Quirky Personal Mix Tape Rules

*cues

never two songs from the same artist - that's probably not quirky though?

Avoid being too pointedly eclectic (i.e. putting, say, Slayer and Frank Sinatra and Faust and Billy Squier all back to back). Looks too contrived and self-congratulatory.

my quirky personal mix tape rule is dont make mixtapes

Not a rule, but many great mixtapes I've made started with a vintage 45 and went from there. Some I can remember included "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker, "Comin' On Strong" by Brenda Lee and "The End" (great beginning, that) by Nancy Sinatra.

They're all honored in the breach, so maybe just guidelines and not rules, but I try not to have any song lengths in the range between 3.5 minutes and 5.5 minutes. I just think, as an example, that 4 minute songs usually should be 3 minute songs, too much repetition, so not as likely to hold a listener's attention. whereas a six+ song is probably composed of several sections so it doesn't outstay its welcome in the same way a 5 minute song does

I wrote down everything Jon Cusack said and worked from there.

Some imaginary 3 song arc rule that I can't quite explain, as if there is a shifting thematic/impressionistic connection between songs. ie songs 1,2,3 share something, songs 2,3,4 share something, and so on. Oddly enough, it can't go longer than three songs either, or I decide that it's boring and start over.

It takes me a long long time to make mix tapes.

My mixtapes almost always consist of things I buy or download in sequence, with things I decide I haven't heard in a while mixed in. When I have 90 minutes (and yes, I make tapes because it's all my car will play), I have a new mix. And then I start a new one.

For instance, I started a tape this week that went Psychedelic Horseshit, JJ Cale, Queens of the Stone Age, Bobby Bare. Because I bought the Psychedelic Horsehot album, finally found my copies of Era Vulgaris and Naturally while sorting through other stuff, and just plain felt like hearing "The Winner" by Bobby Bare. Couldn't care less about 'theme' or consistency. the 'theme' is that everything on my mix is good. Period.

That said, my only 'rules' are the obvious ones - no abrupt cuts at the end of either side, no more than two songs by any one artist, try to cut down on the space between tracks...

track names should tell a story in sequence. it's difficult!

^ I did this once. It was a great fucking tape, but it was mad difficult.

No songs longer than 4:30

Every mix tape must have Motorhead on it.

The only real solid rule that I have is that the music is the most important part—I'd rather have songs I like and that work well together than be clever. Far too many of the mixtapes I'm given fail this simple test.

Likewise, I'll sometimes use succesive, sequential songs (no more than two) from the same artist/album, as they already go well together

This is inspiring -- all of you still make mixtapes? For people? Most people I know don't have a tape deck.

Ah, unfortunately when I say "mix tape" I mean "mix CD," as I think many of us here do.

i made a great mixtape last week. my tape deck added an insanely awesome amount of fat compression to everything.. the chorus of frampton's "winds of change" sounds especially righteous..

i kept fucking up and had to rewind and re-record steve miller's "space cowboy" so that sounds totally wavy and wild..

i should make a tape full of super-compressed house like "discopolis" and "tubed"

This is inspiring -- all of you still make mixtapes? For people? Most people I know don't have a tape deck.

-- Mark Rich@rdson, Friday, November 16, 2007 1:26 AM

I actually still make mixtapes on my dual tape deck. Recorded from vinyl or CD or tape or MP3; all of em run through my receiver.

I always start with a short, interesting track, less than 2.5 mins if I can help it, but preferably more like 1.5, followed by an uptempo 3-3.5 minute track that will grab the listeners attention.

I will allow more than one song by the same artist, but NEVER in a row.

I try not to have a slower song till' about track 4 or 5, so as to maintain listener interest.

I refuse to use an opening track that is the opening track from an album, but apart from that, track placement isn't as strict for me as it is for the thread starter.

I like to end with a slower track, usually a nice acoustic closer, or just something that will stick with you, and (hopefully) make you want to start the mixtape over again.

I always have a "core" group of songs that I will likely pluck 5-10 of for any given mixtape, but I always start from scratch for each person, I can never give someone a mixtape I made with someone else in mind, Seems tacky to me.

Sorry for the abundance of quirks, but I've got it down to a science now, albeit a mildly "mad scientest" type science, but still, I do make a mean mix.

Every tape should end with Neil Young's "Ambulance Blues".

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/Songs-That-Thom-Yorke-Masturbates

>>never two songs from the same artist - that's probably not quirky though?

-- sonofstan, Thursday, 15 November 2007 22:28 (Yesterday) Link

I'll expand on this - no 'spawning' bands on same tape - example - Jawbreaker track and Jets to Brazil track; Moles track and Cardinal or Richard Davies track; Heatmiser with a Quasi or E. Smith track, etc.

