Posted on 08/17/2024 1:53:57 AM PDT by libh8er
We’re all aware of the ongoing cassette revival, which has seen sales of pre-recorded tapes rise to their highest levels for two decades. But it seems that many Gen Z-ers are purchasing tapes without having anything to play them on. Or any idea of how they work.
The Wall Street Journal has revealed this in an interesting article that interviews a number of younger tape-heads. People like Amy Campbell, who admitted she struggled at first with the Kacey Musgraves cassette she bought from the country star’s website.
First she had to borrow her mother’s old tape player. Then she had to figure out how the thing worked: “You have to keep fast-forwarding, rewinding, pausing and playing to find the right song you want,” she explains.
Then there’s Molly Clark, whose 13-year-old daughter bought a cassette by the Norwegian singer Aurora. Dad had to dig out his old boombox from their Minneaopolis attic. Later they forked out $40 on a Walkman for her on eBay.
Luckily, the parents were on hand when the Walkman started chewing up the tape. “She had no idea if she had ruined the thing or not,” said Clark, who showed her daughter how to wind it back in using her finger. “I told her we used to use a pencil to do this.”
The feature also interviewed ex Radio One DJ Jen Long, who was instrumental in kick-starting the cassette revival a few years back. She ran the cassette-only label Kissability for a while and started the annual Cassette Day back in 2013. But Long’s ardour for the format has long since dimmed. She describes it now as “a cash cow... another format to get you up the charts and milk money from people.”
“I feel bad for the amount of plastic we had to put out into the world,” she says. And whilst she’s kept a few of her cassettes, she mainly streams music in 2024. “Tapes get played fairly rarely these days,” she admits.
So, are cassettes just another Gen Z phase like smashed avocado and waxed moustaches? Well, their revival shows no signs of abating - over 156,000 of the things were sold in the UK last year, the highest figure since 2003, and an increase of 95% from 2019. But their continued viability surely depends on the supply of vintage equipment to play the things on - or the availability of new devices - and the generosity of parents like Molly Clark to purchase them for their offspring.
Those are correct observations . Cuz that.. Cassette tapes have ruined many a tape player .
I always found Bic pens much better for that.
Anyone remember the more advanced cassette players that would stop at the beginning of a song if you were rewinding or fast-forwarding? Lots of them were featured in car cassette players, presumably to minimize driver distraction.
I’ve been going through some of my old cassette tapes (some over 30+ years). Much to my surprise, some of them still play. I even have an old mini-system I still use. CD/Tape/AM/FM. It’s a Panasonic. I’ve had it for 20 years or so.
ROTF! Cassette revival??? This is the first I’ve heard of this. What is it with younger generations embracing outdated technology?
When do Model T’s with hand cranked starters come out. I can’t wait to get one of those! I so look forward to having to vigorously crank that sucker every time I want to go anywhere - and run the real risk of breaking one of my arms while doing so!
I miss Reel-To-Reel tapes.
“I miss Reel-To-Reel tapes.”
Me, too. I had an excellent Teac reel-to-reel that I schlepped around every time I relocated. It was heavy as a car, I think. When I moved to HI, I had to let it go. 😢
What’s a pencil?
First vinyl was selling again and now cassettes. There also was a boom in Polaroid type cameras and in fact Polaroid reissued some of their cameras and even started making the film cartridges again. Gen Z is on a quest for authentic experiences and somehow the cassettes craze fits into that.
Because they are so original—but couldn’t revive records since the Millennials already did that.
What’s next after them, 8-tracks?
And they were nothing if you didn’t have a beautiful, 8-foot, wooden console for your whole system!
I drive our old Buick around town and it has a cassette player. And just like I didn’t get rid of the Buick, I didn’t get rid of my cassettes. Much to my wife’s dismay.
Hmm - growing up on cassettes, perhaps that is why even with CD’s (or gasp - even music lists on my phone), I still almost always listen to the entire album the way the group wanted me to hear it. Very rarely do I skip over a song - and usually because it has been overplayed on the radio, not because it sucks. (And sometimes they are bad!)
I remember eight-tracks. They would interrupt a song to switch tracks.
I remember when Quadrophonic Eight-Tracks were a thing.
Growing up playing an instrument to songs was rough. First it was lift and drop a needle on an LP to replay the same song over, then rewinding reel to reels, then fast forwarding 8 tracks all the way through back to the beginning of that song again, then reversing cassettes to replay the song again. Kids now days got it easy, just loop a digital track.
Just lift the needle and place it in the correct Grove.
Or is that a little to “Old School”?
“I remember when Quadrophonic Eight-Tracks were a thing.”
I do too and it was an incredible audio experience! It had “presence” like surround sound. I have often wondered why this audio experience has not been revived and replicated as a true four channel standard rather than just the two channel standard now that digital has unlimited tracks and output channel division capability.
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