Eleven Forgotten and Unusual Uses For Audio Cassettes

It was best known by far as a medium for home recording music. Around the early ’70s, the audio cassette took over from the much more cumbersome reel to reel tape as the default means of capturing sound in the consumer domain. The cassette’s compactness gave it a new level of convenience, coupled with very low cost both in terms of media and recording equipment.

People used audio cassettes in a way they wouldn’t use reel to reel, and kids commonly used cassettes too. All of this helped open up a broader span of usage. Families recorded their favourite songs from the radio, bands taped their rehearsals and gave the cassettes to pub landlords in the hope of getting gigs… Most people probably recall or envisage cassettes in these roles. If you’re old enough, you may also associate cassette tapes with self-help, motivational and training courses.

But deep back in ye olde distant past, audio cassettes performed a wide range of other tasks. Some of them functional, some wild and wacky, some darkly sinister. In this post I’m revisiting some of those less well-remembered applications. And in the finest traditions of Spinal Tap, the list goes up to eleven…

Did Paper Label Audio Cassettes Actually SOUND Better?

If you collect audio cassettes, chances are you like the look of the ones with paper labels best. Well known for adding vivid colour to the product, paper labels can also on occasion create character by bubbling up away from the casing, as seen in the picture above.

But is there any link between cassettes with paper labels and a higher quality sound? Is a cassette without a paper label any more likely to have a dull sound? As regards the 1970s output, probably not. But 1980s and 1990s tapes with paper labels do show statistical evidence of higher audio quality…

Eurythmics – Greatest Hits Audio Cassette

Anyone who remembers the UK at the end of the ‘seventies, with The Tourists’ version of I Only Want To Be With You blasting out of Radio One at regular intervals through the day, will know The Tourists were a hard act to follow. And initially, when Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart from the disbanded Tourists formed a rather more modern duo, it seemed they would struggle to recapture the momentum.

Heading down a new road into synth-driven electro-groove, Lennox and Stewart at first looked to have dumped their pop sensibilities in exchange for the style statement of the day. Electronic music had attractive ingredients, but it was extremely competitive, with market-leading groups like the Human League eminently capable of delivering catchy output. Just adopting the style was not enough.