The Cassette turns 50

[Deleted]

Chart Watch Extra: The Cassette Turns 50

Paul Grein September 12, 2013 4:40 PM Chart Watch Arts & EntertainmentMusic
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If you're like most people, you probably haven't given the cassette much thought in years. Oh, you may still have a box of them stashed in the back of your closet, filled with such last-century smashes as the Dirty Dancing soundtrack and Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl. But you long ago moved on to CDs and probably moved on again to downloading. So why should you care that this summer marks the 50th anniversary of the cassette?

Because cassettes were a game-changing configuration. They allowed music fans to take music with them in a way that vinyl LPs and reel-to-reel tapes never did. They allowed fans to make their own tapes of favorite songs and artists and share them with friends. That simple act of self-expression made music more interactive than it had ever been.

Cassettes were introduced by the Dutch company Philips at a 1963 radio exhibition in Berlin. "It was a big surprise for the market," said Lou Ottens, who led the product's development. "It was so small in comparison with reel-to-reel recorders that it was at that moment a sensation." A Philips press release at the time noted that a cassette tape was smaller than a pack of cigarettes. (That was a timely frame of reference in an era when smoking was prevalent—as we've seen on Mad Men.)

In a 50th anniversary salute last month, TIME's Lily Rothman waxed poetic: "What now seems like a relic was a revolution in a plastic case."

The affection that many hold for the cassette (and such related phenomenon as mix-tapes) is evidenced in many popular movies and books. The image of John Cusack hoisting a boom-box over his head in the 1989 movie Say Anything… is iconic. Other movies and books to salute cassettes include High Fidelity, Wayne's World and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.

Writer Rob Sheffield used mix-tapes as the organizing principle in his 2007 memoir Love Is A Mix Tape: Life And Loss, One Song At A Time. The book uses 15 mix-tapes to frame the story of his courtship and marriage to Renee Crist.

Filmmakers Seth Smoot and Zack Taylor crowd-funded a documentary about tapes called Cassette, which is nearing completion.

The word "cassette" has even found its way into pop lyrics. Bette Midler dismisses an errant lover in her 1977 hit "You're Movin' Out Today" by giving him a list of things to pack up which includes "your funny cigarettes/your sixty-one cassettes."

Cassettes pulled ahead of 8-track tapes to become the leading tape format for the first time in 1980, according to figures compiled by the Recording Industry Assn. of America. Cassettes pulled ahead of LPs and EPs to become the top overall format in 1983.

Cassettes were the leading album configuration for nine straight years, from 1983 through 1991 (after which they were supplanted by CDs). Cassettes were a meaningful part of the market even longer. They represented at least 5% of total U.S. music shipments for 24 straight years, from 1977 through 2000.

Cassettes peaked in 1988, when they represented 59.1% of total U.S. music shipments. (All of the above figures are from the RIAA.)

But even after CDs surpassed cassettes in total U.S. shipments, cassettes continued to sell very well. Here's a surprise: The best-selling albums of 1992, 1993 and 1994 each sold more cassette copies than they did CD copies in those calendar years, according to Nielsen SoundScan stats. Here are the details. Billy Ray Cyrus' Some Gave All, the best-selling album of 1992, sold 3,589,000 cassettes and just 1,242,000 CDs. Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard soundtrack, the best-selling album of 1993, sold 2,977,000 cassettes and 2,621,000 CDs. The Lion King soundtrack, the best-selling album of 1994, sold 2,627,000 cassettes and 2,307,000 CDs.

The sales picture flipped in 1995. That year's best-selling album, Hootie & the Blowfish's Cracked Rear View, sold 5,111,000 CDs and just 1,908,000 cassettes. This pattern accelerated as the decade progressed. The best-selling album of 1999, Backstreet Boys' Millennium, sold 8,301,000 CDs and just 1,145,000 cassettes.

Millennium, Britney Spears' …Baby One More Time and Shania Twain's Come On Over (all in 1999) were the last albums to sell 1 million cassette copies in a calendar year. After that, things went downhill quickly for cassettes. Shaggy's Hotshot, in 2001, was the last album to sell 250K cassette copies in a calendar year.

You may have read that cassettes are making a comeback. That's wishful thinking. The last cassette to sell even 50K copies in a calendar year was the Wiggles' kiddie title, Yummy Yummy in 2004.



Here are the albums that were #1 on Billboard's "year-end" chart recaps in each of the nine years that cassettes were the top album configuration. 1983 and 1984: Michael Jackson's Thriller; 1985: Bruce Springsteen's Born In The U.S.A.; 1986: Whitney Houston's Whitney Houston; 1987: Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet; 1988: George Michael's Faith; 1989: Bobby Brown's Don't Be Cruel; 1990: Janet Jackson's Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814; 1991: Mariah Carey's Mariah Carey.

