History Of The Mix Tape

I came across this article about mix tapes on Salon.com:

Lost in the mix

In a new book, Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore and his hipster pals lament the demise of the mix tape in the age of the iPod.

In retrospect, the era of the mix tape -- which began not long after Philips unveiled the audiocassette in 1963, crescendoed throughout the '80s and probably peaked in the early '90s -- looks like a vast, unintentional folk art movement. Nearly every music-loving teenager in the country participated. Think of it this way: If every kid who spent a Saturday afternoon making a mix tape over the past 25 years had instead spent that time painting, sculpting or writing poetry, the '80s and '90s would be known as a period of unbridled renaissance in American outsider art. Now that era is over, the hours of tape-deck labor replaced by the drop-and-click production of the iPod playlist.

I think anyone who loves music and came of age in the late 80s and early 90s should be able to relate to this idea. I would guess that most of the mix tapes were those I made for myself, something that Nick Hornby lovingly talks about in his book 31 Songs. However, I certainly made some for girls, friends, and family members (an unsuccessful attempt to get my younger sister into indie rock). I also received my share from friends-I always hoping to be turned on by a new band or song. Some of my roomates were obsessive about their mix tapes. This is a good description of my friend Gaje, who used to make mix tapes every year and give them out as Christmas presents (however, I have been guilty of attempted brainwashing as well):

For rock snobs like the fictional Rob Gordon and record-store geeks everywhere, the mix tape has an additional purpose: to brainwash someone, to alter their musical taste. Like most people, I would imagine, I got my biggest share of these in college, when I had indie-rocker friends with enough spare time to make me grungy compilations of abrasive screamo, the covers scrawled with obscure, vulgar band names and bizarre symbols. I was brainwashed into an affection for Robyn Hitchcock by an indoctrination tape that my friends and I repeatedly stole from one another over the years, a tape I still have in my desk drawer.

He turned me onto to some cool music, but I can remember a paticular isntance where I just couldn't get past a song by an industrial noise band called Throbbing Gristle, so I probably only made it past that point of the tape once or twice to hear the other songs he recorded. I think my old roomate Mike probably had the taste closest to my own as far as music went; he also spent the most time making really cool hand designed cassette song list art. But I think every roomate I lived with during my Seattle days turned me onto to some band or at least a song or two.

I brought my boom box to my new office and I still have some cassettes that I listen to there (also some MDs"mini disks"-an interlude before I joined the MP3 crowd). So when I left Seattle in 1997 we were still making mix tapes, I have a couple "bon voyage" tapes from my friend/former roomate Greg. My "punk rock" gal pal Michelle made me some tapes(and MDs), and left me her collection as well, when she went back to the states in 2001. The vast majority of my mix tapes are lost to the dustbin of history I suppose, since I left those with my friend Dave (who I believe admitted to dumping them-and I don't blame him), when I came to Japan.

So now I have to make due with song lists on my iPod adn iTunes. Reading this article brought back a lot of memories. Incidently, there's a great Japanese word-"natsukashii"-/which roughly translates to "nostalgia", but it's more like "this reminds me of the time when ...I was young and carefree and just getting into Yo La Tengo and Pavement"/, which captures the feeling I'm having remembering all the mix tapes of the past.

Comments

[David Ehrich]

Pat-

you inspired me to get out a few mixes, some of them yours, and get in the 1991 volvo with 488,000 miles and a cassette player and drive until I get to half a million, or run out of gas.

d

[MC]

Dave, yeah I think driving with a good mix tape is one of those underrated plesures in life-Nick Hornby writes of this pleasure in 31 Songs as well. I just realized that it must be Memorial Day Weekend there-so enjoy your road trip.

Incidently, I was refering to Dave M, when I mentioned that I had left my cassette tapes with Dave and then realized I sent this entry to three Daves.

[lou]

you should load this song list onto the 'pod.

call it pink paper:

BOC revolution by night
Angst blasting concept v.2
Husker Du blasting concept v.2
Dead Moon “johnny’s got a gun”
Workdogs
Alarm “the stand”
Pavement “texas never whispers”
Monomen “ending”
Bad Company “burning sky”
Generation X
Frijid Pink “crying shame”
Frijid Pink “house of the rising sun”
Green River “unwind”

Kosokuya (zombie pop)
Dead C “envelopment”
Magnetic Fields “the desperate things you made me do”
Man or Astroman “9 volt”
Built to Spill “reasons”
Built to Spill “car”
Flop “regrets”
3D’s “sunken treasure”
3D’s “jewel”
We All Fall Down “safe”
Wipers “sinking as a stone”
Dinosaur
N.Y. -end

the actual cassette exists, and is on the floor of my truck.

[MC]

I actually recognize most of the bands on this list and have (or had) albums by a lot of them, but in order for me to down load it onto my pod lists I need a CD version burned for me...hint-hint...this year's Christmas mix tape/CD?

[phatrick]

I was thinking of buying that book for Gaje for his birthday, but since he knows about it now, the surprise if ruined. Oh, well forget it. So what's the matter with mixed CDs? (Unless, of course, you have a Volvo with half a million miles on it and only a tape deck) Why hasn't the mixed CD simply stepped into the shoes of the mixed tape? Perhaps Gaje can explain. Gaje tried to brainwash me into likeing Robin Hitchcock, but my brain was too strong - have never been able to stand that guy. He did, however, get me hooked on "the French Toast Man."

[MC]

Sorry for the scoop on the book.

As for the nostalgic value of the mix tape, I think it has something to do with the length of time it takes to make a mix tape. Then again, I couldn't ever really understand the vinyl vs. CD proposition, since I didn't really start collecting music until CDs were becoming popular, even then I was buying a lot of cassettes.

I liekd some Robyn Hitchcock-he was in The Manchurian Candidate! who is "The French Toast Man"?

[Mark]

The problem w/ mix cd's is that it's too easy to skip past songs. If you go through the effort of making the thing, you want your intended audience to hear it all. With a tape, unless you're really diligent with the ff button, you're kinda forced to sit through every song, which is good mostly, and bad when something like throbbing gristle (who I happen to dig) acts as a road block preventing you from hearing the rest of the tape.

[lou]

I agree with Mark - too easy to skip songs w/ cd.
I make comp. cd's from time to time - example:

2003 Crappy Hour

Sea of Tombs “firebirds”
Linus Pauling Quartet “grrrl”
Charalambides “can you count the stars”
Pengo “trans-love abattoir”
No Neck Blues Band “a little piece of the sky”
Growing “residual effects of inertia”
Force Field “lord of the ring modulator”
Tesendalo “entwurf”
Nile “i whisper in the ear of the dead”
Total “veildust eternity”

but (and I never thought I'd say this) I actually miss the cassette format. Cassettes were very tactile and egalitarian. They were the format of the people. The compact disc is the format of the elite. Perhaps now the i-pod is the format of the masses, but it's a private device, it doesn't have the communal quality of the cassette deck boom box.