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Lou Ottens, the Dutch engineer credited with inventing the audio cassette tape, has died aged 94. Ottens' invention transformed the way people listened to music, and there has even been a resurgence of the cassette in recent years. Documentary-maker Zack Taylor explains how cassettes allowed for a certain kind of personalisation, their relevance to the birth of hip-hop and how a visit to the tape's inventor, Lou Ottens, didn't go as planned. With cassettes, "you can make a mix tape, you leave a message on an answering machine, you can record your band and send it to a record label .... There would be no hip hop as we know it." Photo: A cassette mix tape Credit: Getty Images
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