Pudding in the Mix Tape

I caught my FWOB (friend without benefits) making a mix CD for her brothers & sister as part of their Christmas gifts. Of course I had to make the negative argument of, "Does anyone really listen to those things?" Then I remembered that she made a couple of them for me when we were dating and realized that my question not only showed my insensitivity, but also my cruelty. I haven't appologized yet, though, because I'm hoping that pretending I never said anything is as good as never having said it at all.

The mix CD, and its antecedent, the mix tape, are founded in the mid-teens years as a way for young men to woo young women. My earliest mix tapes, however were made for driving around with friends, while looking for parties. I used to love to make mix tapes because I preferred it to the annoying banter and unfortunate popular crap on the radio. My best friend and I had a reasonably diverse record collection (yes, we're back in the mid 80's here), as well as a handful of CD's. We liked to push the "mix" as far as we dared, adding old and contemporary pop-rock, country (mostly old), R&B, and even a disco song or two (at a time when disco was still considered a mistake by most listeners). I did not have Jazz & "easy listening" in my collection then, but I would have added at least Sinatra and Louis Armstrong at the very least if it were possible. The tapes were amazing, from my point of view. I thought for certain that everyone I knew would love them as well, but the fans were few.

When I was a little older and more confident, I made a few mix tapes for various ladies I liked. I put a lot of thought into them, usually creating a kind of theme or story with each one. Of course there was also a smooth transition from song to song, so there was a feeling of a real album for the listener. I have no idea if the mix tapes had any effect on the wooing process. They didn't always work. I remember some conversation about the tapes afterward, that they were a good mix, but I don't remember the tapes being played much.

Since those days, I spend most of my mix CD time just creating discs of songs grouped by release date. A friend downloaded almost all of the songs from the top 100 of each year from 1965-1999 on my computer, so I've been arranging them by actual entrance on the Billboard charts on CD for use on today's roadtrips to the grocery store. Beyond that, I rarely listen to CD's at all anymore. With songs as MP3's on my computer, there isn't much of a reason to listen to pre-made mixes at home anylonger.

With MP3's on computers and the iPod replacing the Walkman, the days of mix tapes and mix CD's seem to be falling into the past. With hundreds and thousands of songs at the listener's disposal on iPod, a mix is immediate. A mix CD is obsolete. It feels like the end of an era for me, and I wonder if an important part of the wooing process is being lost. I guess I'll need to rely on constant refills of her wine glass now.