EOTO: The History of Cassettes

 

Today there are many younger people who do not even know what cassette tapes are.  The people who do know what they are likely look at them as vintage and outdated.  Cassette tapes are a great artifact from the past.  They were one of the first ways that people were able to share music on such a large scale.  

When was it created? The cassette tape was developed by the Philips company in 1962 in Belgium.  Before this time the main way that people listened to music was vinyl.  The cassette tape offered a smaller and more portable option than vinyl.  

How does it work? A cassette tape is essentially two spools of magnetic-coated film inside a plastic exterior.  The magnetic particles on the film align with the magnetic head of the passing tape and respond to the loudness and frequency that is emitted.  This produces the sounds. The magnetic film is where the audio is stored and where things can be recorded onto.  

What types of Cassette Tapes was there? The first and cheapest type of cassette tape is called a Ferric Tape.  It is coated in iron oxide and is often referred to as "ribbons of rust".  The second type of tape is the Chrome Tape.  Chrome tapes were coated in chromium oxide which delivered a better sound quality.  Chrome-Equivalent Tape is a tape coated with ferric particles that are bound with cobalt.  This type of tape was similar to the chrome tape and had an excellent sound quality. Ferrichrome Tape used a thin layer of chrome with ferric substrate to emphasize the highs and lows of the sound.  This type of tape was most commonly used in cars because of how the treble and bass sounded with this tape.   Finally, metal tape used metal particles instead of the commonly used oxides.  Metal Tape was most used when making live recordings. 

Why was it so popular?  Cassettes were a smaller, lighter, more portable way of listening to music and caught on quickly throughout the entire world as they had the ability to not only listen to music on the go (once the Walkman was released), but also they had their own recording capabilities.  Before cassettes, reel-to-reel technology was used to record audio, but was very difficult and required training.  Mixtapes were another thing that really made cassette tape sales skyrocket.  With the option to record on cassettes, mixtapes became the new thing.  They were a popular gift and showed dedication because it took time to record and plan the mixtape.  

Will they make a comeback?  As vinyl popularity spikes again, I suspect cassette tapes to reemerge in popularity.  Both of these medias are seen as vintage and trendy at the moment though they might not be the most practical.  Many big artist have begun releasing albums again on cassettes and vinyl.  Urban Outfitters is a retail store that has encouraged the comeback of cassette tapes and vinyl.  At the store, there are a variety of options to choose from ranging from nostalgic artists to recently released albums.  I think that they have been a big part of the push to make cassettes trendy again.