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.
“Just lift the needle and place it in the correct Grove.
Or is that a little to “Old School”?”
I remember it... :)
If it is a singer you like just put the tape in and play it. I still have some cassettes but don’t insist only on my favorites to be the only ones. if I like the artist, I like the artist.
If it is a singer you like just put the tape in and play it. I still have some cassettes but don’t insist only on my favorites to be the only ones. if I like the artist, I like the artist.
There were a few high end boxes that had a feature that let you jump forward to a particular song. It looked for dead space on the tape.
Yes, I had the Doobie Brothers “Stampede” album on Eight-Track Quad, that’s how I became a big fan of Tiran Porter, since the bass was isolated in one of the channels.
High quality reel to reels, high quality phonographs, amps and caameras. The GIs who went to Asia brought them home.
Oh man I remember it too. My high tech trick was to get a little dictation type cassette recorder and record the section of interest from the vinyl onto it. Then I could have the recorder sitting on my knee, the advantage being you didn’t have to change position as much to reach over to cue the record player. Nowadays you just put on YouTube and set the speed to 75% or 50%...
Headphones onl got two channels.
I still have the TEAC R-R deck I bought in 1973. Stationed in Turkey, with access to a ‘stereo club’ in Germany. A good many of us had very, very nice systems in those barracks rooms. Mine was TEAC, Marantz, and Pioneer, with BOSE 901 speakers.
Do you remember 4 tracks? They looked like eight tracks but held less music. They didn’t seem to get chewed up as often.
“Just lift the needle and place it in the correct Grove.”
Hubby would be stationed in Alaska in 1971, and we knew the drive up the “Alcan” had no radio stations, so this groove method is what we used to record cassettes from vinyl. Johnny Cash. Stevie Wonder. Can’t recall all.
“Headphones only got two channels.”
There are currently digital software switches that can take two channel stereo and turn it into Mono. Easy to do the same thing when playing back on a two channel system rather than a four channel system. A four channel standard with two channel optional for two speaker systems and headphones.
Bic pens did work the best because of the bulge in the cap. It gripped the teeth of the cassette much better.
ah, the old pencil through the cassette rewind truck, nyuk nyuk.
“Oh man I remember it too. My high tech trick was to get a little dictation type cassette recorder and record the section of interest from the vinyl onto it.”
Yeah playback in “Mono”. :)
I remember a friend’s dad had a “Hi Fidelity” system. Mono pumped out loud through more than one speaker. lol
I think the first couple heard was Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones. Floyd was absolutely WILD in Quad.
“I miss Reel-To-Reel tapes.”
We used to customize our reel to reels to have four heads and four tracks to record four separate live instrument tracks and put them together. A four track recording studio. :)
I still dig hi-fi.
Concerts back in the day were hi-fi. That to me was the realistic sound of the band you were listening to. Of course stereo concerts became a thing, I don’t know if they still do that. All the local club performances are for the most part hi-fi too.
I don’t remember four tracks, but I’m old, and my memory isn’t what it used to be.
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