During the 90s, cassette culture provided a rudimentary platform for budding artists of the era to showcase and monetize their talent. After staggeringly occupying the heart of contemporary music lovers, the cassette culture is currently undergoing a renaissance where they are being seen as powerful vehicles of memory.
Cassettes portray strong symbolic and emotional significance, especially in modern times. For millennials, cassettes are vintage props or outdated technology that can produce retro vibes or simply add charms to shows and movies with vintage settings. For old-school music lovers, cassettes are more than mere compact audio tapes that produce mixed sounds in vintage accords. Moreover, cassettes produce a strong sense of tangibility that outdates the easier accessibility and availability of modern music, i.e. the essence of tactical physical presence.
However, in this era of infamous modernization where recorded music can be easily accessed via online streaming platforms, cassettes sit at the back—shrouded by the grey lights of object fetishism. With the current advent of time (and of course, technology), cassettes converted into collectibles and the rest is history.
The Saga of Carrying Music in Pockets
The now retro and vintage artifacts from the past were one of the first technologies that allowed us to share and record music. The origin of cassette tapes dates back to 1962 when they were first developed by the Phillips Company in Belgium. Surprisingly, the original cassette tapes were not created for the purpose of music but for taking dictations. Originally, the quality was not good for music playback, however, the technology improved quickly from later onwards.
Until 1963, listening to music was heavily confined within the diameters of vinyl records that were not on-the-go friendly. The breakthrough of cassette tapes made it easier for people to carry their music in their pockets and curate their favorite music. By the 1970s, cassette tapes had become a popular way to listen to music.
The Big Blow-Up
With the stellar debut of Sony’s portable Walkman, people had their portable music players for private use. The combination of Walkmans and cassettes liberated drivers from uncanny radio or stereo dependency—enabling them to control their own music playback. Cassettes also offered several advantages over records, such as compact and portable size, durability, lower price, and many more, which made them a big hit and skyrocketed their demand. The ability to record radio stations and other music onto tapes from a standard player was also something completely new that records did not offer.
By the 1980s, the sale of cassettes outnumbered that of records and new music continued to be released on cassette tapes until the late 1990s. Cassettes shook the ribs of the music industry and gained massive cultural importance. By the 1950s, magnetic tapes had already revolutionized the recording studio by allowing for multi-track recording, overdubbing, and editing. After the invention of cassette tapes created a breakthrough in the market, Phillip’s gradually improved the tape quality and after a few years, cassettes qualified to be used for recording music. However, instead of licensing their business marvel, Phillips gave away its rights for free—their design became a universal standard and no incentives were offered to anybody for creating competitive formats. As a result, every consumer electronics company in the world had the liberty to enhance the quality of the sound (which they later did successfully).
Cassette Culture: A Thriving Community
This exponential rise of cassettes sparked the birth of yet another culture that spread throughout the world, from one corner to another. Cassette tapes became standard equipment in cars and record companies started using their new releases in cassette forms. Sony’s stellar Walkman pushed the demand for cassettes atop the billboard. Recorded music was now portable, easy to copy, and easy to make at home.
During the 1970s, amateur musicians who could not afford bagging recording contracts had begun producing and distributing their own cassette recordings. From people at high school bands and choir groups at the local church, anybody with relatively little effort and monetary investment could produce enough copies for their fans. Moreover, the cassette cases were durable enough for mailing to distant places. The entire blooming fiasco of cassettes gave rise to the cassette culture—a vast, worldwide network of indie music bands that trade cassette tapes by mail. Going by the slogan “You listen to mine, I’ll listen to yours,” cassette culture became a thriving community that continues to exist to this day.
Mix Tapes: The Vanity of Emotions
Now cassettes did not only hold a cultural significance but also reverberated emotional significance. On one hand, the community of ‘cassette culture’ bloomed in and out of the music community and paved the way for local musicians and aspiring singers to mark a career in the music industry and make a living by selling and trading their music. On the other hand, mixtapes prospered as an emotional token of gratitude and fondness.
During the 1980s and 1990s, mixtapes became the ultimate gift of expression to loved ones or close ones. Mixtapes were considered as thoughtful and an intimate knowledge of the recipient. Throughout the 1980s, mixtapes were a highly visible element of youth culture. It was both an art form and a means of communication, a bespoke object and a musical zine made just for one.
The Official Decline and Cease
For a prolonged period of time, cassettes remained popular till the 1990s for a plethora of purposes, such as car audio, personal stereo, home recording, and mixtapes. The emergence of Compact Discs (CD) resulted in the decline in the popularity of cassette tapes. By 1993, annual shipments of CD players had attained 5 million, while cassette player shipments had dropped 7% to approximately 3.4 million. By the early 2000s, the CD player exponentially replaced cassette players as the default audio component in a wide range of new vehicles within Europe and America. By 2005 the major record labels in the US had ceased production of pre-recorded cassettes.
Although cassette players were less prone to shocks than CD players and their lower fidelity was not regarded as a concerning drawback, the introduction of electronic skip protection made it possible for using portable CD players on the run and automotive CD players became feasible. In 2010, Sony ceased the production of personal cassette players, and the following year, the Oxford English Dictionary removed the word ‘cassette player’ from its 12th edition Concise version.
With the further advent of latest technology, several electronics companies stopped the production of cassette tapes owing to the rising popularity of CDs. With the evolution of the internet, several online streaming platforms offered to create personalized mixtapes on digital platforms. In addition, the new features offered by CDs such as portability and much higher audio quality resulted in the official death of cassette players and cassette tapes.
From Musical Elements to Props
Cassette culture officially marked its way to the grave in the late 2005s with the accent of digitization and online music streaming platforms. Today in 2022, online video streaming platforms have permanently substituted the cassette culture by providing a gigantic platform for artists to showcase and monetize their talent while reaching a vast set of audience. Moreover, mixed tapes allowed friendships and various other forms of relationships to bloom by serving as an anchor to grow and develop emotions through the love of music. Be it through similar music tastes or by trading blank tapes filled with unheralded gems or poorly-recorded mixtapes and expeditions into music, mixed tapes will always remain a prominent musical essence.
From being the first technology that enabled us to share music with everyone to being mere collectibles or vintage props, the journey of cassettes has measured a long way.
Back in the 90s, cassettes were a constant and essential element in the world of music—although inconsistent with their popularity and demand. Today, cassettes still occupy a significant position in our hearts as well as in our memories. While for some they are mere props and elements of aesthetic essence, for others they are the stature of music.
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