Cassette Tape Cut From Dictionary

October 11, 2011

Who else remembers Sunday evenings listening to the Top Forty with your fingers hovering over the play and record buttons waiting for your favourite song to come on? And then the crushing disappointment as Bruno Brooks talks all over the intro?

It’s time to get a bit wistful as we pause for a few thoughts about the the dear old cassette.

The Oxford English Dictionary has announced it is getting rid of the term “cassette tape” from its Concise Edition, to make room for a number of young thrusting words like ‘re-tweet’ and ‘cyberbullying’. Although not officially pronounced dead, you get the feeling that this is a move to a home with nice nurses from which there is no return.

Of course it would be discourteous to say it in their presence but it was common knowledge that they were a bit rubbish. The sound quality was at best poor (even with the Dolby Digital Stereo button pressed down), you couldn’t skip easily to the next track without  an earful of screechy noises and they had a nasty habit of getting chewed up and ruining car stereos.

You always got the impression they were aware of their flaws and never felt the need to apologise or to pretend otherwise.  Surely that’s something to be respected in a media format.