REMEMBER THE SUBTLE ART OF MAKING YOUR OWN MIXTAPE?
Long before streaming services ever existed, before fresh playlists became readily available for you at a touch of your screen, and before AI and algorithms started picking tracks for you, there was an art form that is now forgotten: Making your own mixtape.
Burning CDs is the act of copying data files from a computer onto a blank CD. It was the norm in late 90s to 2000s. People usually did two things with a blank CD: bootleg an existing album or movie or make a custom mixtape, hands down the cooler reason to burn a CD.
To make a mixtape, it involved downloading music files off the internet. Which almost always involved illegal piracy. The popularity of peer-to-peer file sharing apps like Limewire and Napster made it possible to get nearly any album you wanted… for free. If you already had an album you could rip it onto your computer. Either way to burn a CD, you’d usually have to cop a pack of blank CD-Rs from a Radioshack or something like it. Then back to home is where the real magic began.
I call it “Digital Crate Diggin.” Endlessly browsing a treasure cove of shared music online. Peer-to-peer apps like Limewire and Napster were the closest thing to streaming back then. People from around the world would come together to illegally upload all their shit for other people to have. A real community. The reason why I call it “digital crate diggin” is ‘cause it’s like hittin’ up the record shop, on the hunt for gems. You had to download an entire album or song before you could even hear it. Mind you, this could take hours. Like flippin’ through vinyls, then tuning into them on a record player before buying it. No quick snippets or streaming, just pure discovery. Back then there wasn’t AI to put you onto music based off an algorithm. The store clerks were the closest thing. But mostly, it was just you, your curiosity, and your taste.
There is no other experience like building a library filled with illegal music. Then curating a playlist for blank CD. It’s a like gallery curator, picking what art to showcase in a gallery. Kind of a stretch, but you get my drift. Now CD-R’s only held about 80 minutes of music. Which is just about 15 songs. This is what makes it a subtle art. You had a limit, a box to work within. You couldn’t just be like “imma make a playlist” then just toss an unlimited number of your liked tracks to it. Don’t get me wrong there is still a subtle art of making playlists and always will be. But the act of burning a CD was more of a process. It required more effort, more thought. Hours and hours of listening, downloading, then maybe deleting and rewriting, all to make something to listen to. Your own custom mixtape. Something that existed in the real world, that you created. When you think about it, it’s low-key your artwork. After the CD is done burning the cd drive would pop open and there it was your brainchild. But it doesn’t end there, now you gotta listen to it, to see if it’s how you imagined it would sound. If you locked in and made the perfect mixtape, now comes the final part of the process. Labeling the CD. Grabbing a sharpie and writing whatever the fuck you want on it. Giving a title to your art piece that you put all that work into.
The nostalgia of going through your CD case of custom burned CDs nowadays is pretty much nonexistent. There is no practical reason to burn CDs anymore; every modern laptop and functioning PC no longer even feature a CD drive. Limewire and Napster are dead after being clipped for music piracy. Now we have streaming services with access to almost every single album that has ever existed in the palms of our hands to create playlists with. Plus, we have the help of AI and algos that tell us what we like and what to put on playlists, which I’m not the biggest fan of. It doesn’t give you the same vibe as a freshly made mixtape does. A respectful form of curation if taken with caution, it is an art form that is lost. Sending and sharing playlists are easier now, for better or for worse. Like, I mean, gifting your significant other a mixtape to show them you love them is one of the most romantic things that has probably ever existed…. unless it was trash
