All language subtitles for Cassette - A Documentary Mixtape (2016).eng [FHD BluRay 1080p x265 AAC]

- [Varying speakers]
- Test, test, test.

- It says you push
that button there.

[Overlapping chatter]

What should we say?

- Test, test, a, b, c, d, e, f...

- So you guys are all
supposed to talk real loud...

- Come on,
somebody say something.

- Using a tape recorder
can be a big bother.

- Speak into
the microphone, please.

- As simple as

or even easier than
playing a record.

- Slowly turn the dial

to its full tone range.

[Overlapping chatter]

- We reinvented tape recording.

- Tune to this radio station...

- You will not
hear true reproduction

on any high bias cassette,
not the first play.

- It's not just a cassette,

it's a little music machine
that delivers the best sound.

- But after 1,000 plays,

can the same cassette
still shatter a glass?

[Overlapping chatter]

- So tell me, do you love me?

- Oh, god, this is he",

I'm in a living hell, the worst
night of my life yesterday.

[Overlapping chatter]

- They get chewed
up and worn out,

they were abandoned
in the digital age.

- To the naked eye, a
compact disc looks like silver.

- Compact disks
are now the format

of choice, with the sales
figures to prove it.

- I think we might
be seeing the end

of the cassette within
the next few years.

[Upbeat rock music]

J” be working, people mind

I be well to pretend
you're losing me

j” with me

j” with me

j” with me

[audience applauds]

- Tape day, what
the hell is that?

[Lively rock music]

[Birds chirp]

[Phone rings]

I tried to call you a while ago.

We haven't seen each other in a while.

It's just, I didn't recognize the number,
so I had no idea who was calling.

How young are you now?

I'm 88.

Then you are a year older than I am.

I'll turn 87 in November.

And how's your health? Good?

I'm not complaining.

I can't complain, except I'm getting older.

But I've got other things
on my mind this week.

I have an American who is visiting me,

he is doing a film about the cassette.

Oh, that's nice, about the little cassette?

We should never have
released that thing for free.

Well, then it wouldn't have been a success.

Yes, correct.

The first walkman, they
sold a damn lot of them.

Yeah, but we did too.

Yes, and cd's too.

Frans, thanks for the
call, I'll call you back.

It's a deal.

Thanks, have a good one.

All the best Lou.

[Slow electronic music]

- It probably
begins at the moment

that we introduced the cassette.

A year after our introduction,

there came a lot of
imitations in Japan,

and then we said,
"well, gentlemen,

"if you want to
imitate our cassette,

"you'd better make a standard,

"because without a standard,
it gets a mess over it

"in the whole world, “
and that worked,

that's the reason that it didn't
become obsolete too early,

but it's taken 50 years to die.

[Slow electronic music]

- [Woman] Alright,
I think we're rolling.

[Overlapping chatter]

- [Woman] You
press record first.

- [Woman] Our first
song is, I like this song.

- [Man] Live and direct,
funky fresh for '93.

[Upbeat punk music]

- [Woman] Right, Bob?

[People cheer]

- The music industry
has changed radically

in our lifetime, and with it
has changed the value of music,

now it's just this thing
that you just download,

so you're listening
to something served

to you from some cloud,
something out in the ether,

but you can't touch it, so
what stays the same is analog.

It always sounds
good to the ear,

and it's what's left of
humanity meeting music.

The farther away I feel,
the closer you get

the farther away I feel.

J” I can't get in

j” and I can't get out

[slow guitar music]

- [Man] The digital realm
is not moving parts,

it's its own thing, it's
fantastic for what it is,

but I don't really, I am
not inspired by it at all.

It's like, film's better
than, like, you know,

digital recording, no offense,
what are you recording on?

- Where do you think I'd
be without the cassette?

That's how sub
pop discovered me,

you know, here was the cassette,

you could send it to somebody,

you know, you could
put music on it,

you could record
your voice on it,

you could record
anything you want on it.

- These are just the
tapes that were, like,

on top of my boom
box, just, it's,

Dante Gabriel rossetti
has a sonnet that begins,

"a sonnet is a moment's
monument," and that's funny,

'cause like, a sonnet
doesn't do that for me,

I love sonnets, but cassettes
are what do that for me.

[Slow guitar music]

- [Woman] I think objects
become obsolete

when we have figured out what we
consider better ways to do something,

it's a hard question,
though, because what is better?

- Young trees here,
I think it's a birch,

but there's quite a
lot, it's a plague.

It's not easy.

- [Grossman] We live in a time

where things are
becoming obsolete faster

than perhaps ever before,
there's always a newer,

better version, whereas
not so many years ago,

the value of something
was how well it was going

to hold up against the clock.

[Slow electronic music]

- When your time has gone,
eh, it's time to disappear.

Is there better
products than cassette,

well, then you stop, I
don't believe in eternity,

that's the basic thing.

[Slow electronic music]

The craziest thing,
it's not yet over, huh.

No, all, there are still
all those crazy people

that are working
with cassettes, hmm?

[Slow electronic music]

Now it's nostalgia,
more or less,

people prefer a worse
quality of sound

out of nostalgia.

[Upbeat electronic music]

- Oh, yeah, there they are,

so when we first did our
tapes seven years ago

or eight years ago,
people just said,

"why, why are you doing
that, I don't have anything

"to play it on, do you not want
me to listen to your music?"

I think they probably thought
it was some strange art

project that probably
wouldn't last very long,

but it turns out it's probably
the most dedicated cause

that I've ever
focused on in my life.

[Laid back electronic music]

- I got three copies, one
to stock, one to rock,

and one to swap, having
multiple copies is

what it's all about, you know?

I really love
this, look at this,

you can't read the credits
on the back of an mp3,

you know, those are
things that are kind

of lost today, you know,
with this push button,

you know, fast paced world.

J” hit the ground
faster than you want to

j” hit the gas, you
can only live to die

j” straight away, hits
you like a roadblock

j” straight away,
fearing you're a loser

j” play it safe, something's
got it turned on

j” save face, it's
not going around you

- yeah, I'll work for
the camera, okay, ah,

this is for you, baby.

