Articles

There was once a time when records ruled the world. These shiny pieces of vinyl were all you had to take the music home with you. People bought tons of these records. And they were the best that was available for the time. It was always a sad day when you discovered that your favorite song had a scratch on it. That was the problem with records.

Shortly thereafter, the audio cassette became popular with the public. Not only was was it much less fragile, but it allowed people to make audio tapes of their own. People used this media to record all manner of audio: their favorite music, university lectures, or anything else that struck their fancy.

We can thank this newer, compact method of recording music for the advent of the walkman. Young people could carry their music around wherever they went. This was an amazing new development. Before this, the only portable music came either from car radios or boom boxes. Finally, to the relief of many, the walkman meant only the wearer needed to listen to their music.

There was a major problem with the audio cassette- there was no way to skip forward or backward reliably on the tape. If you were wanting to skip over one particularly disliked song, for instance, you would have to fast-forward beyond it and then hope that you didn't go too far and have to backtrack, or not go far enough and be stuck listening to part of the disliked song.

The audio cassette has lost most of its old market, but not all of it. There are still many people who swear that the audio cassette is at least the equal of the CD or the MP3. In addition, the creation of digital audio tapes allows the humble cassette to have a new lease on life. If you prefer your IPod, that's your concern; we'll stick with what we enjoy.

We that did grow up with the old style mixed tapes, will always have a special place in our hearts for the tapes that allowed us to be our own DJs. But now we all have lap tops and MP3 player we have to really let that art out. However we won't forget.

Audio cassette tapes replaced the gramophone records of the past. The audio tape had several advantages over records. They were more durable and you could record on them. The walkman revolution took place when youth could take their music with them. One disadvantage was that you could not pick and choose which song to listen to on the tape. Digital audio tapes still have their place, even amongst today's CDs and MP3s. The generations of the past will always remember the old fashioned mix tapes of our favorite songs. These mix tapes will always have a place in our hearts.