from Nerds Gone Wild magazine.
itunes killed mixtapes

A girl in high school held a contest to win the privilege to take her on a date. All you had to do was make the best mixtape. My musical taste is legendary. When people mention Edmonton, I am the first thing that comes up. “Oh, Edmonton! The home of that kid who listens to the rad music,” to which the resident smiles and calls me an inspiration to all. But enough. The point is that to receive a mixtape from me is like being given a Christmas gift from Jesus.

I went right down to work making the best mixtape that has ever been listened to, because not only do I have a reputation to uphold, but, if I were to win the date, there was also a slim chance that I would get laid.

I started the mixtape with Boy’s Life “Cloudy and 4 ” — a song that starts quietly and builds up to its conclusion. It’s a song that grabs you by the throat and screams, “You! Listen up! We’re serious here.”

I followed the mixtape science to a “T”. I started with something to grab the attention, followed by something that that said, “While this is serious, we’re really here for a good time.” Drop the tempo here, raise it there, build it up like a monument. And at the end of the ninety minutes, top it off with something huge that smiles and waves and says, “So long and thanks for the memories,” and makes the listener want to relive the ride again and again, much like a water slide. This is all to point out that aside from hours spent in front of the CD player — playing, pausing, recording, stopping, rewinding and re-recording — there was a lot of thought involved too.

When it was finally done, I had created the Picasso of re-recorded music. It was the musical equivalent of the best sex you have ever had. I handed in my tape on the last allowed day. I hadn’t left my home in days, and when I finally made an appearance at school to hand it in, my closest friends no longer recognised me. BUT THAT IS WHAT PASSION DOES TO YOU.

I was at my locker with the tape in my hand, and was pep-talking myself into giving it to her. I mustered up the courage and walked towards her locker. The students stepped to the sides of the hall as I walked past, much like Moses parting the Red Sea. I got to her locker and the student body let out a collective sigh as I handed her my tape. She smiled as she took it and said “I was hoping you would give me one.” (Actual emphasis on the word “you”.) I thought about where I would take her on our date. She said that she will send out a group email to alert us of the victor. I thought that public humiliation was wrong, but I was never against showing my musical superiority to anyone.

A few days later it arrived in my inbox. I opened it, and well, whatever, I lost. AND THIS IS HOW THE MOTHERFUCKER DID IT. First, he did his research and found out what she liked. Then he went to iTunes, downloaded her 30 favourite songs by her 30 favourite bands and burnt them to two 45 minute blank CDRs. He took the first disc and recorded “side A”. While it was recording, he went on the internet and researched veganism to impress the cute vegan girl who just transfered into our school. When “side A” was done, he then put in disc 2, or “side B”, and hit record. While “side B” was recording, he read up on communism to impress the cute girl in the army hat in our science class.

The point is this: iTunes, combined with the technology of the burner, has forever ruined the sentiment of giving a girl you like a mixtape. The hours spent in front of the CD player has turned into ten quick minutes in front of a computer and a half dozen mouse clicks.

The internet has ruined everything actually interesting about any given person. Give me the night, and I could hold the world’s greatest amount of information on the steam engine. Give me five minutes, two minutes, and I can tell you many interesting tidbits on taxidermy. (This would only be exciting if you are a large fan of the industrial revolution, or if you think that stuffing and mounting dead animals is the bees knees — which, incidentally, cannot be stuffed nor mounted. There is your interesting fact.) I believe that some things should be kept sacred. Anyone can make you a CD of their favourite songs, just as anyone can make you a tape with the same. The real difference is effort. You can make the argument that technology has made everything more time efficient and, therefore, better. But let’s paint a picture. You are dating a boy. He invites you over for dinner, and for the sake of this example, you accept. You spend the afternoon picking out the right outfit and making yourself look proper. You go over to his house, and he welcomes you with a kiss and tells you that you look lovely. You follow him into the kitchen, where candles are lit. He goes into the other room to retrieve the food, and brings out a bucket of fried chicken. In the words of The Magnetic Fields, “How fucking romantic.” Sure, the sentiment is there, but the candle light KFC is to a romantic night with a loved one as the burnt disc is to romantic gifts for a loved one — rather unacceptable.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN MAKING YOUR MIXTAPE:

1 Remember that your mixtape is practically a letter to whomever you are making the tape for. You only have as much room as the tape allows, and you must say what you want to say before it runs out. Imagine that you are Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta and you are trying desperately you scrawl your political ideas on a shitty piece of toilet paper before the thought police (or whatever they are called — muscles? eyes? nose? loin?) return and both your ideas and your shitty toilet paper are contraband. The point is, you only have so much time. Use it wisely.

