Home Taping iS KILLin Music

yes i've been doing tapes for people since i've had music basically. at school a few of us used to do each other tapes. was a good way of broadening small amount of stuff. once i started getting into dance music friends wanted snapshots of *the best* of all the stuff i was getting.

for a while i went to a mod/britpop/northern soul club in leeds. because i was into the seeds and the chocolate watch band etc, i ended up doing tapes for people i came to know there as well. i didn't enjoy doing these tapes as much as i had for my friends in the past though. people wanted things to be within fairly strict parameters. i adhered to those parameters, which is why i didn't do many of these tapes (my only rebellion was to stick a bit of the fall or stereolab on at the end)

now i only really do tapes for a couple of friends, and i really enjoy making them again, i can put what i want on them, and make them nice tapes that have my character on them, and i also know that they *actually* listen to them. oh, and they have to be tapes as well, cdrs are not the same...

btw, note use of asteriks to denote emphasis, i ain't never using italics again...

I used to try to make mixes for people but I always felt they didn't appreciate it enough . However, I did own mostly tapes until last year. I rarely bought a CD. I had tons of tapes and I will miss them in thi s new age of the minidisc and cd r.

I used to make tons of mixtapes for people, in the old pre-napster days when singles, rarities, etc. were a lot harder to come by. It was fun to expose friends to bands they may not have heard, and I liked putting bizarre juxtapositions of different songs together.

But it wasn't napster that stopped me from making them: one of the things that finally put me off of making mixtapes was reading somewhere that making mixtapes for people was a method of letting them them know you were attracted to them. Though I suspected this theory was utter nonsense, I was still paranoid I had given a ton of people the wrong idea. So after that I was leery of making any more...

I guess this would be a good place to ask: has any of you made mixtapes (or cd-rs) for people you were attracted to? I just want to know if the aforementioned theory was totally off or if there really was something to it.

I've made more mixtapes for my girlfriend than for anyone else. But all of them after we'd started going out. The nearest I've come has been using a mixtape as one weapon in a get-back-together-with-me armoury (we did - almost certainly not because of the mixtape).

I have made mixtapes for people I'm attracted to, yeah, but it makes it more difficult and self-conscious. So I don't think the theory holds much water.

People I want to *impress*.....yes, totally. Generally if I suggest making a mixtape it means I like you a lot, rather than, you know, like you a lot. I don't think it works, usually, cause my mixtapes are notoriously erratic.

Stop saying 'mixtape' Tom.

Sorry, for some reason 'mixtape' is one of the few Americanisms to arouse irrational annoyance in me. You can say 'soccer' all you like, though.

I'm sorry Nick, you're right. It used to annoy me a lot too and now I seem to have become completely inured to it, and it's a wretched usage because 'mixtapes' mean the things you buy off people in Camden Market.

COMPILATION TAPE COMPILATION TAPE COMPILATION TAPE

I take it, Nick, that mentioning a soccer mixtape would cause your head to explode.

nick, what should he/we say instead?

tom, mike and i, in the days before mp3, used to send tapes back and forth to each other. as i was saying to tom the other day, i owe a lot to both he and mike for turning me on to new music, a debt that i can't begin to repay them for. mike created some great covers, i must say.

i make mix cds for myself all the time now, but rarely for other people, unless i upload the tracks from that cdr for others to download. recently i made a disc for my sister but i haven't heard much from her since. hm!

my mixtapes are notoriously erratic

My compilation tapes are notoriously erotic. If you get one, BEWARE. It definitely means I fancy you. As a seduction routine, I have to say it has a completely abominable success rate. You're better off buying her a box of Quality Streets.

Had no idea there was such anathema to the word. I don't think I ever really see "compilation tape" referred to outside of commercial albums: ie K-tel, That's What I Call Music, etc. And that would be back in the 80s when tapes were still the major format.

recently i made a disc for my sister but i haven't heard much from her since. hm!

That's probably because she assumed men only send tapes to women they fancy, Fred, and she got freaked out. Or it could have been the Cheap Trick track.

Ah, Nicole, that idea comes from "High Fidelity". I think men, more than women, use the mixtape (hey! I spent 15 years among the Yanks! I can use their phrases if I like!) as a mating display.

