Music Trend | Technology | Ep. 01 | Audio Cassettes
Remember the times when both the sides of your pencil were useful. The tip of the pencil to write; obviously and the other end to do this:
But why are you reading about audio cassettes in 2016? More so, why am I even writing about it? In this series of posts I'll be talking about (rather writing about) various music trends and fads that existed/exists around us. Ever since I was born, medium of music consumption and playback has changed drastically. This will be a three-post series where I'll be talking about change in technology trends in Music.
Years before I was born, television was a rarity in average Indian household. Major form of entertainment was All India Radio (AIR). Lives back then revolved around the schedule of AIR instead of the other way round. Today, we can easily record our favourite movies and television series so that we can watch it over and over at our leisure. Back in those days, our parents had that record button too. Songs were recorded on these very audio cassettes so that they wouldn't have to wait for their favourite songs from movies like Aradhana and Bobby to be aired again on AIR. I never actually got a chance to listen to music on AIR. My earliest memory of listening to songs is from the movie Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! followed by Baazigar. These two along with DDLJ were biggest blockbusters for music industry in the 90s. Each of these albums sold around 10-20 million audio cassettes.
Bollywood music fanfare was at its peak in 90s. I have seen people dedicating their entire shelf just to showcase their cassette collection. Here's a glimpse of one of them:
One audio cassette has just one album. It is natural for people to not like all the songs in a album. But then that's what you got. If you liked just two out of the five song album, you still had to pay ₹10 (approx. US ¢15 at current exchange rate) for the entire album. People wished they just had to pay ₹4 for the two songs they liked. Now, that was guaranteed successful business idea. Audio cassette sellers started creating mix-tapes.
What's a mix-tape?
It's ancient form of music playlist of your favourite songs.
How did they do that?
A few lines back I told you about the record button. That's how they did it. They recorded popular songs from various movies in a blank audio cassette and sold them.
As if so much awesomeness was not too much too handle, there came a revolutionary device that made people listen to music not just at home or in car but practically anywhere they went. Enter : The Portable Cassette Player a.k.a. Walkman (a new superhero in the music industry)
I owned one of these as kid. Though I don't remember which cassettes I used to play in it. The only fond memory I have is the way I loved to show off my Walkman to my friends when we used to go to school picnics. Why just school picnics? Because technological devices were not allowed in schools unlike today. The struggles with Walkman I had to face looking back at the convenience we have now were pretty gruesome:
1. I never owned any mixtapes which means I had individual cassettes for each album. Obviously, I did not like all songs. Say I liked song #2, I had to press through fast-forward button, make a judgement, stop it, listen and repeat until I got to my desired song. The struggle was worse if it was song #6. A regular cassette had an average of 4-5 songs in Side A and the remainder on Side B which means song #6 was on the other side. Once I finished song #2 I had to fast-forward again to the end of Side A so that I can start the other side from the beginning.
2. I started the post with fun things we used to do with pencil and cassettes. Well, this fun had an evil side too. Take a look
We all know the struggle of trying to squeeze back the magnetic tape into the cassette ensuring that it doesn't break. It was no less than defusing a bomb.
3. This, to some extent, is still prevalent today. Sharing one side of the earphones so that your friend can listen to the same music too. Back then there was no concept of noise cancellation, bass boost, surround sound. All that mattered was, "Are you able to hear it?"
Audio cassettes slowly found their place in the history books of Indian music with the change of millennium. The kids of 90s were the last generation to experience the final form of analog music. If you are still in your teens, you probably don't know what I am talking. All I have to say to you is - Watch this Video.
That is all I have for this post in the series. I hope you liked it. If you did then feel free to share it. Let me know if you ever owned a Walkman or did you have a mixtape or if you have any suggestions/feedback - in the comments below. Until then, Ciao...!
If you liked this episode do check out my previous episode about Compact Discs:
YouTube Discovery Series:
Music Review | Azhar | Pritam, Amaal Mallik, DJ Chetas
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