Let's Make a Mix Tape

There are rules, per Rob Gordon:

'Now the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art.  Many do's and don't's.  First of all, you're using someone else's poetry to express how you feel.  This is a delicate thing.  The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up is hard to do, that 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.  Anyway....'

We've all been making mix tapes since whenever we felt the need to express something with someone else's words that we could not think up ourselves.  It's funny.  I still have in a box somewhere in my estate most if not all of the mix tapes that all of my ex girlfriends made for me, some as far back as 23 years ago.  I have no idea if they still play, but the spirit of the tape might be why I hold on to them.  These girls spent hours sitting next to a radio just waiting for 'What It Takes' by Aerosmith or 'Everything I Do' by Bryan Adams to be in the next block of music so they could record it, then write a heartfelt note, decorate the cassette labeling and pass it to me in school the next day.

Later, the CD-to-cassette tape made it much less of a time waster to make these mixes for your boyfriend going off to college, a friend you met on a beach vacation, or a cheerleader that you knew through a friend of a friend that went to a different school.  The advent of Napster and Limewire and other file sharing networks made the mix tape a lost art.  You downloaded whatever you wanted.  No waiting, no dedication, just a search bar and the world of music at your fingertips.  Making a mix tape is a lost art these days.  I will be documenting these tapes/CDs as a way to remember the past, discover music, and embrace the ridiculousness of how these were put together.  Enjoy. Once again, these are actual mixes made by actual people. I have tried to get back story if possible. Email me your mix tape list and the genesis for it at lajb31@gmail.com.