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 It’s
almost Summer. You’re going to be doing some laying out in your
Wayfarers with your trusty Walkman. You’re going to be driving around
with the windows down and the volume up on your car’s cassette player.
You’re going to want to listen to some rockin’ tunes on your jambox.
You’re going to want to impress a special someone with your musical
taste and generosity.
You NEED a good mix tape.
But what to put on it?. |
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A perfect mix
tape is a crazy quilt of musical styles. Not all one genre or tempo, yet
fitting together nicely into an appreciable pattern. Some sort of theme
is nice, I think, but don’t be too restrictive. It’s enough to pick
music that YOU love; that way, your own sparkling personality will shine
through. Do be careful to pick a song you won’t mind having stuck in
your head for the last song.
You’ll need a dual cassette jambox and some cassettes of your favorite
music so you can record your own tape. If necessary, you can tape a song
off the radio, but avoid if possible; the sound quality will be poor,
and you have to spend a lot of time hovering by the radio to punch the
RECORD button at exactly the right time.
(Tip:
If you must go the radio-recording route,
Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 is your best bet, since you’ll
probably know about where your favorite songs will be from week to
week.)
Be sure to take a little time to label your tape neatly, yet creatively.
Pick a title that sums of the mood of the tape. Be sure to list all of
the songs on in the cassette liner, and embellish with a little personal
artwork and the date. If it’s a gift, inscribe appropriately. Your mix
tape isn’t just a convenient way to listen to some of your favorite
tunes; it’s ART.
Here’s my ideal mid-80s summer mix tape: playful, bouncy, and way cool.
They’re songs that make me want to sing along and smile as I bop my head
along to the beat. I can just imagine chilling to this mix while eating
a Nestle Crunch Ice Cream Bar, chasing it with a crackling cup of icy
Sprite, and letting that hot summer sun shine down.
Jules’s Summer Mix
Tape
“A Dream of My Perfect 80’s Summer”
Read Jules' Other Listening To Mix Tapes & Thinking About . . .
Stories
