standard mix tape rules apply.
one of my most favorite things to do in all the world is make a mix cd. in fact, i think i would be completely content if that was my only job for the rest of my life.
i remember as a kid, sitting in my room after school, making mix tapes from the radio. kids these days don't know how good they have it with the internet. back then, if we wanted to hear a new song, we couldn't just download it, we had to call our local top 40 radio station and request it. but even then there was no guarantee, and we'd have to sit and wait to see if the dj on duty would ever get around to playing it. and we waited patiently, too. i remember sitting on my bedroom floor waiting for hours. every time a song would near it's completion, i'd get my hand on the buttons, ready to hit play/record simultaneously in case my song was next. we had to work for our music. but when the sweet sounds of the song you loved finally hit the airwaves, you never regretted the hours you spent waiting for it. it saddens me that young people today don't understand the agony and resulting joy of that experience. music should never be taken for granted.
making a mix cd is a task i take very seriously. a mix cd is more than just a collection of random songs. it is an experience. it is a piece of art. and there are rules that simply must be followed.
the "golden rule" in mix cd making is this: no artist may be featured more than once on a single mix cd. there are very few exceptions to this rule. in fact, i hesitate to say that there are any exceptions whatsoever. putting multiple songs by the same artist on one cd begs the question, why not just listen to an entire cd of that artist? if the purpose of the mix cd in question is to introduce its recipient to a new artist thereby encouraging the recipient to purchase said new artist's album, then an argument could be made for including more than one song by that artist on the cd. however, i would argue that you are no longer making a mix cd then, you are making a sampler cd. those are two very different things. and even in the making of a sampler cd, certain rules should be adhered to in order to enhance the listener's enjoyment. for example, picking a few artists who's music complements each other and spacing them out evenly on the cd so that there are never multiple songs in a row by the same artist.
a mix cd should have a theme. it could be a complex theme like, music to listen to while lying comatose on the floor in a dark room. or it could be something as simple as, music for my road trip this weekend. a theme helps give the mix cd its shape and style and determines what it will communicate to its listener. i've had not a few people challenge my "golden rule" on this front. they want to allow for multiple songs by the same artist as long as those songs follow the theme of the mix cd. to those people i say, expand your horizons please. certainly with all the songs in the universe at your disposal, you can find another artist besides the counting crows who's music communicates melancholy and heartache.
i agree with john cusack's character in the movie high fidelity when he says, "you gotta start off with a bang, something to grab their attention. then you gotta take it up a notch. but then you gotta take it back down a notch, cuz you don't want to blow your wad." i like my mix cd's to follow a similar path that an artist might follow in creating an LP. you want a mix cd to ebb and flow like any other cd. so you might make a punk rock mix. and you can fill the cd with only punk rock artists. but you don't want every song to have the same amount of punk rock energy. you want to take the listener on a journey. just when they get comfortable, you want to hit them with something unexpected.
i like to finish off a mix cd in a similar way a band might finish off a concert. there's a final song that leaves the listener satisfied, but wanting more. and then there's the encore. something not entirely unrelated to the theme of the cd, but slightly different. a bonus track, if you will. perhaps a live track or a rare b-side by a popular artist. maybe a unique cover of a well-known tune. maybe even a guilty pleasure by some otherwise obnoxious pop group.
finally, there's the packaging. i take this step almost as seriously as choosing the music for the cd. if possible, give the mix cd a title. list the tracks so that the recipient knows what he/she is listening to. some people do judge a book by its cover. you want to make a good first impression so that all the time you spent selecting each song wasn't in vain.
there's much more i could say on this topic to be sure, but to reveal more would be like giving away a secret family recipe. my dad had this mix tape that we would listen to when i was growing up. it contained everything from the righteous brothers to madonna to billy joel. and yet it all somehow made sense together. the first song on side B of the tape was a one hit wonder by the band mungo jerry called "in the summertime." my dad loved that song and had been wanting a copy of it for a long time to play for us kids. one day he called in and requested it from our local oldies station. we waited and listened and eventually they not only played the song for us, they even played a recording of my dad's phone call to go along with it! man, those were the days...
