This is wild...remember my "Cassettes are still a great format" post from a couple of weeks ago? Well, I honestly had no idea that according to some people, cassette tapes are actually having somewhat of a resurgence in popularity. Check out this article from the Telegraph in the UK...Rewind to the 1980s as the cassette tape makes a comeback
I wonder if this means someone will start making decent cassette decks again. Not likely though. I mistakenly attempted to buy a "new" cassette deck several years back. What a mistake that was...I figured that since cassette deck parts wear easily over time, it might be good to get a newer one with zero miles on it. I know, I can't believe I'm even admitting this. It was awful! Amazing amounts of noise coming from the deck, terrible S/N ratio, and audible wow & flutter. Cost me $100, but I returned it. Bought an old Technics deck for $40 and it blew the pants right off the other deck (which will remain nameless). Actually, then I found at second Technics deck at the dump for free, and that was also far superior to the newer deck.
Anyway, back to the tapes themselves...it will be interesting to see whether other manufacturers besides TDK and Maxell will get back in the game. I saw a still-sealed Maxell Metal tape at a thrift store recently that had to be from the early 90s...maybe I'll go back and see if it's still there.
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I'm not convinced of the comback of the cassette tape. Vinyl makes sense for the purists and those who like their music to sound way good, but tapes...I love 'em, but it's nostalgia. And newbies who go decide to see what tapes are all about are doing it for the novelty of it, IMO. Mix CDs are all about the end product, whereas mix tapes are just as much, if not more, about the process. For those who want to luxuriate themselves in that process, I suppose they'll go back to that, but I think the end-producters greatly outnumber them.
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