A Few More Thoughts on Mix Tapes

After frustrations with the original concept, my mix tape evolved into “Tunes for Traveling.” As you may have surmised, this was basically a roadtrip CD. I decided I wanted to make just such a tape for summer vacations. My friends and I pile into a car and drive somewhere at least once a summer, and these tracks were meant to capture and enhance that feeling.

It turns out making a good mix tape is far more difficult than just tossing songs onto a CD. I was frustrated several times when I finally admitted to myself a few songs just weren’t going to make the cut. Some rubbed against the theme, others just didn’t have quite the right feel (since I had to buy most of them ahead of time in order to figure out where they fit I was even more reluctant to toss them out). Anyway, I wasn’t exactly satisfied with the order/contents of my final product. I think I needed a team of music experts to assemble the perfect list of driving songs. During my meager existence I feel like I haven’t had the proper exposure or time to specialize in any such mix. I was also irritated with my tools. I kept trying to fix the fade and overlap between songs, and in the end the CD burned differently than the playlist suggested on my computer. Photoshop further annoyed me as I worked on the cover. The booklet was tricky too; figuring out how to do it on the computer proved too much. Even after the simple cutting and pasting I was still faced with a stapler that couldn’t reach far enough to put the staples in the right places!

The plan was to try making my mix tape as much like a tape as possible. I decided to create an A- and B-Side, with a switch-up in between to cement the change. The A-Side was meant to represent the excitement and potential for adventure of the ride out. The B-Side was meant for the more reflective, slow ride home. I was frustrated that I couldn’t balance out the two sides like on a real mix tape (I just couldn’t find enough that I liked for the B-Side). I also tried to make the liner notes look a little more like an actual mix tape, writing some of it by hand. I think some of my liner notes came close to what I was hoping to do; there are jokes that anyone outside of Hortonville would miss.

Don’t get me wrong, the mix tape has been my favorite project so far. The thing is I’m a perfectionist when it comes to stuff I really like, as well as creative work like this one. While I have a hard time looking past a few things I would like to change now, other people have said they thought it turned out well. This project has inspired me to continue the process of creating mix tapes, although I think it will take longer in the future. Maybe someday I’ll perfect the techniques of transition and flow, then I can complain about kids and how nobody makes a good mix anymore.

Mix Tape Reflection

Although I’m tempted to say the mix tape project was our most unusual foray into authorship so far, I just can’t; that honor belongs to the plagiarism experience. However the mix tape may have given me the most radically new conception of what it means to be an author.

Mix tapes seem really straight-forward: you take songs you like and toss ‘em onto a tape or CD. To the untrained eye, perhaps that’s true, but to those who studied under Jack Tripper there’s a great deal more. Somehow taking songs which you never wrote, recorded, performed, purchased, sang anywhere outside of the shower, or even learned the real lyrics to becomes a new form of writing. There is almost an art in selecting the tracks and arranging them on the tape. The only thing I can really compare it to is when we did cut-ups. Mix tapes sample a huge selection of songs and sounds to create a new composition. They combine this “newer” understanding of authorship with “original” liner notes written by the person assembling the tracks. While the liner notes usually have some kind of song information, they are very open to creativity. They’re a place for thoughts and plans as well as poetry, jokes, and dreams. For people reading mine, and I’m guessing there will be a few since I’ll leave it on the floor of my car, the liner notes are probably going to come off a little strange. That’s alright, the guys on the roadtrip will know what I’m talking about.

I think a mix tape, or at least those made subscribing to the formula we studied, can say a lot about a relationship. Everything from song selection and liner notes to the cover hints at a lot that can be conveyed. As I continue on from this point, granted more slowly, I think it will be interesting to see what else comes out from mix tape making. This was a relatively light-hearted project, so it should be interesting getting into some heavier stuff.