What's behind the cassette renaissance

Listen to found cassette tapes from around the world

A growing catalog collects tapes discovered in Barcelona, New York, and other locations, featuring digitized audio for easy listening alongside any accompanying visuals or notes. Some audio fragments include voice memos and mixtapes as well.

A 'boombox' is the cool term for a Portable Radio Cassette Recorder

The technology debuted in the mid-1960s, revolutionizing portability of recording radio and playing music. As urban culture, especially hip hop, took advantage of the innovation, the "boombox" was born. See a gallery of old boomboxes and learn their history.

Although no longer the dominant format, CDs are increasingly popular with younger people

The compact disc now only accounts for about 3% of all music industry revenue, but those who still purchase CDs are, generally, much younger than most would expect. A 2023 YouGov poll found that 53% of Americans were willing to pay for music on CDs. When broken down by generation, those under 45-years-old were more likely to express interest in CDs and vinyl.

The first compact cassette tape was introduced at IFA 1963

At IFA 1963 in Berlin, Philips introduced the compact cassette tape. This new standardized audio format replaced bulky reel-to-reel tape and would go on to dominate home recording and music listening for decades.

Inside a company making millions on retro, refurbished technology

Retrospekt is one of the many companies flipping old, fan-favorite technology like Polaroids, cassette tapes, and Tamagotchis. Studies show that nostalgia can make people spend money and is one of the driving forces behind the demand for second-hand gadgets.

Inside the rise of focus music

Any casual YouTube or Spotify user has likely stumbled upon a playlist called "lo-fi beats to study and relax to" while searching for new music. Those "lo-fi beats" actually represent a growing genre of music called "focus music." Spotify, for instance. saw a 50% increase in listening time for focus playlists in its 2023 Wrapped report. This article explains why productivity tunes are on an upswing right now. Read it here.

Daniel Johnston's home recordings have inspired countless rock legends

The singer-songwriter self-released cassettes in the early '80s that were not fit for the radio—their sound quality was poor, and the songs were often little more than an organ and Johnston's high-pitched voice, singing about things like Casper the Friendly Ghost. The tapes eventually found their way to alternative tastemakers, who lauded the songs' brilliance and inspired a cult following that has admired Johnston's music for decades.

Consumers are buying more books now than they were 20 years ago

Interest in reading spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued building since then. The romance and fantasy genres in particular have been especially popular, with titles celebrated on BookTok, a wing of TikTok dedicated to reading, spurring the craze.

How hearing protection became cool

In recent years, the WHO shared research findings that over 1 billion teens and young people face risks of hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices. While earplugs used to hold a reputation for being uncool, this article explores how awareness has led to more people fashioning different types of hearing protection. Explore the growing trend of earplugs at raves, concerts, and other loud events.

Some critics argue bebop and free jazz led to jazz's decline in popularity

Although jazz was once a popular art form, it has largely been confined to the margins of pop culture, with many of the genre's current bestselling albums from previous decades. Some critics argue that this is because the music betrayed its position as dance music and focused instead on musical proficiency.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

How the cicada entered popular music

For significant swaths of the country, cicadas are a calming summer soundtrack. In the past few decades, though, the insects' distinct sound have also entered the music world, providing drone and ambience for a range of musicians.

How 'Nevermind' realigned the music industry

Nirvana's breakout album inspired other major labels to hunt for similarly loud, countercultural bands. That led to a fascinating period in popular music that found defiantly anticommercial indie acts like the Melvins, the Butthole Surfers, and Ween (among many, many others) suddenly offered lucrative contracts.

The most popular drum sound of the 1980s was discovered by accident

You know it when you hear it: the distinct snare drum of songs like Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" or Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA." It's called "gated reverb," and it's something most people associate, for better or worse, with the sound of the '80s. This Vox explainer breaks down how it was discovered by accident, thanks to a microphone typically used for communication that picked up additional sounds.

One podcast professional believes the format needs a new name

In the past few years, the podcast has moved from a purely audio-driven medium to one that doesn’t appear all that different from a television talkshow. Audio engineer Dennis Funk proposes renaming the classic podcast—an artful audio documentary—to distinguish it from the junk posing as the genuine article.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples

Hip-hop music began with the looping of popular breakbeats, but it evolved with DJs and producers learning to chop and flip samples from obscure records and turn them into rap classics. This video illustrates how sampling evolved through the music's five-plus decades.

Coachella fashion repurposes looks from Woodstock

Coachella attendees’ flower-forward fashion sense has been widely replicated (and lampooned) since the festival became a mainstay of the cultural calendar. This podcast, featuring a panel of style writers and music reporters, traces the aesthetic back to the 1969 Woodstock festival. In the process, they also look to untangle why festivalgoers fall into certain styles—and what that means for Coachella and its attendees.

The ‘90s saw a resurgence of the girl group

The ‘90s saw a resurgence of the girl group, with acts like TLC, the Spice Girls, and Destiny’s Child turning the model on its head. While still strongly influenced by the ‘50s and ‘60s girl groups, these acts also worked in hip-hop and dance music. Most significantly, they emphasized female empowerment—or “girl power”—rather than adolescent yearning.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Exploring a new generation's search for religion

Amid the historical trend toward secularization, young people still search for religion. Lamorna Ash wrote a book on this revival of interest in faith and spirituality, exploring the importance of community and identity in religious conversion. Listen to her experiences and investigations in this podcast.

Psychedelic drugs are having a scientific renaissance

After decades of repression, psychedelic research is making a resurgence. Hear from a host of experts in this 20-minute video on what that could mean for the future of mental health. The current science on psychedelics believes LSD can cause a particular brain network to quiet or deactivate.

Is streaming the new novel?

Ever since the rise of “prestige television” in the early 2000s, critics and viewers alike have argued that TV has replaced the novel by becoming the most significant storytelling medium, citing the cultural importance of shows like “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” and “Succession.” This essay notes that streaming has strengthened that argument, turning episodes into chapters, and explains why this has been bad for storytelling in both forms.

The fitness industry has seen a lot of fads—and Peloton might be one of them

Like SoulCycle and Tae Bo, Peloton has struggled to stay at the forefront of the fitness industry. Despite periods of incredibly high interest and high-profile users (like the Obamas), Peloton has lost many users since the pandemic ended—and has struggled to add more. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

The "reminiscence bump" causes memories from adolescence to last

Research shows that the "reminiscence bump" phenomenon, which applies to memories formed between the ages of 10 and 30, contributes to songs from those ages triggering the most intense nostalgia. This may be due to biological and hormonal changes enhancing memory effectiveness during adolescence.

What killed the Disney Renaissance

Disney aficionados consider the late 1980s and 1990s to be the Disney Renaissance, a period that found the House of Mouse returning to its roots: animated musicals aimed at children and their families. This in-depth video essay argues that the end of the company’s most popular period was caused by shortsighted business decisions and changing technologies.

The unexpected return of the steakhouse

Although the 2010s and early 2020s saw fewer people eating red meat, the momentum has now swung in the opposite direction, with vegetarian spots closing and hip new restaurants slinging beef. Food writer Bettina Makalintal makes sense of the sudden shift by unpacking the steakhouse's resurgence.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

The Beats autobiographical impulse is still influential

The Beats autobiographical approach to literature is seen in contemporary autofiction. While autofiction emerged as a literary term in the 1970s, its philosophy has several antecedents, including Colette’s Claudine novels, Marcel Proust’s "In Search of Lost Time" and Beat writer Jack Kerouac’s "On the Road."

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.