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About The Lost Art of the Mix Tapeby Michelle Sipics Source: The DOJ Not so very long ago, there was a holy grail of courtship. A secret weapon used by suitors young and old in their quest for love; a single object that could make or break a person’s reputation – or their heart. I speak, of course, of the mix tape. Surely someone will point out that mix tapes still exist. I will concede this point. Those cassettes that have not been ruined, lost or taped over are certainly still functional, still capable of playing their timeless tunes for an audience of uncaring ears. Yet so much has been lost. An entire art has been swallowed up by the leaps and bounds of modern technology; the mix tape has become a mere footnote in the history of human courtship. The mix tape was more than just a collection of songs; it was an outpouring of effort on the part of its creator, a tribute to the person it was intended for and a musical masterpiece all rolled into one. To be given a mix tape was to be loved; to create one was to hand your heart to the object of your affection and wait to see if it would be accepted or discarded-kept in easy reach or forgotten. Years ago, love-struck teenagers spent hours, sometimes days pouring over their albums and tapes, scribbling track lists and erasing them, recording songs and re-recording them when a 45 skipped on the turntable and left a tiny imperfection on the tape that was to do their romantic work. They would sit patiently while songs that expressed what they could not were copied from their albums and tapes to a musical collection of their feelings for someone. They waited with baited breath to find out if the last song on side A would be recorded before a dreaded click signaled the end of the tape. Sometimes that click would show up right in the middle of a song, and the obsessed creator would start all over again. They would scribble down track times, add up minutes and seconds, and do their best to fit everything in without leaving a moment of silence on the end of side A, eliminating as much blank space as possible from the musical epistle of their emotions before flipping it over to start on side B. Once the tape itself was finished, there was still the matter of the case and the necessary folded paper insert. You simply couldn’t leave the insert blank. But what could you write? Was it too impersonal to include only a track listing, with no personal inscription? Should you write a note, or should you let the music speak for itself? What about lyrics? If four hours were spent on the tape itself, another two were spent pen in hand, head in the clouds, trying to find the right words to introduce the reels of musical mastery that you’d just spilled your heart and soul into. Modern technology offers the burnable compact disc as a modern-day replacement for the mix tape, but to this bit of “progress” I can only respond with a chuckle. The compact disc compilation is no replacement for the mix tape; it is a shoddy knock-off, an easily created and just as easily forgotten piece of plastic. What used to take hours to finish now takes minutes; what was once an art is now a two-minute exercise in point-and-click gift-giving. College students drag MP3s with skips and pops from one window to another on computers that can do 2,000,000,000 computations every second and burn CDs at 48 times normal speed, popping out the result of their “efforts” two minutes later. Pausing long enough to write a track list is considered a waste of time; their inkjet printer will spit out an automatically generated list, no doubt riddled with errors and misspellings - if they even decide to put the disc in a case that can hold an insert. Forget about lyrics; to even know the name of the musicians whose work appears on the disc would be a miracle. But the quality is so much better, people say. No more album skips, no more warbles in the tape. No more fast-forward and rewind and flipping the tape over to hear the other half of the songs. To which I respond: there’s no character, no personal touch. The modern-day CD compilation has just as many imperfections as the classic mix tape, but without the insight and comfort that a tape’s imperfections had to offer. The telltale clicks before the beginning of a song told you that the creator had re-recorded this section of the tape; maybe the timing was off, maybe there was a skip in their album when it recorded, maybe they changed their mind about which song to put next; but no matter what the reason for their presence, those clicks were a sign that someone cared enough about you to spend even more time on an already time-consuming endeavor - all in the hopes that