Lapatilla
Described as “Europe’s largest gathering of new technology”, the Berlin International Broadcasting Fair has long been known for showcasing the latest in consumer electronics. In 1963, the flagship audio cassette was presented by its maker, Dutch engineer Lou Ottens, who passed away in early March.
By Infobae
Cassettes revolutionized the habits of listening to music, until then limited to vinyl records, which were much less manageable. Thanks to car radios and the legendary music player from Sony, it was suddenly possible to enjoy music individually outdoors.
By re-recording several times on the same medium, music lovers were able to create and distribute their own compilations. At the peak of its popularity, in 1989, the cassette sold 83 million copies in the UK alone.
Although later dethroned, first by the Compact Disc and later by digital files (MP3 and MP4), the cassette retains a special place in the history of sound engineering. Compilations were actually the precursor to playlists, and the Walkman was the precursor to the iPod.
Although considered aesthetically and physically inferior to the vinyl record invented earlier, the cassette tape is undergoing a kind of renaissance. For sentimental reasons, but also because less well-known artists can earn income from their work by canceling concerts.
Rewind
In the context of a pandemic that has caused massive damage to the music industry, 2020 could be called the “year of the cassette”.
According to figures from the British Phonographic Industry (the interprofessional association of the British record industry) 156,542 cassettes were sold in the UK last year, a record since 2003, an increase of 94.7% from 2019. Pop like Lady Gaga or Dua Lipa have started releasing their latest songs on cassettes … and they are selling like hot cakes.
For those of us old enough to have known tapes when they were a popular musical medium, this resurgence may seem surprising. After all, even in their glory days, cassettes were always a poor medium.
They didn’t have the aesthetic appeal or romantic flair of the vinyl record in its sleeve. Later they suffered compared to the ease of use, clarity and sound quality of the CD. And there isn’t a music lover over 35 who doesn’t have a terrible anecdote to tell about their favorite album or compilation, swallowed and spat into the air by the car player or a portable device.
Lou Ottens himself considered the return of this reproduction medium “absurd”. According to him, “nothing can match the sound” of the CD, in whose development it also played a key role. For him, the ultimate goal of any musical listening medium is the clarity and precision of the sound, although he acknowledges the nod to nostalgic listeners.
A matter of feeling
As a popular music specialist, I wonder if Lou Ottens’ purely utilitarian stance does not miss an essential aspect of cassette and its sound: the recent resurgence of popular culture.
After all, the cultural appreciation of music goes much further than a debate limited to sound quality. Our love for music and the cultural rituals that accompany it are complex and deeply social, and they don’t just affect our ears.
Today’s renewed interest in the record is sometimes explained by the desire to return to the higher quality sound of vinyl. But it is also often seen as a cultural movement returning to an iconic and heritage medium that people can touch, handle and appreciate together, as opposed to a digital archive. Although less iconic, the cassettes also represent moments in cultural history that are loved by music lovers.
In the mid-2010s, as part of my PhD, I conducted a study of the first signs of the cassette resurgence in indie rock and punk in Glasgow.
I have asked musicians, labels and fans about this phenomenon. During these conversations, the material side of these objects, their physical and tangible presence, was cited as a motivating element. “I like to own things. Everyone is dying now, but I like having them, ”one fan told me. “It’s my passion. Music is my passion and that’s how I spend my money”.
There is also an economic rationale for the tape’s resurgence. While discussions grow about the need for streaming services to pay for artists, independent musicians have long used the sale of physical material as a source of income.
Cassettes today are a really economically advantageous medium for both Glasgow bands and independent artists as they offer a much cheaper physical product than a vinyl record, which has to be pressed. As a record label manager told me, “We tend to release songs on tape because it’s cheap to produce, it easily recoups your costs and bands can make a little money out of it.”
While the motives of these independent artists have little to do with pop stars’ recent infatuation with cassettes, the two phenomena probably have to do with the desire to have audio media that we can play in a world where digital technology and screens are ubiquitous.
Since the start of the pandemic, many people have said they feel disconnected from digital technology. It does not seem unreasonable to suggest that this longing for something tangible, sublimated by nostalgia for an era without Covid, explains the resurgence of the audio cassette almost 60 years after its birth in Berlin.
Originally published by The Conversation