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.
And the ability and willingness of the Gen-Z'ers to understand and follow the instructional advice of their more experienced elders.
They never heard of cassette decks that has AMSS (automatic music search system) or other similar type of music systems that find pauses and start the music at the pauses.
I remember guys hooking up big 8 track systems into their cars. They took up a lot of space but everyone thought they were so cool.
I seem to remember them playing a lot of The Young Rascals.
“I miss Reel-To-Reel tapes.”
I bought one when I was in Japan in the late 70s. Don’t remember the model but it was relatively very expensive Teac and fun as heck to play with. I stupidly stored it in a non-climate controlled store room and it died.
“I miss Reel-To-Reel tapes.”
I have a lot of good memories of family weekends and dad putting on his favorite reel-to-reel mix tapes.
Who kept all their vinyl LPs from K-tel?
“We need to bring back terrible audio quality”
I remember when they used to put records on the back of cereal boxes that you could cut out and play.
No kiddin’!
I got equipment through the Navy Exchange system in the early 80s when stationed in Puerto Rico.
It WAS possible to recreate the sound quality of the CD format which was just gaining traction with cassettes. But you had to have top of the line cassette decks with Dolby noise reduction and use high formulation (metal) cassettes. I had a three head Nakamichi deck at that time and could produce cassettes that were indistinguishable to my ear on it if I used Dolby C noise reduction on metal tapes.
But why? Now I have my 1400 CD collection stored on a Sony music server that I hide downstairs out of sight and which I control from my iPad. It’s just so much better. Why go back?
You think your stick with 8-track tapes I have some 4-tracks I’m willing to let of cheap.
I just discovered that I have two 5-1/4” floppy disk drives stashed away. Is there a renaissance of 35 year old computer technology going on too?
I knew a guy who had an 8-track mounted under his dash with a quick release. He took a girl on a date and her father looked in the car, saw the devil’s music box and told him that he could not take his daughter out.
He removed the 8 track and handed it to her dad. As they were driving off, he reached under the seat and grabbed his spare 8 track player.
I actually knew all three people in the story and for sure it’s true.
Streaming from the TV works for me. I have a DVD player hooked to the stereo but I rarely use it.
Ah, the good old days. When I first started dating, my father would try to undercover follow me and my date.
He finally cut it out after a while and a few arguments. LOL
Waiting for someone to mention 4-tracks. My dad bought a brand new 1967 Mercury Cougar with the latest 4-track sound system, and he wasn’t too happy when 8-tracks took over within a year.
I had (and played) a copy of that.
You don't see those tangles of tape along the edge of the road these days.
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