SIGN POSTS: The Mixtape
Rewind, Fast Forward, Play - Cassettes! (Image: Unsplash)
The Analogue Era
For anyone growing up in the 1980s onwards the mixtape was an integral part of life.
With the advent of the tape cassette, sourcing a blank C90 TDK, Sony, Memorex or Maxell tape and recording a bunch of songs onto it from the radio, vinyl LP or even another cassette, became of way of signalling your musical ‘colours’ and providing a personally anointed soundtrack, long before the days of playlists and ‘You may also like’ algorithm driven directions we have thrust upon us today.
This reached a zenith with the mixtape.
Originally spawned as a way to share a selection of songs with others the mixtape would typically be a hand written list taking up one side or both of the cassette.
Now this could either be a guidepost for the latest up and coming tunes, a compilation of the songs of favourite artists or tunes more carefully curated and themed for the recipient.
As the tape cassette died a fairly rapid and painful death prompted by the considerable traction CDs gained, the mixtape also seemingly withered on the vine. Despite an ability to burn songs onto CDs and achieve a similar unique track selection it never held the same esteem as the humble and hiss filled cassette tape.
Perhaps it was the quirks of the cassette tape that added something - the inlay card, the painstaking way of creation and track ordering (innately you had to listen in that order rather than adopt today’s skip-heavy world of Spotify), or the fun and games from necessary user intervention such as using a biro to tighten the tape reel up!
Or was it just really an 80s fad?
Recently the mixtape gained some airplay with the fictionalisation of Jane Sanderson’s Mix Tape book in a BBC drama of the same name, starring Teresa Palmer and Jim Sturgess. The story focuses on a romance that originated in the late 80s and is rekindled decades later from opposite sides of the world via Spotify song linked text exchanges.
A Modern Romance
So with a healthy dose of sentimentality and nostalgia I can also report I’ve been doing my bit to preserve the good old mixtape around these parts.
Having being with my partner, Katie for the last five years I was keen from the outset to add some romantic quirks to the relationship - something a little different.
I’m not completely sure how it evolved but I began to compile a monthly mixtape to mark each passing month together!
And it gathered some momentum and longevity (it’s still going!!).
Consisting of around 45 minutes of music the chosen songs initially covered well known classics that we both had an affinity with. It would be accompanied with a card and sheet outlining why the songs had been chosen.
Later versions became a bit more esoteric, reflecting maybe what I was currently listening to, or songs with some significance to what was going on in our life together, such as holidays or just an element of humour from other songs.
Originally the monthly mixtape package did include a CD with songs burned onto it, but production in this format soon ceased due to the recipient’s lack of playback equipment!
A Smattering of Mix Tapes (Image: Damien Wilkinson)
So a bit of romantic fun, leading me to be justifiably dubbed a ‘sopster’ at frequent intervals.
The Archive of Us
If nothing else the monthly mixtapes now document my life over the past five years in a slightly left field manner. I’ve not yet sat down and reviewed the journey but I’d be curious to see what memories this stimulates.
Now, pass me that C90…