- As far as, like,
cassettes coming back,

a lot of people
don't understand it.

I usually just tell them, "hey,
we've sold 100,000 cassettes

"in the last five years,"
and they're like, "really?"

And I say, "yeah."

- But who's counting?
- Me.

[Laid back rock music]

- I think from an older
crowd, you get this,

like, "what, you have tapes?"

You know, they think
it's kind of funny.

It seems like this
thing that you kind

of thought had gone away, and
it's cool to see it reemerge.

[Slow electronic music]

- [Lou] So, yeah,
I have a picture

of my 25 years of service

in the company, when I got
offered a ceramic plate.

This is the man
who is responsible

for the whole mechanism
of the cassette recorder,

he's deceased already,
this is lucien devogelaere,

he's still alive
and kicking, yeah.

- [Interviewer] You're not
a nostalgic person, are you?

- I'm not, no, no.

Everything I'm
nostalgic about is the,

the people I have been
able to work with,

that's a fine kind of nostalgia.

Here is a photo of
an enormous cassette,

I think it's about six
feet high or something.

- [Interviewer] And where
is that cassette right now?

- I made it in pieces
and threw it away,

I'm sorry, but it's,

it's the past.

[Slow rock music]

- [Man] This is a recording,

if you will be kind
enough to leave a message,

including your name
and phone number,

we will return your call
as soon as we get back.

- [Woman] We just wanted
to wish you a happy new year,

I'll talk to you in 1991.

- [Woman] I heard you
weren't feeling good,

daddy says, what's a matter?

If you would have told me,

I would have made
you a pot of soup.

[Overlapping chatter]

- [Man this tape was actually
made 15 years ago today,

it was a beautiful late
summer day, I can tell you

what chair I was sitting
in when I made the tape,

I can tell you what the
afternoon light was coming

through the window
when I was making it,

I can tell you what it was like

to walk around
charlottesville, Virginia,

I walked down sunset
road extended,

I walked through the woods,
I stopped at the taco bell,

you know, for a snack, I
can retrace all the steps,

they are part of
listening to this music,

these songs and this mix,
it's saving that day,

that moment, it's
different because I put

that music onto that
piece of plastic.

It changes the music,
it changes the day

and, you know,
that' just one tape,

and as you can see here,
there are a bunch of them.

[Upbeat electronic music]

- Damn, what's there, damn,
that's an old ad spine.

Yeah, I love this stuff,
at one point I had,

like, 15 bucks as
like, a fourth grader,

and you're like, "whoa," and
I went to peoples drugstore

where they had the
cassettes and like,

the guns or whatever,
you know, like,

behind the glass box, they had
some factory made cassettes,

and the woman was
like, "can I help you?"

I was like, and I was
scared, I was like,

"uh, I want, I want that
one," and I just pointed

at the live grand funk railroad
double cassette, you know,

package, and the other day
I actually heard something

from that record,
I was like, "ah!"

- [Man] My earliest experience

with hearing recorded hip
hop wasn't rapper's delight,

it was actually a cassette of.

J” flash is on the
beat box, going

j” flash is on the
beat box, going, and

like, if you knew that
cassette, if you owned it,

if you knew it by
heart, then you were,

you weren'tjust, like, "oh,
I like this new rap thing,"

like, it was like, oh,
you were really down.

[Upbeat synth music]

- You make intermittent
trips to New York,

and it was like, you know, like,

some kids, you know,
some kids would go

to get drugs and some
kids would go to find

and meet girls or
get comic books,

and it would be like, I'm
going to get a mixtape,

and it was like,
I've got the new,

I've got like, 10 new kid Capri,
Ron g, whoever mixtape,

and it was like
the dopest thing ever.

J” as you listen to my
voice and the way I produce

j” make you want to feel
just like busting loose

j” as you float across the
ocean you may feel my drift

j” but you never, ever
heard me rhyme like this

- we were able to
record our shows,

record parties, you
know, people were able

to go back and say, "yo,
remember this party?"

"Huh, what party,"
press play, "oh!"

Are y'all ready now once
again, mixtape king, Ron g.

J” I'm on a roll, y'all

j” I'm in control, y'all

j” it's just that rock is
a part of my soul, y'all

j” I'm a roll, I'm in control

- without cassettes, people
wouldn't have the memory

of last night,
you gotta think about that.

- Probably the first time
that I might put music

to a piece of medium
was with a cassette,

I think the song was
called infected pastrami,

yeah, "run real fast,
run to your mommy,

"here it comes after
you, infected pastrami,"

or some terrible shit like that,

I mean, I think I was 16 or 15,

and it was done on
a cassette player.

- Little nervous, oh,
wait, there it goes.

I think I was 16, 16 or 17.

[Upbeat punk music]

That's me singing.

[Upbeat punk music]

J” let me die

let me die?

No, wow.

J”no

what's going on
with me? [Laughs]

J”no

it was a pretty good
example of my background,

compared to what I do
now, that's like, where I,

totally where I
came from [laughs].

[Laid back electronic music]

- [Man in about 1979, my sister
and I were up in Connecticut,

she said, "hey,
do you want to go

"to new haven to
see the ramones?"

And there was this
friend of my sister's

and this guy who
was kind of punky,

and I think he's European,

something about him seemed
a little European, he said,

"let's listen to some
music," and he put on a tape.

[Upbeat punk music]

It was decorated, that
the tape was decorated.

[Upbeat punk music]

I put the tape in and the
song by one band would play

and then a song by
another band would play,

and then a third song by
a third band would play,

this blew my mind.

[Upbeat punk music]

It was as if I was
being schooled in a way

that I had never
been schooled before

about the possibilities
of a medium.

[Upbeat punk music]

- [Grandma Carl]
- This is grandma Carl,

how are you today, sweetheart?

I decided that maybe it was
time to make you another tape,

and the first part of
this tape will be music.

J” I love you, Nanna, I do

j” I hope you love
me, 'cause I love you

[overlapping chatter]

[Slow guitar music]

- [Grossman] I think the
definition of nostalgia is

from the Greek for "going home,"

but for me, nostalgia is

a sort of wistful way

of thinking about
something that happened,

something that mattered in a way

that's sort of both
painful and pleasurable.

