Introduction
The seemingly humble compact audiocassette tape and accompanying player/recorder had an enormous impact on U.S. society. Although it was a relatively simple medium, its technology revolutionized the album market. It’s ease of use, low cost, and versatility democratized audio recording. And more than anything else, cassettes became a popular and dominant medium of self-expression and storytelling, serving as a catalyst for social change.
History
The first compact audiocassette tapes were invented in 1963 by Philips, the Dutch electronics company, and patented in 1964 as the Compact Cassette™. As noted in his Rolling Stone obituary, the late Lou Ottens, head of Philips’ product development department, was inspired to create the cassette as a more consumer-friendly version of the bulkier reel-to-reel tape recorders of the era. “The cassette tape was invented out of irritation about the existing tape recorder, it’s that simple,” said Ottens. “I expected it would be a success, not a revolution.”
Because Philips made its licensing available free, its version of the cassette soon became the standard (this astute decision prevented the technology from becoming obsolete too early). Cassette use grew steadily from the 1960s and 1970s, hitting its peak in the late 1980s. According to Dr. Anthony Kwame Harrison, professor of sociology at Virginia Tech, although cassette sound quality was initially inferior, the introduction of Dolby noise reduction circuitry and premium quality cassettes in the mid-1970s (produced by two Japanese companies — Maxwell and TDK), “elevated cassette tapes into the realm of high-end audio, and gave them a status on par with records.” As a result, by 1985, cassettes had surpassed vinyl LPs “as the principal music industry medium.” [Harrison, p. 287]
Albums on cassette arrived in the U.S. in 1966, and Eartha Kitt’s “Love for Sale” was one of the first albums to be released on cassette, followed by artists Nina Simone and Johnny Mathis [The Guardian].
Along with the cassette tape came cassette tape players and recorders. Philips offered the first machine, followed by many more designs including Sony’s popular Walkman introduced in the 1980s as well colorful fashion models, and of course, the boom-box, with its emphasis on size and volume. Cassettes were marketed as a portable alternative to records, and indeed, portability was one of the key assets of cassette tape technology. By the late 1960s, cassette players designed for use in car dashboards were introduced, and became commonplace by the 1970s. Despite its popularity and widespread acceptance, cassette tape technology was ultimately replaced by compact discs (CD) in the mid-1990s.
Multiple Uses
Although initially designed for dictation, cassette tape technology, understandably, became predominantly known and used for musical purposes. But it was also employed in journalistic practices, as notes-to-self, and to record religious and political sermons as well as university lectures. One of its more popular applications was books on tape, and before the invention of telephone company voicemail systems, the technology was used in the first telephone answering machines.
Characteristics
Cassettes supplanted other tape mediums, such as the reel-to-reel and 8-track, and vinyl LPs because of three primary characteristics. The first, mentioned above, was portability. The second was convenience. As its trademarked name suggested, cassettes were compact (a 1960s Philips press release touted the cassette as being smaller than a cigarette package), inexpensive, relatively reliable, could hold more music (the standard LP length was 45 minutes in total — cassettes allowed up to 45 minutes per side), and they were durable — enough so to be trusted to the mail. The third characteristic was versatility — as opposed to other mediums, cassettes offered the capacity to both play back and record. [Harrison, p. 286] One of the first DIY technologies, cassette tapes made it easy to create a recording at home, be it your garage band or family singalong.
