The Evolution of the Cassette Tape
The Age before the iPod
It may be difficult to grasp for some, but there was a time before iPods and phone recorders. A time where lava lamps and bell bottom jeans were all the rage. Welcome to the 1960s, the birth of the cassette.
It started back in 1963 at a Berlin Radio Show, where the Phillips introduced a small credit card size recording device, known then as the compact cassette. Before the ever so popular mix-tapes, cassettes were used in work place offices as dictating machines. By the 1970s cassette recorders, or tape recorders, were used amongst both professionals and the public. Where, as it’s quality increased, so did its sales. Starting from 1965, shortly after the compact cassette was introduced, a gentleman by the name of William Lear introduced to us, what some may say, the beginning of ‘portable music’. 8-Tracks, just like its name, was a pre-recorded cassette-like cartridge that held 8 songs. It’s popularity quickly rose with its partnership with Ford. Now Ford car owners didn’t have to settle for low-quality radio music (especially since FM radio was not yet widely available), instead they could jam out to their favourite tunes in the car.
Fast forward a few years into the future and cassettes entered a new realm of portable music. With the introduction of the Walkman by Sony, portable music picked up and became popularized in the early 80s. The palm sized personal stereo became a huge hit. Equipped with head-phones, individuals now had the means to take their recordings anywhere they pleased. Not so far after boomboxes were introduced. A larger, portable cassette deck with multiple speakers was used to directly record music from the radio, and thus we enter the era of the mixtape (a popular music sharing method widespread amongst the teenage population). Cassettes may have become popularized by music, but its uses did not end there. Audio books and magazines provided people with a new way in which they could enjoy their favourite stories and articles.
Sadly, all good things eventually come to an end. The demise of cassettes was caused by non-other than the popularization of a small, silver disk we know as the CD. Thus, in the early 90s, the cassette came to a slow halt.
That being said, the cassette may not be extinct, only endangered. The digital era we are now living in has many perks, but there are some of us who long for the nostalgia of vinyl records and mix tapes. With those people still in the world, the cassette will always be in our hearts.
To find out more about Phillips’ cassettes, watch this short video!