Maxell and Verbatim. Sony if you really splurged.

The cassette tape was a popular music media in the 1970s and 1980s. but the original compact cassette tape wasn’t exactly designed to play music.

That’s just one fascinating fact you can learn more about as I share the history and evolution of the original compact cassette to the music cassette in this week’s video.

The Phillips company set a standard for portability in tape design that would help lead to worldwide acceptance of the tape. Digital technology ended the reign of cassettes, but shared part of the original name. The compact cassette was replaced by the compact disc.

While the heyday of the cassette peaked in the 1980s, many auto manufacturers still had cassette players as part of the vehicle’s audio system a decade later. Some makes and models offered cassette and compact disc combinations.

There are a lot of cassettes still being played or waiting to be played again. In case you’re wondering if the cassette is dead, the answer is, no. While it’s not the resurgence we’re seeing with vinyl records, you can still buy cassettes and player/recorders.