2 In the spirt of this letter writing analogy, your first song is your opening statement. Pick your opening song wisely. The first song on either side sets the mood for the rest of the side.

3 No artist can be represented on any tape more than once. It’s the mixtape equivalent faux pas of going to a Pearl Jam concert wearing your Pearl Jam concert shirt and a Vitology hat. It’s not illegal, but Jesus Christ, it should be.

4 If side A ends and you’re in the middle of song, tough cookies. You’re going back and doing it again. You are not permitted to record the remainder of the song at the start of the next side. Nor are you allowed to leave three minutes of silence at the end of any side.

5 Don’t throw X amount of songs onto a tape and call it a day. There has to be flow. once you have discovered the flow, the tape will make itself. (Note: you will still have to pick the songs, set up the tape, hit play, hit record and pause. But other than that, the tape will basically make itself.)

6 A good mixtape is like a mountain. It builds to a peak. And you, being a good mountaineer, must climb and climb and climb till you find that peak. The only real difference between a mix tape and a mountain is that you could very well die on a mountain.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 14:51, 2 replies)

Suburban subversive
I once made a compilation CD that begun with "Alone in Kyoto" by Air and ended with "Being Tyler" by Lambchop. So, you see, I begun with a track that appears at the end of an album, and finished with a track that appears at the beginning of an album!
( divy, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 14:51, 1 reply)

Not really a mix tape...
But my current gf did send me the link to 2 girls 1 cup after we'd been going out for 10 days.

Probably says more about me than her and if anyone hasn't actually seen it am happy to post the link along with the serious caveats.
(Milo Minderbinder, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 14:47, Reply)

black
after having a very bad NYE come down, lasting pretty much a month (dodgy punk Yabba's we think they were in hindsight) a mate put together a tape "Black"

Some nasty NIN, Tricky, and just when we wanted more doom and gloom "Poisoned Babies (die of rabies, when they are bitten, in the neck)" by splodgenessabounds. It is in no way dark and depressing.

We wanted the echo of the doom in our minds. To laugh when your world is falling apart is just not right.
( bazza van der trance , ooh baby baby, baby baby. Get up on this., Fri 8 Feb 2008, 14:41, Reply)

Mix Tape Advice
Slightly OT, but if anyone is intending to make a mix tape for a prospective partner.

"Let's Get Physical" by Olivia Newton John should be avoided as it's a) a little too blatant and b) just shite.
(PCheese, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 14:28, 1 reply)

When I was but a young NakedApe
I very much wanted a CD stereo so I could pump out the lastest rocking pop tunes that Dr.Fox spun on Capidal FM radio.

As is traditonal in the run up to Christmas I informed my parents of my wish for musical entertainment. Wait and see they said with a knowing wink!

A couple of days before Christmas a square portable stereo sized package appeared under the fire hazard that was our fake tree.

Eventually the big day came and I was filled with excitement! I ripped open the package like it was a UN food drop in a drought.

It was a single tape deck, single speaker piece of junk. But it was my piece of junk! Radio ga ga here I come!

"Not so fast" mother Ape (who was not naked) said," there is another surprise!

Presented to me and my older brother, who had recieved the exact same stereo were two small parcels.

Using all my powers of perception I ascertained that it was a cassette to play on my mighty boom box. My brother took one parcel and I the other and in fit of youthful excitement I ripped open the parcel to reveal, NOW Thats What I call Music 26!

SCORE!!

Unfortunately on closer inspection and by collaborating with my brother it became clear that my parents had bought 1 copy of NOW 26 and split the two tapes up.

