   #copyright

Mixtape

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Musical Recordings and
compositions

   An early pirate 8 track mixtape from 1974
   Enlarge
   An early pirate 8 track mixtape from 1974
   The compact audio cassette brought homemade mixes of pop songs within
   the reach of the casual music fan.
   Enlarge
   The compact audio cassette brought homemade mixes of pop songs within
   the reach of the casual music fan.

   A mixtape is a compilation of songs and or tracks (typically
   copyrighted music taken from other sources) recorded in a specific
   order, traditionally onto a compact audio cassette. The songs can be
   sequential; by the 1980s, seamless mixtapes made by beatmatching the
   songs and creating overlaps and fades between the end of one song and
   the beginning of another became more popular.

   The most common early mixtapes were bootleg 8 track tapes that were
   sold at flea markets and truck stops in the late 60's through the early
   80's, with names like "Super 73", "Country Chart Toppers" or "Top Pops
   1977". The tapes with the year in the title usually were released
   before Christmas or early the following year, and were very big
   sellers.

   With the advent of affordable, consumer-level digital audio, creating
   and distributing mixes in the form of a compact disc or MP3 playlist
   has become the contemporary method of choice, but the term mixtape is
   still commonly used, and will be used throughout this article to refer
   to mixes in different media (CD, MP3, MiniDisc, audio cassette 8 track,
   etc.).

   A mixtape, which usually reflects the musical tastes of its compiler,
   can range from a casually selected list of favorite songs, to a
   conceptual mix of songs linked by a theme or mood, to a highly personal
   statement tailored to the tape's intended recipient. Essayist Geoffrey
   O'Brien has called the personal mixtape "the most widely practiced
   American art form," and many mixtape enthusiasts believe that by
   carefully selecting and ordering the tracks in a mix, an artistic
   statement can be created that is greater than the sum of its individual
   songs, much as an album of pop music in the post-Beatles era can be
   considered as something more than a collection of singles.

History

   Homemade mixtapes became common in the 1980's. Although the compact
   audio cassette by Philips appeared at the 1963 Berlin radio show, the
   sound quality of cassettes was not good enough to be seriously
   considered for music recording until further advances in tape
   formulations, including the advent of chrome and metal tape. Before the
   introduction of the audio cassette, the creation of a pop music
   compilation required specialized or cumbersome equipment, such as a
   reel-to-reel or 8 track recorder, that was often inaccessible to the
   casual music fan. As cassette tapes and recorders grew in popularity
   and portability, these technological hurdles were lowered to the point
   where the only resources required to create a mix were a handful of
   cassettes and a cassette recorder connected to a source of prerecorded
   music, such as a radio or LP player. The 8-track tape cartridge was
   more popular for music recording during much of the 1960's, as the
   cassette was originally only mono and intended for vocal recordings
   only, such as in office dictation machines. But improvements in
   fidelity finally allowed the cassette to become a major player. The
   ready availability of the cassette and higher quality home recording
   decks to serve the home casual user allowed the cassette to become the
   dominant tape format, to the point that the 8 track tape nearly
   disappeared shortly after the turn of the 1980's. The growth of the
   mixtape was also encouraged by improved quality and increased
   popularity of audio cassette players in car entertainment systems, and
   by the introduction of the Sony Walkman around 1979.

   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 DJ and intended to be sold to multiple
   individuals. In the 1970s, such DJs as Grandmaster Flash and the
   Furious Five, Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, Kool Herc and
   the Herculoids, DJ Breakout, the Funky Four, 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. One 12 October 1974
   article in Billboard Magazine 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.
   The CD-R disc is currently the most common medium for homemade mixes
   Enlarge
   The CD-R disc is currently the most common medium for homemade mixes

   Throughout the 1980s, mixtapes were a highly visible element of youth
   culture. However, the increased availability 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. While
   some mix tape enthusiasts bemoan the obsolescence of the cassette tape,
   others concede that the greater convenience offered by the mix CD has
   expanded the possibilities and accessibility of the medium, as
   indicated by the recent resurgence of mix-swapping clubs that trade mix
   CDs by regular mail. Some mix enthusiasts also appreciate the potential
   of the mix CD for extended, continuous mixes and creative album art.

   Today, websites particularly 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 The Breezeblock and The
   Solid Steel Show on BBC Radio 1 and The BTTB Show.

   Additionally, DJs like DJ Spooky, DJ Z-Trip or DJ Shadow, The
   Avalanches, and 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.

