From the article "Tapes allow fans to engage with music in a physical way and support the artists they admire." I think that is the key point. When Lou Ottens died one of the people on the radio discussing cassettes said they had bought quite a few but didn't have anything to play them on ! I guess a cassette takes up less room than a T Shirt which most people won't wear. Admit it. You couldn't resist an article that said Radio Raheem approved. With a VZ2500 in the list I'm complaining, although I thought the VZ2000 was the better (but larger and heavier ) box.
Meh. The article admits that "the data shows us that cassettes aren’t likely to come back the same way vinyl has" and makes careful soft-prediction, "it appears that cassettes are here to stay". Don't forget the article is published on a website that is not just an online database, but also a marketplace that earns commission from every sale. They are interested in people trading physical media more, and they actually don't care whether it is selling or buying. They admit that "older releases are being discovered or rediscovered as the amount of tapes listed for sale has grown significantly over the last several years". This I can believe to, I myself bought about a hundred cassettes in the last year for a buck or less each. But now with the local warehouse closed (seems that the owner/seller bit the dust) I am not buying anymore. I also don't get the economics of some of the bands like Belarusian Molchat Doma that they mentioned. They have download only for $9, and cassette + download for $8, how crazy is that? Anyway, why would I need an old-fashioned media recorded on subpar tape compared to 1980s, without Dolby? I can just download FLAC files and listen without W&F or hiss. When I listen to cassettes, I listen to the old ones that are dear to me. When I buy cassettes, I buy old ones that are recorded on chrome or cobalt tape with Dolby. In any case, the market is minuscule. They completely sidestepped the question of the equipment, unless they meant crappy Chinese players that use the same Tanashin-derived mechanism. In this case, it may be indeed tapes for the blind that keep the duplicators going. From a dictation machine to an audiobook machine. I recently tested a newly made blank cassette that is good enough for an audiobook or even for recording off FM radio, but completely useless for full-range music. Lou Ottens did not give a crap about cassettes. He was very reasonable about this. P.S. The cassette drawing is wrong. This says enough about those buying cassettes nowadays - for them cassettes are just tokens. I'd rather have a poster.
From the article: "The boombox bridged the gap between the home stereo and the walkman and it did it with style". The article does not clarify how the boombox bridged this gap, neither it helps "understand the impact of the boombox and how it developed over time". There is a well-articulated opinion that a humongous boombox allowed "an angry 8-feet 400-pound underclass" to conquer a city park or a neighborhood street, invade personal space and project power. This is illustrated in the Spike Lee's movie. A big ghetto blaster was a weapon in the race war. Walkman, invented after the boombox, was "a shield, a bubble that protected one during their daily routine, in particular, when navigating urban landscape". One would "put the Walkman on and blot out the rest of the world”. After decades of using walkman, discman and MP3-player, we became more disconnected than ever. The smartphone gave us the illusion of connection, so things seemed to turn to better, but instead of visiting a relative or a friend, instead of writing and mailing a letter, instead of calling - we type a short message, all the while incessantly scrolling through the endless feed. We don't even watch TV together. It is all personalized and all through headphones. I bought decent speakers for my son, he does not use them, he listens to everything through headphones. His friends do the same. No wonder the boombox is dead. Even the butt-ugly modern Bluetooth/USB boomboxes are not as popular as cassette boomboxes were. So, not only the cassette is dead, the extraverted, loud music listening is dead, the collective listening and dancing is dead save for night clubs. This works just fine for vinyl, which never was meant for outdoor or mobile use, for partying in a park or for break-dancing on a street. Vinyl today is the medium for introverts. Well, for extroverted introverts, for those who post pictures of their records on Instragram, but listen alone in, erm, the privacy of their homes. An occasional visiting friend can admire a large record player, possibly in a stainless steel or polished redwood box with a funny curved tone arm. What he would look at if you played your music on a cassette deck - at the level meters? Right. Could as well stream it. *Quotes are from various sources on the topic.
Your comments about Boomboxes made me think of the famous scene in one of the Star Trek movies Talking about vinyl missed out DJ ing, which I'll admit I have only ever watched people do. I have read that it was DJs that kept the record factories operating. An interesting article about it https://djmag.com/content/vinyl-only-culture-encouraging-elitism-electronic-music I wonder if a young bloke I worked with twenty years ago still has his two Technics SL1200s ?
I did mention night clubs Also, I listen to a lot of mixes on YouTube. This guy is awesome! Good article. As a customer, I don't care whether the DJ uses vinyl or digital, as long as it is not a pre-built set. A real DJ must respond to how the public behaves, what the public wants, and quickly change his, well, tune when needed. If he can do that with digital - I don't care. Lately I have been watching this guy, who basically advertises a $250 DJ console by showcasing different tricks. BTW, his videos are very well produced! It just irks me when he says "trancision" instead of "transition" every time! Anyway, not a big deal. I am seriously thinking of getting one. And because I don't have vinyl records - not a single one - having digital is much better to me. Vinyl is cool too, like this guy. But he uses things like short and long loops, which are not exactly analog
Did you also test the RTM C60 and C90 cassettes? I bought them a while back after some unpleasant experiences with vintages cassettes that had gone bad.
