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We'd listen to the radio station / We were too damn poor to buy the eight track tapes o/~
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this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2024
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I thought we were just adaptable and “whatever”.
I still have CDs and records. It’s all burned to digital format, but still. I can’t imagine that anyone misses cassettes.
I don't think anyone actually misses them. The only people I've seen that are actually into them now are way to young to be nostalgic for them.
Cassettes seem to interest people pushing back against the trend of instant gratification singles. They like being forced to listen to an entire album. Sometimes it's just the object itself as merch. and has no relation to listening to the music. Many people buying records and tapes have no means to play either. It's also all ancient retro tech to them and a tape is just a portable record that won't skip. Similar to the resurgence in popularity of film formats in photography. There is even an artist out there that released their new single on a wax cylinder format that is damn near impossible for anyone but the curator of an audio format museum to play properly. If you're nostalgic for the trappings of a time that you never experienced, is that nostalgia or some other thing?
Cassettes wear out. I did that with a couple back in the day. Whereas a record or CD is a solid master copy.
Unless it’s that trendy decor thing people Hoover up albums for, not to listen to, but to hang on their walls. Maybe they’re trying cassettes now to try to be unusual en masse.
A record is not a solid master copy. Vinyl, as an analog medium, wears out in the same way a cassette does.
There’s some nostalgia. Also, cassettes can sound very good. If you have a good cassette, a good recorder and a good audio source, that is.
Eh. The more you listen though, the worse it gets. Tapes are an inherently temporary medium. If that's your jam, it's cool. But I don't want my music degrading over time.
I mean, I wouldn’t use them as primary mean of keeping a music collection. But they’re great if you happen to have an old sound deck or car that doesn’t take CD. You make yourself a handful of mixtapes and you’re ready to go. Much nicer than some bluetooth-cassette adapter.
TBH, if I had a car that old that I was keeping for some reason--as opposed to trading in for something more efficient--I'd replace the stereo.
If the car was old enough and vintage itself, I‘d try to keep it as original as possible. And that includes the stereo. Replacement stereos usually don’t fit in well with the rest of the car. I also love to work with limitations like that in general, be it analog audio, photography, etc.
I don't hold much of anything as sacred; if I had a 'classic' car (and unlimited funds), I would absolutely turn it into a more modern beast. Analog photography is interesting to me because of the inherent limitations of the media, and the difficulty in replicating that with modern tools (esp. large format wet plate photography). But I see cars as being too utilitarian to fall into that category. Would it ruin the 'value'? Sure. But that's irrelevant to me for utilitarian items.
I understand where you're coming from, but I wouldn't be interested in a vintage car that sucks gas like it's going out of style and spews out more emissions than a diesel truck rolling coal. (And, FWIW, my first car was an '84 Monte Carlo SS that I promptly put a 400ci short block in.)
I like things with history thus I‘d never modify something I consider vintage, as long as I can keep it working in its original condition. And for any modifications that go beyond swapping the radio or the wheels, I don’t have the know how anyways. And if I‘d have to pay someone for modifications I could just invest that money into a better car that doesn’t need modifications.
Also, I’m German, so a lot of the 20-40 year old cars you can still get probably have better efficiency than most US cars of the same age. A 30 year old VW Golf doesn’t need much more fuel than a modern one.
For analog music it’s similar to photography for me. It’s about the limits. The same way I love that I only have 36 pictures on a film, I love that I only have 90 minutes I can put on a mixtape and that, to get those, I have to split it as exactly in the middle as possible. It’s a challenge and the reward is a perfectly mastered little object that holds my playlist. I do play vinyl records on my sound deck but I don’t always want to listen to an album and just plugging in a bluetooth receiver is so hopelessly unromantic. A carefully crafted cassette though… Although I will probably listen to more CDs when I get the CD-Deck fixed, eventually.
But yes, that’s all very much not utilitarian, which is why, when I just want to listen to music, I listen on Apple Music and why I bought a bluetooth-fm-transmitter for the one car at my work that doesn’t have bluetooth or aux-in.
Hide them in the glove box.
But where do I put my gloves then?
I don't wish we'd go back to using cassettes as a primary music medium, but I think it would be fun to revisit that era of tech and play with them for a little while. Like I think if my 10 year old niece discovered a box of cassette tapes and asked "what are these" I think we could have an hour or two of fun playing with my old boom box.
Cassettes are making a comeback actually, which is weird