Death of cassette - death of Mixed Tapes

Great article in the local paper about the end of cassettes meant the end of mixed tapes and how burning CDs is not the same because making a tape meant listening to each song as it was made and all of the energy and emotion that went into making that tape.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/25/PKIM105DGF.DTL&type=movies

 

qtlaw: Thanks for the link. Been there, done that, too...

 

Last year, our editor wrote a Sunday column about the death of music on record, tape or CD. Basically said that in his day, coming over to listen to a record was the greatest date in the world. Loved it. Last line was something along the lines of, "I understand all the reasons to be digital. I just don't understand how a guy ever gets a date."

 

That was a great article.

One of--if not the--first gifts I gave to my future wife was a mix tape that I gave to her around Christmas 1994. The first side was songs that reminded me of the fall of '94 (our first date was Dec. 2) and the second side was a combination of favorite songs and songs that already reminded me of us. It was like I already knew we were going to get married and I wanted to preserve forever those first few glorious moments together.

She listened to the tape so much it got warped. She calls it one of her favorite gifts ever. Earlier this year, she put the songs on her iPod. I didn't have the heart to tell her it wasn't quite the same.

 

You've got to take the good with the bad though. Now, it's much easier to find twelve songs that you really think say what's in your heart.

Back then, it was a hassle trying to get four.

 

Actually it wasn't. As a collegian, I actually liked the music of the day, so it was easy to come up with 11 or 12 songs that reminded me of the semester. And the "B" side of the tape was comprised of my favorite songs, so that was easy as well.

Or perhaps it was easy b/c it was meant to be awwwwwwwwwwwwww. [/cheeeesy]

 

That it was hard to make one was a big part of what made the gift special.

 

Every rose has its thorn ... I said, every rose has its thorn
Just like everybody cowboy sings a sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn.

 

I lived with the belief that there was a perfect song sequence on a 90-minute Memorex tape that could solve any romantic problem. The fact that this almost never worked didn't sway this belief

Amen, brother. .

 

This guy is saddened.

 

The art of a mix CD is tough as well.
In the last year or so, on two Springsteen boards I'm on we did mix disc exchanges. Mix discs of non-Bruce stuff we liked. A few people put it together haphazardly. I not only struggled with narrowing it down to 20 songs, but finding a sequence that worked musically.
You make the disc, burn a copy, then listen to it, don't like the sequence and go back and switch stuff around so it works. Listening to the end of one song and the start of the next to make sure things transition properly.