Cassettes are appealing, at least partially, because listening to them is such an experience. Without the ability to jump tracks, the process of hearing the music is more organic, more personal. The order of the songs becomes more important, as does the craft of making and recording music, when it must be played continuously. Tapes also sound different in each player, and after each play, so listening is a much more individualized process. Nostalgia is also important. As cassettes and cassette players became less popular and more difficult to find, resurrectonists found another medium to revive.

"Once digital media arrive as 'other', as cyborg sound, the analog seems to breathe, however rasping the sound," said Paul Hegarty, famed music critic, in his 2007 essay The Hallucinatory Life of Tape. 

Midnight Davis' 2012 release, Fallout.

While they never really died among the avant-garde and experimental music crowd, cassettes lost mainstream popularity. Sales reached an all-time low in the mid-noughties, though records indicate that sales of both blank cassettes and recordings on cassettes are increasing again. In Rough Trade East, a branch of London’s popular Rough Trade record stores, there’s an entire shelf devoted to new cassette releases. Emerging musicians like Little Dragon, Neon Indian and Toro Y Moi have all released cassettes in the past few years, and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore said he only listens to cassettes in a 2009 interview. Many of the indie record labels release on cassette.  There are also a slew of labels, like American Tapes and Night People, that produce cassettes exclusively.

Neon Indian's Alan Paloma, all caught up.

Despite that they are difficult to find, difficult to use, and will inevitably decay, tapes’ increasing popularity is indicative of people’s drive for tangible items in a digital age. It’s possible that their survival could only happen in the digital age, when the blogosphere and the accessibility of the internet allows everything to survive in niche markets. And while they may never achieve again the popularity they saw in the early 90s, before the prominence of first CDs then MP3s, tapes are an important step in the progression of recordings. 

Do you love the fuzzy backsplash of cassette tapes, or think their resurgence is just nostalgia? Share your thoughts below.