An ode to a forgotten medium
There’s something to be said about the beauty of analog encoding.
Most certainly are most forms of analog formats long forgotten by
the general public with the exception of vinyl records that have made
a resurgence in the past 10 or so years.
One format, however, still remains popular in the music underground, that being the cassette tape. Yes, those little plastic cases with quasireel to reel tape inside of them still exist and are still being produced by musicians today even as the digital medium takes a stronger hold in the mainstream industry.
What good are they? They’re certainly not FLAC files. They’re known to be noisy for listeners in that they have a small amount of tape “hiss” on most occasions. They have to be rewinded like a VHS movie and that is not fun if you only buy an album for one or two songs.
All these things in mind, therein lies a draw to this format. The cost of producing tapes for one is low compared to a CD or even more so, a vinyl record. They are easily dubbed through the use of a tape deck and better yet, old tapes can be recycled for playing once again, creating a use for the boxes of old tapes that you have forgotten about in your basement.
Another factor is that when you put together a tape release for your band, you feel like you’re actually making something. On most occasions, you spend hours dubbing the tapes on your personal deck and you’ll probably be doing your own art as well before making copies of it at Kinkos. If you’re recycling tapes as mentioned before, you may even be so inclined to paint your tapes and make them look appealing instead of confusing your listeners by giving them old Lynyrd Skynyrd albums that have been overdubbed with your music.
Putting this all together takes time, yes, but the finished product is something you’ve made with your own hands and that is way more gratifying than just burning a CD. You just don’t get that with something that was pumped out of a factory machine.
The debate between analog and digital formats will probably exist forever. Our subjective views on music mean that what sounds like terrible unpolished noise to one person may be an enjoyable experience for another. Likewise, the extremely produced and constructed releases may be too much for some people who like their music “organic.”
Both ends have their viability and the reality is that the format of someone’s music depends entirely upon what kind of music you’re even listening to in the first place. Lots of bands put out records today for their clean sound, (provided you take care of it) and their novelty but very few from the mainstream will put out a cassette tape.
Below the surface of music are underground communities of people who have a strong affection for these tapes. There are people who know every nook and cranny to a tape recorder, can name off different kinds of cassettes, and ultimately collect an absurd amount of tapes that would rival anyone’s record collection.
Lots of indie and punk bands especially will probably release a tape at some point due to the aesthetics of the music itself. If you’ve been to a punk show that didn’t take place in an average venue, you may have seen someone selling tapes or exchanging them as some sort of punk currency that replaces the dollar. People develop their own DIY labels to even put these out under a formal name. Some labels exclusively sell cassettes or other analog formats, tossing aside digital and forgetting that it even exists.
As a Music Industry Arts student, I find myself at odds with my own program on this front. The focus on digital techniques is great but I didn’t start there. My first recordings were of my band-mate and I covering White Stripes’ songs on a handheld tape recorder. We would put that tape into its case and label it something like, Demo Tape 1 for archival purposes. We still have those tapes to this day and the laughs we get from it make up for the horrendous music we attempted to make during those times.
While I’ve put out CDs, records, digital releases, etc. I will always have a special place for the cassette format and I will defend its existence to the end of my music career.
One format, however, still remains popular in the music underground, that being the cassette tape. Yes, those little plastic cases with quasireel to reel tape inside of them still exist and are still being produced by musicians today even as the digital medium takes a stronger hold in the mainstream industry.
What good are they? They’re certainly not FLAC files. They’re known to be noisy for listeners in that they have a small amount of tape “hiss” on most occasions. They have to be rewinded like a VHS movie and that is not fun if you only buy an album for one or two songs.
All these things in mind, therein lies a draw to this format. The cost of producing tapes for one is low compared to a CD or even more so, a vinyl record. They are easily dubbed through the use of a tape deck and better yet, old tapes can be recycled for playing once again, creating a use for the boxes of old tapes that you have forgotten about in your basement.
Another factor is that when you put together a tape release for your band, you feel like you’re actually making something. On most occasions, you spend hours dubbing the tapes on your personal deck and you’ll probably be doing your own art as well before making copies of it at Kinkos. If you’re recycling tapes as mentioned before, you may even be so inclined to paint your tapes and make them look appealing instead of confusing your listeners by giving them old Lynyrd Skynyrd albums that have been overdubbed with your music.
Putting this all together takes time, yes, but the finished product is something you’ve made with your own hands and that is way more gratifying than just burning a CD. You just don’t get that with something that was pumped out of a factory machine.
The debate between analog and digital formats will probably exist forever. Our subjective views on music mean that what sounds like terrible unpolished noise to one person may be an enjoyable experience for another. Likewise, the extremely produced and constructed releases may be too much for some people who like their music “organic.”
Both ends have their viability and the reality is that the format of someone’s music depends entirely upon what kind of music you’re even listening to in the first place. Lots of bands put out records today for their clean sound, (provided you take care of it) and their novelty but very few from the mainstream will put out a cassette tape.
Below the surface of music are underground communities of people who have a strong affection for these tapes. There are people who know every nook and cranny to a tape recorder, can name off different kinds of cassettes, and ultimately collect an absurd amount of tapes that would rival anyone’s record collection.
Lots of indie and punk bands especially will probably release a tape at some point due to the aesthetics of the music itself. If you’ve been to a punk show that didn’t take place in an average venue, you may have seen someone selling tapes or exchanging them as some sort of punk currency that replaces the dollar. People develop their own DIY labels to even put these out under a formal name. Some labels exclusively sell cassettes or other analog formats, tossing aside digital and forgetting that it even exists.
As a Music Industry Arts student, I find myself at odds with my own program on this front. The focus on digital techniques is great but I didn’t start there. My first recordings were of my band-mate and I covering White Stripes’ songs on a handheld tape recorder. We would put that tape into its case and label it something like, Demo Tape 1 for archival purposes. We still have those tapes to this day and the laughs we get from it make up for the horrendous music we attempted to make during those times.
While I’ve put out CDs, records, digital releases, etc. I will always have a special place for the cassette format and I will defend its existence to the end of my music career.
