The Rise and Fall of Cassette Tapes
Music has been around since the down of time. Sounds creating rhythm, beats, emotions, and much more, have been the ultimate bridge between societies and cultures for thousands of years. But the Cassette was about to change the worlds view of music. The Cassette was first developed by the Philips company in 1962 in Belgium. Philips released the invention to Europe at the Berlin Radio Show on August 30, 1963. The invention was released in the United States in November of next year 1964.
With music being so universal and listened to all around the world many individuals tended to drift towards the music arena. During the times of the cassette from 1962 to 1990s music equipment was quite expensive. The cassette gave anyone with aspirations to create music on their own instead of paying for expensive recording booths and engineers. Along with the monstrous size of the reel-to-reel and the requirement of training which only left professionals to really use the reel-to-reel. The cassette was the newest revolutionary item being made and many believed that this was the future. Any newest artist that could attain a microphone and a radio to record advocated heavily on this item. Along with creating your own individual music to play for your loved ones. One could also carry their favorite tracks from the new hottest music artist. But another company really helped the cassette bloom into the invention it was meant to be.
A product extension of the cassette tape was called a Walkman. Sonny’s Walkman was compatible and made for cassette tapes. This device allowed all demographics of individuals the ability to listen to their favorite music on the go. The Walkman was a housing piece for cassette along with carrying a battery and a headphone jack. This was the executioner of the original vinyl along with the reel-to-reel system. Vinyl’s were the hottest commodity up until the cassette was invented. They could only do half the things of a cassette. They both produced music but vinyl’s main factor of decline was not able to take it on the move. The cassettes building process and materials consist of easily available resources. The outer casing is just a plastic molding that encompasses the magnetic reel-to-reel tape that the music resides in. A reel-to-reel is a spool of the magnetic tape which if transferred over to the other spool moving it across an electrical signal which, entails music to play. When music is played through a Walkman the electrical signal runs through the cords of a headset to the ears of the listener allowing to jam and groove to their next destination! 
With this huge boom of cassette tapes there would soon be a downfall to a new and better invention. After “its peak in the 1980s the cassette was quickly surpassed in the 90’ by compact disc (CD) sales”(Katty Sommerfeld). Just as the vinyl and the reel-to-reel recording system the cassette tape was a thing of the past almost nonexistent. With the CD it had newer and better features than the cassette which is why the switch was so prominent. As of today, cassettes are on the rise again. They are gaining some attraction due to the customization of each Walkman with special designs and colors another ushing factor is that people see it as a fashion statement. Taking a step back to the past when times were a bit simpler.
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