Not always, though, I don't think. Sometimes it is a genuine "I like this stuff, and I think you should, too!" I don't think women use it as a mating dispay, cause we can think of other ways to show interest without having to be that subtle. ;-)

I dunno, I do feel that the mixtape (and it's accompanying cousin- the helltape) are rather something of a dying art. My BF makes mix- CDs for me, and it's somehow not quite the same. And MP3's? Oh god, no. Although MP3 is the "I'll tape it off a friend of the 00's" you just don't get the care, the guidance, and all that stuff that you get off a mixtape.

What about helltapes, though? Oh, I used to be the Queen of Helltapes! For those of you mystified, the helltape was the tape where you tried to generally freak out and amuse the listener, rather than expose them to good music. It was based on incongruous placements of songs - The Church suddenly breaking into Guns N Roses - songs that you *know* the listener hates interspersed with similar sounding loved songs, embarrassing cover versions, (Jim Nabors and Leonard Nimoy's versions of songs are particular good for that) inserted funny spoken word bits, repetition of particularly amusing phrases, and just general chaos and malarchy...

Oh, I really miss Helltapes. Did anyone else used to do them?

Tom made a, hmmm, *compilation tape* for me last year. Directed me towards the Magnetic Fields when I was still undecided, and also Julian Cope's "Reynard the Fox". And Disco Inferno. A lot of great stuff I'd missed out on / not been around for at the time, basically, so it served its purpose.

I used to make tapes in attempts to widen friends' tastes, usually unsuccessfully. Looking back I'd probably dislike most of the stuff I put on them, anyway.

Helltapes: guilty. (Surprise surprise.)

Tapes in order to seduce: not generally guilty (because I prefer the effect of Helltapes). Basically I'd rather be shunned than shagged. Nick Hornby = evil beyond explanation.

The reason why your sis hasn't gotten back to you on it is because your mixes are all crap, Fred. Rule #1 of making mixtapes for other people: pick tracks THEY like or seem similar to their tastes, not 800 bloody Beach Boys and Glenn Campbell songs when the person in question has told you a billion trillion quadrillion times that they hate those artists.

Err, yeah, anyhow. I guess that answers the question "Do they send you tapes you dislike?"!

I don't really do the mix thing because usually when I start trading with people their tapes are all awful and I hate to say, "Yo, this blows goats, hello". Tom has sent me some nice ones, I have subsequently lost them but they were pretty good. I think I've sent him one, Fred one, that's about it. Other than for my mom and dad and my sisters, who I have made several mix-CDs for because they all are too cheap ass to buy CDs, understandibly cos no one in my entire family (extended too) seems to actually like an entire body of work by one artist; you buy them an album and they're all, "This is crap, put it off". So mixes are more convenient and cheaper too as little gifts.

I suppose the last one I did was for my mom, which was full of such famous songs as "The one where the guy is singing in a funny accent" or "Remember the Johnny Depp film with the guys and they wore glasses?" and the ever popular "Okay, so listen, I really like this song by Shania Twain but I don't know which one it is but it's funny, and it makes me think of you, you know Shania Twain and you really could be the same person, philosophically".

the problem was this, she asked me to make a tape but didn't say what she wanted on it. "surprise me!" she said. my guess is that she was surprised. strangely enough, her favorite track on it was the go- betweens "bye bye pride" and she did some trainspotting (ow) of "heroin" and "perfect day." to think, i almost put "lust for life" on it too.

Next time you want to make a mixtape for me, Fred (sheah right), we are going to play the My Mom Game, by which I will listen 18 songs by ludicrious vague tangential description only, to see how many you get right.

Actually, that's a fantastic idea. All mixes should be done via guessing game.

I'll make mixes for birthdays and special ocasions... or as a mating display, fine. The last one I did had little sound bytes from a recording assignment I had to do where I recorded she and I whispering. It was too cute for my own good.

jimmy, the same could be said of you, you vixen!

Thank you.

I think Fred is drunk again.

Some one let him at the cooking sherry? You should tell his momma.

Someitmes it seems lik ethe mixtape is ones way of saying ' see how I am good!? My choices of songs proves I am good!" Like they are showing their superiority. Now how is THAT a turn on!?! COm on, chicken head!

It's NOT a turn on, that's the answer, and since I'm a woman and most of the people making mixtapes to seduce are men, take my word for it. The only way it's at all attractive is if the person takes the time to tape all songs YOU like and then give it to you, because besides the initial, "Oh, how cute, he did this for me!" you then go, "Ooh, he likes all the same songs as me!" It might be complete bullshit in the end but so are most come ons.

Ally: Thank you; I'll take that under advisement.

