The Obsolete Cassette Tape Turns 50

The high-tech 80s cassette tape has had its 50th birthday. I can remember growing up my dad had an old car that had an eight-track tape player. I have vivid memories of him getting angry every time I touched his 8-track tape collection and I recall how big those tapes were. The next big move in technology was from 8-track tapes down to the traditional cassette tape that anyone who grew up in the 80s will remember.

These tapes used storage media inside that was similar to what the 8-track tape had, only much smaller. The only place you're likely to find in 8-track tape these days is in your dad's attic. The cassette tape is also been replaced over the years with CDs and digital media. It's hard to believe that it has officially been 50 years since the cassette tape was introduced.

Philips is the company behind the compact cassette technology. The cassette tape allowed people not only to playback music and to record audio of their own ushering in the heyday of mix tapes. The recording capability was very important for the music industry because it allowed garage bands and early artists to record their own content.

The 50th birthday of the cassette tape will make a lot people out there feel old. At the same time I doubt anyone really misses that technology, anyone who grew up in the 80s probably spent a fair bit of their childhood trying to fix tape snarls using a pencil or a finger to slowly coil the black tape back inside the cassette cartridge. Cassette eventually gave way to CD and CDs have almost been killed off by MP3s and other digital tracks today.

SOURCE: Philips