‘From the Time Capsule c1997’

Successor to the relatively rare reel to reel domestic tape recorders of the 1950s, compact cassettes, introduced in the 1960s, used the same magnetic tape technology to deliver a truly mass product. They were used as either blank tapes that could be recorded onto, or as pre-recorded cassettes of music albums. In the 80s, they were also used as a storage medium for early home computers such as the Sinclair ZX. 

By the 1990s they were being replaced by compact discs, which had a much clearer sound and no ‘hiss’! 

Today, compact discs themselves are increasingly replaced by computer based media of various sorts, including smartphones, as well as by online streaming music services.

One of the frequent frustrations with cassettes was that the cassette players routinely chewed up the tape, which then had to be delicately rescued from the player’s mechanism and wound back in to the cartridge with a pencil. Today’s blip honours this frustration!