WHat if you ask a guy to put certain songs on the tape but instead he puts the Muppets Christmas Special on it, with added reverb and flanger? And he writes on it " I am the Honky Tonk's Worst Monk-bash"

It probably means he's selfish in bed.

That'd actually be vaguely awesome, though disturbing at the same time.

I have had what were to me Helltapes become simple... "mix tapes" (is it better if it's 2 words, Nick?). In 4 years Yazoo went from irritating to infectious. Same tape. Same music.

Compilation tapes, I use them in whatever form I need, documents, cross-sections of your own taste, messages, reminders, fuel for a trip, and since I stopped listening to albums all the way through everytime, they've become essential. I love their expressive capacity. My friend and I had a 'huge' falling out, but we kept in touch over the years with mix tapes.
But practically, if you want them heard, find out how the reciever listens to audio tapes. In the car? on the bike? in the bath? or do they play them on the tranny in the kitchen. But I don't usually make tapes for people who don't ask for them.
Though I celebrate the tape as a format (when I'm driving I love to guess where tracks start on the opposite side and hit auto-reverse, and I wouldn't do unless I got right enough) But I've been using MD's to compile discs, then knock out tapes, or round people's house's I just plug in and copy their stereo output all night. My world would be smaller without compilation tapes.

when I'm driving I love to guess where tracks start on the opposite side and hit auto-reverse

You're right, that does sound good.

I don't make them on principle, that principle being that they're hard evidence as to what's in your record collection. There's a tape floating about out there I did for a friend 5 years ago which has a lot of stuff on it I'd like to forget.

(sigh) My poor tapes. THey sit abandodned. The good ones have been digitized to MD. NOw the rest look at me with a meloncholy look and seem to say "Are we THAT hissy?" I say " Its not really the hiss, its the disintigration and the no track marks" THese days making a mix cd r form the harddrive is so easy, and cdrs are like 40 cents. SO its not really even an act of devotion any more. You might as well give someone a ... a...

apple.

Actually, when I was applying to colleges I went to take a look at RPI in Troy, NY. I ended up staying in a freshman dorm, and the guy I was staying with had a roommate whose wall was COVERED with a rack of about 80-or-so mix tapes, all made by his girlfriend for the very many special occasions they so obviously had -- Valentine's Day, 1st anniversary, birthdays and the like. I imagine, in my darkest of souls, that they even had one for the first time she swallowed, but that's just me thinking out loud and in poor taste, as it were...

I want to have a t-shirt that sez "Fuck Me I'm Not Emo."

(mind you, i have taped over some of them)

C'mon, people, mixed tapes as a mating ritual predates Hornby by a lonnnnng shot. I've also given up using it as such because of the notoriously bad results, and now just make tapes for people if there are things that I think they would enjoy. I also remember a long time before that, however, mixed tapes were just a way of saying, "HEY PAL, this stuff is pretty cool." I used to be part of a few tape trading rings, and was in contact with a number of other people with similar tastes (which I don't share anymore). There were a few people whose tapes were more interesting than others, and one person in particular always turned me onto interesting bands, which I'd then follow up on at the record store, when I could get into the Big City (tm). If I miss anything, it's that sense of wonder, knowing that at any point something lifechanging could come over the speakers.

Sometimes I make mixes of Cds to minidisc, but then I feel like throwing out some of the cds. THe moral is, be careful about making your crappy CDs less valuable to you by striping them of their one "jem". Like Joe Jackson's greatest hits.

I've made mixtapes for close friends, usually because they want to hear some band or other, and I throw in some extra stuff I think they'd like. I used a mixtape in a mating ritual once, and it didn't work. But it was actually two mixtapes, two books, and a loveletter (which is how I used to go about things before I wised up). On the other hand, a girl once gave me a mixtape starting with "I Want You" by Elvis Costello. Needless to say, she did. I listen to that tape when I get down.

Oooh geordie. You have a deep conscience, sir. I too have committed this private transgression; my sister's mixes in particular. I hope that lessening the world volume of late Bonnie Raitt recordings balances my karma.

I like the idea of compilation tape as artifact. I have two such 'artifacts' from 1994 with songs like 'The Yodeling Hoover' (the Soft Boys), 'Happen Happened' (the Salvation Army), This Mortal Coil covering 'Kangaroo', 'Pictures of Lily', 'Crimson and Clover' (Tommy James), and 'Love' (the Poster Children). I've never made tapes that good for anyone.