I got tape 2.

The crap tape.

The disappointment was compounded when my uncle gave me a tape of Neil Diamond's greatest hits. I was 11, not 60.
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 14:27, 4 replies)

Parental Advisory
With the prospect of a truly lovely seven hour car journey with the parents I made a couple of CD's up to listen to in the car.

The choice of tunes had, of course, to be from the nice and gentle side of my collection and not the "nasty, screamy, mr-shouty-type-stuff".

First CD went down fine, little bits of Aerosmith, The Doors, Stone Roses etc.

Second CD, slight error in track listing.

Have you ever noticed how "Doves - Sea Song" can easily appear directly next to "Dope - Die Motherfucker Die" if you happen to have your tracks in alphabetical order?
(PCheese, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 14:26, Reply)

When I was 16
I used to make mixed tapes all the time, mostly for myself. You know, tapes of what I considered to be a specific artists best songs, songs by artists from the same country, driving music, or more accurately, music to be driven to, etc. Then one day I had the great idea of compiling some mood tapes. There were to be two, one called 'Up' which was meant to be all the 'happiest' tracks I had and another called 'Down' which was to be all the most depressing. I started with 'Down'. This was a mistake as I literally compiled the most evil tape ever created. I remember listening to it once and spending the next week in a nihilistic and disillusioned state before taking a hammer to the offending cassette. I wish I could remember what was on it just so that I could make it again and bury it somewhere so it could await the apocalypse as I'm sure was its purpose. 'Up' was never even started.

What was I thinking.
( Raindance Work is inversely proportional to post-count, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 14:08, Reply)

Off Topic Yay!
I have just been reminded of another story that could have been posted under stalkers, and seeing as this topic seems to be generally unappreciated, here is my Stalker Mach II offering. I hope it's not too rude of me to be posting a story from the closed question here.. But hey, fuck it.

When I was still in school I had a group of three friends, one other girl and two boys. Nick had a birthday during our first year of university and Beca and I made it down to Bristol to celebrate with him. Paul was enterting his phase of being unsociable so didn't come. He came to regret that :)

I had searched far and wide for a suitable birthday present for Nick, and eventually I found the perfect thing! It was a plushy Zippy toy (from Rainbow) and when you pressed his tummy he said 'You know, I really am very, very clever.' in this somewhat creepy tone of voice. Nick loved it! And of course the alcohol flowed.

Later that night we fell to bitching about Paul's lack of presence at our get togethers recently. We all lived mostly in the south, it shouldn't have been too challenging. So we decided to play a prank on him to punish him. We hid the caller ID on Nick's phone, dialled Paul and when he answered we pressed Zippy, let him do his bit and then promptly hung up!

And yes, this is where we got a little stalkerish. From then on, whenever two out of the three of us got together, out would come Zippy and we'd prank call Paul! Hilarity! This went on for the best part of a year before we finally all managed to get together for a summer party at Nick's place.

We're larking about and having a general giggle, alcohol is once again flowing freely and all manner of fun is being had! (take that how you will :D) And eventually Nick decides that maybe, perhaps, our stalker tendencies need to be nipped in the bud before we started getting frightening. He collected the Zippy toy and threw it at Paul who caught it with glee! Who doesn't love Rainbow after all? Unfortunately Paul pressed poor Zippy's tummy as he caught him and Zippy did his bit marvellously! I must admit, I thought I would die laughing at the look on Paul's face :D

Apparently he had gotten so paranoid about these phone calls and voice messages that he had come to the point of being about a week off of changing his phone number..

I would feel guilty if it hadn't been quite as funny :D
(darras jeg har en grevling i hodet. Grevling, grevlang, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 13:47, Reply)

More of a Compilation actually....
..as having seen the pitiful excuses some record companies have for slinging together a bunch of songs, I made a friend of mine the "Worst EuroPop Album in the World...Ever!" and included tracks by Goombay Dance Band, Falco, Spagna, Baltimora, Desireless, Opus, Sabrina, Europe, etc. I have a copy somewhere, it makes me smile as it reminds me of being 14 - I think 1986-87 was quite possibly the zenith of EuroPop's popularity.
(mcnelson, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 13:43, 4 replies)

suggestion for QOTW
... what is your 'worst QOTW story' storys?

