One of the best parts is about making mixed tapes. The great thing about this part is, these rules (which may seem totally arbitrary) are rules I have been following since, well, before High Fidelity was ever written. And that book was written when I was, um, twelve.
The rules, for those that are interested:
"...a good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You've got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention... and then you've got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can't have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can't have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you've done the whole thing in pairs, and, oh, there are loads of rules." - High Fidelity, Nick HornbyI mention this because the day of the mixed tape is on the way out. iTunes and the digital age are leading to the slow death of the mixed tape. Now, when people share music, they are more likely to hand you a flash drive with every song by band X ever made - including rare B-sides and alternate cuts... along with about three gigs of other tunes. Whether or not this is a good thing, I'll leave up to you to decipher.
But I have fond memories of putting together the perfect mixed tape. Of trying to figure out whether it's better to start with the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Love Rollercoaster" or Beck's "New Pollution" before seguing into the always popular "Paranoid Android". Of slowly accruing a huge pile of CDs by your stereo as you figure out the times on each song so that as much of the tape as possible is used up. Of constantly saying to yourself, "I hope she likes this".
So, yeah. Mixed tapes (or mixed CDs) may be a dying fad. But I can guarantee you I'll keep making them. Call me a dinosaur if you like. I'm okay with it.
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