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The cassette tape really is an astounding invention, or I guess a great packaging and convenience improvement, compared to existing tape formats. A revolution

The cassette tape really is an astounding invention, or I guess a great packaging and convenience improvement, compared to existing tape formats. A revolution in music portability, distribution (both licensed and DIY), home recording, you name it. All kicked off by "little boys who had fun playing". Tape trading is still big in certain circles, especially within the punk and black metal milieus. Some albums, EPs and demos get their only physical releases ever on limited edition cassette tapes, both because it is inexpensive, easy to DIY and fits the lo-fi aesthetics. Where vinyl has a strong presence among audiophiles (for various mostly imagined reasons) and was always a format for those with money to spend, the humble cassette tape was the format of choice for the youth, the working class and people on the go, and it still carries that down-to-earth appeal today. I know at least for me growing up in the 80s and 90s in a family with just enough money to get by, hand-me-down cassette tapes were how I experienced music, not to mention how we experimented with recording our voices and playing them back at different speeds, and learned what happened when you play the same bit of tape over and over again because it had a really funny bit on it. Getting my first CD and CD player was exotic and felt like science fiction in comparison to the trusty old cassette tape. I keep a drawer of a few old and obsolete physical formats that meant something special to me. My cassette tapes of Deep Purple In Rock, Machine Head, Sgt. Pepper's, and The Triumph of Death are there, next to the 3.5" floppy disks and Minidiscs.

lc9er 6y ago
Tapes were fun. I grew up playing in bands. Demos were all recorded to cassette and shared among band members for reference or maybe passed on to clubs. I was right at the tail end of this, when CD burners became cheap and then we were expected to deliver demos as a cd.
theandrewbailey 6y ago
> Getting my first CD and CD player was exotic and felt like science fiction in comparison to the trusty old cassette tape. Putting a laser into almost anything makes it feel like it's from the future.

lc9er 6y ago

Tapes were fun. I grew up playing in bands. Demos were all recorded to cassette and shared among band members for reference or maybe passed on to clubs. I was right at the tail end of this, when CD burners became cheap and then we were expected to deliver demos as a cd.

theandrewbailey 6y ago

> Getting my first CD and CD player was exotic and felt like science fiction in comparison to the trusty old cassette tape. Putting a laser into almost anything makes it feel like it's from the future.