The Cassette Tape: Your Musical Dilemma III

Words and Illustrations by B. E. Sabin | August 1, 2024

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Part Three: Welcome Back: A Guide to Kicking the Digital Out of Your Life a Little Bit More

Oh, I’m so glad you're still reading. That means you have committed to staying human. How weird would it be to be digital? What if we spoke to each other by beeping? Here, let’s try.

“Beep, beep, beep, bloop, blop!” I said.

“Beepy, beeps, boop, beep, beep!” you said. 

See what I mean? That is really difficult to understand.  

Alright, enough of this horsing around, let’s face the facts. In this day and age it’s difficult not to be digital to a certain degree. I’ll admit it, my typewriter is sitting next to me as I write this on a computer. I have a smartphone in my pocket. You know all the items on the digital list because you have them too. But the point is to retain the things in life that are cheapened by the digital and music is one of them. 

Too Much of Anything Is Too Much For Me

Sure, a paper map is fun to look at, but it's a huge pain to use while driving. Guess what's a navigational tool that's easy to use while driving? Your smartphone + a direction app (make sure that you plug in your destination before driving, no crashy crashy, okay?). So there you go, digital scores! Nice work digital, I’m proud of you. Although there is something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about, why do digital audio files/streaming services make it so hard to connect to music?

I’ll explain before I hurt digital’s feelings any more than I already have. Sure Apple Music or Spotify or you name the streaming service, has, for the most part, every song one could ever dream of, which I like…sometimes. This brings us to the first connectivity problem: Too much of anything is too much for me (thank you for the words Mr. Townshend). The over-accessibility of music creates a scatterbrained effect and leaves the listener constantly desiring something else. You might be listening to your favorite song but there are so many options that your connection with that song is constantly being damaged by all of the songs at your fingertips. Think, “Yes, I love this song, but what’s next?” because everything could be next. Your enjoyment decreases as your options go up because your attention is weakened. 

So now that you don’t enjoy your music as much because you have Musical ADD, let’s move on to the synthetic quality of digital music. Digital music is not organic and lacks the imperfect nature of humans. Because of the compressed format of digital music, many human-like qualities are lost and what’s left is a sterile product that resembles a freshly sanitized hospital room. 

Remember our old buddy binary data from the first installment in this series, yes that’s right Mr. 1s and 0s, which is how the audio signal is represented digitally. Well, Mr. 1s and 0s is responsible for your hospital musical experience. Think of digital music this way:

While analog sound recordings look like this:

Analog sound recordings are a grassy hill bathed in sunshine. Now, go get your shovel and dig out a stairway into that grassy hill. All of the organic material that you just stripped away, all of the dirt, grass, and worms, are gone and what remains are digital sound recordings. Sure the grassy hill is still there but much is missing.

Touch Not Too Much

Musical ADD? Check. Music lacking natural harmonics? Check. What’s next? What does your local digital music streaming service have in store for you? How about no physical connection?

Not only has digital music cheapened the sound quality we are listening to it has also taken away a key component of the musical connection, the physical component. Before the digital audio file and music streaming service bonanza, people went to record stores and bought a physical copy (either on vinyl, cassette, or CD, I would recommend both vinyl and cassette) of the music they wanted. 

Picture This: 

You’ve worked hard for your money and instead of paying $10.99 a month for every song in the world, you drive to a music store. The store is most likely in a seedier part of town, but that’s okay, it’s all part of the experience, you gotta have a little danger in your life to really live, right? You leave your car, check over your shoulder just in case, and walk inside the music store. 

The guy at the front is wearing a Dead Kennedys shirt and doesn’t seem to care all that much about you. The store smells like stale cigarette smoke and patchouli oil. You spend the next hour digging through their crates of vinyl records and looking at their wall of cassette tapes. You find a record and a couple of tapes (the tapes cost less, so you reason with yourself that it’s okay to get more than one). You pay $53.46 for the lot. The guy at the front still doesn’t care about you and is also judging your selections, which he doesn’t approve of, but who gives a shit what he thinks, you’ve got new music in your hands. 

The first thing you do when you get back to your car is open one of the tapes that you bought. The cassette is red which is a nice touch. You slide the tape into your cassette player, starting with side A. As the music begins you pull out the J-card (that's what a cassette tape booklet is called because it's shaped like a "J") . It’s slim, with no lyrics included, but the recording information is there and the band members are listed with a picture of the recording studio. Also, there is a list of thank yous that you peruse for familiar names. You put the J-card back in the plastic case and head for home with your new goodies.

And that, my friends, is one way to have a physical experience with music, and it’s a whole lot better than pressing a screen a few times believe me. If you haven’t tried it please do it’s a wonderful experience. 

This Is What Happens Next

Cancel your music streaming service if you need the motivation to go analog. Don’t worry, there are these things called radio stations and they are free. You can get them in your car or purchase a radio for when you’re not behind the wheel. But, you will eventually tire of listening to your local radio stations and will want to have some control over the music you listen to. That’s where cassettes and vinyl come in. But if you don’t need the motivation, go ahead and keep your streaming service if you want to feel scatterbrained and throw $10.99 a month down the drain. As always the choice is up to you.

Go. Cancel now. No hesitation. 

Done? Great. Feels pretty freeing right?

Your next step is getting a cassette player and a record player. A record player is probably going to be easier to find considering the popularity of vinyl far exceeds the popularity of cassette tapes, but both can be found pretty easily at any record store. And if by some horrific chance, you don’t have a record store near you there is always the internet (I’ve linked “cassette player” and “record player” up above to some companies that will help you get started in your endeavor for a relatively inexpensive amount). 

Now that you’ve done the footwork and you have an analog setup at your home and an analog setup for the car all that is left is to visit your local record store or the various online purchasing options (pick the local record store if you can, remember, face your fears, it’s all part of the experience) and get your collection started. 

Great job, you have chosen to be more human and less robot. Let the robots be robots. We are human. We are analog.