I believe in the power of mixtapes to convey all kinds of emotions, and (as described in Avenue Q) confuse the receiver. Mixtapes are also a pop-culture commodity, playing a central role in the movie High Fidelity, and taking on a life of their own in the book Hairstyles of the Damned. What defines a perfect mixtape, depends most on the sentiment you're trying to convey; but, there are a few simple rules for building mixes:
1. Pick a theme. Choose songs that work together lyrically and musically, and try not to bounce from idea to idea without a connecting thread.
2. Try listening to the beginnings of songs juxtaposed against the ends of the songs they follow. If you have a song that drops off without warning, and it's followed by a song that has a long and quiet intro, you should think about rearranging your list to create a better musical progression.
3. Start your mix with an identifiable song, but follow it up with something new and refreshing.
4. Don't place two songs by the same artist next to each other in the mix, unless you're creating an artist-specific mix.
5. The cardinal rule of mix-taping is: Don't give a mix tape with love songs to someone who you're not romantically interested in, unless you have previously defined the status of your relationship (i.e: you're definitely "friends", or the receiver is related to you).
6. Have fun and be creative! Rules are meant to be broken.
Here's my latest mix, concocted with uncertainty in my mind and restlessness in my heart. As you can see, I've broken most of my own rules:
"Tears Dry On Their Own" by Amy Winehouse
"Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix
"Dark Blue" by Jack's Mannequin
"Boxcar" by Jawbreaker
"Rebellion (Lies)" by Arcade Fire
"A Message to You Rudy" by the Specials
"What Is Rock" by Blue Man Group
"J.A.R." by Green Day
"Time Bomb" by the Old 97's
"Clampdown" by the Clash
"Hey Hey What Can I Do" by Led Zeppelin
"Fear of Heights" by Apollo Sunshine
"Sweet Child O'Mine" by Guns 'n' Roses
"Rebels of the Sacred Heart" by Flogging Molly
"My Old School" by Steely Dan
"Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In" by the Fifth Dimension
2 comments:
The real question is this:
Is a mixCD as meaningful as a mixtape? or...does it lose something when it becomes digital?
You could always make a virtual mixtape. Instead of doing a playlist, make the entire mix a single continuous playing file. You could even do some cross-fading here and there if the songs work really well in a sequence.
In the end, the same idea is there.
Post a Comment