How VHS belatedly re-entered music's format war

With garage rock star Ty Segall posting videotapes of his latest album to critics, it seems the black plastic bricks of static are well and truly back. But is it worth exploring this particular avenue of old-school analogue?

Snow-like static. Warped, wobbling visuals. Wildly uneven sound. Looking back, it’s incredible that we put up with videotapes for as long as we did. Now that Sony has ended future production of its Betamax cassette tapes – the ones you probably never used because you stuck to JVC’s VHS – it would seem as good a time as any to quietly close the door on the videotape chapter of human existence.

Try telling that to the prolific garage rock musician Ty Segall, who sent VHS copies of his 11-song album, Emotional Mugger, to music critics at Pitchfork on Monday. Segall’s earliest releases were on cassette and he’s no stranger to 7in vinyl singles, but this dalliance with VHS is his first.

cassettes are so over. overdubbed blockbuster tapes and weird crumpled sheets of paper are what's hot now. pic.twitter.com/SDhtAzWy4x

Music’s great digitally and everything, but the idea of having something in your hand makes it real

ＷＩＮ  Ａ  ＶＨＳ  ＴＡＰＥ！！１: giving away my new album on VHS to 2 followers (here and Soundcloud) PLS RT/FOLLOW to enter! pic.twitter.com/RJF2RLiNqS