i love my ipod, but........part II

How does the ipod impact 20+ years of being a music fan and the way I used to listen to music compared to now?

Today I will take the angle of the mixtape. As I said in an earlier post – the mixtape is a term from my high school days that is now not so much a literal function but an idea and therefore the idea behind the name will be eternal. In other words, instead of compiling songs on a cassette tape, most of us know do it through a computer onto a compact disc.

The whole idea behind a mixtape was one of sharing your music with a friend. In most cases it is a gift, a letter of care if you will. The maker carefully selects songs that have particular memories, words, feelings, that they wish to pass on to someone who they are in love with, or a friend moving away, or just a person that you like to share music with. It was also created for special occasion: weekend roadtrip, party jams, Christmas cheer, the ultimate Johnny Cash, etc. It was a singular effort; you could only make one copy without degrading the sound quality.

With computer cd burning, you are still able to do all of the above with greater ease and the ability to mass produce. With this greater ease of making mixtape, I was able to create my own radio for the car. I really don’t care too much or the music on the radio and their annoying DJ’s that aim their intellect and humor at teenage boys. Since I am constantly buying new music, it is a way for me to enjoy a mix of new songs when I am not in the mood to listen to a whole album.

Now we have entered into the ipod era. People have been asking me when I will have a new mixtape CD? It has been a while, they will say. What happened? The ipod is great. I am able to load all my music on this tiny machine that fits in my pocket and take it with me anywhere. I can hook it up to my stereo, and it will play over my car’s radio. There is a shuffle button that is the ultimate “jukebox” playing a random mix of thousands of songs. I am rediscovering some of my older albums. And you can create “playlist” which is the digital version of a mixtape. All of those functions are great, but has the ipod killed the mixtape idea? I can’t give a “playlist” to a friend. I have missed the whole process of sitting down and carefully selecting a group of songs and then debating the song order and still being left unsure of the order.

I have fought the battle and I have won…more mixtapes coming up.

…to be continued.