That stack of tapes in the picture
@tourist posted look like cassette tapes to me!
(You're just messin' with her, aren't you?)
@Lanolin:
An 8-track tape has 8 magnetic tracks on the same side of the tape - which are functionally divided into 4 stereo channels.
The tape is made so that it is continuous. It will play "forever" without having to remove the tape from the player.
Normal play goes through the 4 channels in sequence and then "starts over" at channel 1 again.
Most of the players had a control for moving the read head to the next channel in sequence (back to channel 1 if on channel 4) at the touch of a button.