In other words, the cassette wasn’t exactly a revelation the way CDs and mp3s seemed to be at first so, there was no reason to think a slightly lower price would matter so much. Ultimately isn’t this what it all boils down to? If the eight-track had been a pinch more reliable and worked out its kinks, perhaps the lower price wouldn’t have been such a death blow. Either way, it was a thoroughly miserable listening experience. Best case: a faint background of an altogether different track. Worst case scenario: two songs at equal pitch playing at the same time. I’ll just point out that, if the heads became misaligned even slightly (a VERY common occurrence) the one track would bleed-through into another track. I won’t go into the mechanics of the eight-track (there’s always Wikipedia for that). or at least a few hours before it busted. While the cassette and record would abruptly stop when it reached the end of a side, the eight-track would play for all eternity…. This negative wasn’t quite outweighed by a strong positive quality of the eight-track: it was on an infinite loop. It was a breath of fresh air to be able to roll backwards with the cassette tape. It may seem trivial, but not being able to rewind become a real downside to the eight-track. And so, unlike the source of pride which was your record collection, the filthy eight-track collection often became a thing of shame in the floorboard of your car. There was no real outer decorative case as with CDs and cassettes, just the cartridge. Thus, everyone’s collection consisted of sturdy cartridges with worn, peeling and stained stickers. As I mentioned, the case was basically bulletproof, but the sticker was not. FILTHY AND TRASHY MUSIC COLLECTION OF SHAMEĭespite the fact that eight-tracks began as techno-marvels, developed by Bill Lear (of Lear Jets no less), they soon earned a reputation as being not only unreliable, but also tacky. The music industry would learn to live with a degree of illegal copies on the market, but the eight-track absorbed the initial scorn.ĥ. Perhaps it wasn’t directly responsible, but the ability to easily make backyard bootlegs didn’t do the eight-track any favors in the reputation department. An 8-track bootleg.īut did the growing abundance of homemade eight-tracks really have anything to do with its downfall? After all, the cassette tape was geared toward making unlicensed recordings.
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