Pause, stop, rewind Pushed into oblivion by the technology revolution, audio cassettes are now nostalgic memories

Pause, stop, rewind

Pushed into oblivion by the technology revolution, audio cassettes are now nostalgic memories

In a multi-language film Lucky, sharing the lead along with the actors, a South African AIDS orphan and an old woman, is a compact audio cassette. For the boy, the only remembrance of his mother is her lullaby recorded in the casse tte. In the end, as the lullaby from the cassette fills the air, the old woman rocks the boy to sleep on her lap. And, he gets a new mother.

Building bonds is nothing new to the no-frills audio cassettes. And, playing cupid? It comes so easily. In Dil to Pagal Hai, when Pooja is still undecided about expressing her love for Rahul, magic happens in the form of her recorded message. And, the love story ends on a happy note.

Fond memories

Caught in a world of e-sounds and the paraphernalia of i-pods, MP3s and CDs, audio cassettes are now a thing of a past.

But for music lovers, listening to audio cassettes is a different trip down memory lane. Call it old world charm or nostalgia, they love it. For young music director Dharan, the first thing that comes to his mind at the mention of cassettes is Pudhu Vellai Mazhai from Roja. “What an extraordinary composition. After Roja, I don’t remember listening to any songs on cassettes,” he adds.

Along with Dharan’s collection of some 1,000 audio cassettes of old English country songs, classical, jazz, blues, and the Bee Gees of the 70s and 80s, there are a whole lot of cassettes with tunes he composed and recorded on a Sony tape recorder in his school days. “Though I have transferred all the music to CDs, listening to my raw compositions on cassettes is a different experience,” he says.

Music lovers say the fading out act of cassettes was gradual. But, in the last three years, it has been drastic. “Today, the takers are just a handful of the older generation and homemakers who find it difficult to handle sophisticated hi-fi music players,” says DJ Paramesh. And, they usually go in for the devotional and Carnatic music, the S uprabatham and the Vishnu Sahasranamam by M.S. Subbulakshmi.

Silent exit

The availability of CD players and CDs at throwaway prices has contributed to the silent exit of cassettes. “Even a movie CD comes at Rs.20. If the audio cassette of Azhagiya Tamil Magan costs Rs. 45, the CD is just Rs. 95. Better sound quality and shelf life are the other pluses,” Paramesh adds. According to music dealers, the cassette market was at its peak in the 80s. Audio recording companies such as HMV (His Master’s Voice), Music India Limited (now Universal Music) and T-series revolutionised the trend of quality cassettes at cheaper prices, paved the way for healthy competition and extraordinary combination collections.

“Mudhal Mariyaadhai, Payanangal Mudivathillai, Udhaya Geetham, the best of K.J. Yesudas, romantic hits of SPB…all from music maestro Ilayaraaja’s Echo Recording Company used to sell like hot cakes. In Hindi, we had Qurbani, Ek Duje Ke Liye, Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Lata Mangeshkar hits, four-cassette packs of Mohammed Rafi, all doing roaring business,” recalls Paramesh.

It is MP3s that has become a rage now, says S. Ramalingam, partner of Music Gallery. “The trend of buying a tape recorder is out. They go in for DVDs which double-up as CD players,” he adds.

Arrival of CDs

DJ Karthik says CDs took centre stage in the 90s with the arrival of A.R. Rahman and his genre of music. “Magnasound went in for a tie-up with Warner Bros and promoted music CDs extensively. Pyramid Audios also went in for CDs for movies such as Gentleman and Indian. But then, you had to shell out a minimum of Rs. 400 to get a CD. Now, things are different, you get music even free of cost on the Net.” Talking of audio sales, Paramesh says technology has killed the trend. “A decade ago, when the audio of Rajinikanth’s Muthu was released, we sold 100 cassettes on the very first day. But, achieving such numbers even in CDs is difficult today, because songs are immediately uploaded on the Internet,” he adds.

Romantic

But, there are still those who hold cassettes sent as a messenger of love close to their hearts. “Thirty years ago, recording messages in between the duets of P.B. Sreenivas and P. Susheela was considered the most romantic thing to do,” says Paramesh.