i remember as a kid, sitting in my room after school, making mix tapes from the radio. kids these days don't know how good they have it with the internet. back then, if we wanted to hear a new song, we couldn't just download it, we had to call our local top 40 radio station and request it. but even then there was no guarantee, and we'd have to sit and wait to see if the dj on duty would ever get around to playing it. and we waited patiently, too. i remember sitting on my bedroom floor waiting for hours. every time a song would near it's completion, i'd get my hand on the buttons, ready to hit play/record simultaneously in case my song was next. we had to work for our music. but when the sweet sounds of the song you loved finally hit the airwaves, you never regretted the hours you spent waiting for it. it saddens me that young people today don't understand the agony and resulting joy of that experience. music should never be taken for granted.
making a mix cd is a task i take very seriously. a mix cd is more than just a collection of random songs. it is an experience. it is a piece of art. and there are rules that simply must be followed.
the "golden rule" in mix cd making is this: no artist may be featured more than once on a single mix cd. there are very few exceptions to this rule. in fact, i hesitate to say that there are any exceptions whatsoever. putting multiple songs by the same artist on one cd begs the question, why not just listen to an entire cd of that artist? if the purpose of the mix cd in question is to introduce its recipient to a new artist thereby encouraging the recipient to purchase said new artist's album, then an argument could be made for including more than one song by that artist on the cd. however, i would argue that you are no longer making a mix cd then, you are making a sampler cd. those are two very different things. and even in the making of a sampler cd, certain rules should be adhered to in order to enhance the listener's enjoyment. for example, picking a few artists who's music complements each other and spacing them out evenly on the cd so that there are never multiple songs in a row by the same artist.
a mix cd should have a theme. it could be a complex theme like, music to listen to while lying comatose on the floor in a dark room. or it could be something as simple as, music for my road trip this weekend. a theme helps give the mix cd its shape and style and determines what it will communicate to its listener. i've had not a few people challenge my "golden rule" on this front. they want to allow for multiple songs by the same artist as long as those songs follow the theme of the mix cd. to those people i say, expand your horizons please. certainly with all the songs in the universe at your disposal, you can find another artist besides the counting crows who's music communicates melancholy and heartache.
i agree with john cusack's character in the movie high fidelity when he says, "you gotta start off with a bang, something to grab their attention. then you gotta take it up a notch. but then you gotta take it back down a notch, cuz you don't want to blow your wad." i like my mix cd's to follow a similar path that an artist might follow in creating an LP. you want a mix cd to ebb and flow like any other cd. so you might make a punk rock mix. and you can fill the cd with only punk rock artists. but you don't want every song to have the same amount of punk rock energy. you want to take the listener on a journey. just when they get comfortable, you want to hit them with something unexpected.
i like to finish off a mix cd in a similar way a band might finish off a concert. there's a final song that leaves the listener satisfied, but wanting more. and then there's the encore. something not entirely unrelated to the theme of the cd, but slightly different. a bonus track, if you will. perhaps a live track or a rare b-side by a popular artist. maybe a unique cover of a well-known tune. maybe even a guilty pleasure by some otherwise obnoxious pop group.
finally, there's the packaging. i take this step almost as seriously as choosing the music for the cd. if possible, give the mix cd a title. list the tracks so that the recipient knows what he/she is listening to. some people do judge a book by its cover. you want to make a good first impression so that all the time you spent selecting each song wasn't in vain.
there's much more i could say on this topic to be sure, but to reveal more would be like giving away a secret family recipe. my dad had this mix tape that we would listen to when i was growing up. it contained everything from the righteous brothers to madonna to billy joel. and yet it all somehow made sense together. the first song on side B of the tape was a one hit wonder by the band mungo jerry called "in the summertime." my dad loved that song and had been wanting a copy of it for a long time to play for us kids. one day he called in and requested it from our local oldies station. we waited and listened and eventually they not only played the song for us, they even played a recording of my dad's phone call to go along with it! man, those were the days...
posted by sara at 2:39 PM
1 Comments:
yes, please keep in mind this blog is entitled MUCH ADO about SOME things. mix cds... is one of those things. but i wish the font on this site wasn't so big. it does make the posts look monsterous. oh well. read at your own risk. ;)
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