This is the hasselt factory.

There's the car of the
top manager, that was I,

it's a black citroen [chuckles].

- [Interviewer] Is
that the building

where the cassette was invented?

- [Lou] Yeah, 'cause
we built this in 1960,

brand new laboratory.

- [Interviewer] So when did
they close that hasselt branch?

- [Lou] Maybe 10 years ago.

[Slow guitar music]

- [Man] The cassettes are
time travel, right?

If, forever, like, god
forbid the day would come

that like, I don't
remember the secret stars

or I don't remember
the raincoats

or I don't remember the softies,

I'll be able to, like, go
through a shoebox of these tapes

and go, like, "yep,
this, I remember this,

"I will not forget this."

These moments that would
otherwise be, like,

lost in time, like,
tears in rain.

[Slow guitar music]

- We are on our way.

[Slow guitar music]

These guys asked for a meeting.

These eindhoven guys.

- [Interviewer] And each
of those guys played a role

in the cassette?

- Yeah,

the people who really
did the developments

are mostly dead.

[Slow guitar music]

It's really happening, huh?

Pukkelpop, two years
ago there was a storm

and the whole thing collapsed,
I'm afraid it's the same

with sort of [mumbles].

- [Interviewer] Did they have
this when you were younger?

- No.

Absolutely not.

[Slow rock music]

- [Interviewer] How would
you describe the music

that comes out on burger?

- It's just, it's
just flavorful, juicy,

good time rock and
roll and beyond,

it's not just rock
and roll, I mean,

it's punk and funk and
rock, whatever, man,

crunk, hip hop...

- We've crunked
it up a few times.

- [Lee] Yeah, there's things
that I don't even know

what you'd call them,
it's just music.

- We want to open people's minds

to different kinds
of music, and like,

show them that Britney
Spears is punk,

and like, change their
minds about the Bee Gees,

and, on whatever format
floats their boat,

some people love cassettes,

and that's like their
thing, you know?

- [Interviewer] Okay,
whenever you're ready.

- Well, on my far right is

Mr. Lucien devogelaere,

who did, in the
'60s, the planning

of the whole
development operation,

the next is Willy leenders,

in recent years he has
been occupied a lot

with the history of the,

of the factory,

and at my side is
Hugo vananderoye,

he was in charge of the
industrial design for the cassette.

- And we exactly started
to with this one, you...

- [Lou] Yeah.

- I don't...
- [Lou] When?

- One year. [Speaking
foreign language] - [Lou] 63.

- 52?
- [Lou]63.

- 63.

- [Hugo] The first
presentation of the...

- '63.

I have a lot of drawings
with me, are you interesting?

[Slow electronic music]

Model number 9146.

Ag 9146.

I know them all.

[Upbeat electronic music]

I'm glad I have that one,

that thing did well.

What?

That thing did well.

And ottens says:

Yesterday I was fidgeting
with that damn reel-to-reel.

We have to think of something else.

He said, we must make it more compact,

which you can carry around easily,

and the tape spools
have to be in the cassette.

That's how it started.

And the idea came from Lou.

The legend that came from this,

which of course is not
very flattering for Lou,

is that the cassette was born

from the clumsiness of a very clever man.

[Group laughs]

We should write that down sometime.

[Upbeat electronic music]

- The black tape is some
type of a high bias,

this particular tape is,

it should smell bad, it should
smell like carbon black.

We got a shipment one time,

and everybody who
walked back here talked

about how bad this area smelled,

and it was just good
tape that came in

and it had a
powerful odor to it,

and the whole room
smelled like good tape.

- Audio cassettes came on
in the early '705 for us,

the ampex representative
came in one day

with the first audio
cassette I'd ever seen,

and he showed me
that and he said,

"this is gonna be a really
big thing in the future,"

and I looked at it, and
with my normal foresight,

I said, "no, it
won't, that's a toy,

"nobody's gonna want that,

"it looks like it
should go in a doll."

- [Mumbles] In the '605, I
think Philips developed it,

before that, tape recordings
were reel to reel stuff,

I remember my father
giving me a little one,

but it was a mess, man.

[Tape fast forwards]

- [Lou] Problem is tapes
were not consumer friendly,

it was not foolproof.

We more or less are all fools.

I also, I'm a fool

when I use equipment.

- [Man] This is a
reel of recording tape.

For years, people have
been threading it,

spilling it, tangling with
it, and sometimes breaking it.

This is the compact
cassette, up to 90 minutes

of tape you don't
have to tangle with.

It won't break or spill
or get on your nerves.

Another nice thing,
it's portable.

[Upbeat synth music]

J” we know you always hear
about the hip and the hop

j” but we got a little
message we want to drop

j” about the babies today

j” it's how to [mumbles]

J” and about to kick back

j” for every day

- [Jared] Hip hop emerges
largely out of New York

that is itself a pan-African
center of the world,

before radio,
before video, a lot

of rap music was
disseminated on mix tapes,

and that became the
lifeline of hip hop.

- Cassettes didn't
play a role in hip hop

in the early days,
cassettes were hip hop.

J” well, it's hdi and
you'd better believe

j” that with the son of
[Mumbles], all it is the e

j” it's guaranteed to be a
sound that you'll all enjoy

j” because you know the prince
of [mumbles] is the real McCoy

j” so sit back while you
listen to the zulu beat

j” and if you feel good enough

- rap music that extended

from the hip hop
culture was being spread

through cassette tapes, and
that's when we had the boxes,

the radio boxes that
we used to carry up

and down all throughout
the inner city,

quote unquote, "the ghetto."

- Bambada, Theodore, flash,
you know, Charlie chase,

all the great early DJs, like,
they're only playing vinyl.

Unless you were there,
the only way you were hearing

that show or that set or
that party was via cassette.

[Percussive drumming]

- [Man] This isn't a high
fidelity audio scene,

and I kind of like
that in a way,

there's something very
punk rock about it,

and there was something
very punk rock

about early hip hop, anyway,
it was really correlative.

