To most people, someone like Jake Puleo shouldn’t be listening to cassette tapes in 2015. The DePaul senior grew up in an era of CDs and MP3s, of ephemeral streams and illegal bootlegs. But as a cash-strapped music fan, Puleo reunited with the often forgotten format. 

“I started going to shows without a job and I couldn’t afford records, so I would buy a cassette for $5 or $6,” he said. “Then I just fell in love with them.”

Cassettes have long had a place among low-budget bands and enthusiasts charmed by its rough and tumble nature.  But thanks to events like the third annual Cassette Store Day this Saturday, mainstream tape releases and a widespread nostalgia for old-school formats, cassettes are seeing a pocket-sized mainstream comeback.

“There’s been a market for them all along,” Nick Mayor, co-owner of Bric-A-Brac Records and Collectibles in Logan Square, said. “People have been buying and producing tapes since there were introduced to the market. It’s just the attention they’re getting now.”

Bric-A-Brac is the only Chicago location officially celebrating Cassette Store Day, which mimics the format of Record Store Day by featuring special releases and in-store performances. This year boasts special cassettes like Green Day’s “Dookie,” on tape label Burger Records.

For a medium that is notably durable, the cassette has sure taken a beating over the past 25 years. Besides being deemed irrelevant in the era of CDs and MP3s, there were nearly petty jabs: Oxford English Dictionary removed the term “cassette tape” in 2011, and Sony retired its recorder in 2013.

Though cassette culture peaked in the mid-80s, do-it-yourself production survived, said Steve Jones, a communication professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who authored a 1992 paper on cassettes.

“I won’t say (the start of MP3s) was the nail in the coffin, because if it was a nail, it wasn’t pounded in too hard because there’s a resurrection,” he said. “And it’s never really completely gone away.”

Though sales slipped to a paltry 50,000 units in 2014, according to Nielsen data acquired by blog Wondering Sound, that likely does not account for every casual, band-to-consumer purchase. And it’s those transactions and underground music that is largely to thank for cassettes’ survival.

Cassettes are physical, personal and tradeable. Vinyl might still be sacred, but cassettes are a whole lot easier.

“Records now are on a six to seven month turnaround time, which for a lot of bands, is longer than they’re even a band,” Mayor said. “Why bother trying to press a record if you can bang out 50 tapes for the five-song EP you wrote before you hated each other, and sell those while they’re still relevant?”

Production is also cheap – pocket change compared to vinyl. For bands that want a physical release but can’t scrounge up the cash playing bars, a cassette release is attainable, said Pat Stanton of Chicago band Varsity, which has three cassette releases on Jurassic Pop Records.

“Vinyl is too expensive for a band like us, and CDs get ripped onto your computer then tossed away,” Stanton said via email. “With a cassette, you have this little, colorful novelty item with album art and liners and they’re fun to collect and shows your support for a band.”

Last summer, Puleo began his own label, Entry Level Media. The homegrown operation required just a $100 investment for tapes, plus about an extra $50 for a recorder, which he uses to copy cassettes one-by-one.

The method is labor intensive, not profitable and bound to result in a few audio discrepancies. But the two bands on his label – Sunshine Girls from Brooklyn, and Bruised from Cicero, Ill. – have a lo-fi sound. The imperfections just add to cassettes’ throwback character.

“We just love nostalgia – everyone loves nostalgia,” Puleo said. “Whether you want to say you did or not, you had cassettes growing up and that’s probably why you want a cassette now.”

The same argument of digital fatigue has been applied to vinyl’s revival, but it’s doubtful that the humble cassette will ever overtake records, which now boasts popstar releases and has increased in sales by 260 percent since 2009. Unlike vinyl, which is often praised by audiophiles, cassettes fade in quality.

“What’s fascinating to me about, what seems to be, a resurging interest in cassettes, is that it’s not tied to the same discourse of ‘authenticity’ as vinyl,” Jones said. “I don’t hear people making claims for the cassette being superior to the MP3 or other digital formats. It seems like more of a retro moment versus an argument for superiority.”

Though even retailers like Urban Outfitters, which claims to be the largest brick-and-mortar vinyl seller, recently stocked their shelves with a few cassettes, Jones does not see the mainstream craze catching on unless more listeners fully embrace tapes. Either way, cassettes will still get a lot of love from enthusiasts new and old.

“I think it will always be there for bands who want to put out a release and can’t afford to put out a CD or vinyl,” Puleo said. “I think that’ll always exist.”

Cassette Store Day

Bric-A-Brac Records and Collectibles
3156 W. Diversey Ave.
Saturday, Oct. 17
12 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Special events include in-store performances by bands Soddy Daisy, Mr. and Mrs., Wolf Pac, Spike & the Sweet Spots and Clearance.