I remember this one time I logged onto B3Ta and came across this cheeky chappy:


www.b3ta.com/questions/mixtapes/


hmph
(Dan dan dan They tik urh jerbs!!!, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 13:19, 1 reply)

not so subliminal messages...
Back in 2001 I found out that my then girlfriend had been cheating on me with a close mutual friend - so close, in fact, that we'd decided (along with another friend) to all go on holiday to a small cottage on Loch Ness together. I offered to make a mix tape for the journey (coming up from Darlington would take, oh I dunno, 16 hours or something). The tracklist was as follows:

'How long has this been going on' - Paul Carrack.

On loop.

Both sides.

A great journey and an even better week's holiday.
(sinbad, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 13:17, Reply)

The Best Worst Mix Tape Ever
... was made by my brother for me. He had scoured the interweb looking for the Worst Music Ever - not just shite like Steps etc, but music that was so bad it was hilarious and left you laughing like a fatty locked in a pie shop.

The track that nearly made me crash my car was the cover of Steppenwolf's Born To Be Wild by a band called Chickenwolf which did exactly what it said on the tin and made singing chicken noises instead of singing the lyrics.

Good times.
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 13:16, 2 replies)

my story..
I stole a mix tape once....it was the mid 90s and the songs were all cheesy 80s pop.
(lokiy2j, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 13:14, Reply)

even nerdier than a mix tape
I recently made a list of songs, chosen for the fact that their lyrics could serve as ideas for adventures for role-playing games.

Lookin for Adventure, or Whatever Comes Our Way:Adventure ideas from song lyrics

The title of this table is from 'Born To Be Wild' by Steppenwolf.The listed band or singer is whoever most famously sung it - they didn't necessarily write it.

Roll 2 dice, 1 at a time.

1,1 Renegade priests, and treacherous young witches. Bob Dylan Changing of the Guard

1,2 Merchants and thieves, hungry for power. Bob Dylan Changing of the Guard

1,3 The cities are on fire with the burning flesh of men. Bob Dylan Death is Not the End

1,4 The killing moon will come too soon. Echo and the Bunnymen The Killing Moon

1,5 The negroes in the forest, brightly feathered. The Doors The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)

1,6 She has robes and she has monkeys Lazy diamond-studded flunkies. The Doors Love Street

2,1 Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain. The Doors The End

2,2 Hellhound on my trail. Robert Johnson Hellhound On My Trail

2,3 You strike my side by accident as you go down for your gold. Leonard Cohen Avalanche

2,4 When I am not this hunchback that you see I sleep beneath the golden hill. Leonard Cohen Avalanche

2,5 All hands on deck at dawn sailing to sadder shores. Echo and the Bunnymen Ocean Rain

2,6 Home of pirates, drunks and whores. The Simpsons cast New Orleans

3,1 Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Billie Holiday Strange Fruit

3,2 Felled his master not by chance away with pomp and circumstance. Chumbawamba Farewell to the Crown

3,3 She walks these hills in a long black veil. too many to list Long Black Veil

3,4 Little fish, big fish, swimmin in the water, come back here man gimme my daughter. P.J. Harvey Down By the Water

3,5 Set the controls for the heart of the Sun. Pink Floyd Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

3,6 Tell them a hookah smoking caterpillar has given you the call. Jefferson Airplane Go Ask Alice

4,1 I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests, I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans. Bob Dylan Hard Rain

4,2 Tell those men with horses for hearts. The Church The Unguarded Moment

4,3 Creatures kissing in the rain, shapeless in the dark again. The Cure The Hanging Garden

4,4 In a hanging garden change the past, in a hanging garden wearing furs and masks. The Cure The Hanging Garden

4,5 In the heat of the night the animals scream. The Cure The Hanging Garden

4,6 Fall out of the sky, cover my face as the animals die. The Cure The Hanging Garden

