Only Cool Kids Listen To Cassette Tapes 📼
Rest in peace, Lou Ottens.
Lou Ottens was a Dutch engineer credited with inventing the cassette tape and playing a major role in the development of the first compact discs (a.k.a. CDs). He passed away at the age 94 at his home in the village of Duizel in North Brabant on March 6th, 2021. Thank you 🙏 for inventing the product that played a huge role in most of our lives.
How it began 📍
The compact cassette (a.k.a. cassette tape) was originally developed and released by Philips in 1962 in Hasselt, Belgium as an attempt to develop a new standard in audio storage. This replaced reel-to-reel recorders that were inefficient and expensive 💸 to use. By inventing the cassette tape, it allowed anyone to make recordings without high technical skills that were needed for the reel-to-reel.
Era of mass adoption
Although Philips was in competition at the time with other companies, facing pressure from Sony, the decision to license the invention for free allowed it to emerge as a leader. Soon, cassette tapes were mass produced everywhere in Hanover, Germany 🇩🇪 the following year. In late 1965, the cassette tapes had pre-recorded content called musicassettes (M.C. for short) and became mainstream in the U.S in 1966. By 1968, over 2.4 million players had been sold.
So why was it so popular?
On its initial release, the cassette tape was chunky and had low ⬇️ sound quality. Its purpose was for recording voices 🗣 and dictation, but it soon took a turn for the better. The technology improved very quickly and soon it became the go-to method for recording because of its high quality and features, namely noise reduction and the development of new tape formats.
This growth 📈 of technology adoption was aided by Sony’s Walkman that made music portable for the average person for the first time. Pocket recorders were also invented around the time, where you could record anything by pressing a button 🔘 in the recorder.
What goes up must go down
The cassette tape peaked in popularity by the late 1980s, where the market had drastically dropped 📉 in both Europe and North America. This was due to a new technology called CDs 💿 that became popular in the 1990s.
By 2001, cassettes had pretty much dropped out for the race as its market share was less than 5%. The following year, U.S. music companies had stopped producing them. What is interesting is that blank cassette tapes are still being made and sold today.
Cassette tapes are making a comeback
Everyone loves a comeback tale. Rocky 🥊 overcame insurmountable odds to defeat Ivan Drago and avenge his best friend, Apollo Creed. Spongebob Squarepants finally earned his driver’s 🚗 license. These are the kinds of stories that we love to read and hear about.
This is one of those stories. A tried and true underdog story for the ages. After lying dormant for decades, unused and unloved by anyone and any Walkman, the cassette tapes have been resurrected by audiophiles all over the world. It is understandable if you are confused 😐. You may even be asking yourself, “But why?”. There are 3 main reasons why people are flocking back to these clear, plastic, magnetic ribbon holding pieces of yesteryear.
1️⃣ Price 💲
Cassette tapes are astoundingly cheap for music producers, making them an ideal medium from a margin perspective. As we all know, underneath the glitz, glam and artistic glory of it all, the music business is at heart 🫀 a business. It is literally in the name. They are also great for the consumer because you can pick up a new cassette tape for a cheaper price. It is basically a win-win for everyone involved.
2️⃣ Nostalgia 😌
Human motivations are strange. We like to stick with what we know, even if it is not the best thing in the world. The sound quality can be lacking and fuzzy, the user experience of rewinding, loading, and flipping feels old-fashion, and they are quite wasteful from an ecological standpoint - especially considering how easily accessible streaming services are.
However, none of those things particularly matter when you are talking about what makes people feel good. That is the beauty and the oddity of nostalgia. It is not just what it sounds 👂 like, but the whole experience behind listening to it - the familiarity, the feeling, the packaging - everything. Putting on a cassette feels nice for people who are reminded of their younger, happier years when they do it. Nostalgia can cause some interesting motivation for people, and the cassette resurgence is one example of that influential power.
3️⃣ Hipsters 😎
Like it or not, hipsters are a powerful 💪 force of cultural change. This is ironic because “change” for them typically involves bringing obsolete devices and outdated trends back into popularity. The term “Hipster” might as well be the poster child for oxymoron. Their motivations are opaque, their taste is inscrutable, and their fashion is absurd.
Say what you want about the hipsters, but they impact all sorts of industries and trends, music 🎶 especially. This is probably because of the price and nostalgia, combined with the desire to be on the ironic, cutting-edge of cool. Hipsters are making cassettes fresh again.
Are you glad that cassette tapes are making a comeback? Leave your thoughts down below 👇👇👇😎.
References:
Boffey, D. 2021, March 11. The Guardian.
Fung, A. 2017, December 9. A History of Cassette Tapes - Is that a Fossil?. Medium.
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