Over time musical formats, like all things, evolve in one way or the other. We currently live in an age where it’s occasionally necessary to specify whether your release is a physical object. Album sales through the first nine months of the year were down 6.1% from 2012’s sales. Digital sales are also down. Vinyl is continuing a curious re-emergence, up 100% in sale volume over in the UK. Then there’s the perpetually-overlooked cassette tape charting its own unique path.

Considered painfully outdated by many, the truth is that the cassette never really disappeared. A perennial staple of the DIY music communities due to its cost-effectiveness, it’s been virtually impossible to get an accurate sales projection on as the majority of its sales seem to take place independetly. However, with some of the cultural focus shifting back over to the musical regions that most heavily embrace tape culture along with the balls-out risk of Cassette Store Day they’re back to being a common point of debate.

There are those that will endlessly champion the cassette and its merits, this very publication being one, and those who are completely baffled by anyone who’s interested in the format. Cassettes haven’t been as easily accessible as they are today since the peak of their popularity in the 90’s. When the mass consumption ebb switched to favoring the much sleeker CD, the cassette seemed all but buried. Cassette walkmans went from trend pieces to lost artifacts that seemed hopelessly out of touch. This cultural shift propelled the cassette to an outsider status that lent it a new context.

Unsurprisingly, the basement punk scene continued to latch onto the format and while the numbers of mass sales decreased, the independent business model for it held strong. Punk and hardcore bands as well as outsider pop, folk, and psych bands often only dealt in cassette releases simply because they became the most affordable option. A deep bond was formed between format and genre, each proving beneficial to the others aesthetics. Then, while the mp3 started to overtake the CD and vinyl began a surprising but entirely welcome comeback, tapes were left almost completely out of the cultural conversation.

In 1993 a Guitar Wolf demo tape convinced Eric Friedl to start a label to release the bands first record Wolf Rock!, that label, Goner, became one of punk’s most seminal since the ugly decline of SST. Friedl likely never paid the trajectory of tapes’ popularity any attention, continuing to release his artists music on the formats he/they saw fit. Even as the cassette turned into a surprisingly contentious topic, Goner consistently released them and anchored itself as one of the cornerstones in the formats strange history. 

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Multiple paragraphs at this point of this piece’s initial version went into describing the importance Burger Records had on cassette culture. In 2020, a slew of unconscionable allegations regarding the label, several of its acts, and its owners were made public. As a result, this piece has been updated, and those segments have been removed.]

Cassette Store Day brought a lot of issues to light and several people were left aghast, while it inspired local artists the world over to make small contributions. Austin, TX troubadours Okkervil River took advantage of the nostalgic aspect of the cassette, releasing The Silver Gymnasium (artwork above) on the format.

Musicians operating from a DIY ethos or foundation understand the format and what it stands for. They’re the ones that know how many miles in a van a cassette can represent, how much cheap, spilled beer generally goes into the process of making them. They know that the slightly compressed sound quality can actually benefit select artists’ sonic aesthetic, and value the skip-resistant longevity of a cassette. They’re the ones that have been part of post-show basement cassette trades between like-minded acts. And that’s part of why they endure.

For a generation of artists, the format exceeds simpler classifications to become a cultural emblem. A way of life. And, with any luck, that torch will be kept lit long enough to stave off obsoletion.