For people born in the 1960s and 1980s, they have used cassettes to listen to songs more or less, and even now there are still some cassettes and cassette players. Some singers who debuted for a long time, in addition to CD discs, early genuine albums will also have cassette versions, such as Jay Chou. Sony has almost become synonymous with personal portable music players because of its Walkman, which plays small cassettes. It has become a world-class enterprise leading the development of consumer digital products in the world, leaving behind many classic products.
And Lou Ottens, the former Philips engineer who brought the world's first small cassette tape, has passed away at the age of 94. According to Dutch news media NRC Handelsblad, Lou Ottens died at home on March 6.
Lou Ottens joined Philips in 1952 after obtaining an engineering degree and became the head of the Philips product development department in 1960. Within one year, he led a team to develop the world's first portable tape recorder and invented a small cassette in 1963 Magnetic tapes, also known as cassettes, made their debut at Berlin Radio in the same year. Of course, Lou Ottens is more than that. Later, he also participated in the development of CD and the formulation of industry standards. It can be said that it has changed the way people listen to music in the world twice.
Lou Ottens said in an interview during his lifetime that the original goal was to develop a convenient way for people to listen to music. It could be put in a pocket, cheap and convenient. The earliest small cassette tapes were prototypes made of wood. . Lou Ottens also tried to persuade Philips to license the invention to other manufacturers for free, so the cassette has developed rapidly. Lou Ottens later helped Philips and Sony to complete the CD development plan. Philips first demonstrated the CD player in 1982.
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| Sony Walkman TPS-L2 in "Guardians of the Galaxy" |
After retiring, Lou Ottens once said that the biggest regret in this life is that the iconic Walkman that leads the world belongs to Sony, not Philips. Walkman is the world's first personal portable cassette player, born in 1979 by Sony. The Walkman used by Xingjue in Guardians of the Galaxy is Sony’s first-generation product Walkman TPS-L2, which was released on July 1, 1979.
The importance of cassettes to the development of world popular music culture is self-evident. Although there are other media with the development of science and technology of the times, cassettes still occupy an important position in the world music market with their unique charm. In recent years, with the help of film and television works such as "Guardians of the Galaxy", the sales of cassette tapes have shown an increasing trend.
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