mixing the mix tape

As someone who cannot play a musical instrument, I can play them badly, bagpipe lessons in year eight anybody. I find that making a mix tape even though these days most are made on CD's and compiled from mp3's empowers me to make a soundtrack for any part of my life, or that of friends who I deign to give them to. A mix tape is different to just pulling out your fav tracks and sticking them on a tape or disc. That's a compilation. No anyone who has obsessed for days thinking about what the absolute right song would be to follow that Slayer track will know exactly what I am talking about. It is all about the ebb and the flow of the whole thing, is it ok to do this can you follow two country tracks with some stoner rock. Each individual would probably have their own rules about what they believe to be right and proper in the context of their tape. One good thing about the advent of CD's is that you no longer have that agonising decision of whether to let the song fade out half way through or leave a mass of white noise at the end of a side.

When I was a teenage lad, I would make mix tapes for all of the girls in school that I fancied a shot at, the genius of this was that when my tape did not make it on to their walkman, and get the desired effect I was after I could loftily claim that I was just trying to introduce them to some new music I thought they might like. No need for crippling embarrassment there.

So cheers to the mixtape, an aural snapshot of life.