India’s Cassette Culture – Music for The Masses

The cassette tape was one of the most culturally significant technologies in the latter half of the 20th century. The format led to an unprecedented democratisation of music around world, and in developing countries like India it also brought pre-recorded music to the masses like never before. 

Magnetic tape recording appeared in the late 1920s, but at first, its use was limited mostly to professional use in recording studios and radio stations. By the end of the ‘50s, tape was also being used for dictation purposes; but only a small group of audiophiles had adapted the clunky “reel-to-reel” devices for music playback. Things started to change in the ‘60s with the introduction of the modern compact cassette that would radically change music culture in the coming decades.

In the 1950s, companies such as Philips and RCA were working on developing more user-friendly tape systems. Ultimately, it was a team at Philips in Belgium, led by Lou Ottens, that presented the modern compact cassette tape in 1963. Originally marketed for dictation purposes, improvements in fidelity saw the format being taken seriously for pre-recorded music by the early ‘70s. 

In the mid ‘70s, the music industry in India was ruled by LP and EP records. However the expense and power requirements meant that for the poor masses, the consumption of recorded music was mainly restricted to the radio. Things changed around 1977 when affordable “2-in-1” radio-cassette players appeared on the market.

HMV, then the dominant player in the music industry, began to release tapes in the late ‘70s. However, being heavily invested in their record manufacturing facilities, they failed to take the coming cassette boom seriously. This left a void that allowed for pirated copies of earlier releases to flood the market and by 1985, pirated tapes were estimated to account for around 90% of sales. 

HMV’s lacklustre response to the cassette revolution saw their market dominance drop rapidly. In addition to the pirates, new legitimate concerns managed to get in on the fast-growing tape market, and by the early ‘90s, the major players in field included CBS/Magnasound specializing in western pop releases, Polygram’s Music India Ltd, TIPS, Venus, and T-Series; now a legitimate concern after a start in the pirate tape market of the ‘80s.

Energizing the cassette boom were the economic liberalisation policies of the time. Reduced import and licencing restrictions led to increased availability of 2-in-1s, Hi-Fi tape decks, portable “Walkman-like” devices, as well as car stereo systems. 

The low-cost and easy reproducibility of cassettes led to drastic democratisation of Music. Through the ‘80s and ‘90s, market areas such as Bombay’s D.N. Road and Delhi’s Chandni Chowk were filled with cassette sellers selling tapes to millions of buyers who could now own pre-recorded music for the first time. Small “cassette-walas” recording mix-tapes as per customer request also became common place in almost every neighbourhood. 

Availability of affordable dual-cassette decks and duplicators also allowed entrepreneurs across the country, many in rural areas, to produce tapes for small regional markets overlooked by the major labels. Thus the hegemony of Hindi film music was challenged as more diverse recordings such as ghazals, devotional music, bhajans, and regional folk-pop were popularised. In this sense, the cassette tape was truly a revolutionary leader that empowered the masses with music, both in India and around the world.

 Also read: Indian Audio Icons – Valve Radio Brands of the ‘50s and ‘60s