The Music Cassette as a Cult Medium Between Children's Audio Plays and Black Metal

In this digital age, when music can be copied losslessly as often as desired or streamed indefinitely over the Internet, the music cassette actually seems like a relic from a bygone era. Of course, with its wear-and-tear analog magnetic tapes, the music cassette has long since been unable to keep up technically. But the bare technology is only one factor.

How cool was the Walkman when it came out? Leave the house, pop in a cassette, and enter another world. Finally, you could listen to music on the go! That wasn't possible before. The iPod was simply the logical continuation into the digital age.

With the MC, music could finally be recorded from the radio, easily copied from other MCs or LPs, compiled according to your own wishes (mixtapes!), and exchanged at low cost. The personalized mixtape in particular was a declaration of love for one's own musical taste and was also often given as a gift to the beloved. The blank paper inlay was just begging to be filled with creativity. Of course, young people were especially into mixing, swapping, and copying. Sure, copying meant some loss of quality, but who cared? Just having the option was a huge leap forward. For artists, it was the first time they could record and share their own music without a record label. For many small bands at the time, this was the starting signal to become really big. So the MC brought about many small revolutions.

The CD, as the first digital mass-market medium, later replaced the music cassette, and the internet, with its digital distribution, dealt the final blow to the MC. Nevertheless, the MC is back! Not on a large scale, and more as a marginal phenomenon, but it is back. Why is that?

It's certainly a bit like the LP, which never completely disappeared, but has also experienced a resurgence. However, the arguments in favor of the LP and its raison d'être do not apply to the MC. On the one hand, the LP is said to have a warmer sound than harsh digital media. Secondly, the huge record cover allows music to be experienced in a visual dimension. The music cassette may sound warmer to many ears, but at the same time, the recordings struggle with inherent background noise and sometimes other disturbances. From a nostalgic point of view, this has its charm, but from a technical point of view, it is of course rubbish from today's perspective.

Nevertheless, music cassettes are still being bought and used. Yes, but by whom, for heaven's sake? The simple answer: mainly by fans of niche music scenes and by parents for their children. Children's audio plays are still released on cassette today, just as many Black, Death, Doom, and Thrash Metal bands reinforce their underground status by making their music available on cassette, or even exclusively (!!!) on cassette. The audience for the MC medium could hardly be more diverse.

In between, in the small cassette jungle: indie labels, tiresome underground rappers, Punk bands, and (un)trendy pop stars like Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift. Especially for the younger generation, who grew up without music cassettes, they are a gateway out of digital arbitrariness. The trend was also fueled by retro-romantic series such as Stranger Things, in which cassettes play a key role in the plot. Some, however, have always been there: Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax have released every album on music cassette to date.

An MC is cheaper to produce than a CD or even an LP. This is naturally reflected in the final prices, which range between €10 and €15 per album. There is no cheaper way to purchase music on a physical medium.

While an LP is considered classy, venerable, and cool, the trash factor of the cassette cannot be denied. However, what both have in common is the impossibility of conveniently skipping to the next song. Modern deceleration, in other words, in an old guise. And a counter-movement to soulless streaming and calculating algorithms that tell you what to listen to next.

A music cassette is almost ideal for the car, as it can be changed almost blindly and simply thrown into the glove compartment. Nothing breaks. Classic cars often have cassette decks installed as standard, and there are many of them on our roads. So here we have another target group. Unlike CDs, they perform their service there with proverbial steadfastness. Potholes can't harm cassettes. Cassettes had the longest afterlife in cars.

Anyone in Metal who values themselves and their own legacy would be best advised to skip the LP (just kidding) and release their back catalog as a collector's edition on MC. This is what happened with Amon Amarth, Emperor, Immortal, Cannibal Corpse, Warbringer, Marduk, Destruction, and now, most recently, Dark Tranquillity. And since most limited-edition MC collector's editions are often sold out after a short time, they are also ideal as an investment that increases in value.

But back to the basics: Why do music cassettes play such an important role in Black, Death, Thrash, and Doom metal? On the one hand, this is due to historical reasons, but it also stems from the scene's self-image.

Black Metal combines a DIY ethos ("true," raw, anti-commercial), often low production costs, and intentional lo-fi aesthetics. In addition, cassettes have been a scene tradition since the 80s/90s. Old school Death Metal and Grindcore also have a long tradition of tape-based recordings. The early scenes were heavily based on tape trading. The same applies to old school Thrash and Teutonic Thrash. The MC also fits well with the leisurely hypnotic Doom Metal and provides an intimate listening experience.

In short: the rawer, more underground, and DIY-oriented the Metal genre is, the more important the music cassette is. It sounds funny, but it's true: Black Metal is the No. 1 cassette genre in Metal. The cassette serves as proof of authenticity, so to speak.

For musicians who feel like outsiders, a cassette tape is a good fit anyway, underlining their anti-mainstream mentality. This is probably why, along with the low production costs, cassette tapes are still big and popular in Extreme Metal and Punk.

For many small underground labels such as Nuclear War Now!, Iron Bonehead, or Supreme Chaos, the MC is part of the norm. They supply small MC editions in a market that revolves mainly around cult. The label Darkness Shall Rise can be described as specialists in the loving compilation of MC box sets, having already released limited edition MC box sets for greats such as Destruction, Marduk, and Venom.

The fact that the sound quality of music cassettes is inferior to that of other media is seen by enthusiasts as an advantage. The "dirty" sound and slight noise are equated with conscious listening, romanticized as a stylistic element, or perceived as pleasantly cozy.

Each time an MC is played, its quality deteriorates imperceptibly but permanently. This is normal wear and tear. The ravages of time also gnaw away at the magnetic tape day in, day out. But perhaps it is precisely this decay that reminds us that, although everything digital is theoretically imperishable, this principle is incompatible with our own lives. The transience of analog music on a music cassette is certainly more in keeping with the concept of earthly life, which follows the same path. And perhaps this also makes us appreciate it more: life. And music.