Music

This collection of blank cassettes will make you want to make a mix tape immediately

by Mark Teo

While cassettes have seen a recent uptick in popularity—mainly, from independent bands looking to create small-run collectibles and organizations like Cassette Store Day—for the most part, tapes have a bad rep. It’s too bad, really, because if you’re of a certain vintage, there was a time when cassettes meant the world: Some used them to tape songs directly from the radio. Others used them to record bootlegs, to be swapped amongst friends. (And everyone has a friend who claims they discovered DRI after their friend’s older, skateboarding brother passed them a tape. Older brothers, in fact, may be the punkest personality archetype ever.) Others, still, made custom mixtapes of their favourite songs—and endearingly, passed them along to their love interests.

But then, the late ’90s hit. The digital-music revolution—and the ubiquity of neon Panasonic Shockwave CD players with 30-second anti-skip—was in full force, and cassettes (and the pencils we used to service them) were again pushed into obscurity. Accordingly, we’re glad to see the cassettes make a return—check a few iconic cassettes above. Many were supplied by tapedeck.org, who, for the analogue lover in your life, also make cassette-themed tees. Which, in 2014, may be more functional than tapes themselves.