Friday, April 11, 2008

Muxtape.com: the tapes, they are a changin'


As far as I'm concerned, sharing didn't exist until the invention of the mixtape. Seriously, what did we share before that? Toys, apple juice and intravenous drugs? Booooring.

After which, boys and girls (usually the kind thatPublish Post could recite lines from any John Hughes flick) spent sleepless nights shut up in their rooms wading in the fluid world of their headphones, surrounded by swaying stacks of vinyl & cassette tapes trying to fit together the perfect synchronized set of songs for a special someone with songs both familiar and totally obscure. A crush, a lover, a friend, a parent, a girl you met in passing at the grocery store last week who said she liked your Flaming Lips shirt; anyone was game for your cassette tape's aim.

And if you ended up crafting the masterpiece mix, it not only shared some fine swanky tunes with whomever's set of ears you were aiming for, but it shared you; emotions and words you wouldn't have been able to convey otherwise. It was transferring your heart, mind, emotions and fingerprints all onto tape. It was an analog you! With all the scratches, twists, crackles, sparks and hisses.

They also opened up a time portal. Every time after that, decades later even, your mix recipient could pop their cassette in and immediately wash away back to their memories of you and that time, all vividly with the soundtrack steering their boat. Heck, I bet my talking about mixtapes is stirring up some of your fonder mixtape memories. Mixtapes do that. And they do it better than anything short of a flying Delorean with a Flux Capacitor.

Heck, I have a tape that I made with my best friend when I was in 2nd grade, and we "DJ" together on it. Just to hear my voice at that age trips my head. And, no, I won't let you hear it for any amount of money.

Then came CD's, the internet and iTunes. Mixes have endured the digital age in the form of "mixes" on CD-r's. Not as DIY romantic or indie-cute, but just as effective and powerful.

Get ready for the next age of mixes and sharing, because now we can share our mixes with all the other mix nerds dotting the globe via internet. Judging from other sites and blogs where I've seen Muxtape talked about, I'd say 'muxtape' has already become regarded 'new net lingo'---"check out my new muxtape!"

At www.muxtape.com you can upload your mixes and the rest of us can listen to them anytime, anyplace, long as we have internet access. I'm already pouring through their stacks and stacks of megabyted mixes to see if any ex-gfs have had trouble letting go of the tunes we once shared. But I should probably let the stalking to Facebook...

In any case, you can expect me to put a handful of tapes up on muxtape in the near future.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Dominique said...

Toys, apple, juice, intravenous drugs

lol...

I like the new banner. Very snappy. It's funny that you mentioned Muxtape. I was just fiddling with mine today. I'm not crazy about the order it's in, and I'm unsure about two of the songs. You should definitely shoot me a link whenever you put up yours, I'd like to hear it. I had tons of mixtapes (old casettes), but some bitch named Hurricane Katrina took them away from me. I've started over though. I've been making a mixtape every month/holiday/birthday since January. I pretty much plan to do it for the rest of my life. Ha.

PS: Declarative sentences about sex and Muse, pretty much gaurantee you're getting action, lol.

April 13, 2008 2:42 AM 
Blogger Leah said...

So yeah, this whole topic of mix tapes always sparks my interest. When I clicked on the Pottstown Mercury link this morning I was curiously only trying to find out what excitement went down last evening in front of my building in Boyertown. I got home and there was roads closed & firetrucks and blah blah outside. I refused to be one of 'those people'. You know the ones, they stop to look at everything on the road that is out of the ordinary, slowing down traffic for no apparent reason! So anyway, I didn't find out what went down in Boyertown yesterday but I did come across some of your blogs. I'm a sucker for mixed tapes. Back in the day I mostly would make 'torture tapes'. Why one would want to find every depressing song and put it on a tape to sit and tear to is beyond me. It mostly consisted of the timeless classics in my world of songs like 'Lovesong' or 'Somebody' but still...and then I read 'Love is a Mix Tape' and my life all made sense. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who appreciates the art of making mixes. Rock on!

April 15, 2008 9:28 AM 
Blogger Chris said...

i model my life after rob sheffield. good call leah.

April 15, 2008 12:50 PM 

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