The mixtape will always have a place in my music collection

UK Telegraph ^ | 11:32AM BST 24 Oct 2014 | By Michael Hogan

[a fool in paradise]

Like some sort of minimalist muggins who watches too many TV property shows, I recently embarked on a “decluttering” mission.

One thing I couldn’t bring myself to declutter (OK, throw out - let’s stop dressing it up with poncey buzzwords) were my old mixtapes. I’ll probably never play them again. Indeed, I’ve barely got the means to do so - my last remaining cassette deck nearly got decluttered too. But just rummaging through them sent me tumbling down a retro rabbit hole.

There were tapes made for summers, Christmases, road trips, festivals and dirty weekends. Tapes I made for old flames, with special emphasis on meaningful lyrics that I hoped would do some of the hard work on my behalf. "I've made you a tape”, after all, was once a key weapon in a young blade’s seduction armoury. There were tapes made for me, to woo, educate or entertain. Inlay cards referenced long-forgotten in-jokes. There were even a few tapes from friends who’ve since passed away. Gazing at them was emotional enough. Playing them would’ve sent me full snotty blub-face.

There’s something peculiarly evocative about home-made compilation tapes. Cassettes have the hiss of vinyl but not the old-skool cachet - the format isn’t as romantically “authentic” - so their appeal is more a personal thing. Each mixtape is a curated, customised musical memento. A Proustian rush back to times past, to places and people. They’re precious artefacts, crafted with love: theme and title decided upon, songs selected, running order worked out, tracks recorded (finger hovering over the pause button), inlay card painstakingly designed, stickers neatly written. A mixtape is a fag packet-sized boxful of feelings.

That’s why this week’s news that Disney is releasing its first cassette in more than a decade gave me a fuzzy glow....

[a fool in paradise]

Unlike the days of old (when it was only feasible to make a mixTAPE, unless you cut one of the odd acetate comps or had a custom record made as was done in Iran back in the 60s), you are not locked into a format these days to make a custom mix album.

Mix CDs have been done for well over a decade now and ordered mp3 playlists can be created.

Listening to music on “random” is boring (and occasionally interesting).

A curated compilation means more (even if you mix it just for yourself).

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I have a 32-GB flash drive with 7,000 songs on it for my mix tape.

[a fool in paradise]

What’s the lead-in cut?

[GeronL]

I remember burning music CD’s, people wanted this song and that song from a different band etc.

[21twelve]

I stick to just a few artists. Put three CD’s in my old player and let them play. As far as I’ll go “mixing” is if I put in an ELP cd between two RUSH cd’s!

I’m very much a believer that the artist created the album as a whole, and listen to it that way.

I think I still have a couple of old mix tapes up in the attic that a girlfriend gave me 30 years ago! IIRC I liked one song on it.

[a fool in paradise]

Unfortunately mix CDs tended to pick up a scratch.

And mp3 comps are harder to edit (sometimes you want to cut off the dead air, or an extended intro, etc.).

Brief soundclips from movies/tv/etc are also good.

[gusty]

Seems the easiest way is to put all your favorite songs on a Ipod and then use shuffle. It is like having your own private radio station, without commercials.

[Squawk 8888]

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[lee martell]

I wrote a few songs about 15 years ago, and used a basic cassette player as ‘tape recorder’. There they sit, as acapela vocals, until one day I learn enough piano or guitar to add music.

[discostu]

I used to make mix tapes. Then I stopped. Haven’t listened to any of them in ages. I was shocked when I saw High fidelity and found out you could use them to get laid. Which probably explains why most of my girlfriends picked me, wise in the ways of getting dates I was not.

[discostu]

Mix tapes are about a lot more than just having your favorite songs in one place. It’s themes, narrative, structure. One of my favorite things when I made them was to change the meaning of a song by what’s around it, you can take a song about unrequited love and turn it into a breakup song if you’ve developed the narrative.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Sympathy for the Devil.

[Squeako]

Yeah they’re called Playlists today.

[zeugma]

Listening to music on “random” is boring (and occasionally interesting).

I love random.

I have 85GB of music at present. I love the fact that as I'm sitting at my computer working, anything at all could pop up. It might be Bach, followed by Sons of the Pioneers, followed by Rage Against the Machine, which in turn is followed by Anonymous 4.

I never know what's coming up. Occasionally a particular tune will put me in the mood for something, and I'll queue up a few specific tracks, followed by more randomness. The range of my musical tastes probably helps this a bit, as I'll listen to almost anything once. Heck, some things, I didn't care for the first 5 times I heard them, but they grew on me later. :-)

I have some SD cards that I use when travelling that have weighted trends in them, but I mostly just dig randomness.

 

[Sans-Culotte]

I’ve never been into mixtapes as I have always been more of an album person. However, mix compilations are a good way to enjoy the music of “one-hit wonders”. I have a jukebox that plays 45s. It is loaded with 45s from the 40s, 50s and 60s, and includes lots of one-hit wonders. I simply turn on the jukebox when I’m ready for my own mix of music.

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

"And mp3 comps are harder to edit (sometimes you want to cut off the dead air, or an extended intro, etc.)."

"Audacity" is freeware audio editing software. It will do what you want to do and much more. It is full-fledged audio editing and recording software.

[a fool in paradise]

Naked Lunch is a book written on “random” (cut up and reassembled).

Something given some semblance of order flows better.

[zeugma]

Flow is not what I'm interested in most of the time. I just love music of nearly all kinds. I like to have it playing in the background. If I want a mood, I'll make a playlist, but for the most partI like being surprised by what's in the queue.

One thing I've noticed over the years is how absolutely horrid most "random" play is. With a selection as large as mine (46 days, 12 hours, 26 minutes), I should rarely repeat a tune inside a week. Sadly, that's not always the case. There seem to be weights within their PRNGs that I've noticed, which is why I occasionally shuffle the lists the PRNG plays through.

[henkster]

We made several “party mix” tapes back in college. Some were marked “warm up” or “wind down.” I kept mine for 30 years, until about three years ago, when I could finally bring myself to toss them.

I never used the the line “I made you a tape” though. I was not what you would call “smooth.” My only special power with the opposite sex was invisibility, and for contraception I used my personality. It was 100% effective.