These days, cassette users trying to explain their preference for the dinosaur format have got to feel like Djay trying to push his demo on Skinny Black. They're still popular in other parts of the world—there's a reason there's a blog called
Awesome Tapes From Africa—but in America they're pretty much toast. Still,
this L.A. Times story, complete with obligatory
High Fidelity reference, wants to assure you that the format is hanging in by its fingernails thanks to the blind, audiobook buyers (which we
noted last year), archivists, the elderly, folks attempting to convert other people to Christianity, and related "non-traditional" markets:
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Idolator
As someone who likes vaguely bionic shit that invites fidgeting, I was sad to see this New York Times article about the demise of the cassette. Sometimes, I think of cassettes as little caged birds that sing to you before being devoured by the very machine that wrings forth their paeans to "Letting Her Cry" or "Only Wanting To Be With You." (I'm specifically thinking of my dubbed copy of Cracked Rear View that got eaten a while back.) Not to mention that they are, as the article points out, still useful for those who listen to audiobooks; the audio track stays in the same place once it's been stopped, making it easier to pick up the story in mid-chapter.
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If you still carry a torch for your old portable tape player and that long-gone box of mixtapes and albums you dubbed from your friends in junior high, you're not alone, judging by this online museum featuring decades of cassettes captured in fetishistic high-res photos that highlight all the nicked plastic, peeling labels, and handwritten descriptions. [