5,1 I passed the howling woman. The Cure The Walk

5,2 I hear your name, and I'm aflame. Ella Fitzgerald That Old Black Magic

5,3 Deep in the woods a funeral is swinging. The Birthday Party Deep in the Woods

5,4 THIS IS DWARF INVASION! Reggie and the Full Effect, Dwarf Invasion

5,5 Temple of low men. Crowded House, album title

5,6 Under a blood-red sky a crowd has gathered, black and white.U2, New Years Day

6,1 It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. REM, It's the End of the World As We Know It

6,2 Sleep comes like a drug in God's country. Sad eyes, crooked crosses in God's country. U2, In God's Country

6,3 Set me alight We'll punch a hole right through the night Every day the dreamers die See what's on the other side.U2, In God's Country

6,4 Dreamed I saw a desert rose Dress torn in ribbons and in bows Like a siren she calls to me.U2, In God's Country

6,5 All the vampires walking through the valley Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Free Fallin'

6,6 Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage. Smashing Pumpkins, Bullet With Butterfly Wings

(all this and more at www.apolitical.info/webgame/tables)
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 13:10, Reply)

um...Tammy?
I, uh...



I made you some mixed apes.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 12:58, 4 replies)

Any mix tape of mine....
Would probably include JS Bach and the Rolling Stones.

Kind of Baroque and Roll.

(I'll get my coat)
(misspiggy In danger of having to get a job, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 12:56, 2 replies)

A bit off topic
But the first tape I ever got was Now thats what I call music 5


oh deary deary me

It doesn't get much better, first vinyl album was kings of the wild frontier - Adam and the Ants.

first vinyl single was Hit that perfect Beat - bronski beat

First cd was some piece of shit by Testament

I now have an mp3 player full of system of a down, suicidal tendencies and pop will eat it itself, so its safe to say my taste in music, was, is and forever will be shit!
(Halfy By light alone, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 12:54, 1 reply)

maxed out on tapas
i received a mix tape when i was just 16. This has lead me into the world of soft rock and i simply have never recovered.

Through the barricades - Duran Duran
Kayleigh - Marillion
La tristessa duerrara -
Do ya wanna play - Extreme

the list goes on...

.. This culminating in going to a gig of epic proportions. Ipswich - Football stadium, 1993. multiple headliners. 1. Squeeze 2. Little Angels 3. Extreme 4. Bryan Adams.
It was just after Everything i do was number one for 250 consecutive weeks and he did an 18 minute extended live version. I wanted to slit my wrists, and if i hear that song now the pain comes back.

did i pop my ickle essex cherry. did i f*ck.
(although i gave Her her first taste of oral pleasure, :p which seemed to go down well)
( bazza van der trance , ooh baby baby, baby baby. Get up on this., Fri 8 Feb 2008, 12:52, 3 replies)

when in university
I used to make songs on Ejay... for hours me and my mates would make - what we thought were groundbraking songs, only looking back they really werent.

I remember in Uni, this one day i was in a bit of a miserable mood as i had been semi-dumped by a girl I had kissed ( we hadnt been going out together, but she didnt want to go any further) to cheer me up my friends at my Halls found a mix tape of all my Ejay songs and let me play them in the kitchen. whilst everyone ate their dinner together.

I look back and cringe at the memory of the 6 of us all their around a table - with the worst dance/hiphop/trance songs belting out...

all of the songs were just a slice and dice of the same audio clips...

they were trully awful songs, but at the time i really thought i was some sort of fatboy slim....
(Dan dan dan They tik urh jerbs!!!, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 12:44, Reply)

DJ tapes
I must be 100, because when we made mix tapes we didn't have two tape players attached to one another - you had to play one, and press record on the other one and pause just at the right time.

I remember being quite awestruck when I was told "BE QUIET! Your sister is recording".

But the ultimate age for mixtapes was about 9, when the world is impossibly exciting and hilarious.

My friend and I would tape songs from the radio and have a short DJ-style chat between each one.

