The art of the mixtape.

I am not old enough to have had the experience of waiting for my song to come on the radio and hit record as quickly as possible, just to ensure that my song was being recorded onto my cassette. Okay, maybe I did it once or twice. But just when I was in my (short lived) country phase. In hindsight, I am glad that I didn’t waste my “hard earned” allowance on country music CDs. Why? Because that means my money was instead spent on boy bands and trips on my bike to 7-11 or Dairy Queen. So much better.

Anywho, this post is about how I have officially lost the art of creating the perfect mix. I blame technology! And iTunes. And college. And terrorism (I just feel like terrorists should always be blamed).

My sister and I used to spend so many "homework hours" in high school illegally downloading music. Get off my back, you know you did it too! Napster was a thing. Remember? And at the time it wasn't illegal! Well… it might have been. Beyond the downloading, we also had an insane CD collection. It was the 4-per page book and it was amazing. I think it is still at my parents’ house! Now I am determined to find it. Anyway, because of our amazing music collection, we became artists when it came to creating the perfect seasonal mix. Oh gosh, and remember the importance of the sharpie art? Especially if it was going to a boy.

A perfect mix would of course have an appropriate rise and fall for your day:

- Starts off slow for the drive to school (3 songs)
- Awesome sing along jams for off campus lunch and car dancing with your gurls (4 songs)
- A medium song for the immediate post school wind-down
- A slow rise back up for pre-practice pump-up (3-4 songs)

These days with iTunes and even Spotify or Grooveshark, you can select an entire album and just “shuffle.” That is what I have been doing on my iTunes playlists for a while now… and I can honestly say that I have officially lost the art of the mix. It is gone. I take my most recent purchased albums and random songs and just hit shuffle.

At one time there were mix rules! I miss the rules. If you had new songs by a fave artist, you could only put a 3rd song by that artist if it was a classic. For example, if I was about to make a new mix that had some JT 20/20 on it, I could only put a third JT track on there if it is a classic (ala Cry Me a River). Do you catch my drift?

A mix by me would usually include some Britney. A mix by my sister would usually include some DMX Dr. Dre (My sister called after the post went up to correct me) or Biggie. She actively thought we lived in the hood. It was SW Portland, not the south side of Chicago Linds. BUT her hoodness did give her an uncharacteristic love of rap that carries through to today. Most people would be shocked to learn this fun fact. She comes off as so straight laced!

For a post with good playlists from someone who has not lost this art - visit Venus!

Alright folks, have a great Tuesday! Tomorrow is May. I hope you have all seen that ‘Nsync GIF. Okay, just in case:

[1][2][3]