Play, pause, rewind – where do these universal media symbols come from?

The play button—that right-pointing triangle you tap every day—feels timeless. The Conversation reports it actually originated in 1960s cassette recorders. Philips released the first mass-market cassette recorder in 1963 with an upward-pointing play symbol matching the button's direction. But when Sony's TC-100 arrived in 1968, it flipped the symbol to point right, reflecting the direction tape physically moved through the machine—from a left reel through a play head to a right reel. As cassette technology spread globally, manufacturers needed symbols that transcended language. The International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Commission standardized this right-pointing triangle as universal. The pause symbol—two parallel bars—echoes the caesura in poetry and music, representing a break. The stop symbol is a square; its four corners suggest stability and closure. From mechanical roots to digital life, these symbols have transcended their origins. Today, play appears on washing machines, in fitness campaigns, and across product ecosystems—a metaphor so intuitive it's become shorthand for starting anything, anywhere on Earth.

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