- [Rollins] Everyone had one

of those single speaker norelco
rectangular cassette decks,

and you could stand it
up, aim it at your band,

and record something
crazy and play it back,

a portable audio to record
and play opened up minds.

- [Man] Victor, if you're there,

don't pick up yet, I've
got this new song I'd like

to sing for you.

J” I remember that night
in the city gardens

j” where those abandoned
buildings stood around us

j” we were talking about changing

[fades into slow organ music]

- [Woman] I haven't
played in a long time,

and I guess you can
tell, can't you.

J” I call your name

j” can you feel it

in the beginning, people
would record sounds with,

the first words of their
newborn or birds in the forest,

but it only became a true revolution

when people started
making their own music tapes.

Commercially, [Philips]
Wanted us to patent.

Lou said no:

Everyone who wants to make it can,

but we demand a certain
quality and a standard.

When the listener buys a device
in the beginning, they can keep using it.

If he buys a cassette after 10 years,
he can still use that same device.

One device, one
standard, one music carrier.

- [Man] The thing with
unlimited possibilities

for recording and
playing back music.

[Child mumbles]

The spoken word, any
sound, that's why.

- It was all about being
able to sort of do something

that was within your means,
for me to do a record,

it would have cost hundreds
of dollars or something,

you know, and I just did
not have that kind of money.

- [Will] We have the
right act, I should say,

the right type of
person putting music

onto cassette tape is a
perfectly valid choice.

Cassettes are something
that are shared,

that tend to come out of
collectives who are creating music

because they love it,
not because they're kind

of striving for some big
success within music.

[Upbeat rock music]

[Audience cheers]

- [Ball] There's a politic
and a philosophy behind

an interpersonal
exchange in the street,

versus downloading
something online,

there's something
about community there

and there's also something
about the offline,

unsanctioned, outside of
state surveillance exchange

that we're losing.

- There's always been the
idea of the gatekeeper,

the tollbooth, the provider,
you know, the middleman.

You know, the idea of being able

to record your own cassettes,
I think, was very powerful.

- [Woman] I'd like to thank
Warner brothers, capitol,

mgm and rca for letting
this tape be possible.

[Overlapping chatter]

J” you can smile down
with a happy ending

j” to my song

j” I'm done knocking at your door

j” you don't live there anymore

j” is it just a memory

j” or am I a little crazy for you

j” in this whole world,
I just can't believe it

when I was first in Austin
and I had those tapes,

I would, anybody that looked
like they were interested

in music at all, even
the slightest [laughs].

They were cheap, you know, and
I could make copies myself,

and then after it was all over

and I really didn't
have anything left,

you know, I had this
tape of hi, how are you

and I got it published.

[Slow guitar music]

If I hadn't had
the cassette tape,

I'm sure would have been, end
up in the mental hospital,

you know, had gone within
a year or two or something,

or escaped on the
road, or what else,

what other alternatives
do they have, Marge?

- There's no other medium
that we understood,

but the cassette
was the go between

to where you could make music,

'cause you're not gonna go in
a studio, you can't afford it.

What, you bring your gear
in and they record you?

That was like this mountain.

J” it doesn't say

j” but now you see

j” it's different, here we go

- well, the average
citizen can't record an lp,

he could not record
an eight track,

but he could record a cassette,

that's the point right there.

We need to move the drawings,

or we spill on them.

- Now, we expected it
would be a success,

but not a revolution.

[Slow guitar music]

- [Interviewer] Do you remember
the first thing you invented?

As a kid?

- I was, I was always
playing with meccano.

- [Interviewer] What is that?

- [Lou] That's the first
structure building toys.

- [Interviewer] Do you think
you still have those somewhere?

Yeah.

I'll show it.

[Slow guitar music]

[Birds chirp]

[Slow banjo music]

- [Interviewer] When people say

that you invented the
cassette, do you take credit?

- I can take credit for the idea

and a number of ideas in it, but

the advancement, the
electrical designers and the,

the industrial designer,
they have done the work,

I have done nothing special.

- [Man] It's two
o'clock in the morning

and I couldn't get any sleep.

- [Woman] Isn't a friend someone

that loves you and
somebody you love,

somebody you can just tell
anything you want to, to?

[Slow guitar music]

- [Woman] How
about Peter, Peter?

- [Child] Pumpkin eater.

- [Woman] Had a?

- [Child] Wife.

- [Woman] And couldn't?

- [Child] Eat her.
- [Woman] Keep her [laughs].

- [Child] Keep her.

- [Woman] I would
like to let you know

that you have just
heard half of this tape,

I hope you enjoy the
rest and thank you.

- Is [mumbles] okay?

Is that ok?

[Slow guitar music]

[Paper tears]

- This is an article I wrote
about the 50th anniversary

of cassette tapes back in

2013.

"The man who invented
the compact cassette tape

"doesn't remember what was
recorded on the very first one,

"but he does remember
what came next."

Here I was, calling him
up to have this sort

of nostalgic conversation
about the 50th anniversary

of this thing he'd invented
that had changed the world

and I was gonna write this
whole article about it,

and he had a little bit of
that nostalgia for this time

in his life, but he was
totally not nostalgic at all

about the technology that
has sort of gone away.

You know, maybe if
you invented it,

it would seem like it belonged
in that part of your life.

- [Lou] How are you doing?

- [Interviewer] Are you
ready for that, is that okay?

What happens then?

Is this a road movie?

[Door slams]

[Slow electronic music]

I must have the right way,
but maybe somewhat further.

[Slow electronic music]

[Moves into slow piano music]

It's incredible,
the number of types.

[Slow piano music]

[Moves into upbeat piano music]

You put a stack of
cassettes here in,

and then it plays and
transports them back.

And the changer has never
been a big success, I think.

[Slow piano music]

This is the first radio with
a built-in cassette recorder.

[Slow piano music]

- [Interviewer] So that
was the first boombox?

- Yeah, yeah, that
was the first one.

[Slow guitar music]

Normally I'm more interested

in the future than in the past.

[Slow guitar music]

- [Ball] Yeah, I don't know
to what extent any

of this is gonna survive
this move to the digital era.

