ASPACEINSPACE

Mass produced in the early 60s as a part of global music culture, the cassette tape has become a significant tool started by the phonographic industry that we undoubtedly have been attached to, especially us children of the 80s, when these cassette tapes had achieved its peak.

Thanks to Dutch electronics giant Philips that perfected the design of the cassette tapes in the 60s. A design that was praised for its capability of providing portable entertainment in a market that was once dominated by vinyl Long Playing Albums.

Recording songs back then with the aid of a blank cassette tape was a labor of love, from choices on the play list which we called "mix tape", to the timing of each song. Breaking the tabs to save content from erasure and cleaning the tape heads to ensure smooth playing became rituals observed with zealous regularity.

Lately, it is disheartening to note that sooner the 60 and 90 reels would be fading at the influx of MP3s and downloads. As I went through a heap of my cassette tapes last week - actually my babies for the past two decades - I was lulled by the thought of seeing these recording tools, one day, only in museums. My attachment for the cassette tapes brought back memories of learning what a 60 and a 90 are, and how to put reels end to end again with a scotch tape to restore part of what was chewed by the tape deck, a segment partly rendered kaput.

Forty years after global cassette production, reaching its peak of popularity in the 80s, its golden era, sales are reportedly in terminal decline.

I remembered New York music writer Joel Keller lamenting that personal computers have killed the mix tape star, and that the "drag and burn" method of creating compilation CDs is simply "less fun." I could picture out myself in Keller's assessment: "I liked it when I sat in front of my stereo, my tape deck, deciding on the fly which songs to put in what order," he said.

"My play and record fingers got a little sore because I had to time it right. Listening to the song as it played, finding the levels - it seemed like more of a labor of love than it do CDs now," he said. There is already an ominous cloud signaling the folding up of magnetic tape factories. Bidding "byersssss" to production! There are fears that even if cassettes are wanted in the future, there will no longer be anything to wrap around the spools.

But this is fading reel-ity indeed. The cassette tape's reign will soon be over, to give way to a modified form of storage device.

Good thing that while we now slowly bid our byerrrrrs to the cassette tapes facing erasure, terms such as fast forward, rewind, record and pause - everyday words bequeathed to us from the tape era - ensure that in the English vocabulary at least, the legacy of the cassette tape will survive. For your reactions, comments, suggestions and contributions, crank up my addy: [email protected].