When I was a kid my dad gave me his old Sony reel to reel from when he was in the Army.
For those unfamiliar with the format, a reel to reel is about as literal as it sounds: a large reel of tape is spooled up on a stem on the left side of a machine, and an empty reel waits on the right to wind it up. Between those two is musical bliss. (Or something boring or terrible, I don’t know what reels you had. Also, why did you have reels? Did you know my dad?)
In 1963, the Phillips corporation set out to minimize this concept, and the cassette tape was born. By the 1980’s they were all the rage, but by the 90’s CDs had obviated them…or so it seemed. Modern moments have resurrected old ways. Like any nostalgia product, eventually tapes were back on the rise, and then two things happened:
Virtually nobody was making them anymore.
The pandemic gave indie bands a need to get their physical media out as cheaply as possible.
Enter - National Audio. When the demand presented itself, they were one of the only names left in the game. In fact, that brick building across from Founder’s Park is the largest cassette manufacturer in the world, producing around 30 million tapes per year, roughly 95% of all cassette tapes in the western hemisphere alone.
As these things go, the demand became a fashion, and some major players got involved.
If you’re a Swiftie or a Little Monster and you’ve got those tapes, they made them here. If you're a Marvel nerd and absolutely had to have a Guardians of The Galaxy mixtape, here too. But also, if you were/are an indie band in the last five years that found cassette tapes to be the most economical way to get music in your fans hands, Springfield, Missouri, is where that tape was taped! Turns out, our little hamlet is the lynchpin of an entire physical media movement. Neat, right?
That’s it for this week. Just a bunch of fun facts. Next week will have music. I promise.
