The Dark Ages

One could say that mix tapes and the theories governing “the perfect mix” have started more wars throughout history than politics and religion combined. But one would be lying. However, despite a general lack of bloodshed or large-scale violence associated with them, mix tapes hold a special and opinionated place in every music lover’s heart. Every album has those certain songs which, though they may not mesh with the rest of the album, have a particular worth or significance to the individual listener. Since it wasn’t exactly possible back in the early days of music to press your own vinyl records, one generally had to accept each individual track as it came.

The Genesis of the Mix Tape: Cassettes

Then, in the ’80s, with the advent of the audiocassette as a readily available recordable media (for the younger readers, these were essentially long reels of magnetic tape in a plastic casing), the mix tape was born. Imagine people’s excitement when they learned they could take their favorite songs from their favorite albums and put them on a single tape. People began creating themed mixes for all sorts of occasions-mixes to embody certain moods, mixes of certain genres. But with power comes responsibility, and thus theories were conceived on how to best combine different tracks from different artists to give mix tapes a sort of coherent structure. A general pattern of the mix tape eventually formed, perhaps best stated by Nick Hornby, author of “High Fidelity” and rabid music aficionado: “The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick it off with a killer to grab attention. Then you gotta take it up a notch, but you don’t want to blow your wad. So then you gotta cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.” Thus, what is perhaps the cardinal rule of mix tapes came about: come in strong, then back off some and build to your “killer track.” Additional rules include:

-Try to keep a theme or mood. Too much disparity in the tracks will have you end up skipping around, which defeats the purpose of compilation entirely.

-Use songs that mean something to you. Being elitist is fine, just don’t be a snob for the sake of snobbery.

-Listen to your mix a couple of times. Don’t just slap a track listing together, or you will most certainly regret it.

-Don’t use the same tracks over and over again on every compilation. You’ll wear them out and look silly.

-Make sure that all the tracks are songs you’ll want to listen to over and over again. Sure, “Hey Ya” is a fun song, but how long till it makes you go insane?

Behold the Future

Despite how wonderful the cassette tape may have been for the compilation tape, one must admit: it kinda sucked. The sound quality, which was never great, only got worse as the cassette got more play time. Refrigerator magnets could kill them, and an afternoon in a hot car would make every song on the tape sound like a chorus of dying dolphins. Thus the electronics companies started the race for new and exciting ways to overcharge the consumer.

Minidisc

Minidisc, pioneered by Sony in the late ’80s and lasting in some form or another up until the present, was/is awesome, just misunderstood. Two inches square, re-recordable, a display listing artist/title information (!), and protected by an incredibly durable plastic shell, these babies could hold as much as a CD (recent incarnations tout up to 1GB of mp3′s in the same tiny format) long before CD-RW’s. Minidisc, if anything, is the closest heir to the cassette’s legacy: the re-recordability and plug-in-portable aspect of the player/recorders, coupled with better sound and longer life than the cassette, make minidisc one of the best modern mix-mediums. However, minidisc never took off, and though in my personal opinion it is superior to CD-R’s and most MP3 players currently on the market, it came out too far ahead of its time, and now that recordable digital media has become so popular it must struggle not only with CD’s but also with ipods and other new-fangled devices.

CD-RW’s

This is, with the exception of MP3 players, the least elegant mix medium. Fans will tout their portability and inexpensiveness, but a CD-R lacks any visceral qualities aside from your handwriting on the face of the disc. Manipulating a playlist on a monitor simply isn’t the same process, and thus the product seems to lack that certain something (cf. store bought cookies with grandma’s). However, convenience tends to win out, and if there’s one thing CD-R’s are, they are convenient. With discs for pennies apiece and a good balance between capacity (especially nice with new MP3-CD players) and sound quality, CD-R’s have their pluses. However, don’t let them get scratched, or your Beatles compilation might end up sounding like all bad techno remixes.

