this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
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[–] the16bitgamer@programming.dev 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I grew up with cassettes. Type II was a rarity and not what you’d buy from the store. Those were type I tapes.

Plus the whole format was a compromise. CDs almost whipped them out, but when digital came both were gone in a flash.

I think the only benefit of cassette today is making mix tapes, but on a retail and purchasable music standpoint. They weren’t good.

[–] moseschrute@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yeah. Most of the modern prerecorded tapes are still crap. Although maybe like 20% of the pre recorded ones sound decent, surprisingly.

Cassettes were never designed for music, from what I understand. Instead, it was a format that music adopted later. Considering that, cassettes can actually sound really good imo. But I do have the luxury of using type II tapes. Type 1 isn’t bad if you have a really nice deck and a really good recording.

But isn’t there a whole lot more to this story? I believe cassettes were responsible for getting many underground artists started, who record labels would have never signed. I also heard a story where disregarded tapes set for recycling made their way from USA to other countries. Those tapes influenced music in that country, and they never would have been if they were another format.

That last point isn’t about audio quality, but it always seemed like cassettes didn’t get the respect they deserved imo.

[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 days ago

Yeah. Daniel Johnston got to be a known musician because the guy was one of those creative souls that couldn't help but to create music in this case, he released his music in cassettes and one of them somehow got to Kurt Cobain's hands.