The Surprising Popularity of Cassettes and Walkmans
Hello WNVM-ers!
This week, Cheryl reports on how cassettes and old Walkmans are having a resurgence among young people craving a different connection to music and a desire to just slow down. (Ironically, her digital recording of an interview with one of her sources somehow vaporized between the interview and trying to upload it onto her computer. Thanks for chatting twice, Jack!) It was super fun to report, and we hope it brings back some experiential memories of making mixtapes and needing a pencil in your glove compartment at all times, lest disaster strike.
Then, Fawnia’s still on the nepo babies of Gen X icons beat, and tells you how to cop designer cast-offs from Kate Moss, Natasha Lyonne, and more X-er style legends.
Come On, Feel the Noise
Young people are craving the whirring of a Walkman in their hands and the hiss of a tape rewinding. What on earth is happening?
By Cheryl
Jack Worley, a 24-year-old graduate student in western Kentucky, sometimes brings his vintage Sony Walkman, complete with orange foam headphones, to his office at school. It stops his older professors dead in their tracks.
“Every single time they would be like, ‘Is that a real Walkman?!’” says Worley. “You would just completely catch them off guard. It’s very interesting to see an older generation kind of revert to that sense of childlike wonder again.”
This describes how I felt when I found listings for refurbished Walkmans at Urban Outfitters this past spring. But the initial wonderment was followed by, “Who the hell is buying these?” Haha, silly me! We are in the middle of a cassette renaissance.
In 2022, when “Stranger Things” season 4 dropped, the storyline of Max (Sadie Sink) wearing her Walkman and playing Kate Bush’s 1985 song, “Running Up That Hill,” dominated pop culture. Along with Bush’s earworm hitting one billion streams, it also prompted a run on Walkmans.
“We had probably three months of inventory sold out within a week. It was remarkable,” says Adam Fuerst, a co-owner of Retrospekt, the company that provides the refurbished cassette players for UO, and also sells them, along with its own new personal tape players, retro cameras, and other old tech, on its site. Retrospekt went from having one part-time person working on its cassette player business in 2021 to needing three full-time people now.
The resurgence of this lo-fi audio medium has been growing for years and can be attributed to a few big pop culture placements and an economic environment ripe for lower-cost tapes. But if you dig a little deeper, there are charming, moving, and even bittersweet reasons for the returning popularity of tapes.
There is a ton of analysis about why younger generations have co-opted so much of Gen X’s nostalgia: stress over the economy, the mental health crisis, climate disasters, everything being online. It’s poignant to me that they are longing for a time when things were slower, and music and movies had a tangible component.
I don’t remember anyone my age in the ‘80s and ‘90s ever pining for the culture and technology of older generations. Maybe after Grease, although for me that was mainly about Bad Sandy’s leather jacket. There was that very weird Swingers era in the ‘90s when people were into swing dancing, cosplaying in zoot suits, and listening to Squirrel Nut Zippers, but mostly we embraced new tech with gusto. But I have a lot of empathy for those wanting to slow things down, as I’m starting to feel left behind and fatigued by new apps and tech, too.
The Rediscovery of Tapes
“There are so many kids that have ‘90s and even some early-2000s vehicles that still have cassette decks in them. It's a new concept to them, and it’s fucking cool,” says Justin Johnson, 38, the co-owner of Darkside Records in Poughkeepsie, NY. “So they're coming in and they're starting cassette collections.” In his store, he estimates that the biggest consumer group buying tapes is 18-to-25 year olds.
Worley had his cassette spark moment during Guardians of the Galaxy. The Star-Lord/Peter Quill character (Chris Pratt) treasured a Walkman given to him by his mother. It features prominently in the opening sequence of the 2014 movie, a funny anachronism amid a futuristic, bleak landscape.
Worley also recalls his parents talking about the glory days of tapes and their travails. “Something about that process and that practice of caring for your music and stuff just really interested me,” he says.
As a grad student in history, he has to listen to a lot of old recordings on tape. He also likes to play around with mechanical things. All of this, plus a love of ‘90s alternative indie music, like the Cranberries, led him to cassettes. He bought a Walkman for $30 from Facebook Marketplace and later picked up a shoebox cassette player/recorder from a thrift store. The Walkman didn’t work, but he talks about it in an almost reverent way.
“It wanted to work, because you could hear that whirring inside,” Worley says, describing it as a “pulse.”
Worley sent it to Retrospekt for repairs and, for about $139, got back a working machine along with “computer lab headphones, you know, with the slide-y strands of metal.” The excessive sound bleed via the foam ear pads is a plus to him; he likes the fact that he can still hear his music when he slings them around his neck, just like he’s seen in movies. (And yes, he’s already had to use the pencil winding trick.)
