Cassette Tapes

A cassette tape, otherwise known as a compact cassette, an audio cassette, or even as simply a cassette tape, was a format for magnetic tape sound recording that was used from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. In the beginning of its lifetime, the cassette was one of the most common formats for music next to the LP.

Later on, when the Compact Disc came along, the cassette also stood alongside it in the time it took the CD to catch on with the public. So, the Cassette tape really saw a good run as a major media distribution tool. If you bought music in that era, then you no doubt remember cassette tapes and what they were like.

Basically, a cassette is just a small plastic tape that contains about 60 minutes worth of magnetic tape. The magnetic tape had two sides on it, and you used to have to flip the tape over to play the other side.

Cassettes also needed to be rewound after use, unless you were going to turn it over and listen to the other side.

The cassette tape actually first came into use during the 1960s, but it was not until the 70’s that the sound quality of the cassette really took off. By the time the 70’s came, it had gotten as good as the 8 track tape, and by the time the 1980s arrived, it had replaced the 12 inch vinyl LP.

By the time 2000 arrived, however, the cassette tape had begun to disappear, replaced by the Compact Disc. For recorded music, Cds have now become more popular.

However, cassette players and recorders are still sold. They are becoming a bit scarcer, but they are still available at most retail stores as an effective means of recording quick sound bytes of things like lectures.