If not obsolete,
the value will be

in archiving history
and memorabilia,

although it may
become important again

in terms of reviving and
sustaining underground,

unsanctioned communication.

[Upbeat punk music]

J” where the banks
has maybe started

j” and the cops are at the door

j” about the rackets in the yard

j” ask for what [mumbles] he know

j” he know, he know, he know

- [man] If you want a tape, it's
because you want a physical copy,

it's not something that
happens at a touch of a button,

it's something that happens
at a touch of two buttons,

which is record and
play at the same time.

- [Woman] We hadn't put
a record out in three years,

so our label decided
to release our album

on a tape this year.

Cd seems to be a
little more phased out

and the tape is something that,

you know, they're
starting to do more of,

and they said the tape
has been selling more

than anything right now.

[Slow electronic music]

- It's not like
record store day,

where I had actually camp out,

I've camped out 12
hours for records,

but cassette [mumbles]
day, it's not big enough,

it's like the third year or so.

[Radio blares]

Hold on, let me turn this off.

[Slow guitar music]

The ones I got today, I
went by the cover only,

they were just really cool,

they were just
really cool covers.

I grew up with cassettes,
I grew up poor in the Bronx

with an older sister,
just got the hand-me-downs

and we were always a couple
years behind on technology.

Like, I also have an obsession
for zines, records, patches.

It was that or drugs, it
was one of the two things.

[Slow guitar music]

My dad doesn't get
it at all, my mom,

she's like, she
gets it, she's like,

"if you like it, do it,"
but he's not into that,

he's like, "that's stupid."

- [Interviewer] Have
you put out any tapes?

- Oh, yeah.

- [Interviewer]
- What's it called?

- Uh, chopped cheese, it's
a sandwich in the Bronx.

- [Man] Does this increase

in sales mean we're witnessing
a cassette resurrection?

- [Man] Record stores

around the company
are pressing rewind

for the first-ever
cassette store gain.

- Hiya, welcome to the
cassette store day,

if that's why you're
here at rough trade,

if not then, hi, it's
cassette store day.

- [Man] Who out there
is buying cassettes?

It just seems like
something that's trying

to piggyback on the success
of record store day.

- [Interviewer] So who
came up with the idea

of cassette store day?

- Yes, I take
credit for the idea.

- And responsibility.

- And it was a
shit idea, anyway.

[Group laughs]

- [Long] We got a ridiculous
response when we kind

of announced it online,
and the question

that kept coming up was,
"so are cassettes gonna

"overtake cds and
vinyl," it's like...

- No.

- That's not, that's not
the point of the day.

We're not trying
to save the format

to the point where it
becomes this huge thing

and the future goes
completely backwards, like,

it was just to
celebrate the format

that we love and that
we still release on.

- Yeah, and I think lots of
people, including my mother,

probably thinks, "wow,
cassettes, really?"

- [Woman] Here's some good news

for those of you waxing
nostalgic right now,

cassettes have not gone away.

- [Woman] What is it
about audio cassettes

that makes them still
so popular still?

There's something more
than just this idea

that people want to be retro.

- When you make
cassettes, you can catalog

with a moment's
subculture, like,

I can't walk into
a building with,

like, a trench coat
and have vinyl,

but I can have
tapes in my pocket,

tapes in my backpack, and
there's been so many times

where I've just loaded
up tapes in a bag

and headed out to a show,
those are my favorite nights.

[Slow electronic music]

- It's like I'm on
acid, this is so good.

- Do you like tapes,
no, no one likes tapes?

Oh, geez, I'm sorry.

[Upbeat rock music]

- Every artifact might die
with whatever is digital,

you're not gonna go
look in a shoebox

and find all, like,
digital files to look at.

[Slow ambient music]

[Moves into rhythmic
electronic music]

- [Woman] The cassettes I
never can keep in stock,

besides, like, goth and
metal, are hip hop and oldies,

as soon as I put 'em out,
they're gone.

There's just like, all these
bizarre cassettes that I find,

they're like my secret
gems that I don't know how

to display yet [laughs]
"concerto for astronauts,"

who doesn't want this?

Got some sports
rap, up and comers,

a porn soundtrack cassette,
sometimes I've heard,

like, really, really awesome
cassette conversations

between customers
downstairs, like,

one guy goes to this
other guy, he's like,

"how many cassettes
do you have?"

He's like, "oh, at home,
I don't know, like,

"probably, like,
100, 200," he's like,

"huh, I've got
thousands," [laughs]

He was like the cassette lord
and he was in my presence,

it was cool [laughs].

- The profit that
we make from these,

financially, it's
about the profit

that we make from the emotional
value of these things carry.

Hello, just dropping
these cassettes off.

I want to create a
physical, tangible object

that I can share with somebody

and that maybe
they can enjoy some

of the experience that I do
with other people's records.

[Upbeat punk music]

- I started a punk band,
and I made a cassette,

we made them ourselves,
we got the covers printed

across the street
at the copy place,

like, it was a pretty
cheap way to do it all.

I don't think we
have any more left,

we also have the
same thing, just,

like, on a cd, it doesn't sell.

[Upbeat punk music]

- [Woman] You'd think the rise

of streaming audio would mean

that hard copy music formats
would just be, you know, over.

- [Woman] Tapes are
making an unlikely comeback.

- [Man] Tape sales are up
79% from last year's report.

- [Man] Why is it that
cassettes won't stay dead?

- [Woman] We found a
company in Springfield,

Missouri, that in
2014, made more

than 10 million cassette tapes.

[Laid back electronic music]

- [Steve] In 2000, we
saw a downturn, and a lot

of our competitors
started pulling

in their horns, going
out of business,

the companies who built
our equipment are all gone,

and we have to
make our own parts

and be self-sufficient
now, and I think

that's the secret
to our survival.

[Lively electronic music]

- All I wanted was
a job, you know,

and I was, told my
son on the phone

that I found a job, and
he said, "mom," he says,

"that's not gonna
last," he says,

"you need to find
something else."

And I said, "no," I said, "I
really think I'll like this,"

and here it's 11 years later.