Cassette Tape Technology Characteristics and Societal Impact
Cassette tape technology’s three key attributes gave rise to cassette culture. Young lovers used them to swap mixtapes of songs that expressed their feelings. Musicians could record themselves more easily without the need of a record label to help them. Bootlegging — recording live concerts for the underground music market, helping DIY genres such as post punk — took off with the advent of cassettes. [The Guardian]
The cassette also enabled a different way of sharing music — a worldwide network of indie music bands emerged, trading cassette tapes by mail. Others actually listened to cassette-taped music in groups on the street. According to Dr. Harrison of Virginia Tech, cassette technology also played a central role in the formation of hip hop subculture. “Prior to the release of the first hip hop twelve-inch records in 1979, homemade cassettes were the music’s ‘sole documentation.’ Cassettes were not only vital in extending New York City residents’ familiarity with hip hop, they also facilitated the music’s spread around the country. If the deejay parties credited with establishing hip hop are the events that make it into the history books, then the circulation of hip hop music via cassette tapes needs to be thought of as the everyday activities, i.e., the stuff of culture.” [Harrison, p. 287]
Dr. Harrison recognizes cassettes as a unique technology in the hip hop scene’s development. “Cassettes represented the easiest and most affordable way for hip hop music makers to begin cultivating public identities as artists.” [Harrison, p. 288]
Cassette tape technology afforded “a new freedom to assemble a personal collection of songs — typically recorded from the radio and/or records belonging to the cassette player’s owner of friends,” according to academics Paolo Magaudda and Sergio Minniti, lecturers in sociology and culture with the University of Padova. These so-called mixtapes “effectively opened the door into a new world of musical ownership: songs could be lifted from their place in radio programs or preselected ordering of the vinyl LP and recombined in highly particularized ways to suit the taste and mood of the listener.” (Magaudda, Minniti, p. 313]
Musicologist Serge LaCasse and Professor of Cultural Sociology Andy Bennett cite both the novel and subsequent film, High Fidelity, as a pop culture symbol of assembling mixtapes as a prominent activity among music fans around the world. They define mixtapes “as a communication tool between individuals belonging to what could be described as ‘compilation communities.’ Within such communities, the art of producing and comparing mixtapes constitutes a form of cultural capital.” [LaCasse, Bennett, p. 314] They add that the cassette tape format is considered “a true medium by many compilers, who seem to impart cassette tapes with a nostalgic quality and a corresponding higher ‘authentic’ value than digital counterparts such as CDs and MP3s.”
To many mix tapers, compiling songs on a magnetic tape constituted nothing less than an art form, say LaCasse and Bennett. “The art of producing mixtapes engendered its own set of practices, a crucial element of which was the individual’s ability to demonstrate his/her skill as an auteur.” [LaCasse, Bennett, p. 318] Further, they compare the mixtape to the personal letter “that one would send to a close friend or a potential love interest.” [LaCasse, Bennett, p. 315]
LaCasse and Bennett conclude that mixtapes are an intertextual practice — that is, “songs and tunes were effectively removed from their original contexts and reworked into new, personalized, and aesthetically justified maps of sonic meaning. Thus, mixtapes are not only intertextual but also interpersonal.” [LaCasse, Bennett, pp. 325–326]
As scholar Joshua Meyrowitz writes, new forms of media can transform the home and other social spheres into new social environments with new patterns of social action, feeling and beliefs. Cassette tape technology not only meets that definition, but is also an example of Meyrowitz’s medium-as-environment metaphor. Cassette tape technology, as Meyrowitz notes, is a medium as environment “where the people who have access to it share an experience that gives them a sense of group identity.” [Meyrowitz, pp. 49]
Film & Television Examples
Cassette tapes have made many cameo appearances in multiple television programs and films, reflecting the pop culture of their era. A few notable examples include the opening title sequence of The Rockford Files, a popular television detective drama that aired from 1974–1980, starring actor James Garner as private eye Jim Rockford. The title sequence always began with Rockford’s answering machine picking up a message, often cleverly conveying an amusing Rockford character flaw.
Others examples include Do the Right Thing, director Spike Lee’s 1989 film drama about racial tension in Brooklyn, showcasing hip hop street culture and spotlighting character Radio Raheem who carries a huge boom-box blasting Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.”
The Big Lebowski, a 1998 comedic film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, features a notable segment where The Dude (Lebowski), an unemployed stoner played by actor Jeff Bridges, has his car stolen, along with his beloved Creedence Clearwater Revival tape.
Mentioned earlier, the film High Fidelity is a 2000 romantic comedy starring John Cusack as Rob Gordon, a Chicago record store owner with an encyclopedic knowledge of all things musical. To win back Laura, his former girlfriend, he creates a mixtape for her.
In 2001, “The Two Hundredth” episode of long-running comedy series Frasier, Frasier Crane (actor Kelsey Grammer) completes his 2,000th radio show, but discovers one of the cassettes from his broadcast collection has been replaced by a Hall & Oates tape, spiraling him into depression.
Legacy
Although the popularity of cassette tape technology declined by the mid-1990s, it never entirely disappeared. Indeed, the cassette tape has continued to exist as a way for indie and underground artists to quickly and easily distribute their work.
