Time to rewind some nostalgia: Cassette tapes turn 50!

Even as you are reading this, one of your kids might jump to your bed holding a rectangular shaped object full of reels inside, and ask you what it was!

How many of us remember the days when we used to insert the reel tape into the audio player and listen to the songs or even record one?

Doesn't feel too long but then now, with more and more modern techniques like the DVD player and the MP3 player, there is room no more for these cassettes. It has literally turned into an object that would confuse teenagers worldwide.

The beloved instrument of the music lovers of the 80s turns 50 and might soon be a thing of the past. And hence it's not quite shocking as it turns 50 years.
These audio cassette were the inception of engineers at Philips. Though its precise birthday is open to debates, Philips is insistent that the format was officially launched at its Amsterdam HQ on September 13th, 1963.

The length of audio tape was 3.15 millimeters wide ran at 1-7/8 inches per second. It was originally designed to replace reel-to-reel tape for dictation but became far more popular than that.

From listening to Devdas hits and coaxing our dads into buying us the remix hits cassettes so that we could shake a leg in the privacy of our room, or simply keep listening to a song by rewinding several number of times till the tapes basically gave up and started playing a weird noise.

Remember how they slowly deteriorated in quality when you listened to them over and over? Or that horrible noise they used to make on rewinding?

For many of us it's both an iconic object and an emotional source of misty-eyed nostalgia. Ah, those were the days!