Cassette singles (sometimes known as "cassingles") were the leading configuration for singles for eight straight years, from 1989 (when they took over from vinyl singles) through 1996 (after which they were supplanted by CD singles). Cassette singles peaked in 1990, when they represented 10.1% of total U.S. music shipments (again, per the RIAA).



Here are the most popular songs in each of the eight years that cassette singles were the top song configuration (source notes below): 1989: Chicago's "Look Away"; 1990: Wilson Phillips' "Hold On"; 1991: Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do (I Do It For You); 1992: Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You"; 1993: Tag Team's "Whoomp! (There It Is)"; 1994: Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love To You"; 1995: "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio featuring L.V.; 1996: Los Del Rio's "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)."

Source notes: 1989-1991: Billboard's "year-end" Hot 100 recaps. 1992-1996: Nielsen SoundScan's lists of the best-selling singles of those calendar years. (They don't have separate breakdowns for cassette singles.)

[Linnethia Monique]

Ugh the days of putting tape over the top side to write over to make the perfect mixtape compiled of radio and CD rips.

[Nick]

Seems like yesterday!

[jebsib]

I have so many cassingles. Flimsy cardboard slip cases and all!

But truly, with a Sony Walkman and a tape of songs you recorded from the radio, you had the original iPod!
(Albeit with only 22 songs...)

[Caviar]

Oh the days of rushing home to record your favorite song on the radio. #IfYourGrlOnlyKnew :'(

[Jay D83]

The days of screaming and acting a fool when someone deliberately taped over my copy of the Lion King soundtrack!

[HolidayGuy]

Yes- recording songs off the radio was the "illegal downloading" of its day.

[Me. I Am l!nk!nfan815...]

lol....memories

[Deleted]

Oh, I love my cassette boxes :)
I have 3 cassettes of Paula Abdul's Spellbound album
:)

I remember that instead of pause I presses record and for 2 seconds the end of Rush Rush was ruined :)
I had to buy another one because it was my favorite song
Then it happened the same with Vibeology

[Caviar]

Sept 16, 2013 8:53:42 GMT -5 Jay D83 said:

The days of screaming and acting a fool when someone deliberately taped over my copy of the Lion King soundtrack!

That's when you pop that little plastic thing off to "protect" the recording. ;) But someone could be h00d and stuff paper to activate it again. LOL

[KeepDeanWeird]

Sept 16, 2013 9:24:30 GMT -5 HolidayGuy said:

Yes- recording songs off the radio was the "illegal downloading" of its day.

LOL. Isn't that the truth? What's interesting in the article is that cassettes didn't pass 8-track tapes until 1980, despite being "revolutionary" when introduced 17 years earlier. My question: when did 8-track tapes hit the market and why did they dominate during the interim?

[Jay D83]

Sept 16, 2013 11:58:41 GMT -5 Caviar said:

Sept 16, 2013 8:53:42 GMT -5 Jay D83 said:

The days of screaming and acting a fool when someone deliberately taped over my copy of the Lion King soundtrack!

That's when you pop that little plastic thing off to "protect" the recording. ;) But someone could be h00d and stuff paper to activate it again. LOL

That's exactly what they did - stuffed itty bitty pieces of paper in that hole and taped over it.

Instead of the Circle of Life and Can You Feel The Love Tonight, at 11 years old I had a mix tape with R. Kelly's 12 Play and H-Town's Knockin Da Boots on it. I. WAS. HOT!

[Caviar]

[Me. I Am l!nk!nfan815...]

That's what I use to do... put a piece of paper on that little tiny square whole. Ya'll taking me back...this should've been posted on a Thursday as throwback.

[HolidayGuy]

Yes- I had many cassettes with the sticker full of song titles- you has to write the songs on before slapping it on the tape, though, cause if you waited until after you put it on the tape, it was a tad trickier.

[Linnethia Monique]

Sept 16, 2013 8:43:52 GMT -5 Caviar said:

Oh the days of rushing home to record your favorite song on the radio. #IfYourGrlOnlyKnew :'(

Mine was Final Warning with Ginuwine and Aaliyah when they played it on 97.9 in Houston.

[Nick]

LOL. Glad I wasn't the only one recording off the radio. I used to hate when the DJ would talk over the song before the ending. WTF? lol

[Chelsea Press 2]

I have soooo many cassette singles! I just need something I can play them on. :) I have re-bought a bunch of my cassette albums on CD in recent years. Best Buy carries a lot of older albums and they charge around $5 for them. Sometimes a little less.

