Ode to a Bygone Art
Oh how I miss those cassette tapes.
There was a time when cassette tapes were as plentiful as David Lee Roth hit singles. Ok, even more plentiful than that. One of the fondest memories of my childhood was rooting through my dad's old tape collection, finding some old classics, and then being told to "get out of daddy's special area." That isn't just a memory, that's a piece of Americana.
I understand we are in a new technological age. I understand we can send robot to Mars, radio signals to Arkansas, and packages via UPS ground for only $14.95. I understand that in the same amount of time that I can microwave a burrito, I can go into a chat room and talk with a 35 year old guy pretending to be an 18 year old girl half way around the world. I understand that CDs are here to stay, but in my mind, nothing can top the good old cassette tape.
The cassette tape is so pure in its form. Unlike the anorexic CD, the cassette tape has got some mass to it. I like a form of media with a little "junk in the trunk." CDs are also pretty pricey. CDs are like that girl at the party who is really hot, but you know you don't have a shot with because you can't afford her. I'm not calling cassettes sluts in this analogy, I'm just saying you can get like 5 Phil Collins tapes for $20 these days. I guess the thing I miss most are mix tapes. I never made a mix tape, and that's a fate I curse every day. Mix tapes required effort because they took so long to make. To make a good mix tape required a real knowledge of music. But when I make a mix cd, it takes me fifteen minutes, and I don't even know half the songs I'm putting on there, I just put them on there cuase its so damn easy, and I want to fill up the whole CD. As the pop trio Hanson once sang: "where's the love?" See, that's a song I'd never put on a mix tape.
I think we both know that tapes are never going to come back, and that's a real shame. In twenty years, people are going to look back at tapes the way we look back on basic cable: sure, it was a little primitive, but it paved the way for so much more worthless crap. I advise all of you to grab hold of any remaining cassette tapes you can find. My most cherished possession is a bootleg of a 1982 Guess Who concert I found at a thrift shop. It starts with a man saying, "Is it the Who? and a girl replying "No, Guess Who." That goes on for like thirty minutes. Halfway through it turns into someone's 2002 piano recital. Twenty years of memories on just one Memorex. I'd like to see that from a cd.
There was a time when cassette tapes were as plentiful as David Lee Roth hit singles. Ok, even more plentiful than that. One of the fondest memories of my childhood was rooting through my dad's old tape collection, finding some old classics, and then being told to "get out of daddy's special area." That isn't just a memory, that's a piece of Americana.
I understand we are in a new technological age. I understand we can send robot to Mars, radio signals to Arkansas, and packages via UPS ground for only $14.95. I understand that in the same amount of time that I can microwave a burrito, I can go into a chat room and talk with a 35 year old guy pretending to be an 18 year old girl half way around the world. I understand that CDs are here to stay, but in my mind, nothing can top the good old cassette tape.
The cassette tape is so pure in its form. Unlike the anorexic CD, the cassette tape has got some mass to it. I like a form of media with a little "junk in the trunk." CDs are also pretty pricey. CDs are like that girl at the party who is really hot, but you know you don't have a shot with because you can't afford her. I'm not calling cassettes sluts in this analogy, I'm just saying you can get like 5 Phil Collins tapes for $20 these days. I guess the thing I miss most are mix tapes. I never made a mix tape, and that's a fate I curse every day. Mix tapes required effort because they took so long to make. To make a good mix tape required a real knowledge of music. But when I make a mix cd, it takes me fifteen minutes, and I don't even know half the songs I'm putting on there, I just put them on there cuase its so damn easy, and I want to fill up the whole CD. As the pop trio Hanson once sang: "where's the love?" See, that's a song I'd never put on a mix tape.
I think we both know that tapes are never going to come back, and that's a real shame. In twenty years, people are going to look back at tapes the way we look back on basic cable: sure, it was a little primitive, but it paved the way for so much more worthless crap. I advise all of you to grab hold of any remaining cassette tapes you can find. My most cherished possession is a bootleg of a 1982 Guess Who concert I found at a thrift shop. It starts with a man saying, "Is it the Who? and a girl replying "No, Guess Who." That goes on for like thirty minutes. Halfway through it turns into someone's 2002 piano recital. Twenty years of memories on just one Memorex. I'd like to see that from a cd.