[Slow guitar music]

We did books on tape, we
did a lot of gospel tracks,

it's more individuals
now for duplicated tapes,

I listen to the beginning
of it and the end

on both sides and check
for tone in its music,

you know, but it's not
the music I grew up with,

it's not what I'd
call country music.

It might be today's
country music,

but I'm not into
that, so [laughs].

[Upbeat punk music]

- [Interviewer] Who's buying
them, who's buying tapes?

- [Lee] I don't know,
people on the Internet.

- People are the Internet
are buying tapes?

No, mostly it's kids,
I would say,

our age range is probably
from, like, 13, to, no 13?

- [Lee] I mean, I don't know, how do
we know how old people are online?

- I don't know, just
from seeing our fans

and things and people
who come to shows,

maybe, like, 14 to 30, or
something, 15 to 30 or so,

and older and
younger, I don't know.

- [Lee] Kids of all ages,
I don't know, [mumbles].

[Upbeat punk music]

[Moves into slow guitar music]

- [Man] From a commercial
point of view,

it's really very,
very niche, vinyl,

for example, which
everyone talks about,

you'd think, you know,
we were tripping over

for vinyl, the way people
discuss it sometimes,

I think still only
accounts for less than 2%

of the overall recorded
music sales in this country.

Cassette is way below that.

- In terms of what cassettes,
what their place is today,

I don't know, but I make
music for the people,

and that's a boutique item.

- It's the same reason why
people go back to vinyl,

it's like, 'cause it, you know,
'cause it sounds better,

you know, whatever, it's
all 'cause we're unoriginal,

that's why the cassette's
coming back in,

'cause everything
has been done now.

- I think you get it
or you respect it,

or you don't, you know, I've
gotten laughed at and shit,

you know, like, friends
of mine, they're like,

"dude, no, man, that shit
ain't gonna come back,

"why would you even
listen to that shit now?"

- [Man] If somebody
explicitly said,

"you're an idiot for releasing
music on cassette tape,"

then I would say...

Nothing, and I think I
would take my headphones

and I would put them
back on, press play,

and fuck off in the
other direction.

- Sometimes I wonder if
people are just trying

to be difficult, you know,
do cassette releases.

Having said that, I still have
a cassette player in my car,

I have a cdicassette
player, and god forbid,

I mean, if I have
to buy a new one,

I'm gonna be, it's
gonna be a sad day,

'cause they're getting
very hard to find,

and I don't really
see any reason

to put out music on a
format that you can't play.

[Stereo plays softly]

[Reversed music plays softly]

[Lou mumbles]

- This song in the
wrong direction.

It was one of the
very first cassettes.

[Reversed music plays softly]

[Lou chuckles]

After 500 pieces
production, we changed

the...

Track position.

[Reversed music plays softly]

[Lou mumbles]

[Reversed music plays softly]

[Lou laughs]

Well, it's museum piece.

- [Interviewer] Is that the earliest
cassette you think you have?

- Yeah,

that's from one
of the very first.

Discovery, yeah?

[Slow orchestral music]

This is the original
drawing of the cassette.

[Slow reversed opera music]

We started in the
wrong direction,

then you play an old
recording on a new player,

then you get nonsense.

[Reversed opera music]

Antique cassette!
One track runs backwards.

The other track has probably later
been recorded on another deck.

- [Rollins] Let's see if I can
find that cassette for you,

'cause I know I have it
around here somewhere.

I lost the box and the j-card
of this particular cassette,

but, so I had to make a new one,

and it says, it's titled,
"extremely old tape.“

this is my first ever cassette,

and I would make
album tapes with this

by putting the tape recorder
up to my mother's speaker,

"I guess this will sound okay,"

and you hear cars
going by, dogs barking,

you know, I try and play it on
the school bus the next day,

everyone, "god, this sucks."

So this is from, like, 1970
something, so this is tape one.

[Slow guitar music]

[Child mumbles]

[Slow guitar music]

- [Garcia] I still have a
yellow, waterproof walkman.

About two years ago
I was on a train,

I was on at the r-train
with my headphones,

listening, and nobody
paid me no mind,

so I open up my cassette
player, I flip the cassette

and it falls on the
ground on an r-train,

it was like, it was
like I defecated

in the middle of the
car, everybody was like.

- Are these like in the movies?

- [Interviewer] Do you
know what that is used for?

- Walkie-talkie?
- [Buzzer buzzes]

- I have no idea what it is.

- Wait, wait, wait, it's
a cassette player, right?

- Ah, this is a rip off,
because you want to listen,

but you can't, because you
don't have any headphones.

- Hand over the headphones.

- In the 19805, it was like,

"whoa, something
that can play music

"and I can carry it around,
if I have a large pocket."

- It works.

[Slow electronic music]

In '65 we went to Japan

to demonstrate the cassette player.

And [norio] ohga says,
demonstrate your model.

And, and he turned up
the volume, hmm,

loud, as loud as possible,

so then you could hear
the hiss, huh? [Hisses]

[Slow hip hop music]

- First hip hop
radio show is whbi,

people would record that and
then, if your man wanted it,

you were gonna get a
double cassette recorder

and go from one cassette
to another cassette,

and then now he has
that, and he's like,

"yo," his man wants it,
so now he's gonna take

that second generation cassette

and make a copy that
sounds even worse,

so by the time I got
it, now I got like,

a fifth generation copy,
and it's hissed out,

you know, [hisses], it's
like a snake is stuck

in my cassette [hisses].

- Ah, I've got the Craig gs,
I got the cutmaster cs,

oh, I got a Craig g, sneaking
up on your ass part one,

and I got a caselay,
an action packed mixtape,

I mean, I got,
I got joints, I got joints,

I got joints.

Analog is just straight
nasty, it's just,

that's what it is,
and that part I liked of it,

I can hear that all day,
that digital,

that digital sound, that
clearness, I can do without.

Yeah, I gotta do this,
I got a 1988 mixtape,

I gotta play this for you, oh.

[Upbeat hip hop music]

Wow, I got to rewind that,
hold on.

