There was once a time when records ruled the world. These shiny pieces of vinyl were all you had to take the music home with you. People bought tons of these records. And they were the best that was available for the time. It was always a sad day when you discovered that your favorite song had a scratch on it. That was the problem with records.
And then the audio cassette was introduced. It was a huge advance for two reasons- first, cassettes were more durable than vinyl discs; second and much more importantly, you could record onto them! That means that for the first time, people could record their own audio tapes of whatever they felt like with the same technology used by the professionals.
We can thank this newer, compact method of recording music for the advent of the walkman. Young people could carry their music around wherever they went. This was an amazing new development. Before this, the only portable music came either from car radios or boom boxes. Finally, to the relief of many, the walkman meant only the wearer needed to listen to their music.
There was a major problem with the audio cassette- there was no way to skip forward or backward reliably on the tape. If you were wanting to skip over one particularly disliked song, for instance, you would have to fast-forward beyond it and then hope that you didn’t go too far and have to backtrack, or not go far enough and be stuck listening to part of the disliked song.
Audio cassettes are not in the grave yet. Though new creations like compact discs and MP3 players have been invented, many devoted people still swear by audio cassettes. Many of these users have advanced to digital audio tapes. However most members of the general public have bought new musical creations like Apple’s new IPOD.
For those of us who grew up with the old fashioned mix tapes, we will always hold a soft part of our hearts’ for the tape that let us be our own DJ. But now that we all have laptops and MP3 players, we have kind of let that art die out. It will never be forgotten though.
Audio cassettes were an improvement over records because they were more durable and versatile. For the first time, people could make their own recordings and carry them everywhere. However, it was difficult to choose the order in which one listened to songs on the tape. While most people have moved on to new recording technologies, the audio tape is not dead. Some even use digital audio tapes. Computers allow us to mix music more easily, but the old art of mix tapes will always have a place in our hearts. The technology that first allowed our generation to record our own “records” for the first time will never be forgotten.
- Menachem Green
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