It made me crazy when some of the tape albums would break and fall apart after a certain amount of time. I had a meltdown when my tape of SNAP!'s The Madman's Return and Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 got ruined. The tape came off of its reel. My dad had all these special screwdrivers and tools so I took a hammer and broke open the tapes and took out the tape reel, re-wound it so it would play right, then opened up some other TDK blank tapes using the screwdrivers and replaced the reel with my storebought album's real to make it work again. It took an hour, but it was worth it so I could be a part of Janet's rhythm nation.

Sept 16, 2013 17:33:14 GMT -5 Nick said:

LOL. Glad I wasn't the only one recording off the radio. I used to hate when the DJ would talk over the song before the ending. WTF? lol

Me too! When I used to record some rare and hard to find songs that a college station or independent was playing, I would sometimes call in and ask when they were playing a particular song I wanted to record and ask if they could play the ID before the song and not during, or if they could talk before/after it instead of during, and they usually would do it. Good times.

[Deleted]

I had a bunch too. Never really liked them. Over play them, they wear out pretty quick. Unlike vinyl (or CD) it was more of a challenge to find a particular song if you didn't want to start where you left off

[jebsib]

Cassingle quality definitely went down over the years.

In the beginning, the tape was thicker, more durable.

By 1993, cheaper quality made the tape thinner, the sound tinnier, ribbon more easily breakable;
Or the dreaded "caught in the tape player" syndrome, scrunching your tape.

I found the same with professional VHS movies;
It's like the industry REALLY wants to upgrade you, so they make their old formats die faster!

[HolidayGuy]

Yep- that was the one annoying aspect of cassettes- the fast-forwarding and rewinding.

On a related note, I have so many VHS tapes (of stuff I've recorded, mostly, with a select amount of titles that I purchased). I don't really watch them, but it's good to have in the event I want to go back and check something out.

[Glove Slap]

I remember the first song I recorded off the radio was Snow's Informer, not understanding a single lyric.

[forg]

I treasure my cassette tapes. It was the cheaper alternative to CD back then

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I remember the last cassette tape I bought. Wide Open Spaces by the Dixie Chicks. (I since got it on CD).

I didn't really buy that many cassettes since getting into music in the mid 90s. My sister was the one who bought tapes (and she later passed them on to me) so I had Mariah's first three albums on cassette, most of Celine's albums (pre Let's Talk About Love) - I got Falling Into You on cassette because I didn't have enough money for the CD when I got it.

The mixtape is definitely a treasured thing and I honestly wish I could have experienced it more as a social thing. I'm totally the type of person who would have made mixtapes for friends and crushes.

[areyoureadytojump]

This may explain the rise in cassette sales this year:

www.buffalonews.com/new-york-times/ex-cons-startup-becoming-inmates-amazoncom-20131106

Ex-con’s startup becoming inmates’ Amazon.com
Items sold online and by catalog meet all rules of New York’s prisons
By Alan Feuer
New York Times

Last year, he struck what was his biggest and most promising deal to date, persuading Universal Records to produce, on cassette, a line of new music popular with inmates. Compact discs are not allowed in prison because they can be broken into shivs. But arguing that he had access to an audience that was literally captive, Barrett persuaded Universal to manufacture a limited supply of R&B and hip-hop tapes, in an exclusive arrangement, provided that he bought them on consignment and in bulk.

“No one makes cassette tapes anymore,” Barrett said, still sounding vaguely amazed. “I’m probably the only guy on the planet with Kanye West’s new album on tape.”

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But, how are they "SoundScanned"? lol

[areyoureadytojump]

271,000 "Others" (aka cassettes) have sold this year through SoundScan:

www1.billboard.biz/bbbiz/photos/pdf/2013/TFMmw1107.pdf

[imbondz]

Kids today don't know the pain of standing by your radio for hours waiting for that one song only to have the DJ talk over the entire beginning or you just miss it. Cassettes sucked

[HolidayGuy]

If they're reported, SoundScan could count them- i.e. albums bought at concerts or via other non-traditional means.

An interesting premise there. hehe

[Tea-why]

I was listening to one of my radio-recorded cassettes the other day. I remember listening to the radio to record some of the songs that didn't get much airplay on it and listening to them 50 times afterwards because I was so happy to now "own" the song. I kind of miss those days!

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I can probably remember the songs I recorded for my very first tape back in 1994 and because I recorded them from a Casey's Top 40, the exact day it was made too.

Well, it was the week that Don't Turn Around by Ace of Base went to #1. That tape also had I'll Remember, I Swear, Stay, etc. It was called Listen & Learn. I would make 4 other instalments of that series over the next few years. I might even still have the tapes if I took them with me when I moved.

I should make a playlist on my iTunes with the same tracklisting for nostalgia!