you would enjoy its result. The warble of a cassette tape was a sign of its owner’s love for it, evidence of its use; the pops on a CD compilation are a sign of the creator’s laziness, of their failure to even check the integrity of a few MP3s before dumping them onto a disc. A disc’s sudden volume drops and peaks between songs are evidence of the creator’s unwillingness to devote even one more second to finding and checking the box marked “Normalize volume” to avoid damaging the ear drums of the person they supposedly care about. This is quality? This is a show of affection? Not to me. The burned compact disc misses the entire point of the mix tape as a symbol of love. In the past, mix tapes were intended to show someone that you cared for them; that you liked them enough to spend hours, even days making something special, something personal. How, then, does a quickly thrown together piece of plastic accomplish the same task? The answer is simple: it can’t. Perhaps I sound overly harsh about this topic; well, I am. Generations of Americans are now growing up thinking that a burned CD is the only musical way to show their affection for someone else, but to them I simply say: if you really love her, give her a mix tape. Catalogue of Mix Tapes by artofthemix.org What follows is an attempt to catalog different kinds of mixed tapes. This list is by no means exhaustive; please email me with other ideas. (1) The Romantic Mix (2) The Break-Up Mix (3) The Platonic Mix (4) The Dance Mix (5) The Road Trip/Airplane Mix (6) The Theme Mix/Genre Mix (7) The Alternating DJ Mix (8) The Workout Mix (9) The Ambient Mix (10) The Skate/Thrash Mix (11) The Hangover Mix (12) The Sleep Mix (13) The Alphabetic Mix (14) 200 Other that You Might not have Thought Of (by Sean Marquet) (15) 7 Specialty Mixes (by Matt Perpetua) (16) Mixed Tape of Covers (1) The Romantic Mix This mix is made for either a potential partner or an existing significant other. There is definitely a kind of communication that is relayed on a mix to such a person. Songs with nostalgic importance are stand-bys on this kind of mix. This kind of mix, when dating, can be a tricky mix to make. You could either be very successful or else quickly end the relationship. (2) The Break-Up Mix As an anditote to the the Romantic mix, the Break-Up mix is for listening to upon the failure of a relationship. (Perhaps you gave the person a Romantic mix which he/she didn't like. . .) (3) The Platonic Mix Mixes made by friends are great. You might make a tape for a friend deliberately with the person's musical taste in mind. Or, the mix might just be a record of what you felt like listening to a certain moment. The mixed tape becomes, for your friend, a record of you at a moment in time. A series of mixed tapes over the years made by one person becomes a kind of document of that person's life. (This is often why I keep mixes I make; they are quite the nostalgia trip.) (4) The Dance Mix There is quite an art to this kind of mix. The point is to create an ambiance and insure people continue to have a good time. If you're real good at this kind of mix, forget making mixed tapes for friends and go make money as a DJ. (5) The Road Trip/Airplane Mix These are mixed tapes that make the time pass and get you in the groove of the road/sky. (6) The Theme Mix/Genre Mix A tape made with a theme (i.e., X-mas songs) or one that adheres to a particular genre (i.e., exclusively rockabilly). (7) The Alternating DJ Mix Make a mix with a friend and alternate tunes. The mix becomes a dialogue between you, a sort of call and response. Making a mix like this is a great way to kill a Friday night when nothing else is going on. (8) The Workout Mix This tape is a stand-by for all aerobics instructors as well as anybody who is trying to burn off a few pounds. A good exercise tape makes the minutes go by faster. (9) The Ambient Mix A mix to set a mood, most often a mellow one. These mixes can veer off into a "Hearts of Space" tone, which can be a good or bad thing, depending on how you look at it. (10) The Skate/Thrash Mix This mix is made ideally with lots of early 80s punk and is played on a jambox sitting on a half pipe. (11) The Hangover Mix The hangover mix is meant for the morning after when it feels like someone is pounding a nail into your forehead and you need some music to distract you from the pounding as well as console you about any behavior that may have occurred the prior night. Rolling Stones ballads usually work well on this sort of mix. (12) The Sleep Mix The sleep mix is a tape made for listening to when falling asleep, the great moment when you are in the zone between waking and sleeping, consciousness and unconsciousness. (13) The Alphabetic