Mix tapes vs. compilations

   Many commercially available compilations of pop music, such as those in
   the consistently best-selling Now That's What I Call Music! series,
   initially seem to share certain important characteristics with mix
   tapes. Like many private mixes, a significant number of the earliest
   pop LPs were essentially collections of popular singles, and such
   compilation albums have often taken cues from underground mixes of the
   same era. One example is Disco Par-r-r-ty, the first nonstop dancing LP
   record, which was released by Spring Records in October 1974.
   Consisting of a continuous mix of songs by such artists as James Brown,
   Mandrill, and Barry White, it was clearly inspired by the bootleg DJ
   mixes that were becoming popular at the same time. However, the
   relative anonymity of the compilers of such albums is arguably
   inconsistent with the rationale behind most mix CDs, which typically
   reflect the musical tastes of a single compiler. While the editors of
   such compilations do exercise a certain amount of discretion over song
   order and selection, the term mix tape or mix CD is generally
   restricted to a compilation where the identity of the compiler is
   clearly associated with the album itself. For example, Starbucks, the
   coffee chain, sells a compilation CD series called Artist's Choice,
   which consists of mixes based on selections by such artists as Johnny
   Cash, Tony Bennett, and Sheryl Crow. Similarly, Apple Computer's iTunes
   Store features Celebrity Playlists, downloadable mix tapes in
   AAC-compatible form, selected by such artists as Moby, Barry Manilow,
   and Andrew W.K. The Late Night Tales series has seen artists such as
   Four Tet and Turin Brakes make their own compliations that are
   distributed in mainstream record shops such as HMV.

   The presence of a readily identifiable compiler whose tastes are
   reflected in song selection and arrangement allow retail mix CDs to be
   distinguished from other types of compilations. The distinction can be
   rather subtle. For example, while most "greatest hits" compilations of
   individual recording artists consist of a collection of singles in
   chronological order, others include album tracks, new songs, or obscure
   selections in addition to established hits, and sometimes reorder the
   songs for optimal listening. As such, these compilations can be seen as
   "artist-specific" mixes selected and arranged by the artists
   themselves. One recent example, among many, is R.E.M.'s In Time, the
   song selections and track listing of which inspired a certain amount of
   heated discussion within R.E.M.'s online fan base.

   One could also argue that the modern movie soundtrack, which often
   consists of selected pop music tracks (rather than the traditional
   orchestral score) is a mix tape with songs selected by the film's
   director or music supervisor. Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets is often
   cited as one of the first movie soundtracks to consist entirely of
   existing pop songs. Other movies with landmark compilation soundtracks
   include American Graffiti, Singles, " Footloose" and Pulp Fiction. A
   film's compilation soundtrack can sometimes surpass the movie itself in
   popularity: one notable example is the multiplatinum-selling country
   soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Legal issues in the U.S.

   One important distinction between homemade mixes and retail
   compilations of pop music is that the latter generally obtain
   permissions for the use of copyrighted songs, while the former do not.
   As a result, mix tapes such as those produced and sold by club DJs in
   the 1970s are illegal (although rarely, if ever, prosecuted) under the
   definition of fair use expressed in the Copyright Act of 1976. Most mix
   tape enthusiasts assume that private mix tapes are inoffensive from a
   fair use standpoint, but this is far from clear. An article in the New
   York Times cites Frank Creighton, a director of anti-copyright
   infringement efforts for the Recording Industry Association of America,
   as saying that "money did not have to be involved for copying to be
   illegal." While mixes on cassette tapes may not have inspired the wrath
   of the record industry in the past, Mr. Creighton said, "digital mixes
   have better sound quality." And given the proliferation of CD burning
   for friends and relatives, "it would be naive of us to say that we
   should allow that type of activity," he said. Others have argued that
   the Audio Home Recording Act protects the noncommercial use of home
   recording devices. (In general, it seems reasonable to conclude that
   individuals creating mix tapes for private use or one-off gifts are
   unlikely to be prosecuted under existing copyright laws.)

Aesthetics

   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 mix tape are eventually compelled to confront some
   of the practical and aesthetic challenges involved in the mix tape
   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 mix tape aficionados. From an aesthetic point of
   view, many enthusiasts believe that because a tape player, unlike a CD
   player, lacks the ability to skip from song to song, the mix tape needs
   to be considered in its entirety. This requires the mix tape creator to
   consider the transitions between songs, the effects caused by
   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 High Fidelity:


   Mixtape

     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.


