Not Taylor Swift but my older kid is really into retro music devices. He has a Walkman, a separate tape recorder, a record player and a boom box, and buys vinyl and cassettes
this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2025
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How about reel-to-reel? Unlike cassettes, it actually sounds good. Probably the best you'll ever hear from an analog format.
Nagra ftw.
Was reel-to-reel ever mainstream?
I always had the impression that it was too complicated and/or expensive for most.
It was always expensive and niche. Only a few commercial releases even at its peek. Most of the machines were used for mastering, not personal listening.
They're not that complicated. They just look that way when you're threading the reel through the mechanisms. There's a logic to it, and it's pretty easy once you understand that. Does have a little more maintenance than a record player or cassette deck. Stuff needs to be lubed right.
Edit: also, note that people aren't necessarily buying cassettes or vinyl to listen to them. Lots of vinyl is purchased by people who don't even own a turntable. It's for the art and physicality.
I just bought a cassette for my favorite band, Mad Routine. I don't intend to use it, because it's a special item with a limited run, but I would if I had a spare and a cassette player.
Gen Z is an interesting bunch. Opting for blurry photos and bringing back JNCO jeans.
The 90's are back.
“Blurry photos”? Those are just photos with a shallow depth of field. That never went out of style.
I showed them all this stuff before and my kids thought it was lame. Their friends start to listen or wear said things and now it's cool... Kids lol nothing changes.
I did all the trendy thing when I was a kid. Even made the mistake of wearing FUBU once as a white guy.
don’t worry it’s still not cool.
I burned a few CDs and put one of them in my car's CD player
It worked but I got hit with "tray error" when I tried ejecting it.
It's been stuck in there since april
That's the authentic experience
The next level is getting one of those radio tuners, a discman, and explaining to your friends that you use the discman, because the car CD player is broken.
If the car has a cassette player, you can get this cassette with a 3.5 jack coming out of it, and then connect that to the discman to listen to CDs! The 90's were fun.
Those worked pretty well by the end, tbh
Part of the car now.
I'm a Millennial/GenZ cusper and I think its just the desire to go back to a simpler analogue lifestyle. I've also bought a few cassettes from concerts at times when I couldn't carry around a full vinyl the rest of the night
I definitely prefer to purchase my music on CD when possible. As someone who grew up with Cassettes, it's one tech I'm fine with being pushed into history. I'd rather have Minidiscs than cassettes.
Shit medium that inevitably ends up pulled by a faulty mechanism and destroyed. I remember patching broken tapes with adhesive tape all the time.
yeah. i wonder why they aren’t binging back VHS too. because it objectively sucks compared to what we have now.
Ooooh so that's why I saw a twenty something trying to buy a cassette player at the thrift store last weekend!
I’ve seen a lot of bands doing that at their merch table. I think for most bands, it’s just a keepsake like buying a T-shirt or sticker or whatever after a show. I’m sure there’s plenty of people who prefer cassettes (or at least the Walkman aesthetic) but for the most part, it’s just a souvenir.
I’ve never been into tapes but I collect vinyl. Part of the fun is all the extras tossed in. It’s like buying a boxed set or special edition DVD/Blu-Ray. Tapes don’t really have the same space for fun stuff but Taylor Swift probably has the budget to do something “extra” and make it a whole thing people put on Instagram.
Wow, my cars cassette player may finally seen some use!!!
I don't subscribe to any streaming services. I have vinyls and tapes. If I want to listen to music on the go, I use my walkman with music I've recorded from vinyl or, in very rare cases, YouTube.
My 9 year-old has a walkman too and it's the greatest thing ever. She doesn't have a smartphone, but the walkman enables her to listen to her own mixtape when we're traveling. She loves it.
Actually, I've seen quite a few people with feature phones around lately, a walkman would be perfect for them for the same reason.
Also, making mixtapes is still as great as it was back then. A playlist is not the same, not by a long shot. I made one for my little sister recently and it was all kinds of fun to make sure both sides were filled, that the mood and energy was cohesive, that it was tracks I genuinely believed she would enjoy but also tracks that I knew she wouldn't seek out on her own. (Fuck algorithms for recommending music — they won't challenge you or surprise you.)
Edit: Also, releasing on cassette isn't even that new this time around. For instance, all of Mac Miller's stuff has been available on cassette for at least a few years. Like, check out HHV's listing of cassettes: https://www.hhv.de/en/records/catalog/filter/tape-D2M74N4U9 and https://imusic.dk/exposure/8138/kassettebaand has a surprising number of metal albums on cassette.
How is it any different than making a playlist? You said a long shot, that's not true.
I am not talking about Spotify, I never use it, but unless you are talking about the level of effort to make the tape, then what's the difference?
Records are bulky, heavy, and horribly environmentally bad. Cassettes aren't as bad but are really inconvenient.
I got rid of all of those years ago and I am so glad I did.
I still have a music collection, I don't use streaming services though. And no no CDs either.
One of the biggest artist in the world using cassettes feels like cultural appropriation lol
I feel like tape fans were always there, just like vinyl fans. There are some special subcategories of them like Sony Walkman fans for example. Or those who like tape saturation/distortion. In music production it's even used as an effect sometimes: people pass their whole audio output through tape record and immediate playback just to introduce some of that saturation. Also I've always seen niche cassette limited edition releases here and there.
This reminds me of Kung Fury, which has a very 80's/90's aesthetic. They tried a variety of ways to filter the final movie to give it the right feel for the time period. Finally, unsatisfied with digital methods, they ended up running it through an actual VCR.
Swiftees.
It's perfect for people that like feeling hip more than they actually like music.