TOPS

I wrote the following kidding / not kidding rebuttal to the author of a smug piece about “Our Misplaced Nostalgia For Cassette Tapes” back when the NY Times ran it in December 2015, and, unsurprisingly, never got a reply. It just popped into my head for some reason, and my disdain for these kinds of bullying, no-basis-for-saying-a-goddamn-thing takedowns of innocuous microtrends is evergreen, so figured I’d share it here. If it seems harsh well, it was Christmas, I was visiting my family:

Just making sure you read this response to your piece about tapes –

Let’s All Chill The Fuck Out (And Stop Bashing Cassettes)

Although it lacks your lighter-than-air wit, the assertions in this article are true. The stuff about audio quality is correct for those who care enough to sort it out. And utility is a huge part of why tapes have been and will continue to be niche-relevant for a long time. You didn’t mention the blind, you didn’t mention tapes in prisons. Do you have any idea what I’m talking about? No, of course not. Yes, nostalgia and fashion are at work here but did you really just write a fashion piece? And/or do you really want to be the guy who tells his wife to toss her old mixtapes? That’s monstrous bro.

I’d just add the important detail that 1000s of amazing tape-only releases are currently being sorted by the same diggers who discovered all that amazing, once-unknown vinyl-only stuff that we all know and love. It’s about the content, and there’s no content on minidiscs. That’s the bottom line about the tape revival… It’s not about fashion, it’s about something real. You may see it as a Nelly Furtado tape but it’s really about what’s being discovered. For young people raised on ipods it’s discovering the most delightful physical medium, for us old collectors it’s about discovering what’s out there.