This Half-Century Old Audio Format Is Back from the Dead. Here’s Why.

The Gear Patrol Podcast Episode Sixteen – Listen Now

By Gear Patrol

Published May 27, 2021

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Updated February 8, 2023

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The Gear Patrol Podcast is our weekly roundtable discussion focused on products, their stories, and the culture surrounding them.

In this episode, we discuss the renewed popularity of cassette tapes. Cassettes–those plastic cartridges you sometimes rewound with a pencil eraser–were eventually overcome by the popularity of CDs in the mid ’90s. But maybe you’ve noticed, and possibly been confused by, the recent Cassette Renaissance. It’s not just indie bands driving the surge, either. Even megastars like Taylor Swift are launching their albums on cassettes.

Cassettes are officially back.

But why is an outmoded media format surging into the mainstream again? And furthermore, how would you even go about playing a tape these days? Senior Staff Writer Tucker Bowe answers those questions and more. Tucker recently did a deep-dive into researching the Cassette Boom for a story in the latest Gear Patrol Magazine issue, and there’s a lot more to the movement that nostalgia alone.