For Brooklynite Patrick Adams, 44, his recent obsession with tapes has a nostalgic component. He was in bands when he was younger and he remembers recording practices on cassette in the ‘90s. He has dabbled in vinyl collecting and had his lightning strike moment about six months ago.
“I went to a cool record shop that had a little wall of cassette tapes, and I was like, ‘Man, these things are so rad.’ I love the size of them,” he says. His love of ‘90s music has led him to enjoy the scavenger hunt aspect, which “really gets my dopamine up.”
The Economics of Tapes
Vinyl has been popular for years, but there was a production slowdown during the pandemic. It takes months to press LPs, but cassettes can roll out within a few weeks. Tape sales since then have been increasing, as indie bands sell them at merch tables and bigger artists produce larger quantities, which fans buy as collectors’ items to support their faves.
Physical sales matter to artists. Taylor Swift sold 21,500 copies of her “Tortured Poets Society” tape in one week. And Mariah Carey is releasing the umpteenth version of her 1994 Christmas blockbuster (and my least favorite holiday song, sorry), “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” as a cassingle. (H/t Drinks With Broads) Blur said, per Bloomberg, that “3,000 cassette sales of their latest album had a bigger impact on chart position than tens of millions of Spotify streams.”
For music fans, cassettes are cheaper than vinyl. Johnson notes that tape sales have been steadily increasing at his shop for the last decade as vinyl prices have become more egregious. It can cost $25 to $40 for a single record, and $50 for Chappell Roan’s newest double LP. He says record companies are “literally squeezing kids out of the format.” Year-to-date, his shop has sold about 3,000 tapes, new and used, plus a lot of blank cassettes.
Adams has bought about 60 vintage cassettes, trying not to spend more than $20 per tape. Worley mostly bargain hunts for oldies, but his most expensive purchase was a $40 original factory-wrapped cassette of the Cardigans’ 1995 album, “Life,” which he purchased from Discogs, a music database and marketplace.
“The used cassette market isn't enough to sustain the demand for this,” says Johnson. “The volume of new cassettes coming out is getting better, but it's still not where I would hope it to be.”
The volume of available ways to play tapes has increased, however. Johnson estimates he sells about 15 to 25 entry level $43 Jensen personal tape players a month, and he is always looking for used larger cassette decks to sell since demand is high. Brands like We Are Rewind ($169) and FiiO ($99.99) offer more contemporary-styled personal players. Retrospekt sells its own new cassette players for $99, and has partnered with Koss on better quality retro-looking headphones.
Adams knows the audio quality of tapes is — let’s be real here — crappy, but he likes the nostalgic “warmth” of the sound. It was a bit of a journey to figure out what to play them on, and he went on a “blackout of just trying to buy everything,” including a space-age clear box player from Ninm Labs. But nothing beats an original Sony Walkman (it stopped making them in 2010) to some purists. Adams tried some of the new faux Walkmans, but after spending time on blogs and forums, he was convinced that “there's a quality to a Sony Walkman that has just never been replicated.” He bought a refurbished one from Retrospekt and loves it.
The Emotion of Tapes
The Wall Street Journal recently poked a bit of fun at young people embracing tapes and not knowing how to use the machines, but this annoys Fuerst.
“These new generations are inheriting all these advances that we've made, but they don't know why it's beneficial to them,” he says. “They're seeing some of the consequences of these advances in technology, and they have the right to say, ‘Wait a minute, I don't want all this stuff in one place.’”
Tapes appeal to Worley because they don’t have the planned obsolescence of things like printers and cellphones. They also don’t give him the decision fatigue he gets from having unlimited options, a common refrain on threads like this one.
“I have entire catalogs of music to choose from on Spotify or YouTube, and it just shackles you with such a sense of indecisiveness,” he says, noting that he listens to five or 10 seconds of a song and just keeps scrolling.
Now, he brings only five tapes with him, and he likes being “forced” to listen all the way through. It’s given him an appreciation for the lost art of the album, listening to all the songs in connection to each other with no skips. “The lack of choice has become very freeing and has allowed me to appreciate what I'm listening to so much more,” he says.
And, of course, there is the hallowed mixtape experience, a thing I don’t miss, now that Apple Music knows I’d like a playlist with REO Speedwagon, the Xanadu soundtrack, and My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult on it. Remember sitting by the radio with a cassette recorder trying to catch a song? It was a real adrenaline rush when you pressed the record button just in time to get the beginning without any DJ nonsense on it. Worley has enjoyed the meditative aspect of timing songs correctly to fit the tape and using the physical buttons to make mixes.
