of picking a tape or two to take along for the day. While some question the fidelity of cassettes and joke of their irrelevance in todays world, I would greatly prefer listening to a tape over a badly encoded MP3. In fact, later tape technologies were actually pretty well refined and balanced in the full frequency spectrum and had even all but eliminated the tell tale hisssss of older ferric tapes.
There are many of you rolling your eyes right about now and thats fine, I get it, it sounds frivolous at best, surely I have lost my mind. But keep in mind, I’m a romantic. I love the feeling of deliberate fandom in buying a physical copy of an album from a band or artist that I really love and want to support and in some circles there are some amazing artists who have been releasing exclusively on tapes and for good reasons.
The most obvious is the fact that even quality tapes are vastly more affordable to make than pressing records and a lot more fun than selling boring old CDs which may as well be a digital download as far as I’m concerned. Tapes have a long, tried and true presence in the music industry as a method of releasing music independently and have recently been discovered once again as a perfect middle ground for fans of musicians that want to buy a physical copy of their favorite new album but can’t afford to shell out $20 for a vinyl copy.
So, how about you, what do you think about analog formats? I still hold close the belief that if you really love an artists music that you will do more than toss pennies into their hats with streaming services and buy their music outright so why not do so in a collectible and satisfying analog format?
I had a rant planned as a reply. But then I realised your piece is romantic fiction and nostalgia. You’re getting older and missing out on the “good old days”. Enjoy.
Funny how things this simple draw out strong feelings one direction or the other. Yes indeed it’s a bit of nostalgia and I realize the sharp opposition to novelty for noveltys sake in the face of comforting technology centric convenience in the world today but it’s nice to know there’s room for different points of view and even different ways to enjoy the media we consume. It’s more than your wrong and I’m right or the other way around, it’s accepting that there is more than one way to enjoy media at this transitional point in history.
I started off on cassettes early in life, moved onto binders full of cds, then the day the iPod was announced jumped on the digital train and never looked back, iPod after iPod until the first iPhone all the way up to today where I’m a happy Apple Music subscriber. My whole life I have always been eager and ready for the next best way to consume the media that ment so much to me, even to this day.
But there is still room for old school fandom and wanting to collect something in the real world to represent my tastes and to consume in a completist sort of a way and that’s the void vinyl and now cassettes, on occasion, fill in my life.
It’s for fun, for nostalgia, for the love of the music and supporting artists and to have a token to stumble on later in life to remember my favorites by. Thanks for the comment.
[…] And now, cassettes? […]
This post brought back memories I rarely think back to. We must be similar in age. As a child I’d spend hours making mixtapes, but quickly moved on to binders of CDs which I converted to MP3s as soon as the format came into existence. Then, I got a part time job just to save up for the very first iPod (which I still have). I loved music so much back then, and engaged with it in a way that I never do anymore.
I’ve always dove head first into streamlining media, to save space and plastic. But having every song in the world available on Spotify has sucked all the joy out of music discovery and curation for me. Maybe I’ll take a page out of your book and make a mixtape, on a cassette. Or maybe I’ll just see what lives on that old iPod. In any case, thanks for helping me remember that joy!