The man credited as the inventor of the cassette tape has died -
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...e-dies-aged-94
The top comment on that article describes him as an "invisible hero" and that's perfectly apt - one of those people nobody would never know the name of but brought such joy to humanity. Let's share some memories of one of the greatest (and sometimes infuriating) inventions of our generation. In other words, another old man thread!
We weren't well off as kids so my first cassettes were copies other people had made for us - Thriller, Bad, Enya (I loved Orinoco Flow), Kylie Minogue and Bros were the first tapes I remember having. A few years later, an older cousin fancied himself something of a DJ, so he made us a few mixtapes of the big rave/dance hits of the time. We listened to those nonstop. Also had a few double cassette compilations by that time.
Remember sitting with your hand on the record button so you could tape the latest hits off the radio for your own mixtape? We also had a cassette recorder which had a plug in microphone so we had tapes of us spouting whatever random nonsense we could think of - probably commentary of our wrestling figure fights.
Additionally, we had an Amstrad computer growing up and all of the games were on cassette tapes that you'd insert and load that way.
I bought a couple of cassettes in Recordland a few years ago. I don't own a player and don't intend to get one, but a flood of nostalgia hit me once I picked up those beautiful little rectangular boxes. I'm an oldschool soul and love the physical, tactile experience of objects.