Adams also appreciates rediscovering full albums, and has taken to gamifying the experience for himself. “Something that I had thought was, ‘Well, if I'm going to get this Walkman, I'm going to go for walks and play a cassette from front to back.” He clips the Walkman to his belt, strolls, and then documents thoughts on Instagram. He’s recently been delighted to discover old albums from the Lemonheads and Blur this way. His fiancé, who’s in her early 30s, is getting into tapes, too.
Tapes aren’t the only retro tech in vogue now. Portable CD players are on the upswing, as are CRT TV/VCR combos. But here’s what’s really the next hottest thing, according to Fuerst: old-school alarm clocks.
This tracks for Worley, who used to have a Lenovo smart clock. When it started to glitch, he picked up a classic, fake wood-paneled, red LED display clock radio at a yard sale. The best part? It has a built-in cassette player.
We are two Gen X journalists who analyze all the '80s and '90s nostalgia in current pop culture, fashion, and beauty. Read more stories like this one here!
You Oughta Know
There is a lot of Dirty Dancing news (!) this week. First off, Lionsgate is staging a new Broadway musical version of the film to debut in late 2025. We can expect some of the OG songs as well as new ones. Eleanor Bergstein, the movie’s original writer, is on board, and Lonny Price, who played “the little bossman” — aka the smarmy Neil — in the original will direct. Then, Jennifer Grey gave an update on the movie sequel (that no one asked for and that we have extremely mixed feelings about but will obviously see anyway), whose 2024 premiere was delayed by the writers’ strike. She said, “I’m just waiting for them to really nail it down, as it has to be right.” It’s going to take place in the Catskills of the 1990s, and the director promises the movie’s longtime, rabid fans (hello, hi, it’s Cheryl): “We will not ruin your childhood.” How this will work without Patrick Swayze, we cannot even contemplate. [The Hollywood Reporter, Variety]
So much nepo baby news this week! Neneh Cherry, who just released her memoir, also unveils her first cover shoot with daughter, and singer-songwriter Mabel for Elle. She’s followed in her mother’s footsteps, with a platinum selling debut album in 2019, and winning a Brit Award in 2020. Next up, Paris Brosnan, son of Pierce — “Remington Steele” and the fifth James Bond (and Fawnia’s favorite after Roger Moore, because she’s Gen X, OK?) — fronts the AW24 campaign for Parisian streetwear label, Pas Une Marque (translation: Not a Brand). Fittingly, the Chateau Marmont-themed and -shot campaign takes inspiration from “the rebellious spirit of ‘90s Hollywood,” per the press release. Finally, at the star-studded Academy Museum Gala over the weekend, Cindy Crawford’s döppelgänger daughter, and model/actor in her own right, Kaia Gerber channeled Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady in an empire waist gown from Alexander McQueen's fall 1997 haute couture collection for Givenchy. “I have always been inspired by Audrey Hepburn, and I love that this was Lee McQueen’s darker, gothic version of the very classic ‘My Fair Lady’ dress,” the Saturday Night actor tells Vogue. [Neneh Cherry’s Instagram/WNVM Inbox/Vogue’s Instagram]
Vintage and second-hand designer aficionados, time to raid the closets of Gen X fashion and screen icons. Yesterday, The RealReal launched their second annual Celebrity Closet sale featuring 230+ luxury pieces from the personal wardrobes of style and culture luminaries, including X-ers, Parker Posey, Veronica Webb, and Marisa Tomei. Kate Moss Marie Kondo-ed her wardrobe to consign a marigold two-piece pant suit from the Spring 2020 Marc Jacobs runway, Natasha Lyonne is parting with a Comme by Comme des Garçons bubble dress, and Julianne Moore unloaded a white trench coat by The Row. Prices range from $50 to $3,350, and TRR will donate $25K to benefit sale partner and environmental organization, Conservation International. [WNVM Inbox]
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I have been with my husband since 1988, and I still have the mixtape he made me in college. “Just Some Stuff 4 U” is one of my prized possessions. But I’m not buying all new cassette tapes. Been there, done that. You can’t make me buy stirrup pants again either.
I am all for the analog music experience. At my "country home" I have a 5-cd stereo only, no spotify, no streaming hook-up, and I LOVE it. I spend about 5 minutes every morning selecting the day's tunes from a very small CD collection and I love the experience of opening the jewel cases, plopping it in, hitting disc skip, and then finally playing. And I listen to the 5 CDs all day long, top to bottom, over and over again. There's something really therapeutic about the whole exercise and not having to *decide* every hour what you're going to listen to.