I am currently reading “Love is a Mix Tape” by Rob Sheffield. It’s a memoir about Rob’s relationship with his wife from the time they met until her relatively abrupt and untimely death (you find this out in the first two pages, so hold the anger on the spoiler alert). Rob is music critic for various publications, and having shared a common bond of music with his wife, strings the story together with the memories and situations behind a series of mix tapes Rob and his wife made for each other throughout their relationship.
It’s some real touching shit.
Mix tapes are incredible. Though, if someone were to give me one now, I probably wouldn’t play it. Not because I didn’t want to, but its the 21st century and cassette decks are somewhat hard to come by. In all practicality, they would more than likely be giving a mix CD, maybe even an iTunes playlist (though, the later lacks substantiation since it isn’t exactly tangible, and you cannot design mean cover art for the mix).
Purists would argue that a mix CD doesn’t compare to a mix tape. On a CD, you can jump around, skip the songs that don’t ring true for you, whereas on a tape, for better or for worse, you have to follow the story of songs as it was laid out for you. That might be true, but I don’t think that is enough to discount the value of a mix CD. The thought and emotion (and the RIAA-lawsuit risk undergone in obtaining the songs) is still represented and still comes through, no matter the medium it is delivered on.
I still remember the Love Jams, Volume 4 CD I made junior year of high school. It was preceded by volumes one, two and three, and followed by volumes 5 through 7. Number four was the pinnacle, the perfect mix of better known Bryan Adams and Boys II Men songs, mixed with the gems that lacked notoriety, but carried in their lyrics and music, the feelings I, at the time, thought I was feeling. Nothing ran truer than All 4 One’s “I Swear” directly followed by Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love to You”, read together “I Swear I’ll Make Love to You”. That is a pretty solid message…
I wouldn’t say I am great at it, but push comes to shove, I make a pretty good mix.
I admit that I dig mix tapes.
But, I know a lot of haters, especially nowadays, and I think I can understand their argument. A mix tape is a pretty cornball thing to make and give someone, especially in the courting stages of the relationship. It is sort of like say, “I want to tell you how I feel, but I am too chicken, so please let Richard Marx tell you how he feels instead, and hopefully you will figure out, that, like Richard, I, too, feel that way about you.” It’s a total copout, and should not be used….until, at least, date four or five.
Once you are in a relationship, though, I don’t think it is any worse than giving your significant other a pet name (Honey Bunch, Sugar Britches, Blubber Buns (a favorite)), or writing her a love letter or a poem, or shaving her name into your back hair, or whatever. People in relationships do a lot of cheesy stuff, and to outsiders that is exactly what it looks like, cheesy, corny-ass stuff. But, to the people in the relationship, oh, they love it. It’s a good thing it’s cheese and they are not lactose intolerant because they just eat it up. It’s sentimental and it makes them feel special, despite its recognizable corniness.
I would like to see mix tapes/CDs/playlists back in the limelight. Really, they work in any situation. Make one for Granny and call it the ‘Bust a Hip Mix’, or a party mix, a road trip mix, a break-up mix, a taken-a-dump mix (nothing inspires movement, bowel movement that is, then “My Humps”, which on a take-a-dump mix brings new meaning to junk in the trunk)… They are versatile, and they deserve more credit, even if they are enormously corny.
If for no other reason, you have the opportunity to do this: