The cassette tape was dominant from the early 1980s until it was overtaken commercially by the compact disc in the early 1990s. NEW YORK – When American pop star Taylor Swift released her re-recorded album 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in an array of physical formats in 2023, Ms Cora Buel knew she had to get the cassette right away. The 48-year-old, who is based in Daly City, California, is a fan of Swift’s music – an affinity she shares with her teenage daughter, who has since bought her mother more tapes as gifts.
One main reason? Ms Buel drives a 1998 BMW Z3, and has no other convenient options for on-the-road album playback. “Just get an old car that plays only cassettes, and you’ll listen every day,” she said. Although Ms Buel might be an extreme proponent of retro design – she works as chief revenue officer at online consignment store ThredUp – the cassette’s return is by now almost as unmistakable as its distinctive hiss and warble.
Dominant in the United States from the early 1980s until it was overtaken commercially by the CD in the early 1990s, the cassette tape has survived as an underground phenomenon, a deliberately anachronistic medium of choice for artists on the noise, avant-garde and lo-fi fringes. But tapes began turning up at the trend-chasing retailer Urban Outfitters as long ago as 2015, the same year that digital streaming first overtook download sales. Nearly a decade later, Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024), sta.