I visited this coffee shop a few days ago. Located near the UGM area with eye-catching architecture, this coffee shop manages to pull dozens of customers. From a casual coffee-shop flea to a group of highly ambitious college students who spend hours and hours at the same spot trying to finish their assignments. Different corners filled with different kinds of people with different selections of beverages. A common view you'll encounter in the midst of Jogja's coffee shop fever.
This time, I found it hard to put away my eyes from this bunch of "vintage styled" folks. They all wear various retro styled outfits like vintage coach jackets, vintage leather boots, retro basketball caps, worn-looked leather accessories, etc. But I noticed this one thing they all had in common. A cassette tape player aka."Walkman" with tangling cable and big sized headphones with stacks of old cassettes.
Seriously? What decade is this? The 90s? 80s? What's wrong with these folks? They all have smartphones and internet access. There's a big chance that they own some music streaming apps or any other kind of digital platform music player. Those digital platforms definitely have a way much better audio quality, lightweight, unlimited libraries of songs, and even lyrics to every song they play. Why do they choose an outdated yet complicated device only to play some album you can download online? Is it the vintage vibe? Are you guys trying to bring back your parent's glory days of youth? Or is there something I've missed about current music trends? I'm getting curious and intrigued even more after I witness this re-emergence of 80s to early 00s music on current pop music charts. There's even thousands of old music dedicated playlists in one platform alone.
The Tape's Vintage Vibe
Driven by my curiosity and amazements, I went back home and immediately browse through my dad's storage of his old stuff. Just like what I remembered, his old Panasonic Mini Tape Player-Recorder is still there. Looking back at me from the bottom of the drawer, begging for salvation. I plug in some double A batteries and "voila!". The motors are running, indicator lights are on, but sadly I didn't own any proper cassette tape to test
I decided to buy 2 first issued record tapes from a flea market priced at 10.000 rupiah each. A classic and legendary album from Chrisye's semi-disco era titled "Sendiri" and Dewa 19's fourth album "Pandawa Lima" that reached the highest record selling during Ari Lasso's era (yes i'm a big fan of Dewa).
Anyways, I sat in my favorite corner and started to play the "Sendiri" album. The record played normally with few acceptable flaws like muffled sound in some parts and static noise. Not so high-fidelity audio and that's what I expect from a 30 years old flea market second hand cassette tape. After a couple minutes, I started to get used to this audio quality and started to sing along. I open the cassette case and take the insert paper. As I enjoyed the tape and read the lyrics and the credits, I started to feel this nostalgic-ish moment. I imagine myself as a teenager in the 80s coming out from a record store, just strolling around the city listening to my new cassette through my car audio. Drowned in this addictive nostalgia moments, I eventually realized that I've sat for hours listening to the same "Sendiri'' cassette tape and probably already flipped the tape over and over again.
I'm impressed by this old technology. I could really portray what it feels like to be a teenager during those times. At least from what they listened to and how it feels. But is this what people are actually looking for? Pointless nostalgia from memories that they don't even experience?
Retro This Retro That