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THE RESURGENCE OF THE CASSETTE

Alain Rocha
LSW 100G: Section 001

The Resurgence of the Cassette

Professor: Kristina Verkoeyen
Due: Dec. 5th 2014
St. Clair College

THE RESURGENCE OF THE CASSETTE

With the overwhelming amount of technology in our hands nowadays, and the digitization of
recorded music being distributed as soulless mp3s, the music industry has been seeing a resurgence of old
physical formats for selling their music. The shiny, fragile vinyl record has made a massive return with
sales doubling every year, but the rugged and personal cassette tape is also digging out from its grave.
While vinyl is becoming mass marketed and approaching oversaturation for the general public, cassettes
are seeing circulation in the more DIY and underground scenes of the music industry. Small labels,
working with small bands, to put out music for those who truly care about supporting the artist and
holding the art they care about in their hands. Cassettes are a great answer to the independent artist and
label for its low pressure on producing and buying, its best of both worlds appeal in convenience and
sound quality, and the personal relationships people develop with the format and its almost-human
imperfections. (Hogan, 2010).
One of the first big reasons why cassettes are seeing a resurgence is brought to light by this quote,
This is the case for many cassette producers, who simply see the cassette as the best of both worlds the
convenience of the CD or MP3, combined with the aura and sound quality of a vinyl record. (Staub,
2010). Convenience and near perfect quality are crucial elements in any good product in todays rapid
society, and the MP3 and the devices that play them meet these standards with exceptional ease.
Thousands of songs can be accessed with a few swipes on your phone, at crystal clear quality. But
consumers who knew a time of fuzz and crackles feeding through their turntable needle still desire that
warmth, and digital sound is a frigid diamond in comparison. Cassettes meet in the middle. From the icy,
bodiless digital MP3s, cassettes borrow the portability and compact form. And from the fragile, stationing
vinyl record, they take its sonic aura to warm a space, and its tangibility of album artwork, and colourful
cassette tapes.
I tell my friends Ill record their music and well put it out on cassette, and it changes the entire
energy of the session. Theres less pressure. Its less of an event than a vinyl release. Its just a cassette.
(Sylvester, 2013). This leads to another excellent aspect of the revival of the cassette. Putting something

THE RESURGENCE OF THE CASSETTE

out on vinyl is a serious investment. Quite a bit of money goes into it, so the pressure of a perfect
recording is incredibly prominent. There is a vast range of material artists would never consider putting
out on a vinyl record due to cost, but fans of the artist would want to hear. Material from demos,
humourous songs, b-sides, covers, mixtapes, etc. Artists generally dont have money to put that out on
vinyl, but putting that material on a cassette is a very real option. Blank cassettes and jewel cases are sold
in bulk from under a dollar each, and you can record onto these just as easily as burning a CD. This works
perfectly for independent bands that are paying out of pocket to put out a simple debut EP or album, but
want to entice listeners with more than just a link to their Bandcamp page. But even if an artist is able to
press their music on vinyl, there is still also pressure on the consumer when it comes to purchasing said
record. The average price for a record can range from $15-$25, and if you stumble upon a band at a local
show, and liked a few songs and want to hear more, you might not want to take that chance of buying a
record you might not end up enjoying. But if a cassette were sitting on that merch table for a mere $5-$8,
youd be a lot more willing to take that chance. But aside from the price, its fragility also comes into play
when making those decisions. It can deter a customer who isnt so inclined to properly clean,
maintenance, and store vinyl in order to maintain its playability. But a cassette asks a lot less of you in
terms of caring for it. Theyre rugged, durable, and almost ask you to throw it in your cluttered backpack,
or across the living room to your friend on the couch.
Finally, the statement, You cant skip around through the track listing, so the actual tape and the
album become one and the same, brings to light another great point that touches on the relationship that
grows between the listener and his tape. There is no skip button to easily interchange between songs. The
tape requires you to listen to the album as intended, start to finish, or at the very least fast forward through
in order, if truly necessary. But what if there is one or two songs that truly stand out for a listener, or there
is one verse they need to hear again and again? Each time they fast-forward or rewind through the tape,
they learn to decipher the sped up performance in order to hit play at just the right point. The listener is
studying the tapes true physical form, and the limitations and restrictions it puts on the listener. The tape
also adds another layer to the connection the listener has to the album. With every listen to an album, the

THE RESURGENCE OF THE CASSETTE

listener is immersed deeper into it, by learning the lyrics, or tapping along to the drums, or connecting
emotionally. He is growing with the album. But the more he grows with the music, the more the tape dies.
The deterioration of the tape flows parallel to the progressive intertwining of the listener and the album.
The tape provides a physical, visible measurement of that journey. Put simply, No format wears our stain
better. (Sylvester, 2013).
The cassette tape is happily seeing a rise in circulation once again. The benefits it carries have
been with the format since its introduction to the world, but were overshadowed by the digital format of
CDs and MP3s. But in the age of the internet, mass consumption and immediate access of music, the
simplicity and tangibility of the cassette is being called for once again from the independent artist and
label, as well as their small but lively DIY scenes. Be it for the formats portability and sonic texture, or
the affordability and relaxed method of distribution. But aside from that, there exists the most intimate
fact. That with each play, the tape slowly dies, yet the listener willingly comes back for more of its
beauty, its catharsis, its healing in the music in contains. A simple cassette has a very similar lifespan to
us, in the sense that to exert and experience the beauty it holds, it must slowly degrade and one day die.
People dont expect perfection in cassettes, (Sylvester, 2013), just as people shouldnt expect perfection
from other people. This semblance is apparent, and this is why there exists such an intimate, personal
relationship to be had with a plastic body and the magnetic tape soul it encases.

THE RESURGENCE OF THE CASSETTE

References
Staub, I. (2010) Redubbing the undergound: cassette culture in transition, Wesleyan University, 65.
http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/
Hogan, M. (2010) This is not a mixtape, Pitchfork, 2. http://pitchfork.com/
Sylvester, N. (2013) Its just a cassette, Pitchfork, http://pitchfork.com/