f ‘If you got a tape on, you’re committed’: The revival of cassette tapes in Toronto’s New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal scene

At the height of music digitization and dematerialization, we still find collectivities of people who use obsolete forms of music media not out of necessity, but as a conscious and meaningful choice. This article focuses on a case study of a surprising revival of cassette tapes in the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal (NWOTHM) scene in Toronto, Canada. I consider two broad questions. First, if the music of the bands in the scene can be easily downloaded or ripped off of a CD, and conveniently stored on computers and other devices, what is the appeal of cassette tapes for their consumers? And second, what new meanings have been ascribed to cassette tapes in the Toronto NWOTHM scene – has the main function of cassettes as a music storage medium changed entirely? In this article, I (1) propose that Toronto NWOTHM scene members have rekindled an attraction to physical media formats to close the tangibility gap between music and listener; (2) suggest that subjective media associations between various time periods and/or music genres foster the historically informed consumption of cassettes; (3) demonstrate these two points in the traditional heavy metal subculture in Toronto and (4) outline new meanings that cassettes have undertaken in this context, such as souvenir, materialization of subcultural capital and symbol of commitment.