Core77

Cassette tapes and the way of all things

By Rain Noe - February 18, 2008

in Object Culture

HD DVD's impending demise reminded us music lovers of a time when cassettes filled our lives. They littered the glovebox of your first used car, and if you pulled the visor down, more would hit you in the head. You couldn't take a trip without packing six or seven in your bag. You'd spend hours making mixtapes, and when your ex-girlfriend wanted to get back at you, she'd find your favorite and do this to it:

Though they starting phasing out in the '80s, the cassette's form is still around, repurposed for irony and kitsch. Nowadays we can see the cassette as......a bag with the unspooled ribbon as a handle (my ex would love that one);

actual cassette housings used as a cladding for wallets;

the ribbons from cassettes formed into dresses;

cassettes cast into faux gold for the ultimate tacky belt buckle, which is saying a lot in the world of belt buckles;

and given second lives as purveyors of other media, like books,

and their indirect successor, MP3s.

Cast-off CDs have already begun this cycle, finding their way into everything from lamps to chairs to the ever unimaginative coaster. It will be interested to see what the next decade brings for DVDs. If consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, DVDs will be the building blocks for people who have hobgoblins.

And now, if you'll indulge us, the money shot.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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Clark

16 years ago

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My car is still overflowing with cassettes. But the cassettes themselves might be over 13 years old.
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Andy Polaine

16 years ago

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Check out the Mixa USB 'mixtape' stick too: http://www.makeamixa.com/

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muskawo

16 years ago

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I still listen to cassettes (sometimes) and I have a cassette belt buckle. Need to keep the cassettes handy for when I find a boombox, then I can have a kickin' 80's style beach party.
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Christopher Frelin

16 years ago

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I think the kitchy affinity I have for the cassette tape has something to do with its wobbly plastic innards and tactile quality. It has an apparent mechanical honesty to it, and its mass and the feeling of its dimensions in my hand makes me think that it belongs to me as much as it belongs to the machine it goes in. Pretty soon there will be no more tactile media in the western world. What will we wax nostalgic about after that? Charmingly outdated codecs and file formats?
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