I’ve often referred to the Sony Walkman as the first step towards the fall of society. It was the first product that made it easy for someone to walk down the street, enclosed in a impenetrable wall of sound. Now, as technology as progressed all the way up to the smart phone, we’ve reached a place where we use it as a means to isolate ourselves and limit real inter-personal connection. But, enough about that, let’s go back to the Walkman and how cool it was to be able to take a cassette tape and listen to it on the move.
While vinyl records have made a strong comeback for a combination of both their nostalgic/ retro vibe and the fact that they sound better than Mp3s, Cassettes are starting to come back because… well… honestly, I’m not sure. Still, if you’ve got a box of old tapes in the closet, it might be time to pull them out, because The Elbow is making cassettes cool again.
I will say this about the Elbow, it has done something pretty amazing with the idea of the old tape deck. Somehow, they’ve managed to shrink the whole thing down until it is not really anything more than a glorified chip clip. In fact, the new player is so small that they are hoping you’ll be able to wear your cassettes on your person like a fashion accessory. I kind of blame Guardians of The Galaxy for this.
