Mixtape

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

audio cassette
mixtape with a handwritten label: "Funky Stuff"

A mixtape (alternatively mix-tape, mix tape or mixed tape) is a compilation of music, typically from multiple sources, recorded onto a medium. With origins in the 1980s, the term normally describes a homemade compilation of music onto a cassette tape, CD, or digital playlist. The songs are either ordered sequentially or made into a continuous programme by beatmatching the songs and creating seamless transitions at their beginnings and endings with fades or abrupt edits.[1] Essayist Geoffrey O'Brien described this definition of the mixtape as "perhaps the most widely practiced American art form".[2][3]

In

studio album or extended play
has become increasingly blurred.

History

An early pirated 8 track mixtape from 1974

Homemade mix tapes became common in the 1980s. Although the

Sony Walkman in 1979.[citation needed
]

A distinction should be drawn between a private mixtape, which is usually intended for a specific listener or private social event, and a public mixtape, or "party tape", usually consisting of a recording of a club performance by a

Kool Herc and the Herculoids, and DJ Hollywood would often distribute recordings of their club performances via audio cassette, as well as customized recordings (often prepared at exorbitant prices) for individual tape purchasers. These recordings tended to be of higher technical ability than home-made mixtapes and incorporated techniques such as beatmatching and scratching. One 12 October 1974 article in Billboard reported, "Tapes were originally dubbed by jockeys to serve as standbys for times when they did not have disco turntables
to hand. The tapes represent each jockey's concept of programming, placing, and sequencing of record sides. The music is heard without interruption. One- to three-hour programs bring anywhere from $30 to $75 per tape, mostly reel-to-reel, but increasingly on cartridge and cassette." Club proprietors, as well as DJs, would often prepare such tapes for sale.

Throughout the 1980s, mixtapes were a highly visible element of

CD burners and MP3 players and the gradual disappearance of cassette players in cars and households have led to a decline in the popularity of the compact audio cassette as a medium for homemade mixes. The high point of traditional mixtape culture was arguably the publication of Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity
in 1995. Since then, mixtapes have largely been replaced by mix CDs and shared MP3 playlists, which are more durable, can hold more songs, and require minutes (rather than hours) to prepare.

Today, websites concerned with electronic music provide mixes in a digital format. These usually consist of recorded DJ sets of live, beat-matched mixes of songs, which are used by DJs seeking to demonstrate their mixing skills to an online audience. Some radio shows worldwide specialize in mix series, including

]

Additionally, DJs such as

Rjd2 have gained fame for creating new songs by combining fragments of existing songs (which need not necessarily belong to the same genre). The resulting remix or mash-up can be seen as an evolution of the mixtape, in that it appropriates existing songs to give them new meanings through their juxtaposition, but does so in a quicker, more integrated style. This practice is heavily derived from the use of song loops as musical backdrops for an MC's rhymes in hip hop music, which is also related to turntablism
.

Legal issues in the United States

Frank Creighton, a director of anti-copyright infringement efforts for the Recording Industry Association of America, considers that "money did not have to be involved for copying to be illegal".[5]

Aesthetic

While the process of recording a mix onto an audio cassette from LPs or compact discs is technically straightforward, many music fans who create more than one mixtape are eventually compelled to confront some of the practical and aesthetic challenges involved in the mixtape format. From a practical standpoint, such issues as avoiding an excessive amount of blank tape at the end of one side (which requires careful planning of the length of each side of the mix) and reducing the audible click between songs (which requires mastery of the pause button on the cassette recorder) have been identified as part of the shared experience of mixtape aficionados. From an

juxtaposing a soft song with a loud song, and the overall "narrative arc" of the entire tape. One notable listing of such aesthetic "rules" can be found in a paragraph from Nick Hornby's High Fidelity[6]

To me, making a tape is like writing a letter—there's a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. ... A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You've got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with "Got to Get You Off My Mind", but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you've got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can't have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can't have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you've done the whole thing in pairs and...oh, there are loads of rules.

A handwritten track listing for a mixtape

Many enthusiasts also devote substantial attention to the packaging of a mix tape intended as a gift, sometimes going so far as to create cover art and customized liner notes. The cover of the original

31 Songs, a 2003 essay collection by Nick Hornby, was intended to suggest the packaging of a homemade mixtape, with the Side A half (of a Maxell cassette J-card) as the front cover and the Side B half on the back cover. It also came with an actual CD featuring ten of the songs discussed in the text. Indeed, the look of mix tapes, featuring hand-written notes on the recording medium manufacturer's supplied labels, has become one of the aesthetic conventions of modern design, a distinct style that designers may attempt to copy or cite. Many have been so widely distributed that the CDDB has logged and can identify ID3
tags when a disc mix tape is inserted into a PC.

From an artistic point of view, many creators[

didactic.) On a very basic level, the creation of a mix tape can be seen[by whom?] as an expression of the individual compiler's taste in music, often put forward for the implicit approval of the tape's recipient, and in many cases as a tentative step towards building the compiler's personal canon
of pop music.

In hip hop

1980s–1990s

In

In the mid-1980s, DJs, such as Brucie B, began recording their live music and selling them as mixtapes, which was soon followed by other DJs, like Kid Capri and Doo Wop. Ron G moved the mixtape forward in the early 1990s by blending R&B a cappellas with hip hop beats (known as "blends").[7] Blend tapes were developed to promote one or more new artists, or as a pre-release by more established artists to promote upcoming "official" albums. Often, mixtapes contain "freestyles" with vocals placed over the instrumentals of a preexisting song.[8]

In the mid-1990s, Rave mix tapes were very popular. The regulation was very relaxed as the DJs themselves played and mixed songs from other artists without paying the royalties.The First company which made DJsLive set commercials was NASA Hannover. This company had a mailing list including 100 DJs.

2000s–present

Early 2000's In the 21st century, mixtapes in hip hop are typically released as holdovers or low-key releases between

studio albums. Underground or unsigned artists typically release them free online on websites such as SoundCloud, LiveMixtapes, or HotNewHipHop, while prominent industry artists may release "commercial mixtapes" on streaming services. Notable examples include Street Gossip by Lil Baby, MMM (Money Making Mitch) by Puff Daddy, If You're Reading This It's Too Late by Drake.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Mixtape". Merriam Webster. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  2. ^ Resnick, Michael (2006). "BurnLists: The Digital "Mix Tape" Comes of Age". Archived from the original on 10 December 2006. Retrieved 15 January 2007.
  3. ^ Rosen, Jody (29 April 2004). "Unforgettable". The Nation. Archived from the original on 20 August 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  4. ^ John Shepherd, Continuum encyclopedia of popular music of the world. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003, p.506
  5. ^ Gallagher, David (January 2003). "For the Mix Tape, A Digital Upgrade And Notoriety". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
  6. .
  7. ^ , p.332-333
  8. .
  9. ^ "The Significance of the Mixtape in the Streaming Era". artists.spotify.com.

Further reading