There’s some debate over the exact date of origin, but Philips Electronics maintain it was the 13th of September, 1963 when they formally announced the invention of the cassette type. It was the invention that proved to be the first step towards the portable music formats we take for granted today.

Vinyl fans, of course, will say it was pretty much the worst thing to ever happen to audio fidelity, and they have a pretty good point. Nonetheless, it fundamentally changed the way we listened to music, for better and worse. Here’s some of our fondest memories of the humble analog tape:

Mixtapes

Forget your CD burners and sharable playlists - the amount of painstaking effort that went into creating a mixtape made it the ultimate form of personalised, intimate music sharing. From the mathematically complicated process of ensuring every available second on that blank tape was utilised, to the elaborate artwork and messages that went into the best homemade inlays, nothing has been the same since CD burners became ubiquitous. Just remember the rules:

Rewinding

We all had a love it-hate it affair with the necessity of the rewind and fast-forward functions. OK, so it was mostly hate, but didn’t the song eventually sound so much sweeter when you actually had to wait and work for it? Instant selection is taken for granted these days, and as a result listening habits have changed for the worse. Speaking of which… 

Walkman

The great thing about music in the 90s was that you were basically forced to listen to albums the whole way through, because portability wasn’t quite there yet. Still, it meant we appreciated and made the most out of every single song on a cassette because it was too awkward to do anything else. The Walkman was the first hip, usable portable player, and all without the constant skipping that would define the next generation of CD-based portables.

Talkboy

We hope kids today still watch Home Alone 2 and go “wow, I want one of those amazing recording devices with the extendable microphone”. Seconds later, they’ll probably realise they have access to several devices that do the same thing and much, much more besides. Pfft. They’re missing out. There was also the Talkgirl, the pink and purple alternative - nothing like some good old 1990s political correctness gone mad (eerily similar to 2010s political correctness gone mad).

Double cassette boxes

Do you remember how flimsy your bog-standard tape box was? The double variety, though: now there was a beastly, sturdy holding device. You could almost feel the sheer weight of the musical force dwelling inside. Almost.

Irish aural tapes

They've long since upgraded to CD (possibly even full MP3 at this point), but we fondly remember those good old days when a teacher would need to be constantly rewinding those sample aural exam tapes in class. Ah, such laughs at the classic "Is mise Bart Simpson" section. 

Lo-fi recording

Now, don’t get us wrong here: tapes didn’t exactly lend great albums the depth they deserved. Still, some people took great advantage of the cackly soundscape of the analog format. We’re particularly fond of the Mountain Goats intimate, pared down efforts:

Cassette Store Day

Forget Record Store Day - the annual Cassette Store Day is the most passionate, niche celebration of a retro music delivery system (we are unaware of a MiniDisc Store Day). This year’s event took place last Saturday, with a number of artists - including The Flaming Lips and At The Drive-In - releasing special tapes for sale in stores celebrating the humble cassette. Fair play to them, we say.

Unwound tape

Actually, we don’t miss this at all. Tapes were really a bit awful, weren’t they?