Cassette Week is back— and so are cassettes, according to Mike Cooley, manager of Omega Music in Dayton. Cooley returned to WYSO this week to talk with Midday Music host Evan Miller about Cassette Week, an annual celebration of cassette tapes. Cassette Week is run by online cassette retailer Tapehead Weekly, but record stores across the country, like Omega Music, are taking part in this year’s celebration from October 15-21. In the interview, Mike Cooley talked with Evan about the enduring popularity of cassette tapes, and details some of the exclusive tapes available at this year’s celebration. He also talked about Omega Music’s annual mixtape exchange, which allows strangers to swap homemade mixtapes, free of charge.
While some people may see cassette tapes as relics of a past era, Mike Cooley says that they’re actually growing in popularity. “Even since the last time we talked last year at this time, a lot of labels have been putting out more and more cassettes,” he told Evan in their interview. This year, Omega music stocked dozens of exclusive cassette releases in preparation for cassette week. Some came from indie acts like Say She She and Duster— the kind of bands you might expect to release music on an antiquated format. Yet Cooley also received cassette tapes by major label artists, like Nas, Lizzo, and Lana Del Ray, and a slate of concert recordings by Metallica, Nirvana, Lou Reed, Run DMC, and Rage against the Machine.
Tapes are growing in popularity nationally, but Cooley says they also have a special significance in Dayton’s musical history. “Cassettes were so important to the DIY scene all around the world, but especially in Dayton, Ohio,” he told Evan, “All of that Guided by Voices stuff was recorded on 4-tracks, and a lot of other great bands around here, that’s how they got their start.” Cooley hosts an annual mixtape swap at Omega Music, where members of the public are invited to drop off a homemade mixtape at the store, and pick up one made by a stranger. Cooley said it’s a chance for people to share their musical personality with someone else— and get a taste of something completely new. He said the guidelines are simple.
“Go home, make a mixtape…. Make a theme, whatever you want. Or just put your favorite songs— your top 10 or 15 songs on a tape. Then draw on the jacket, or print one out, and make it your own thing. Then you get to trade your personality, basically, to someone else, and check out what they made.”
For more information about cassette week, visit cassetteweek.com. Omega Music is located at 318 E 5th St, Dayton, Ohio.