MP3 Players

The other night I woke up in a cold sweat. I had a nightmare. I was older, and the world had become something else, something frightening. All the people I had known or loved, all of humanity even, was condemned to backbreaking labor, feeding the bellows of violent machine overlords. I walked amongst the cities, I saw our museums and places of culture in ruins, until I came to the center. There, in the middle of thousands of feet of wires and unknown, sinister mechanisms, I saw their leader. Peering out to me from that twisted throne was their God. I saw an ipod there.

Hyperbole aside, MP3 players, especially the new high capacity models, take any enjoyment or fulfillment out of a mix. They are in their own right wonderful: lots of music at any time is great. However, when a mix becomes a playlist, not anything physical but simply a mere representation of a track listing, I feel it is no longer a mix. There is no permanency to MP3 mixes; they come and go with a few simple clicks. Regardless of technological advantage or convenience, there is something to be said for the blessedly physical, and there is also something to be said for not wanting to be enslaved by robots.

A Few Examples

A few members of the Cadenza staff and myself schemed up some mixes for you nice people out there. Here they are, with a bit of the inspiration that went into them.

Weight Room Mix

1. Black Sabbath – “Crazy Train”
2. Guns n’ Roses – “Welcome to the Jungle”
3. AC/DC – “Back in Black”
4. Lynard Skynard – “Sweet Home Alabama”
5. AC/DC – “Highway to Hell”
6. Metallica – “Master of Puppets”
7. AC/DC – “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution”
8. Survivor – “Eye of the Tiger”
9. Queen – “Princes of the Universe”
10. Loverboy – “Working for the Weekend”
11. Gary Glitter – “Rock ‘n’ Roll, pt. 2″
12. Van Halen – “Panama”
13. Elvis Costello – “Pump It Up”
14. Journey – “Any Way You Want It”

Yea, that’s right, I did put more than one song from the same band on this mix, but what are you going to do about it, you puny girly man? I will crush you with my powerful biceps. That’s right, who could forget the high school weight room with its wonderful blend of mostly ’80s rock-till-you-need-a-spot music? The mix is kicked off with Ozzy’s “ay ay ay ay” just as you’re doing some curls or whatever-the-devil you kids do these days. AC/DC is the glue throughout, completely essential to any weight room experience, with smatterings from other similar groups. “Sweet Home Alabama” happens to be the product of wistful reflection from a Memphis, TN education, but it holds valid elsewhere. There’s not too much to say or be said about this mix: adrenaline without pretension, free-weights without collars. – Sherief Gaber

As if Life Weren’t Sad Enough Mix

1. Roy Orbison – “Crying”
2. Johnny Cash – “Rowboat”
3. Hank Williams – “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”
4. Willie Nelson – “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”
5. Al Green – “Have You Been Making Out Okay?”
6. The Beatles – “For No One”
7. Palace – “New Partner”
8. The Smiths – “Never Had No One Ever”
9. Carole King – “It’s Too Late”
10. Elliott Smith – “Between the Bars”
11. Elliott Smith – “The Rose Parade”
12. Beck – “Already Dead”
13. Nazareth – “Love Hurts”
14. Joy Division – “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
15. The Cure – “Pictures of You”
16. The Beach Boys – “Caroline, No”

In case you couldn’t guess, this mix is the soundtrack to an evening between you and a bottle of bourbon. But these aren’t your typical “my dog died, my truck blew a tire, I found my woman with my twin brother”-type lamentations; these are for when only a song can express your deepest, darkest levels of depression. Note that I started the CD with some established old fogies before turning to a more eclectic mix. The three “Smiths” of mopey indie rock make an appearance-The Smiths, Elliott Smith, and Robert Smith of the Cure. I put Nazareth’s ubiquitous hit “Love Hurts” near the end so you’ll be too drunk to be annoyed by it; I anticipate a sing-along instead. If you manage to survive Ian Curtis’s harrowing “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” you can relax a bit with the epic “Pictures of You,” followed by the short, pretty “Caroline, No.” So hide the sharp objects, turn the lights down low, and get ready to cry into your glass. – Matt Simonton

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