Introduction

The Compact Cassette, or just cassette as it’s more commonly known, has been around for a long time. Developed by Philips, unveiled in 1963 and released in the US in 1964, it came at a time where the majority of music listening was done via vinyl, or less commonly reel-to-reel tape. Needless to say portability was not something associated with home audio solutions at the time. The cassette offered portability and more: it was the first easily recordable medium (reel-to-reel required some expertise), allowing users to tape radio broadcasts or copies of vinyls to take on the go.

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Cassette quickly overtook technologies like 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel for home and non-professional recording settings. It also quickly became a hugely popular pre-recorded audio format: they were cheaper than vinyls and smaller, making them an attractive option for people without a lot of disposable income and limited personal space (adolescents, students, etc.).

The biggest boom in the format’s popularity was undoubtedly the release of the Sony Walkman in 1979 - a stylish device that allowed you to take your cassette tapes (and your music) anywhere. It was a true revolution in how music was listened to, and millions upon millions of portable cassette players made by Sony and other manufacturers were sold in the next few decades.

By the end of the format’s lifespan, there were four types with various pros and cons:

• Type I: Ferric. High hiss and good bass response. The cheapest and most common variant.
• Type II: Chrome. Low hiss and good treble response.
• Type III: Ferrichrome. Low hiss, even bass and treble response.
• Type IV: Metal. Low hiss, balanced frequencies.

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Despite all these variants, they were still a serious step down in fidelity from both vinyl and reel-to-reel tape. Dolby Noise Reduction equipped players attempted to reduce the ever-present tape hiss, with most pre-recorded tapes having it on the cover.

Sound quality also greatly varied between tape decks due to its analog nature; compare this with a CD where the biggest deciding factor in playback quality depends upon the speakers/headphones you run out of the player. They also wore out the more you played them, and in general tapes have an average lifespan of 10-30 years.

Mixtapes

The biggest phenomenon that cassette birthed, however, was the mixtape. Geoffrey O’Brien called it “the most widely practiced American art form”: a hand-picked collection of songs that the user would record individually onto a tape. Compared with the modern equivalent, the playlist, it took a great deal more effort and time to do.

It gave more opportunity for personal flair - the author would (generally) have to write out the tracklisting and other things onto the J-card of the blank. More planning was required, as well: things like the time constraint of the blank tape and what songs to put on what sides must have caused some agonizingly difficult decisions. Just the act of giving someone a physical, tangible object is far more meaningful than sending them a hyperlink.

The appeal

A lot of the charm of cassettes lies within these little things (no pun intended). The miniature nature of the medium is just a joy: the tiny versions of album art, opening up the booklets to reveal tiny liner notes, the transparency of most cassette shells allowing you to see exactly how the tape is spooled up. It helps that as a mostly discarded technology, the tapes themselves can be found for almost no charge - sometimes no charge at all.

Succession

Cassette was succeeded on many fronts by various formats; almost everything it did in terms of portability, convenience, sound etc. was surpassed with things like CDs, MP3 players, and phones. However, the impact of the cassette is not to be underestimated; it basically birthed the concept of portable music as we know it today. Some things still have yet to be replicated, though - so far nothing has come close to the satisfaction of holding a tiny plastic shell knowing it contains your favourite songs, and only those songs.