Tape World Boombox 1978 Mug

The first pre-recorded music cassettes hit the market in 1966, with an initial offering of just 49 titles. This was the first step in the portable music revolution, but it wasn't until the late '70s when portable cassette players explode, and retail music cassettes went right along with them. From massive dual deck boom boxes to belt clipped personal players, cassettes were the new way to listen to music. While existing record stores were already carrying cassettes, Tape World launched with an all cassette retail format in their mall stores from coast to coast. Sure, they sold select vinyl titles, but they were wall-to-wall cassette tapes, which gave their relatively small footprint stores the ability to carry a ton of stock.