The revival game: Compact Audio Cassettes
Welcome to the revival era! Everything is now digital and makes us (the ignorant, wealthy and healthy) feel like we miss our childhood, so we throw our money on buying stupid things like the SNES re-release even though we can just play every SNES game we want by googling it. Anyway…
While in heavy metal world -and especially among the more underground collectors- vinyl records never stopped being one of the best ways to own and listen to music, all the rest of the masses almost forgot it ever existed and triumphed till the 80’s. It is quite after 2010 that the “vinyl revival” became a thing among the masses and -lets be honest- that’s thanks to hipsterism, since hipsters are actually the head of the masses (shhhh, they think they’re special!!)
P1: A usual hipster listening music in his usual mobile turntable while drinking his beer.
If we compare vinyl sales before the 80’s with the sales now you’d say that vinyl revival is a joke (P2), but if we compare vinyl sales to the two previous decades (P3) you will understand that the difference is huge. It’s certainly not a competitor to the digital streaming platforms but it is back in business for sure. Btw I have no idea if 78 rpm records are also included in the game of revival.
P2: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2015/01/20/vinyl-comeback-really-looks-like/
P3: https://www.vox.com/2015/1/5/7494461/vinyl-record-sales-2014
On the other hand, there’s another medium we seem to forget that was the king back in the 90’s just before CDs took over. Compact Audio Cassette shows signs of revival too -at least as a symbol in clothing and decoration items (P4).
P4: Merchandise with CAC images
The vinyl records have an excellent sound quality and look amazing while audio tapes sound very inferior. Let’s not forget though that tapes are quite cheaper, rerecordable and most of all: 90’s nostalgia is now ON. I just found out that even Justin fucking Bieber released a fucking tape:
P5: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7662572/us-cassette-album-sales-increase-2016-guardians
74% percent rise in CAC sales in 2016. Is it possible? The other day I actually found rerecordable audio cassettes in the super market. That was really weird and I just live in a small city in Greece. Is this normal in the USA for instance?
What is beautiful with analog formats, both LPs and tapes, is that for an audiophile the whole playback system can be a custom or very personal thing. Old made quality speakers and amplifiers can colorise sound very specially and of course the whole process of holding the medium gently in your hands and respectfully placing it in the turntable or tape deck gives music instantly a new level of respect. It is a simulation of how people used to feel in the previous decades when buying a new album. Unfortunately, it is a fact that streaming platforms have completely destroyed that sweet exciting feeling.
If tape sales increase more, it is also possible that more good cassette players will be manufactured again because now it is very hard to find a normal priced good tape deck. I personally have changed 3 decks over the last years. My first deck started “devouring” my tapes -if you know what I mean- second was a TEAC that needs new belts and now I finally have a perfectly working SONY (photo below).
P6: SONY TC-WE475
If tape sales continue to increase, production factories will also try to do a better job on duplication and most importantly they will demand better specialized audio masters from the clients, meaning better sound quality (same thing happened with vinyl pressing plants). Audio tapes may sound inferior compared to vinyl records but they can compress sound interestingly on the right circumstances. I personally love listening to roughly recorded demos and underground albums on audio tapes only because they make it sound right and some times even better. Listening to polished, over compressed, wide and super clean productions in tape nowadays is like going to a dirty, underground bar but inside instead of fucked up people with interesting stories, you find everyone dressed up like lawyers talking about the stock market and other boring crap!
So, since we’re talking about nostalgia, the case of DIY audio tapes is even more personal and romantic. Creating your own layouts, printing stickers for the cassette, even editing the audio for that one tape or mixtape. This is something I sometimes still do and feels great and creative. I even print a logo of my imaginary label there. It reminds me of my childhood and how I used to draw covers and logos. For instance, I love this amazing 1997 demo by Unhola – Mustan Syvyyden Tuulet…. Should I try to find the demo in Discogs and pay for it big time? Nope, I made my own unique copy. Problem solved.
P7: Home made Peste Noire mixtape and Unhola’s 1997 amazing demo.
Most of the demos back in the days where distributed with home made duplication and photocopied artwork. All this demo-hunting on e-bay and Discogs is really fucked up among the underground metal fans and it is funny how many of them feel angry about official releases of demos. They think it is somehow unethical… yeeeeeah, that makes sense. Look at this photo below of Costin Chioreanu’s DIY tape of Varathron’s “His Majesty at The Swamp” (P8) . His stories about his old DIY tapes are so cool knowing also that now he has become one of the most talented artists in the global metal scene and this was just another way of practicing his creative passion as a kid (see more photos in his FB page). I find this much more beautiful than trying to buy original demo-tapes for a fortune.
P8: Varathron – His Majesty At The Swamp DIY tape made by young Costin Chioreanu https://goo.gl/EDNTiK
In conclusion: I don’t think vinyl hype will end ever again. I think vinyl is back as the ultimate, classic, analog music medium. For this reason, I don’t think there is much space for audio cassette in the music industry though it will remain alive as collectors’ item through beautiful pro-tape special editions and boxsets. Underground indie labels are doing a good job in keeping this cool analog format still alive and underground it shall remain.
P9: Part of my audio cassettes’ boxset collection. All released after 2014.