CASSETTE WEEK - DAY 5
Mix Tapes
Hey everyone! Welcome to Day #5 of Cassette Week. I love seeing all the posts online of everyones tape releases. It’s really exciting and inspiring. Keep em coming! The tape culture is alive and well!
Another aspect of the cassette is the “mix-tape”! The making of a mix-tape is by far one of the most special things about the cassette tape. Nothing says “hey i think you’re awesome” more then giving someone a mix-tape.
I now pass it over to my pal J-Ro to talk more about the mix-tape. J-Ro has hosted a radio show since 2001 on WUSB. It currently airs alternate Saturday mornings (Friday nights) 3-6am. The shows goal is “to weave a grand tapestry that defies genre and era while focusing on the more obscure bands of each and to give more attention to the new crop of local Long Island bands popping up”. He occasionally does a thing called "Cassette Corner" where he plays songs from today's cassette releases! You can find him on facebook as RadioFreeJro
The Art of the Mixtape
Look, I know it's 2020 now, and we can fit like a billion songs onto a microchip the size of a flake of fish food, but you can't tell me that texting the person you like a Spotify playlist is the same as giving them a hand-crafted mixtape (complete with collage cover art) that you spent days recording and re-recording just so every second is perfectly sequenced, right down to the "filler" at the end of the tape that you put there just to fill those last 23 seconds of available magnetic audio real estate.
To get myself into the mood to write this piece, I grabbed several mixtapes with homemade artwork, ranging from watercolors (a Kinks tape made by a former Tower Records co-worker who I wish I could find on Facebook) to simple collages (my usual MO because I am not an artist), and am now listening to a mixtape made by a college girlfriend that is dated 4-15-94. It should be noted for the historical record that this is NOT the mixtape that I made her completely redo because the recording levels were unacceptable. That's a different story for a different time, my friends.
This mixtape, as was often the case when I was attending SUNY Oswego in the nascent 1990s (and as I had been taught to do by my mentor, an upperclassman named Eric, during my freshman year), has a long, ridiculous title. This particular TDK SA-100 was graced with the title "You Should Avoid Prolonged Excessive Exposure To Direct And/Or Artificial Sunlight 🔅 While Taking This Medication 💊" — most likely a reference to her recently being prescribed Prozac. She adorned the tracklist with colorful shapes using what I guess were color pastels. The tape itself is a great mix of classic punk and New Wave, samples and snippets from "Radio Yesteryear," current local music from the Albany area (where she was from), and timely 1990s college radio fare.
I often wonder if it was just that we were bored kids with too much time on our hands, or if we needed a diversion from endless hours of studying, but we spent HOURS planning, sequencing, recording, re-recording, and then finally, crafting these covers while listening to the finished product. Sadly, most of these covers were given to the intended person, and so whatever copies remain are likely buried in that person's attic or were remanded to a dumpster or a Goodwill store. While I have made my own dubs of almost every mixtape I've ever given to another person, scanners were not common and color photocopiers were expensive, so I don't know what original mixtape artwork of mine exists out in the world, aside from the few single-artist tapes I made for myself that are pictured here. Much of the mixtape artwork I have came from others.
I don't know what it was about the cassette that made it the perfect medium for all of this varied artistic expression. I suppose it was the accessibility factor (when I first started making tapes, we didn't even have a CD player, let alone even imagining recordable CDs), and that they came with their own cases (the 8-track tape had just recently fallen out of favor and did not even have their own case, just a blank label, and any attempts to decoupage or layer artwork on the cartridge would affect playability). Either way, in the 80s and 90s, everyone had access to a walkman to play the tapes, even if they didn't have a recorder. So I guess it was the universality of tapes that made them the perfect vessel.
Of course, now, it's a very niche thing. A throwback. Nostalgia. An anomaly. A fetish. That may all be true, but it's still the most organic way to share a love of music and a certain feeling. And I say this as a longtime college radio DJ (talk about a fetish) who has broadcast umpteen radio shows, co-founded an internet radio station (before internet radio caught on), spun countless DJ nights (vinyl or otherwise), burned countless mix CDs, and shared the occasional streaming playlist (which never feels right or natural). I will always love mixtapes in the way you never truly get over your first romantic love. And I'm so glad that even in the year 2020, I have still given and received mixtapes, although I am the worst at sitting down and actually making them. To wit, I've been dating my girlfriend for over a year now and still haven't actually given her a mixtape or mix cd, though I've been tossing ideas around since last September.
While we're all still in forced anti-social behaviors, I say we make a pledge to make at least one old-school mixtape for someone we care about, complete with some original artwork. If you don't have any blank tapes, check your local drugstore. They probably only have Maxell UR-90s, but they're fine as long as you don't let the recording levels get into the red. And don't forget to clean your heads with isopropyl alcohol (the closer to 99% the better)! Happy Cassette Week 2020!
-J-Ro (https://www.instagram.com/radiofreejro/)
Thanks J-Ro!
Some labels of today put out tape comps which in some ways is like a mix-tape. As for our Tapehead City annual release “Tapes Not Dead” (featuring songs from bands that release their music on cassette). I spend countless days obsessing on which bands to ask, which songs to use and what order they should go in. I actually spend way more time on this tape comp than any mixtape i’ve ever made. And i’ve made a lot!
In hiphop culture, the history of the mixtape is slightly different. In the 70’s, Dj’s would record their live sets and distribute them as “mix-tapes” or “party tapes”. This is how hiphop music was spread in the earliest days of hiphop.
Happy Cassette Week! Make someone a mixtape!