Publicity is Cool?
The only thing I can come up with that explains this mini-revival of cassette tapes is a desperate need to find a way to stand out:
The last car to ship with a tape deck was the 2010 Lexus SC 430. Sony stopped making the Walkman last October. This can mean only one thing: Cassettes are about to be cool again. Indeed, upstart labels like Crash Symbols, Volar, and Bathetic are putting out cassette-only releases. Indie rock favorite the Mountain Goats recently came out with a tape of rarities, and established noise-pop bands Joan of Arc and Of Montreal are also putting out their new albums on cassette.
How many people in the core music buying demographic (teens) even have a tape deck? This is an interesting publicity stunt, but I can't see it having legs. I understand that big audiophiles prefer vinyl (for the analog sound), but tapes? Seriously?
Comments
Re: Publicity is Cool?
[Todd Edwin King] July 7, 2011 9:55:23.503
I don't consider myself to be an audiophile, but I do like music and do prefer to listen to vinyl over any other format (and many would say I'm an audiophile based on what my vinyl playback setup cost.)
I don't understand wanting to listen to cassettes though, I used to make them because, well, vinyl playback "on the go" is a difficult thing to pull off. Even during my 5-7 year CD bender, I made tapes because they were more convenient in the car. The "battle of the tape hiss" consumed more of time than I'd like to admit.
The mp3 format and it's kindred cannot be beat for portability.
So no cassettes for me unless I don't have or can't get what I want in another format, which hasn't been much of a problem.