Music History: Once Upon a Time There Were Mix Tapes
Before MP3 Players and CD Burners People Made What We Called Mix Tapes
"I love you!" "I hate you!" "My taste in music is better than your's! Just listen to song three for proof." Any feeling or emotion can be demonstrated through the headphones of a cassette player.
More than messages, you mix tape could be designed for road trips, parties or sitting alone in a darkened room. The best mix tapes could be appropriate for any of these activities.
The mix tape could be conventional, counting songs you felt should have been included on that Greatest Hits album from your favorite band. Or, it could highlight chanting monks and the second half of Radiohead's Kid A. The beauty of a mix tape is it can be as plain or outlandish as you are willing to make it.
Regardless of your intentions, the mix tape requires careful planning and flawless execution. Nobody wants to wait for the scorching guitar solo in "Stairway to Heaven" and have the tape run out before the "bustle in your hedgerow."
CD burners have helped to ease that problem. A mix tape deserves full songs with clean breaks between each. The pause button is crucial to efficient breaks. By completely stopping the tape you may lose space in the lag time it requires to restart. Pause is your friend.
The mood is set quickly with the choice of first song. A thrashy punk anthem sets a much different tone than a seven minute prog-rock dirge.
An effective mix tape flows smoothly through different tempos, styles and moods. Sometimes even genres. Dodgy song choice could lead the mix tape recipient to spend precious time fast forwarding through songs. Effectively missing the intended message.
Save the slower songs for the ends of each tape side. Each side should begin with something upbeat and end on a quieter note.
Romantic mix tapes should incorporate many styles. It is important for your beloved to see more than quiet desperation or intense stalker tendencies. Keep it light and fun, then strike up that power ballad from 1987. That third chorus will soar bigger and brighter than the hair of the lead singer belting it out.
Variety will benefit your mix tape, keep the listener engaged and be much more interesting to make. Like most artistic endeavors, you will get as much as you are willing to give to your mix tape. Give it your best.
Published by Zane Ewton
Writer, editor and photographer. View profile
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10 Comments
Post a CommentWow, thanks for all the great comments.
Love those mix tapes. I still have many of my old radio shows on tape, and will some day transfer them to CD when I get a CD player in my car.
Aw, mix tapes! :) Wow ... you know, I still have a few old mix tapes. I remember the first time I learned that if you put tape over the little boxes on the end of a cassette, you could record over even a professional tape. Good news for me; bad news for my friend's Parachutes' cassette ... oops :)
I made a few mix tapes as recently as high school -- I'm currently in college. And yes, they were actually tapes! There's something very fun about passing around easy-to-carry and easy-to-produce mix tapes.
I have dozens of mixed tapes, and only a walkman to listen to them with. LOL Those were the days!!
Your forgot, sitting by the radio for them the play the song you wait to hear everday at 6pm just to record it. Great article reminds me of the late 80's early 90's.
Good ol' mix tapes. I make mood music cds now, but it was the same concept. My first mixtape somehow involved Prince, Jefferson Starship and the Beastie Boys. Don't ask how.
Great Article. I still have my mix tapes in a box - God I feel old.
I miss making those so much. It was an all-day project in most cases. I'd sit on my floor, surrounded by tapes and CD's, writing and re-writing lists. The trick was figuring out how to cram as much onto one side as possible without leaving TOO much space at the end.
Sitting at the computer dragging songs into a playlist and hitting "burn" has taken all of the romance out of it. *sigh*
Ah, I remember my first mix tape:) Thanks for bringing back the memories.