A Brief Look At The Concept Of Mixtapes



by Duran Williams


Mixtapes that are also known as mixed tapes are really songs that have been compiled and recorded in a specific order on traditional auto cassette tapes. In fact, a mixed tape is usually created to help reflect a particular kind of musical taste that the maker of such a tape wants to show to the world.

A mixed tape is normally created with a view to reflecting the musical tastes of the person compiling the tape and it can include anything from favorite songs put together to a more conceptualized mixture of various songs that reflect a certain theme or even a mood.

The essayist Geoffrey Obrien is of the opinion that mixtapes represent a great American art form while others that are also very enthusiastic about creating such tapes believe that such tapes are very artistic, especially when the songs are compiled with care and are ordered properly as well. These tapes need to be mixed in a proper manner as only then will it help to create the right musical experience in which the sum of each part is less than that of the whole.

Once the era of Beatles passed, the era of the pop music albums started in which each album was created in the same manner and with different songs sung by different artists being included in the album.

This era soon also came and went and new digital means of recording audio songs began to take over which led to more affordable and more exciting mix of musical tunes which were now being sold as CDs and as MP3 music. These new inventions changed the way that music was compiled and heard but despite their sophistication, modern CDs and MP3s could not completely overshadow the audio cassette which continued to remain the media most closely associated with a mixed tape.

The earliest versions of these tapes came out during the latter part of the sixties and continued till the eighties and these were readily available in flea markets and also in truck stores and the earliest versions were eight track bootleg tapes.




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