04 November 2009

"I'm gonna make you a mixtape..."

One the most utilized but unappreciated media of mass art in the past 30 years is the mixtape. Producing mixtapes is not difficult and can be fairly quick and simple. By the early nineties, most people could get their hands on some form of cassette tape recording device even if it was their car stereo. When CDs and PCs became widely available, things got even easier. Once the proper materials are obtained, simply pick some of your favorite songs and copy to tape or CD.

(Just to clarify: Although mixtapes are "recorded...traditionally onto a compact audio cassette," the term survived the shift to CDs and members of my generation probably instinctively think 'burned CD containing various artists" when they hear the word 'mixtape')

I am beginning to fear the mixtape will disappear during this transitional time in the music world. Genius and the iPod, Last FM, Pandora, MP3 players and all the other ways of finding and listening to music that are growing in popularity pose a serious threat to the mixtape. This is not evolution, it is "Mix"-icide.

Mixtapes have something to offer that the modern mediums do not. Wikipedia points out this passage from Nick Hornby's High Fidelity:

"To me, making a tape is like writing a letter — there's a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You've got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with "Got to Get You Off My Mind", but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you've got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can't have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can't have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you've done the whole thing in pairs and...oh, there are loads of rules."

There is something sacred about searching your music catalog and knowledge. It is sometimes agonizing to think which artists fit well next to each other and which have to be left out because you already have the twenty tracks you were looking for. You have to consider the diversity of your own music taste and the songs that will appeal to the recipient of your tape (Note: I think most, not all, mixtapes are made for someone else). Creating a mixtape is a ritual. A cult following exists, and it grasps the importance of its existence.

I can remember more than a few occasions in my life when developing friendships were solidified by the simple gesture of making mixtapes for each other. Exchanging mixtapes is like a right of passage among music lovers. By selecting songs you like and giving them to someone, you are saying three things: here is what I like, I think I know what you will like, and it is worth it to me to put in the effort to know you better.

I would not consider myself much of a technophobe, traditionalist, or even a nostalgic, but invention does not always mean progress. SAVE THE MIXTAPE, MAKE ONE FOR A FRIEND!

5 comments:

Greenman said...

The mixtape is surely a dying art form. Yet as long as there are people who love music, and care enough to spread it, mixtapes will never fully die. I second the battle cry. SAVE THE MIXTAPE, MAKE ONE FOR A FRIEND. Believe me I have haha

Michel Sauret said...

Matt,

This is a wonderful post. It really speaks to your passion as a musician, and I think it's your strongest writing yet on this blog from what I've seen. This is me speaking in terms from one writer to another.

You've definitely hit a vein with this post as far as talking about the changing of culture and a relevance to what we find important. It's almost become a challenge to legitimize creating a mixed tape for a friend or a loved one because the we all have such a higher capacity of carrying information with us. What used to be able to contain maybe 20 songs on a CD has been completely been overshadowed by even one of the cheapest MP3 players out there.

There is something very sentimental and touching here, but I'm not sure if the effect of a mix tape is as touching as it once used to be. If you record a CD for somebody else that person might actually find it as an inconvenience... Hardly anyone has a portable CD player anymore, and most music devices can plug into an iPod in a snap.

But I definitely do feel there's something lost here as we move away from the mix tape. Some days, I wish I had the musical knowledge to put some of my favorite songs on a CD for my wife (unfortunately both my taste and knowledge in music is pretty laughable, and often doesn't jive with the type of music my wife loves).

But there are some mediums that hold enough passion for its followers that some are willing to keep it alive at all costs. We still have today music shops dedicated solely to old-fashioned vinyl albums. That's pretty remarkable.

For some people, passion overrides function. This may be one of those cases.

Tess said...

hey! so i know i'm not technically assigned to be reading your blog anymore, but i saw "mixed tape" on the update feed thing, and i got so excited. i love "High Fidelity" (I've read the book, but have seen the movie way more times) and it was cool to read the full quote from the text that John Cusack delivers in the last scene. You've probably seen it, but if you haven't you definitely should because I think you'd relate to the main character Rob.

And you may have inspired me to quit my laziness and make a legitimate mixed tape (cause your comment about people treating mix CDs as mixed tapes is very true).

Matt said...

Wow great feedback everyone. Keep it up Greenman, or more appropriately, keep it alive.

Michel, it means a lot to hear you say that. Just to clairify something subtle, I am not actually a musician. I play recreationally, but my passion runs deeper than my talent (or like you said "passion overrides function.")

And you're right about vinyl. I actually think it's making a strong comeback, but more on that in a later post.

Tess, special thanks for going above and beyond class requirements. I was surprised the quote was on Wikipedia, and I haven't read the book but I love the movie, too.

Thanks everybody!

Anonymous said...

I'm with you! Mixtapes are not dead! I'll gladly make a tape for anyone that wants one and love doing so. -Ben