My longtime girlfriend dated a guy in college who was a painter and had like 10,000 LPs. He made her a dozen or so killer mixtapes, which she and I are still appreciating 10 years later. He had incredibly diverse taste and a deep, odd collection, and to top it off each one is a visual treat (cf. his art background.) So every one of those tapes is like an archeology dig at Cheops. In some ways, I think it was those tapes that drove me to my current level of music obsession. I always was a bit jealous of that bastard.

Track him down and decide whether you want to beat him up or shake his hand. ;-)

Yeah - I absolutely adore making tapes of songs, etc. I always incorporate soundbites into the mix, and everything comes in with no pause whatsoever. I don't mean to boast, but I have great skill in making such tapes =;-)

But my best friend says they sound ... diseased - as though I had let someone in on my own little universe. Anyone care to try a copy?

1. Of course, Nick is right: 'compilation'.

2. Have made many many for the pinefox and others.

3. Making tapes for people you find attractive - sure, many of us have done that - but analytically it's a bit of a red herring, if a) you make compilation tapes for friends anyway, and b) you find loads of people attractive, but don't make tapes for all of them. If I made tapes for all the people I've found attractive, bloody hell, I'd have needed every tape I've ever owned.

4. Main principle of composition, by the way: variation. Fast / slow, noisy / loud, etc. Right? (I know that's a bad simplification and there are many other factors.)

5. How about having been ON a compilation tape? I don't think I've been on many compilation tapes at all, unless by 'compilation' we mean 'compilation of many things by one band / person / whatever', which is not, I think, what we mean. Being ON a compilation tape probably counts as a minor accolade, cos it means you're granted a context - you're granted some kind of parity with what comes before and after you.

Recent tapes have been inspired by ILM threads, heavy on 80s pop, Neptunes and Magnetic Fields, strung together with choice quotes from the threads (yes, the writers have been credited) translated to speech via vocoder. Two of these tapes have been sent back by the Post-office (apparently.)

I just remembered that I *have* made a successful tape before. It was for my semantics professor, so it was organized around topics in semantics - 'Something and Nothing' for quantifiers, 'The King of Spain' for definite descriptions - and the few things that I knew about him - 'Stars of Track and Field' cos I saw him running with the track team once on my way back to the dorm (I think he was practicing for a marathon), 'Edinburgh Man' cos he went to the University of Edinburgh. He was surprised, and he got the joke about the titles. And of the bands that he was happy to have been introduced to, I think the first one he mentioned was Belle and Sebastian.

So themes for titles can be a useful organizing principle, much like 'the concept' in concept albums.

Compilation, not mixtape. I don't like themes. I don't like two songs by the same artist. I like them to flow, rise and fall. I don't (generally) like to put a fast track straight after a slow track. The first track should make you turn it up. The last track should make you play it again. The last track is often something fast but uncluttered so it doesn't sound as fast or something slow that still gets you hyped for the first track again. A mix of genres is very hard to pull off. Recently I've got lazy and just bunged stuff on CD to rock while I'm cruising in my whip. Why's no one posting track listings? Is it because they're usually shit, if that website full of them's anything to go by?

Tracklists???

In The Thrill Of The Needle And Anonymous Sex

SIDE A 1. Stash 2. Radiohead: Karma Police 3. James Horner: The Portrait 4. Howls Of Glee 5. Whodini: Now That Whodini’s Inside The Joint 6. Burial 7. Ordo Ecclesiae Mortis: Mother Of Pain 8. Comment To Previous Artist 9. Moby: Stream 10. Beyond Dawn: Need 11. The Macc Lads: Buenos Aires ’91 12. Taqasim: (opening to) Improvisation #3 13. Lou Reed featuring Laurie Anderson: Rock Minuet 14. Guitar Wolf: Cyborg Kids 15. Star

SIDE B 16. Worked Up 17. The Durutti Column: Sketch For Dawn I 18. Special Duties: Violent Society 19. Listen 20. Salif Keita: Kuma 21. Bob Dylan: Standing In The Doorway 22. The Darkness 23. Members of the Mowanjum Community: Wounded Warrior (Part 1) 24. Steve Reich: It’s Gonna Rain (Part 2) 25. Future Sound Of London featuring Talvin Singh: Life Form Ends 26. David E. Williams: Murder The World With Me 27. Dick Dale: Misirlou 28. It’s Nice To Have A Boyfriend 29. John Oswald / The Grateful Dead: Mirror Ashes Finale 30. Have A Nice Day