[Upbeat hip hop music]

- Listening to sort of
cassette tape music,

it seems more relative in a
way to the human condition,

because our bodies
are not digital,

we're not robots, and your
body feels different every day

and it goes through
changes and it,

you know, it gets worn down,
the more your body goes over

that tape head of life. [Laughs]

- [Man] Messy, it's
sloppy, it's dirty,

it's marked the way a
human body is marked,

by the space in time
it passes through,

it wears those scars
and those scuffs,

and that becomes part of
why you love the tape.

- [Nelson] When it gets
weird and kind of stretched

and you still want to hear it,
as opposed to a skipping cd,

you don't keep listening
to a skipping cd,

you throw it away.

[Slow ambient music]

- [Interviewer]
- You look thrilled.

- [Lou] And I just
have the edge,

we decided that we would go on

with the idea of
an optical disc.

- [Interviewer] So you had
no sentimental feelings

about the cassette?

- No.

It should never, never hesitate

to use the
possibilities, that's,

that's in our souls, hmm?

[Slow electronic music]

- [Man] Um, yeah, cd is
just the best thing

that's happened to
hi-fi for years.

For the first time,
people can sit at home

and hear a sound very close

to the way we intended
them to hear it.

[Slow electronic music]

- [Mackaye] In 1994,

I think every kid in
america got a cd player,

and I know that because
we released red medicine,

the fugazi record.

I think we decided to
press 25,000, a year later,

I had 14,000 red medicine
cassettes sitting

in a warehouse in Chicago,
14,000 cassettes not selling,

the cds were selling like
hotcakes and cassettes were over.

- [Rollins] Digitization,
if that's a word,

very much cleaned up and
sanitized the world of music.

The warts and all
aspect of music,

here comes the cd,
and all of a sudden,

people will say, "well,
cds sound better,

cause there's no
clicks or pops or hiss."

- [Rothman] When I spoke to Lou
ottens, I got the impression

that, you know, he's an engineer
who spent his life trying

to make the next thing,
and again, make it better

and easier and cheaper and
smaller, and that he did that.

[Slow electronic music]

- They went to cds, and then
they got their flash drives,

and, you know, it
just keeps moving on,

and I read the article in
time about the cassettes,

and the guy said that
he was ready to move on,

the one that invented them,
and he invented the cd,

so he was moving on from that.

[Slow electronic music]

- [Interviewer] What
do you think they like

about the cassette?

- It's,

yeah,

it's kind of familiar to them,

they, you can see what you have.

On the USB stick you can't
say, "well, that's you," no.

A cassette, you have
something in your hand, hmm?

It's emotional.

[Slow guitar music]

- I don't know if
you can see this,

but a buddy of mine, Joe Cole,

was murdered years ago,

these are his tapes, and this
is his handwriting, and he's,

you know, he's gone, but
this is what he left behind.

There's nothing
digital about this,

this was made in
real time, and you,

you don't throw this out,
you take good care of it,

'cause someone took
time out of their life

that they can't get back
to make that tape for you.

[Slow guitar music]

- [Jonathan] Probably the
most boring thing you'll come

across are commercial recordings

that were issued on cassette,

I would much rather
uncover somebody putting

on star wars in the
backyard and recording it

than maybe listen to
an albeit wonderful lp

of the eagles or something.

- [Aaron] No fast, slow fast,

[static] Classical,
slow, fast, slow,

must have some deep
psychological meaning,

I can't think what it is.

- Aaron copland, everyone.

- This is my first
attempt, it says,

"various artists" on
it, and I was really,

I was really trying, just
called "days gone by in DC,"

see, that's like,
sorry, sentimental.

[Slow guitar music]

- [Jurado] You know, if you said,
"do you remember the first time

"you heard the violent femmes?"

Yeah, it was on a mixtape
that a friend gave me.

You know, do you
remember the first time

you heard the butthole surfers?

Yeah, it was on a
mixtape a friend gave me.

I can't tell you how
many countless bands,

black flag, minor threat,
fat boys, Houdini,

all on a mixtape, that
was all on a mixtape.

- [Man] You'd get creative
with your cover,

you'd like, you
know, cut and paste

and like, you could
have your glue stick

and you'd have your
construction paper,

you'd have all your
photos or your whatever,

your heart would be
racing if you're like,

giving it to like, a
girl that you know,

like, you like, "hey,
check this out,"

you know, like,
like, hoping to like,

win her over with my, you know,
my pristine taste in music.

- The mix cd for the girl
you're trying to romance,

the mix cd is like dry
humping a naugahyde couch.

The mix tape where you have
sat there thinking all night,

okay, if I can get this intro
just right on the pause,

I didn't get it,
I didn't get it,

in fact, I ate the
last two seconds

of the last song, which
means I gotta rewind the tape

and grab that song again,
it's four in the morning,

I have to be up at nine, and
I'm still making this mixtape

'cause I really want
this girl to like me.

How do I know this, what, you
think I read this somewhere?

No, I lived those mixtapes, man,

and so the cassette
is one of those things

that's very near and dear to me

on so many levels,
you can't imagine.

[Slow guitar music]

- The first audio
letters I ever did,

I would record them for,
you know, this girl I liked,

and I would leave them,
I'd hide them in places,

you know, like in
her yard or whatever,

and she'd have to
go out and get them.

- You had to be careful
not to put songs

that use the word "love,"
'cause you want it to be,

you know, it's cool and
it's like, "I like you,"

but you don't want to be crazy,

that's like, a very careful
balance you have to strike.

- It starts with thinking
of someone sitting next

to the cassette player and
maybe getting emotional,

or getting in a certain
mood and in that mood,

choosing the music that really
was, made me think of him.

[Slow guitar music]

- [Child] I love you,
my brother loves you,

the whole family
loves you, okay?

- [Man] I know
you can hear this,

I just want to tell you that
you look beautiful tonight,

and I love you, and
I'll be right back, bye.

- [Jonathan] There's
a power of sound

that any recording
captures, but a cassette,

because it just has this
personalized component,

if someone gives you a cassette
that they've made for you,

then you have to
take it seriously,

you can't just throw it away.