Though I'm not a big fan - I like to put one or two chamber pop genre type tracks on a tape - makes it fun in a lot of settings. 'Care of Cell 44' by the Zombies into 'Lazy Line Painter Jane' by Belle and Sebastian is a fun segue.

No matter what, there must be some Sloan, Pavement or Scott Walker.

My favorite segue is "I Keep Coming Back" by Afghan Whigs into "Newark Wilder" by Pavement.

track names should tell a story in sequence. it's difficult!

Great idea, just like in If On A Winter's Night A Traveler! I will try this on my next mix tape. Reminds me of the most rule-based mix I ever made. It was a valentine, so all the songs had to be love songs and none could mention any name other than hers. Also it was an acrostic: the first letter in the song titles on side 1 spelled out her full name, and on side 2 they spelled out "Happy Valentine's Day Love Dan" (Dan being me). Getting all those titles to fit on a 90-minute tape required finding a ton of short songs, and I think this was the only time I bought music just so I could put it on a mix.

I've thought of similar rules before. Like no more than 1 or 2 tracks per artist, and definitely not more than 1 track from a compilation. And I tend to presume that everybody else operates with these seemingly obvious rules, but then it just seems incredibly anal and ridiculous, so I'll try to ignore it. Fuck the mix-tape police!

it kills me when i pull more than one track from a compilation. except for one that was out of print and nobody would ever have heard it anyway, i put like 5 on the same mix

I like the initials of each track and artist to spell out the name and burial site of my last victim.

Songs have to go the entire length of the tape, even if it's really 46:23 long.

no title tracks...and only one "wacky cover version" per CD...

Not quite a rule, but I try as hard as I can to have at least one of the following in each song-to-song transition:

1) Some kind of joke, pun or thematic similarity between back-to-back song titles

2) The same key

3) Some instrumental/melodic motif that's oddly similar, and much better if the two songs are in disparate genres. (e.g., I recently put a Jake Holmes song back-to-back with a Nana Vasconcelos song where the guitar at the end of the first and at the beginning of the second had a similar quality.)

4) Similar tempo and/or groove (the way a dj would mix), and even better, again, if the songs are in disparate genres.

5) While I like eclectic, I try to generally avoid complete hot-water to cold-water shock. I try to either keep a mix to the mellower side or the more energetic side and set an rough upper and lower limit energy-wise.

Oh wait sorry, #5 there didn't really belong in that numbered series.

I use nonmusical elements to puncuate the narrative. Sometimes I introduce side (A) with some found-sound, ambient noise thing. (kids on a playground, an african bazarre, waves on the shore, passing car doppler effect, the tuning of an instrument). Then the beginning of side (B) is a good place for a skit or short bit of spoken word or film dialogue.

"punctuate"

it kills me when i pull more than one track from a compilation. except for one that was out of print and nobody would ever have heard it anyway, i put like 5 on the same mix

-- Billy Pilgrim, Friday, November 16, 2007 6:34 PM

lol otm

Yeah, you gotta fill up the whole tape / cd, I hate when someone makes a 12 song cd or something. You're wasting space, dummy !

"This is inspiring -- all of you still make mixtapes? For people? Most people I know don't have a tape deck."

Heh. My girlfriend, until last spring, had a tape deck as her portable music player. Being stuck with a crappy boom-boxy tape deck, I'd burn a 45 minute mix cd for each side, then record that straight.

One of the things that I liked about old-school tapes (and something that I can do again now that I've got reasonable inputs) is the live nature—I try to never re-record a track, because it'll wear out the tape (even though that could sound cool), so it's always spontaneous in a way that CDs aren't.

And building off of Hurting, I try to have the energy go in waves, so I end up with a lot of songs that start fast and end slow or vice versa.

"Yeah, you gotta fill up the whole tape / cd, I hate when someone makes a 12 song cd or something. You're wasting space, dummy !"

I got over that with CDs, though I still feel that way about tapes. With tapes, you've got that uncomfortable dead space that you can't just skip. With CDs, well, 80 minutes straight can be kinda bloated. I go until I've got a good song to end on.

How do you guys feel about genre skipping? OK to go fey pop: minimal techno: hip hop: fey pop, reggae: or do you group like genes together, making transitions between them? Or are we largely talking indie / guitar / pop / noise stuff here?

pause edits, fools

The best thing about tapes was that skipping songs was kinda hard, so you listened to them straight through. And eventually you grew to like the parts you would have skipped if you could have. You could make a mix CD one track, but that'd probably just make people mad. John Mayer had a funny line in a recent interview where he complained that no one cared about albums anymore and skipped to the songs they liked (boring complaint, I know). Something to the effect of consumers saying, "Thanks for this group of songs you're calling Blood on the Tracks, Bob-- I'll take it from here."