Mix This mix is made by mixing alphabetically either by artist or song. If you have a massive record collection and are making a mix, this method can narrow your selection possibilities and inspire cuts that you might not have considered. (14) 200 Other Kinds of Mixes that You Might not have Thought Of (thanks to Sean Marquet!) the drug mix, tripping mix, pot mix, intercourse mix, depressed mix, party mix, tea/cocktail party mix, old folks home mix, nut house mix, working manual monotonous labor job mix, artmaking mix, wash the car mix, plot to overthrow the world mix, religious mix, film music mix, being laid up sick in bed for two weeks mix. scare your neighbors mix, calculate math mix, break into the pentagon computers on the internet mix, military marching around the courtyard mix, lost my damn job mix, cleaning up after the party mix, getting all the drunks out of the damn bar mix, suicide mix, clesmer mix, world music mix, i really wish i was a pirate mix, football mix, dog show mix, wedding mix, bar/bat mitzvah mix, grocery store mix, confusion mix, pilgrimage mix, miss you mix, make-up mix, before a big interview mix, mafia music mix, science mix, no music (sounds) mix, gone forever mix, lost at sea mix, sleep music mix, cooking mix, legendary mix, secret mix, evil mix, awful mix, funeral mix, morning mix, shower mix, for my pets while i'm not home mix, off the radio mix, taped off of rental movie video mix, stuff no one but me has heard of mix, bath mix, massage mix, insomnia mix, never get around to making it mix, music from the winter Olympics mix, trying to get someone to go out with me mix, out in the wilderness mix, travelling in the space shuttle mix (limited suppliers), bowling mix, giving birth mix, playing music to the unborn child inside my womb mix, surviving a natural disaster mix, racist evil asshole mix, day care center mix, hospital mix, bar mix, drinking beers with the boys mix, just found out i have a terminal disease mix, mixing up verses and choruses from completely different songs ( and artists ) mix, all these songs sort of sound alike mix, before I had formulated any musical tastes mix, stolen from me mix, working with chemicals mix, all from bootleg mix, backwards satan spea k mix, betrayed mix, clean the house mix, wash the dog mix, brush your teeth mix, wrap individually sliced chunks of meet in tin foil to put into the freezer mix, a good cry mix, eating 13 grapefruits in one sitting and then feeling like your stomach is going to explode - but you would still do it again mix, female singer mix, wandering through the dessert mix, stuck in this goddamn town mix, can't understand a word they are saying mix, had a fever when i made this mix, mix from other mix mix, no song more than 30 seconds mix, beach mix, barbecue mix, shoe store mix, basketball stadium mix, afte rsex mix, metal head mix, foreign (to the us) country mix, halloween mix, cleaning the pool with one of those big nets mix, wake up to this on my cassette alarm clock tape mix, giving the cat/dog a shampoo bath mix, what happened to cold fusion mix, etc........ (15) 7 Specialty Mixes (by Matt Perpetua) 1. the blocks tape- blocks of 3 or 4 songs by as many artists as we could fit. 2. the game tapes- in which you can create blocks, or even entire tapes worth of songs and have the other person find the connection (most often lyrical) between the songs. this is fun. 3. geographically oriented tapes- tapes we would make so that when we got somewhere we would specifically have music that fit that location. Example: Music that reminded us or "felt like" Nyack would be on the Nyack tape. 4. imaginary soundtrack tape- in which we create a soundtrack for an imaginary film, for which we would explain the plot of the film and what scenes the songs would be played during. 5. the fake radio station tape- the kind of tape I make the most of. basically, you treat the tape as if you were programming your own radio station. for me, these tapes are often very eclectic. (but follow radio rules like songlength, catchiness, and varying moods) 6. soundtrack for our own films tape- we've been making our own comedic films for a while, and we make these so that when we're driving around being filmed we can be certain songs we would want in the film would be included. 7. the imaginary concert tape- limited to only one artist, you program the ideal setlist that you would love to see them play (16) Mixed Tape of Covers So many people have submitted mixes of this variety that it warranted its own category. A time consuming but very entertaining mix to make. . . Links: Mix It Up: The Fine Art of Mix-Making Art of the Mix Tiny Mix Tapes |
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