The Mixtape Era

It's been a while. You would think that the midst of a massive quarantine would be the prefect time to write. Turns out that's not entirely true. I've been writing, but nothing consistent or cohesive. And definitely nothing worth sharing with anyone. A little while back, I had a very brief Twitter conversation about my unadulterated love of the "Mixtape Era" of the 80s and 90s. We live in a day and age that enthusiastically embraces nostalgia, it makes sense to take some time to talk about mixtapes.

I loved making mixtapes. Those slender plastic cases and toothed wheels were the very fabric of our teenage years and where we put our stories. We listened to them in stereo systems, boom boxes, Walkmen and, if you were lucky, car stereos. It was a glorious time where you waited with breathless anticipation for your or that special somebody's favorite song to come on the radio so you could record it. If you were good (I was), you could get it without recording the DJ introducing the song. (This was a serious faux pas.) Honestly, who could afford to buy all those tapes? Unless you joined Columbia House (I did) and gathered up those seven free cassettes/CDs for a penny.

I didn't half-ass my mix tapes. I was persnickety about the actual cassettes I used. I liked the funky, multicolored Memorex cassettes, usually 90 minutes in length. If you were tight, you could get 8-10 songs on a side. I actually preferred the longer 120 minute cassettes and eventually switched to the "chrome" cassettes, in the name of better quality. There was a plan, sketched out in my mind of what to put on that tape. If someone handed me a cheap tape, I'd scoff and buy one of the ones I preferred. It was a sign that this mattered, this was important and that I put effort in it for you, the listener. I like to think that they knew all of this.

I had a reputation for assembling mixtapes. I did't think of them as collections of music but epic stories. I'd create thematic "chapters" in my mixtapes with the occasional interlude of movie dialogue or scenes thanks to a stereo system and my mother's vast collection of pirated VHS tapes (Thanks Video Joan!) Side A might have one with songs like Johnny Gill's "Rub You The Right Way" and "If It Isn't Love" with an interlude of the "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" scene from Top Gun. The next section might continue the upbeat fun with "Brown Eyed Girl," Bon Jovi or "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf. It was assembling a story and hunting through cassettes and CDs to find the right song in the right place on the mix.

I'd carefully write on the labels with my creative titles for each side. On the cardboard insert, I'd painstakingly write out each song and artist. I'd label "sections" if there were sections. I'd make sure the cassette was rewound and ready for play. Then I'd walk away, hoping they were happy with the result. I like to think that they were.

I know that vinyl is all the rage, but I miss cassettes. They were MP3 players before there were MP3s. With vinyl you don't have much in the way of choice while a home made mixtape gives you a procured collection of what you want to listen to. It's these ideas that continue today and may be why there is no cassette revival they way that vinyl does. And now mixtapes are playlists and easy as a drag and drop. But there's something missing, something impersonal about playlists. So, I made you guys a mixtape to enjoy.