Dr. Göran Bolin, Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn University, in writing about cassette tape technology, introduces the concept of ‘technostalgia’ or the preference for old, often analog technologies. His studies find that music has a prominent place in the analysis of nostalgia, and the mixtape specifically became “one of the paradigmatic triggers of memory due to the work involved or because it was produced for a loved one.” He notes that because creating mixtapes involved emotions and labor intensity — creating a mixtape was time consuming and required skill — they produce feelings of great nostalgic value. [Bolin, pp. 257–258] This is especially true, writes Bolin, due to the “intimate and often passionate relation that is developed towards media technologies and content from one’s formative youth period, between the years of 17 and 25.” [Bolin, pp. 250–251]
Music scholar Bas Jansen also explores cultural aspects of the mix taping practice. “A mixtape ties together reminders of many heterogeneous elements of a past life-world, which include music, technology and social relations. It offers a ‘what-it-was-like’ experience described as being connected with the technology and music of the day, the people, the vocabulary, and the important issues. It is the importance of narrative to cultural memory.” [Jansen, p. 51] Jansen notes that soon after its decline, mix taping began reappearing in a number of cultural narratives in novels and essays which “calibrated its meaning from an innocent pastime to a socio-cultural practice of existential significance.” He adds, “Old cassette mixtapes tend to bring back memories. There is something accidental about this ability, because evoking memories was not their intended purpose.” [Jansen, p. 43]
Filmmakers Zack Taylor, George Petzold and Seth Smooth reported on a still thriving, if boutique, industry in their 2016 documentary, CASSETTE: A Documentary Mixtape, that pays homage to inventor Lou Ottens, mix tapers, musicians, and Missouri-based cassette tape manufacturer National Audio Company, a successful business that continues today to make and sell cassette tapes. The film documents the popularity of Cassette Store Day, an annual observance designed to laud cassettes as a music format, that is celebrated by audiophiles in the U.S. and around the world.
Culture writer Jen Cheney notes that not only does the cassette tape continue to show up in major motion pictures and TV shows (including Atomic Blonde, Snowfall, Better Call Saul, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2), it also plays a key plot role in some of these programs. She posits that cassettes are a way to preserve the past and stay connected to those who are gone in a way that feels more tangible. [Vulture]
Perhaps that is why the cassette tape still resonates and continues to appear in American media programming. Like a vinyl LP, it is something to be held and felt in way that digital files aren’t. As the scholars above write, the cassette is a vehicle for memory and nostalgia that feels authentic and real — it lives in your hands, not in the cloud. It’s a technostalgic art form and love letter to those of us who experienced it in the 1970s, 1980s and early ’90s. The legacy of cassette tape technology is one of a mediation deeply ingrained in U.S. culture and society.
Bibliography
· Bolin, Goran, “Passion and Nostalgia in Generational Media Experiences,” European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2016, Vol. 19(3), pp. 250–264
· Harrison, Anthony Kwame, “Cheaper than a CD, Plus We Really Mean It: Bay Area Underground Hip Hop Tapes as Subcultural Artefacts”, Popular Music, May 2006, Vol. 25, №2, pp. 283–301
· Jansen, Bas, Chapter 2: “Tape Cassettes and Former Selves — How Mix Tapes Mediate Memories,” Sound Souvenirs: Audio Technologies, Memory and Cultural Practices, edited by Bijsterveld, Karin and Jacobs, Annelies, Amsterdam University Press, 2009, pp. 43–52
· LaCasse, Serge and Bennett, Andy, Chapter 12: “Mix Tapes, Memory, and Nostalgia,” The Pop Palimpsest: Intertextuality in Recorded Popular Music, University of Michigan Press, 2018, pp. 313–329
· Magaudda, Paolo and Minniti, Sergio, “Retromedia-in-Practice: A Practice Theory Approach for Rethinking Old and New Media Technologies,” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2019, Vol. 25(4), pp. 673–693
· Meyrowitz, Joshua, “Understandings of Media,” Culture, Vol. 11 (3–4), Spring Summer 1997, pp. 44–52
Supplementary Sources
· Chaney, Jen, “Why Is the Cassette Tape All Over Pop Culture?”, Vulture, July 21, 2017
· Kreps, Daniel, “Lou Ottens, Investor of the Audio Cassette Tape, Dead at 94,” Rolling Stone, March 10, 2021
· Rogers, Jude, “Total Rewind: 10 Key Moments in the Life of the Cassette,” The Guardian, August 30, 2013
· Rothman, Lily, “On Its 50th Birthday, the Cassette Tape is Still Rolling,” TIME Magazine, August 12, 2013
