Anatomy of a Mix Tape

My sister sent me this great article from Winnipeg this week: The Anatomy of a Mix Tape. Now we've all seen High Fidelity and know that Rob is a master of the mix tape. John Cusack stated some standard rules of the mix tape, including "start strong but don't blow your wad," and I'm pretty sure that the author of this article (from the U of Winnipeg student paper) plagiarized Hornby a little bit. But since these are general rules, it may fall into the category of general knowledge. Anyhoo, the article details the qualities of a good mix tape: sequence, song selection, flow, mood, and, of course, great songs. He made a great point that the tangibility of the tape is a feature in itself. With the advent of cd burning technology and mp3 players, the analog tape is no longer in vogue but the mix tape still is. iTunes has an iMix feature, allowing users to submit their favourite compilation mixes. Most times these are useless, as a really good mix tape is meant for someone. Hence Sharon's excellent cd that she made for me would not have the same effect on someone else, though the songs themselves are good. Mike Lewis, the author of the article, sums that point up in a question: "What do I need this tape to say?" Indeed. A tape is only good if it is supposed to mean something. Now I may be overdramatizing this a little (or just dramatizing), but a mix tape is different than a cd with songs by various artists on it. I have made cds of good songs before, but without the flow or meaning, they're just a bunch of songs and not very interesting. If you want to check out the whole article, you'll have to download the November 3rd issue in pdf from The Uniter's website. I recommend it, if only to relive your high school days of sitting around and making cds or tapes simply for something to do. The article goes well with my previous post about influential albums: many of those songs were on many a mix tape in my day.