Doctor Q & The Deluxe Electric Mistress

SIDE A 1. Letter To Mrs Thatcher 2. InstruMental: Dance With Dhole 2 3. Boogie Down Productions: Like A Throttle 4. Big & Brown 5. Joy Division: Dead Souls 6. Traffic: Tragic Magic 7. The Housemartins: Sheep 8. Neil Young: Only Love Can Break Your Heart 9. The Spanish Inquisition 10. Kraftwerk: Radioactivity 11. The Durutti Column: Never Known 12. Dead Can Dance: Indus 13. L00NY

SIDE B 14. Loop Guru: Papasus 15. Enigma: The Dream Of The Dolphin 16. GO! Crazy 17. Tony Bennett: East Of The Sun (West Of The Moon) 18. Ulver: East Of The Sunne And West Of The Moone 19. Hideous Intro 20. MASONNA: Destructive Microphone Part One 21. Gibson Bros: Brokedown Engine 22. The P.F.J. 23. Arcturus & The Deception Circus: Levitation – Painting My Horror 24. MC Tunes vs. 808 State: The Only Rhyme That Bites 25. Jazz Hands 26. Dead Kennedys: Kill The Poor 27. InstruMental: Dance With Dhole 14 28. What’s Your Encore? 29. Elvis Presley: I Just Can’t Help Believing 30. Throwing Muses: Surf Cowboy 31. Get Over The End

A sample of Tom's mastery of the art:

Saint Etienne, "We're In The City"; Supermarket, "Supermarket"; Frazier Chorus, "Dream Kitchen"; Lambchop, "What Else Could It Be?"; Thieves, "Unworthy"; Simon Warner, "Keep It Down"; Julian Cope, "Reynard the Fox"; Omoide Hatobe, "We Are Hello"; Dock Boggs, "Pretty Polly"; Current 93, "Hourglass (For Diana)"; The Magnetic Fields, "Xylophone Track".

David Byrne and Brian Eno, "America Is Waiting"; Hal Wilner, "Whoops, I'm An Indian"; Disco Inferno, "The Last Dance"; The Magnetic Fields, "Take Ecstacy With Me"; The Buzzcocks, "Boredom"; ESG, "You're No Good"; Lloyd Price, "Coconut Woman"; Scritti Politti, "Prince Among Men"; The Shangri-Las, "Give Him A Great Big Kiss"; DJ Crystl, "Warpdrive"; Spring Heel Jack, "Life In The Freezer"; Piano Magic, "I Am The Sub-librarian".

I've no idea if it's representative, but I hope so.

pinefox: I've only been on my own mixed tapes, but I once asked another band (Deja Voodoo) what they thought about home taping and being placed onto tapes made for other people, and singer Gerard said something to the effect of: "We don't have a problem with that, but we'd like to get a copy of that tape, too!"

also it's gotta have no gaps at the ends of the sides but not cut off before the end of a track, i consider that very important. (do cut-ups or something to fill up those silences, whatever, i just consider it to be real poor comp-tape skills to have more than a couple seconds silence anywhere)

also it's gotta have no gaps at the ends of the sides but not cut off before the end of a track, i consider that very important. (do cut-ups or something to fill up those silences, whatever, i just consider it to be real poor comp-tape skills to have more than a couple seconds silence anywhere)

Duane - my comp tapes go exactly like that. I work it so that the last song on each side finishes in time for the tape run-out, without artificially fading it out. I have no silences anywhere, unless a part of the songs themselves.

That's rubbish. Some tracks need gaps, some don't. Knowing when to go straight into the next track and when to leave 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds, is much harder than it sounds.

I think there's something really perverse with making mix CDs. Just started to make a couple CDs. I can't seem to stop. Addicted to it. How can you only make one? I usually make one with local music. One that contains pop and one that contains rock/noise/experimental schtuff. On top of that I have made a tracklist with explanation.

Helen, it gets even better when you start archiving your cds into mp3's on your computer--you can make pretty good archival (read: convertible back to .wav) mp3's using the LAME encoder. Then you can make mix cd's on the fly by choosing any song you want in your whole collection! I've made like 15 mix cd's in the past two weeks-- egads!

Helen - would you make me a mix CD? Perhaps a mixture of Belgian stuff and anything else that takes your fancy? (This is with "C-90 Go!" in mind obv.)