   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
   McSweeney's edition of Songbook, a 2003 essay collection by Nick
   Hornby, was intended to suggest the packaging of a homemade mix CD. 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.

   From an artistic point of view, many creators of mix tapes seem to
   regard them as a form of emotional self-expression, although whether a
   mix tape retains the same web of emotional associations when passed
   from its creator to the recipient is, at best, debatable. Some argue
   that in selecting, juxtaposing, or even editing originally unrelated
   tracks of pop music into a new work of art, the "author" of a mix tape
   moves from passive listener to archivist, editor, and finally active
   participant in the process of musical creation. (Some legitimacy for
   this viewpoint was provided by Cassette Stories, a 2003 exhibition at
   the Museum of Communication in Hamburg, Germany, which featured stories
   and submissions from eighty mix tape enthusiasts.) However, this
   perception of the mix tape as a work of art has been criticized as
   resulting in a sort of elitism, with creators becoming more concerned
   with finding arcane and surprising combinations of tracks than with
   creating a tape that is listenable, enjoyable, or appropriate to its
   intended recipient. (In High Fidelity, for example, the narrator's
   girlfriend complains that his mix tapes are too didactic.) On a very
   basic level, the creation of a mix tape can be seen 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.

Types of mix tapes

   Although a "comprehensive" list of the different genres or categories
   of mix tapes could be extended indefinitely, and probably to no useful
   end, creating a taxonomy of mix tapes is a project that many mix tape
   enthusiasts have intuitively attempted. The different types of mix
   tapes identified on such community sites as Art of the Mix (which lists
   over two hundred genres, sometimes tongue-in-cheek) suggest the variety
   of potential categories. Beyond such basic genres as the simple taping
   of an entire album, the collection of favorite songs, and the
   "snapshot" mix of recent favorites, some of the more commonly cited
   categories (most of which are self-explanatory) include the driving
   mix, the workout mix, the party mix, the krazy mix (eclectic selections
   of obscure, rare or otherwise unconventional tracks), the didactic mix
   (intended to educate the recipient as to the essential works of a
   particular artist or genre), the concept / theme mix (a mix of
   Christmas songs, songs about cars, or covers of songs by a particular
   artist or similar), and the mood mix (simply a mix of songs intended to
   sustain a specific mood, stated or unstated - notable sub genres
   include the romantic mix and the break-up mix).

Mix tapes in hip hop

   The mixtape format is becoming increasingly popular as a way of
   generating hype for hip hop artists. Often each track on a promotional
   hip hop mixtape will feature the same artist, thus making it more
   difficult to differentiate from the definition of a standard album.
   However, these mixtapes will usually have much lower production values
   than a studio album, and contain numerous collaborations, remixes,
   freestyles and voice-overs, often not arranged in a specific fashion.

   Hip hop mixtapes are usually sold on the street or through independent
   record dealers or mail order, mainly relying on word of mouth to
   increase the artist's street credibility. An unsigned artist might
   release several mixtapes to generate buzz, leading to interest from
   record labels, while a signed artist may release a mixtape to promote a
   future studio album.

Mix tapes in global culture

   All of the references to mix tapes cited above come from media sources
   in the United States, the United Kingdom, or continental Europe. The
   use of mix tapes in other countries is less documented. However, it
   seems reasonable to believe that mixes exist wherever access to popular
   music is combined with a convenient means of recording homemade
   compilations (although mix tapes may not have been a significant
   element of the youth culture in such countries). For example, Sarah
   Erdman's 2003 book Nine Hills to Nambonkaha includes a description of
   the tape collection of a middle-class African in Côte d'Ivoire:


   Mixtape

   I click through his box of tapes, finding African musicians I've never
   heard of, old Phil Collins, Rod Stewart with a long earring before his
   "Some Guys Have All the Luck" days. But I also discover Van Morrison, a
     Rolling Stones bootleg, Peter Tosh, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Tracy
   Chapman, Sting. His mixed tapes flit from Donna Summer to Joe Cocker to
                                Bonnie Raitt.


   Mixtape

   One should also note that in Africa, India, and parts of the Middle
   East, audio cassettes currently remain the most popular medium for
   prerecorded music. This suggests that the compact audio cassette may
   still be the preferred medium for mixes in at least some parts of the
   world.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixtape"
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