The best thing about tapes was that skipping songs was kinda hard, so you listened to them straight through. And eventually you grew to like the parts you would have skipped if you could have.

or you grew to hate those parts...

and fwiw, i think Mayer's complaint is perfectly valid. i'd probably feel the same way.

"The best thing about tapes was that skipping songs was kinda hard, so you listened to them straight through. And eventually you grew to like the parts you would have skipped if you could have. You could make a mix CD one track, but that'd probably just make people mad."

It would make me mad, but mostly because by mixing it all as one track, it makes it harder to pull tracks from it for future mixes.

I've got a friend who skips through tracks on mix cds when we ride in the car together, and it drives me MAD. Cannot stand it.

paulhw: Genre skipping can be great as long as you're doing it to make the best mix you possibly can and not just to show off how extensive your taste is.

So I'm moving to a new apartment right now and I just found a tape I made myself last time I moved. If I know me, I put it in that spot knowing I'd find it when I moved again. It's a good tape, but for some reason I was ending every single fucking tape with the demo of "All Apologies" that year.

Also, ABSOLUTELY no metal on otherwise non-metal mixes. If you've ever done it, you know how it can really ruin the vibe on a nice road trip, no matter how good it is

Though 'softer' metal like Isis or Jesu works for me in the right context.

I'm a big fan of genre skipping, though some people certainly don't care for that.

Also, I've made 10 "Megamix" cd's of 1 80 minute track with about 30 or so songs in a row, using cool edit. My friends love it, cause they can just skip forward using their ipod if they ever want to get through it faster.

-- to echo what others have said, two songs by the same artist on the same mix is generally lazy, although recently I made one with two Gordon Lightfoot songs back-to-back (from the same album, even!) and it worked beautifully.

-- NO REQUESTS from the person who will be receiving the mix ... I take this very seriously. The only exception to this rule = one's gf/bf. Even then, it bugs me to give in to their requests, but you obviously have to keep the peace sometimes.

-- I also have a somewhat irrational habit of not repeating artist over consecutive mixes. That is, if make a mix today, then the next mix I make won't have any of the same artists on it, even if those mixes are given to different people. I guess it's an issue of trying to stay creative, making every mix unique and not relying on what has worked in the past.

If I ever put a song by The Sisters of Mercy on a tape, I had to then follow it by one from The Mission.

I also hate when someone trys to lodge a request for their mixtape.

That's NOT how it works !

NO REQUESTS from the person who will be receiving the mix ... I take this very seriously.

very OTM; i also really don't like this.

NO REQUESTS from the person who will be receiving the mix ... I take this very seriously.

While also in the 'don't care for this' camp, an easy solution is sticking the g/f's requests at the front, even though it might feel schizoid.

Depends on the mix's purpose, too. If it's music she already likes from my stacks, for a disc of stuff I'd think she'd also like, then little judas goats suit the purpose.

I guess it's an issue of trying to stay creative, making every mix unique and not relying on what has worked in the past.

yeah if i'm really pressed for time I get hacky and go to trusty old tracks and juxtapositions but i'm always disgusted at myself for it. i've been meaning to set up some kind of 'quarantine' in my media player for tracks i've already used and never want to use again but i haven't figured that out yet. (that's another thing, scouring my media library for a couple minutes reminds me how narrow my tastes are, even across a bunch of genres there's a rhythmic/timbral/emotional similarity to most of what i've amassed that's kind of maddening sometimes. getting off my ass and pulling down some cds may relieve this somewhat but they're all the way in the other room:(

I generally need to have someone in mind, and a specific purpose. Ie a 'dance in front of the mirror with a hairbrush' mix for my 9 year old niece who just discovered Adam and the Ants. Or a Valentine's Mix for my husband of stuff that signifies moments and places we've been, or in-jokes that we share.

i still don't know what ever possessed me to make so many tapes for myself. i guess tapes were such a bitch to sift through it was just practical at the time.

I used to make mixtapes all the time, especially for driving. you get sick of the same mix after too many repeat plays...but you didn't replace the current mix, because you might come back to it. new tape, new mix.

My mixes are getting a lot better now that I worry a lot less about rules, track order, etc. My new "2007 Vol. 1" is like a dark chocolate-covered habañero pepper covered in gold flecks.