The Lost Art of the Mixtape

My kid sister recently bought a used car. Even though it's a 2005 model, it came factory equipped with a tape player. The first time she took me for a drive, we started reminiscing about mixtapes. As it turns out, we both had sort of forgotten about them, and the more we talked, the more we both realized how much we'd been missing during our CD years.

When I got home, I started making a mixtape of cheesy love songs for my sister. She has a special place in her heart for bands like Lynyard Skynyrd and Poison, but I knew I could do better than that. Spreading my CD collection across my apartment floor, I searched for the weirdest, funniest, and most insincere love songs I could find in my collection. Along the way, I made some important discoveries about the lost art of the mixtape.

Here are five reasons for bringing back the mix tape:

Reason #1: Knowing your own music is essential to making a good mixtape.

It's easy to have two hundred CDs and not really know what's on half of them, especially if listening to music is something you do while you're doing other things. However, to make a good mixtape, you have to be able to know who made that song about driving a Camaro up from the Bahamas if you want to include it. (Answer: The Dead Milkmen)

If you know you're going to be making a mixtape in the near future, you'll find yourself paying closer attention to the lyrics and the mood of individual songs on albums, and not just downloading hit singles onto you iTunes account. Remember when an album was a cohesive statement, and fewer songs felt like filler? I do, but then I still make mixtapes.

Reason #2: Making a mixtape takes a really, really long time.

Sure you could buy flowers or do some clicking to make a mix CD, but so much effort goes into making a mixtape that it's truly an expression of love. Unless you're a masochist or a technophobe, you wouldn't make a mixtape for just anyone. Show your mother or your sweetheart that you're willing to go the extra mile and sweat it out over a tape deck.

Reason #3: You have to think very hard about the order of songs before you start taping.

As seen in High Fidelity, the order of a mixtape can make or break its playability. Not only do you want to send a message, but you also want to make something the recipient will enjoy listening to. Follow John Cusack's advice: start strong, but don't put your best song first. Build the excitement, create little dips, and finish on a high note. You can't go back and change the order of the songs later without starting over on a mixtape, so you have to plan ahead to get a perfect mix.

No matter how you create your mixtape's playlist, you have to pay attention to things that you can ignore when you're making a mix CD. The length of the tape and the length of each song will help determine what gets included and where. You don't want three minutes of dead air at the end of Side A. A well-planned mixtape will score you cool points a mix CD never could.

Reason #4: The recipient of your mixtape will pay more attention to it than a mix CD.

How many times has someone made you a mix CD and you don't particularly care for one of the songs? No matter what the person meant by including that song in the mix, you'll never care. You can skip the song you don't like with the simple press of a button.

Not so with a mixtape. Even if your recipient hates one of your carefully chosen songs, there's no getting around it without hitting the fast forward button and hoping the tape stops in the right place. Every word, every guitar lick of your message will come through.

Reason #5: Mixtapes can convey messages to loved ones in ways that CDs never will.

Making a mixtape is truly a lost art. Everything from choice of theme to planning where each song falls in the mix is a labor of love. Handing a mix CD to someone is a crapshoot; you may not get more than one casual listen. But if you give someone a mixtape, they are sure to recognize it as the old-fashioned gesture they remember from technologically simpler days. And they will pay careful attention to each song, listening to get the message you were trying to convey.