Joining the Retro Revival: Cassette Tapes

Cassette tapes are starting to catch some of the retro, nostalgic shine of vinyl records, spurring one manufacturer in Japan to bring back personal Walkman-type players. Younger Japanese music lovers are driving this trend, Nikkei Asia writes, despite many being born well after tapes were eclipsed by CDs, and later digital music. "A cassette tape is for when I want to listen to music carefully," a college student visiting a Tower Records in Tokyo tells the magazine. He said he appreciates the "warm, unique" sound that tapes deliver, and visits the store weekly to see what's in stock. While brick-and-mortar record stores and analog music are a throwback to a bygone era in today's streaming economy, such new collectors are creating ripples in the music industry.

"We've had to designate a corner in the store for the tapes," Atsuko Fukumoto, an employee at Jimbocho Tacto music store, tells Vice. He says interest has picked up in recent years, especially from people in their 20s and 30s. "I think the effort of rewinding reels to listen to music, and the tapes' retro-futuristic quality, are refreshing to some," he says. While those stories focus on Japan, Forbes previously reported on a similar surge in America and the UK. In the US, for example, sales of cassette albums rose 20% to 440,000 in 2022, up more than 100,000 from the previous year. Along with the sound quality, nostalgia, and the more purposeful focus that comes with listening to analog music, some observe that purchasing a tangible object makes a difference to the streaming generation.

"Cassettes are something you can own and feel attached to. For the younger generation, they are novel, and for those who used them before, they evoke nostalgia about their early days of listening to music," says Taro Tsunoda, who operates indie shop Waltz in Tokyo. VICE also attributes some of the interest to TikTok, where Showa-era culture—a period when Western trends influenced fashion and technology in the country through the late '80s—has become cool. This has prompted bands to release songs on cassettes, and manufacturer Toshiba Lifestyle to bring back a sleeker version of an '80s portable cassette player, the Walky. "Famous modern musicians are making cassette tapes for resale," says Miyuki Katamine of Maxell, the country's last tape maker. (More cassette tape stories.)