I can still remember back to during the time when me and my brother were in primary school. No DVD’s, no iPads, Nintendo Wiis, Netflix, possibly not even iTunes, Foxtel or laptops even. Just the cathode ray tube TV, the CD/cassette tape recorder, and a clunky old computer that was probably Windows 2000. It was during those days that life was simpler, and we were able to not care that much about all the technological advances that were happening, even during that time. Call it ignorance, or call it just a happy childhood where worry wasn’t an issue, I can remember back to one particular pastime that our family, especially me and my brother, partook in- recording from CD’s and the radio to cassette tapes.

For our whole lives until the year of 2006, our vehicles we rode in only had the technology to withstand tape cassettes. Now I know some of you reading would start to think ‘what in the world does a tape cassette look like?’, but if you google it, you’d probably know how old school me and my family are. Whenever we received a great CD in the mail, or our favourite song came on the radio; we ‘recorded’ it onto the analogue playback tape, so that we could have something to listen to in the car. While this has somewhat become redundant now that iPhones, iPads and Androids could store mp3 data and through leads and cords you can play music from your phone in the car; cassette tapes were a big part of my childhood, and a great way to be exposed to new music during my early high school years pre-2006 when I started to listen to our local Christian radio station, Hope 103.2.

While I can almost guarantee you that cassette tapes don’t exist anymore (just like VCR’s and cathode ray tube TVs…except for those that households have, either within the home or in the garage); the sentiment and act of taping and recording was actually a great way for both myself and my brother to listen to a wide range of music. It was out of that that our love for Christian radio grew, leading to our enjoyment of K-Love and Air 1 and therefore, a wider range of CCM artists. And even if ‘taping’ was one thing of the past that I’m actually glad has been usurped by other methods of listening to music (Spotify, iTunes); it is sentimental. I probably owe a lot to the humble tape, even my taste in music.

What was your mode of listening to music when you were growing up? Were you a ‘hermit’ like myself and my brother, only listening to a handful of artists? Do you ever miss cassette tapes (or even video tapes)? Have you heard that cassette tapes may be making a comeback? What do you reckon of the news? Let us know in the comments.