The Death of the Mix Tape

I still think of Meri Haynes every time I hear the Chameleons. She gave me something precious that I will never forget. In 1985 Meri gave me a mix tape called “Enos Rocks” (in loving tribute to the Dukes of Hazzard Deputy) Among all the great songs on the tape there was this song by a band I had never heard of before. At first the song didn’t really resonate with me. Over time the two songs on the tape by the Chameleons got their permanent hooks into me. I became a fanatic. For years I included the Chameleons on almost every mix tape that I made. Almost all of my friends love the Chameleons, a relatively obscure band from Manchester. And it all started with a lovingly made mix tape. The giver comes to mind every time that present is listened to.

With mix tapes, even if I wasn’t being introduced to a new band, it was likely I was hearing something from an album I didn’t have. I couldn’t afford to throw all my eggs in one basket and go out and buy every album by a band I liked. And what if the album sucked, my investment was gone. We were more cautious in our selection. I couldn’t just download a band’s entire career and pick and choose. There is also the other side of this. It wasn’t my pick; it was someone else’s pick. I was introduced to an album on their terms. I submitted to their version of things. I listened through their ears. Anyone will tell you it’s better to listen to new record with someone else. It’s like going to the movie or a concert with a friend; it’s always a lot more fun with someone else there.

Mix tapes were a form of communicating. The tapes that spoke to you were like letters. The truly fearless mix maker exposed himself to ridicule. It was less about appearing cool and more about being real. Using other people’s music to express something personal. You’re “essential” songs were not based on a genre, a demographic, it’s hipness, it’s hip- unhipness, or even hook appeal. They were essential because they spoke to you. They were essential to share. I rarely thought of merely trying to turn people on to new songs, that would lack some kind of reality to it. It would only be a better version of radio. Radio at its best still lacks the personal touch. Now I will admit that at times some mixes ended up in more than one hand. Sometimes you made something classic and the mix itself went beyond your personal vision at the time. You realized you had made a universally good mix just by its perfect ebb and flow. Of course you didn’t really try for these, but when they happened you found it hard to part with. But in most cases you did part with it. Like a letter it is of you, but imparted to someone else’s care. Thus a mix tape by a real person was a treasure, a one of a kind. People were actually very excited to hear a mix tape; they took a lot of time and effort. I still have dozens of mix tapes from my various friends. I occasionally pull them out and I am transported in a way that no single album can accomplish. Sometimes a friend will call me and tell me that they found a tape I made for them. They couldn’t resist calling and telling me this as soon as they could, a connection was reestablished. I usually ask for them to tell me the listing. Hearing the songs listed on a tape I made twenty years ago, takes me to another place in my life like a journal entry.

These things have died to another thing. I don’t know what it is, maybe Pod-casting. But the digital age interrupts the flow, increases the choices, and is easily made and copied. The fact is, sometimes I would hunt for months to obtain the records that I felt I needed. Loving music required patience and perseverance. Mix tapes could help you through the dry times. There was no source to hear many bands without the mix tape. We shared our collections in this way. It was the most ardent recommendation you could get. The mix tape gave voice to the articles we read. I can read an article about a band now and go and download and listen to them in the same hour. There is something very disposable about that. In the land of mythos, music has lost its treasured luster. More and more it becomes a product as readily visible as water. Every show on television is a potential hit-maker. Products are advertised with another product behind that. I am not trying to be too cynical. It isn’t as if there isn’t any good music coming out these days. It is just harder for me to get excited about it. We don’t rely on each other as much for discovery. It is just one more form of communication that we have lost in this modern age. We have lost mix tapes and drive-in movies. Hand written letters seem the next thing to go extinct. The things that bind us to another individual are fading.

Some might say that I’m being backward and need to progress and blindly embrace the new opportunity, simply because there is one. Some might say that going from live performance to records and records to tape has been reduction and a revelation equally. I would agree, but there is something very special about the tape. It made things readily available, if someone put forth the effort to make it available. It was as working class as you could get. My first “mix” tapes were just me recording my favorite songs off the radio. I made my own radio show. Power to the people y’all. I wasn’t to be excluded from concerts that a small town boy couldn’t see in any era. I wasn’t limited by the poor selection at local chain record stores. My friends and I could exchange the things that touched us. No one had hundreds of albums to choose from, just the ones that mattered enough to drop money on. You had an investment in the music. People shared their investments with each other.

I changed with the times because I value communication. Why make mix tapes for people that don’t have tape players? Still for some reason love e-mail just doesn’t have the same ring to it as love letters. If we completely abandon the personal for the impersonal and don’t balance it I fear there will be dire consequences. Could we possibly become a people who all have something to say with no one actually doing the listening anymore? Is there so much communication that it is ceasing to have as much value? Are we so intent on communicating that we communicate less in the end? Are we moving towards our own narcissistic Tower of Babel? I know I draw out the accusation of hypocrisy. I am using these same tools I’m criticizing. But maybe recognizing potential abuse is the key to respecting the options we have before us. There seems a line that we should draw internally so as not the prostitute the one we love. True communication requires effort no matter the format. If we cheapen our language and quality of what we say we are in grave danger of having nothing worth saying.


We become more accelerated as a culture by the year. There may be something on the horizon that I can’t see. There are new things that join groups together. I also like the opportunity to meet people that I might not meet. Communicate with people who wouldn’t write a letter, but can write at least three sentences now and then. I must admit it is still less intrusive than the telephone. I’m not saying there aren’t positive aspects. It seems a shame one must die for the other to survive. My biggest fear is that I somehow believe that constant instant gratification on any level is bad. I can see how much I am already addicted. I’m addicted to getting new music more than ever and it doesn’t require effort or even much expenditure. I don’t need someone to introduce me to anything. I can burn off all my friend’s CDs and pick out what I like. I can go online and sample everything in my own personal vacuum. Easy access to too many things makes us junkies. But a junkie no longer enjoys the original feeling of the drug. An alcoholic no longer appreciates wine. Restraint is needed to enjoy something for a long time. You see I value communication as something that is part of me being a person. Being personal is what makes us unique. If we reduce our greatest forms of communication to impersonal we will become enslaved or diminished.