I was a teenager during most of the 1980s (I turned 20 in 1988) so I believe I was at the prime age for the use of the cassette as a vehicle for romance & sharing: the mix tape. Nowadays there are places online where you can gather songs; back then, you had to press record at the right time when you put the needle on the record. I made hundreds of them, for several girls, & a lot for my male friends.
One great mix tape I got when I met a fellow who loved Tom Waits. At the time, I had never heard anything by Tom Waits. He offered to make me a tape of his favorite Tom Waits songs, but he asked, "What have you got?" I was really into Nick Cave then, so I made him a Nick Cave tape. Later on - it's sad I can't remember this guy's name - I asked how he liked it. He loved it. I loved the Tom Waits tape. We couldn't agree who got the better bargain. That was probably my best mix tape exchange.
There were bad experiences, too. I was crazy about this chick named Amy, who shared a similar musical taste to me, & made her a mix tape in which there were, apparently, a lot of songs she already knew. I expected it would convince her to be mine. Instead, she said to me, "You're making me hate songs I used to love." That relationship didn't go anywhere.
Mix CDs, though more convenient, & of course with much better sound quality, seem less personal. I guess the whole process of sitting in front of your stereo, taking the records out of their sleeves, cleaning them, putting them on the turntable, turning the tape recorder on, playing the entire song, then making sure you pause before the next track on the LP starts - not to mention the process of scribbling in the tiny lines on the tape's cover - or whatever you call it - all of this took time & care. & once it was done, you couldn't move the tracks around, like you can on a CD before you burn it. You had to think about the tracklisting before you started.
& what has happened to all the mix tapes I've made? Probably all thrown away, long ago. Most of the women I made mix tapes for probably got rid of them after they got rid of me - & anyway, as the years went by, they also probably got rid of the cassette decks. They used to be standard in cars; they aren't any more. I know many people who've even gotten rid of their CDs, prefer to keep all their music on mp3s in an iPod &/or some kind of "cloud."
To be sure, I'd hate to have to sit down to make an actual mix tape again. I miss vinyl much more than cassettes. (& yes, I know, both are still around. There are even cassette-only record labels. I just don't collect anything in cassette or vinyl anymore.) I hated the sound loss in cassettes, & of course I hated when the tape broke or got eaten by the player. I have a couple of cassettes that I played too often, & have been demagnetized, & I keep them imagining I can play them again one day to save them - though I probably won't be able to.
But I think of the mix tapes I made with fondness, & would love to see some of them again. I would also love to see some of the people I made them for again, too. Probably, though, they, like the mix tapes I made them, are lost to me forever.
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