- [Woman] I just,
I was listening

to what you weren't saying,

you're the oldest young
person I've ever known.

[Slow guitar music]

- [Woman] Just
try and flip it off,

and she practically says
the whole line by herself.

[Baby laughs]

- [Man] Did you say ich?

- [Child] Lch.

- [Man] Liebe?

- [Child] Liebe.

- [Man] Dich.

- [Man] Well, we still have
one another, it means a lot,

everything means a lot,
every little single thing.'

[slow guitar music]

[Audience cheers]

- You know, it's the potential,

it is what is to be done, what,

you know, here's
the blank cassette,

here's the recording
machine, it's in your hands,

I like that, there isn't
just one way to do it,

one kind of music.

[Slow guitar music]

People tell a little
bit about themselves

by showing you what
they listen to.

- The people who
use it nowadays,

they are special people, mm-hmm,

they have a hobby,
they love that,

they love that cassette,
it's not really

rational, hmm?

It's a rather
irrational activity,

I like that.

[Slow electronic music]

- [Interviewer] What happens
if and when this upswing stops?

- Well, we've been
asking ourselves that

for the last 10 years.

Being told, "you can't do
this, it can't be done anymore,

"this product is obsolete,
nobody wants it,"

and then coming here,

coming to work every day is
an amazingly rewarding thing.

[Slow electronic music]

- [Jilek] If this ended,
then I'll find something else,

but I like this, I
wouldn't want to quit

and go hunt another
job, right now I'm just,

you know, ride it out
and see what happens.

[Upbeat rock music]

- People still
have tape players,

you know, they can go
dust off their boombox,

or, you know, [laughs]
Get in their car

and drive around
and listen to it,

and it just, it feels good.

[Audience applauds]

We have records and
tapes for sale out there

if anybody's interested
in that sort of thing.

- [Evans we got through that
period where tapes might have died,

we're in an era now where
your independent record shops,

you feel very comfortable
to walk in and say,

"where's your, where's
the tape stand,

"where do I get the tapes from?"

I feel like that's here to stay.

- I mean, I don't know what the
future is for cassettes, but

I'm not throwing mine away.

[Slow electronic music]

- A stamping mill, [mumbles],

sports car, you
can do everything,

a dump truck [laughs],
pure nostalgia.

Mechanically we made
not only these examples,

but the idea was, of course,

that you use the
available material

and you make your own design.

It gets a habit,

my whole life I have
realized my hobbies.

If you have a hobby, do
it, and the best source

of happiness is
doing what you like.

[Lively guitar music]

[Audience cheers]

- Start your own band!

[Slow guitar music]

- [Watt] And maybe that's
why punk came around,

because of things, you know,
like the cassette experience,

you could take things
into your own hands,

you could write your own
story, paint our own picture,

write your own poem,
sing your own song,

and you didn't have
to be, you know,

swimming in this,
it could be econo.

- [Ball] Before then, it was
only the cassette.

[Slow organ music]

And if you did not
get the mixtape,

which began on cassette, then
you were not hearing anything,

you were not exposed
to rap music,

so no, it would be nowhere,
it would be nowhere.

[Audience cheers]

- [Jurado] Where do I think
I'd be without the cassette?

Not here,

I wouldn't be here if it
weren't for the cassette,

isn't that wild to think about?

- 100 years from now, and this
is just my wet dream idea,

maybe, like, some guy wants to,

you know, hear the dead
sea scrolls of some thing

and it's like, and
he'd go to this shelf

and go like, "Eureka,
we have found it,"

and all of a sudden the
door of the past opens,

someone's gotta be that pain
in the ass guy who goes,

like, "I'll get a copy of that,"
and shelves and goes like,

and so I'm that
pain in the ass guy,

this is no different
than trainspotting,

but it's got a beat to it.

[Upbeat electronic music]

- There's like,
hundreds of tapes like,

just like, on my
floor, that, you know,

like, I will die
before I have a chance

to listen to them all again,
but it prevents these moments

from dying and keeps them
alive for the future,

if the future wants them.

[Reversed opera music]

[Reversed opera music]

[Moves into slow
electronic music]

- Digital is just kind of like,

it's a hi, how do you do,
it's almost disingenuous,

like, "here, take my
cd-r," you take my cd-r.

- I can't work or
write or anything,

or focus when I'm listening
to music digitally,

because I'm like, oh, I
should skip this song,

oh, this song reminds me of
another song I want to hear,

I should make a
new playlist just

for the playlist
that I'm listening

to while I'm making
the next playlist,

you know, it's like, cigarettes.

[Slow electronic music]

- That's a selfie.

- [Interviewer] Who
taught you about selfies?

- Nobody, I just read it,

it exists.

[Slow electronic music]

- I should do it,
like, every week,

just randomly just drop a
cassette on a train car.

Actually, do me a favor,
watch this documentary

and then go on a train
and drop a cassette

by accident and see how
people react [laughs].

- Listening to a Justin
Timberlake record was only

on cassette, only,

man, you got an
entire generation

of young girls and young
boys, more girls,

going out and buying
and looking for walkmans

or cassette players,

that would be insane.

Justin, if you're listening,

you could make history [laughs].

- [Interviewer]
- It's got a speaker.

- [Lou] A speaker?

- Uh-huh, it records audio.

[Lou laughs]

- That's crazy.
- Yeah.

- Absolutely crazy.

[Slow electronic music]

- [Woman] Well,
that's the end of this film.

Signing off,

this has been Eric's films
production company incorporated.

- [Child] 13 goblins
jump up and down,

13 witches yelling
for some food,

13 giants yelling for some food

and 13 witches
yelling for some food,

13 goblins messing
with your head,

13 goblins messing up the bed,

13 goblins yelling.

[Lively opera music]

- [Woman] When grammy
was a little girl,

my mommy used to sing
me this little song

so I could remember my abcs.

[Slow gospel music]

J'a, b, c, d, e, f, g

j”h, I, j, k, I, m, n, o, p

j'q, r, sandt, u, v

j”w, and x, y, z

[upbeat gospel music]

Now, could you do
that with grammy?

Try it again. You sing
with me this time, okay?