Don’t Call It a Comeback: Cassettes Have Sounded Lousy for Years (And Still Do!)

For kids who came of age in the 1980s, the 2020s are proving to be the best decade for music since their teens. Synth pop is back. Michael Bolton is back. Even cassettes—the sometimes-dysfunctional format pushed aside by the CD—have made a comeback. But while there’s no denying the visceral thrill of ’80s-style synthesizers or the seductiveness of the decade’s most soulful balladeer, the renewed interest in cassettes has left audio experts puzzled and record-store owners scrambling to figure out a format that some people are too young to remember.

Dismiss