The Analog Trend and Music: a new frontier for cassette tapes

I was 15 when I bought my first cassette deck. My best friend at the time had been gifted a number of vintage tapes by her uncle, and the newfound hobby was infectious. I can still remember my first blank cassette tape, the plastic jewel case clicking in my hands as I fumbled to get it out. Sitting down to record my first song on the shoebox deck’s built-in mic, Filip Zemčík was halfway across the world in the early stages of founding Start-track, a project with an extensive history of tape cassette production that’s been going strong for 13 years.

When I first started using cassette tapes, they were highly unpopular with my age group, but today’s American teenagers are embracing them with open arms. In the time since my first encounter with cassettes, US tape sales have increased by more than 450%, and those sales doubled in Q1 of 2025. Recent increases are driven in part by superstars like Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, who included cassette tapes in recent merch drops, but these trendsetters aren’t the only drivers of cassette tapes’ rising popularity: the Gen Z “analog” trend may be accelerating the growth of cassette culture in the mid-2020s like never before. ​

Forbes magazine declared 2026 “the year of analog living”. Young consumers have had enough of technology and rampant AI use. Society’s focus on automation and innovation for innovations’ sake only strengthens the American monoculture, which is so focused on sacrificing the well-being of the individual to maximize profits- and Gen Z has decided they’re tired of it. This fatigue is driving them away from the automated lifestyle so many have embraced in the 21st century. Late-stage capitalism has made the world we live in more digitized and efficiency-focused than ever before, and finding cheap, meaningful ways to spend free time in this autonomous fever dream only grows more difficult.

Gen Z is struggling more than ever when choosing how to spend their free time. Choice paralysis, social media addiction, and residual anxiety about post-COVID socializing are all drivers of increased isolation for younger audiences, and these pressures extend beyond adolescents. As a result, young Americans are facing chronic burnout: students are struggling through their attempts to catch up with work, school, and friends in a post-COVID society where free time seems to be ever-dwindling, and this chronic lack of free time leads us to the social media “self-care” trend of the early 2020s. Unfortunately, the self-care trend lets young audiences down.

Social media incentivizes romanticized ideals over practical life advice. TikTok beauty product hauls, skincare restocking videos, and other displays of excess suggest the dangerous idea that self-care can be as simple as making a purchase, an idea reinforced by an economy that prioritizes immediate gratification over sustainable habits. Mainstream attempts to reach peak self-care as quickly and effortlessly as possible devolve into a contest of overconsumption, with children as young as 9 influenced to purchase luxury skincare products such as those from Drunk Elephant. An exhausted, disillusioned generation attempts to heal from compounded psychic damage along the path of least resistance, only to encounter more frustration. This is the perfect catalyst for a new counterculture.

Younger audiences are aware that the digital world compromises their ability to practice self-care. I’m sure many can relate to this scenario: at the end of a long day, the easiest thing to do is reach for a phone and start scrolling, even though there are other, more wholesome activities we’d rather be doing. Gen Z’s direct response to this problem is the “analog bag”. The analog bag isn’t a brand-new concept; it’s part of a “second wave” of trending analog hobbies that aim to combat burnout and phone addiction. Trending predecessors of the analog bag include “BookTok”, vinyl records, and “dumb phones”, but the analog bag shifts away from broader lifestyle choices, instead honing in on specific interests. Any non-digital activity can go in a self-curated analog bag: crochet needles, journals, film cameras, poetry books, puzzles, sketchpads, travel watercolors, and more can be found in a tote bag dedicated to keeping users off their phones.

The sole purpose of the analog bag is to reduce “friction”, or mental/logistical barriers that prevent us from doing a behavior. Gen Zers, in their state of chronic burnout, are likely to “doomscroll” or “bed-rot” in their spare time, given that these activities cause little friction. The analog bag aims to make one’s hobbies and self-care activities more accessible. If an individual’s favorite hobby is within arm’s reach, armed for portability, and friction is reduced, they’re more likely to choose it over problematic screen time.

As with any TikTok trend, the analog bag is at risk of falling into performativity; participants start to pay more attention to curating their hobbies than to showing audiences how they engage with the bag. Creators shift their focus to appropriately demonstrating their individuality and plugging brand deals rather than creating something for themselves. But in real life, creating an analog bag offers a valid alternative to digital problem behaviors, and may even be the first sign of a budding resistance against a modern-day technocracy. In order for this trending counter-culture to translate to a real-life shift in values, younger audiences have to carry these interests outside of the digital world and into their real lives.

This is an incredibly hopeful moment: younger audiences are taking back their lives in a post-COVID world. With the dominant culture embracing AI and technological authoritarianism, younger audiences are exploring and uplifting analog hobbies. I have full faith that this generation can heal from chronic burnout, build strong self-care habits, and turn this social media trend from a superficial promotional opportunity into a legitimate, widespread counterculture. And as Gen Z is branching out, putting down their phones, and exploring the world with new perspectives, my heart can’t help but swell with pride at this simple fact: some of these analog bags contain cassette players.

---

Written by Hann Sandoz

Sources

Cassette Tapes Are Making a Comeback, Partly Thanks to the AARP Generations, Edna Gundersen. October 1, 2025. https://www.aarp.org/entertainment/music/cassette-tapes-making-a-comeback/

2026 Is The Year Of ‘Analog’ Living—How Will This Impact Fashion?, Elizabeth Grace Coyne. January 11, 2026. https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethgracecoyne/2026/01/11/2026-is-the-year-of-analog-living-how-will-this-impact-fashion/

Isolation Among Generation Z in the United States, Abby Bowler. Fall 2020. https://ballardbrief.byu.edu/issue-briefs/isolation-among-generation-z-in-the-united-states

Connections during Crisis: Adolescents’ social dynamics and mental health during COVID-19, Gadassi Polack R, Sened H, Aubé S, Zhang A, Joormann J, Kober H. October 2021. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8611691/

Gen Z adults and younger millennials are “completely overwhelmed” by stress, Anna Medaris. November 1, 2023. https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/generation-z-millennials-young-adults-worries

Inside the Tween Obsession With Drunk Elephant Skin Care, Ariana Yaptangco. January 10, 2024. https://www.glamour.com/story/kids-obsession-drunk-elephant-skin-care

An “Analog Bag” Might Be the Key to Finally Getting Off Your Phone, Christine Winder. January 26, 2026. https://theeverygirl.com/analog-bag-tiktok-trend/