The only one I remember is when my friend Richard said "Coming up...Harold Faltermeyer's Axel F. But first, I have a problem. I want to be a policeman but I don't have a hat"

"No problem" I said, "Just paint that tit on your head blue".

This made us laugh til our stomachs hurt.
( browser still relating boring anecdotes into a void on, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 12:27, 2 replies)

TDKfe90
Slightly tenuous story but as we all know, this QOTW sucks. So remember the subject heading above and read on...

I'm a professional code monkey and I love not only my job, hacking away on the internets and whatnot every day, but I love the camaraderie and pranks of an open plan office. Unfortunately at this grown up stage of my career I feel too self-conscious to do a victory dance on my table when my code compiles or launch into a minute of shouty swearing when I get a random segfault.

This was all different when I was an undergraduate working in "The Compsci Lab": a large room stuffed full with state-of-the art Solaris workstations. And a massive stereo, pizza boxes and a wall of empty Irn-Bru cans. It was the perfect work environment.

Well, it would have been if it weren't for the fact that any time you were getting your head down to try and finish a piece of practical work you had to do battle with a lab full of "practical jokers" trying to hack your system and delete all your files. Most of the time it was a good laugh but occasionally things got close to boiling point. I remember being promised - completely sincerely - a severe beating if I went near a group of machines doing experiments for one guy's final year project.

So what did we do? There were hacks like making someone's .Xauthority file publicly visible, copying it over yours and running xscreensaver. The result is that the other user's machine is locked requiring your password to get access again. Very annoying. You could log into their machine and run a background process that uses all the CPU cycles and RAM. Again, annoying. The most beautiful gotcha though is when you see someone has left themselves logged in. Quick email to the whole department with the subject heading "I am gay" (I don't make the rules, just follow them with extreme enjoyment).

But messing round with someone's settings here and there was boring. What I actually wanted was to have someone's password. With their actual password there would be no limit to the amount of havoc you could wreak. A cunning plan was devised, it was so perfect I permitted myself a small maniacal laugh. Deciding my first victim would be my close friend Andy, I got to work.

I watched him working away at his usual computer one morning so I waited until the opposite computer on the adjoining desk was free. I quietly went over to the free computer, logged in, locked it and left again. I then had to wait until Andy left for lunch and just hope that he didn't log out but instead just leave his computer locked. He thankfully obliged.

Looking around to see if the coast was relatively clear I unlocked the computer opposite his and opened a blank text editor. I then crawled under the adjoining desks, unplugged the keyboard cable from his computer and plugged it in to mine. All was ready, I simply had to wait for his return.

And a long wait it was. A computer with just a working mouse isn't very entertaining. Eventually Andy returned and after another eternity with him chatting and getting his books in order he sat down at his desk and started typing.

I sat there barely containing my excitement as his password appeared to me in that blank text editor. Again and again he typed while nothing happened.

"Fucking things broken!" asserts Andy.

Nevermind, he wanders over to another free computer and starts working there. I had his password, let the pranking begin!

Over the following week more "I am gay" emails were received by all from Andy. In disbelief he states, "But I haven't left myself logged in anywhere!". But then anytime he locked his computer and left the room I'd sneakily type his password in to unlock it and leave him to question his sanity upon his return. The lab was on the way back from the students' union so I'd go in at 2am and log him onto all the computers available and wait for the carnage the next day.

I could see the joke wearing thin and as I mentioned he was one of my best mates so it was only fair to put him out of his misery and let him change his password to one I didn't know. After a 10 minute chat one afternoon in the lab we decided to get back to work. He goes to his keyboard to type in his password.

"No Andy, allow me."

I typed and his computer became unlocked. The penny dropped. The swearing began as I burst into fits of laughter.

Later that day when he started talking to me again he told me the thing that annoyed him most wasn't the fact that he'd been caught out by my trick, or all the crap I'd done to him for a week. What annoyed him most was that he had lost that password forever and had to come up with another.

Rest in peace, TDKfe90
( djtrialprice, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 12:27, 5 replies)

Possibly the most unlistenable tape I've ever heard
Back at university, when I was into rock and prog in a big way, I was challenged that I couldn't make a 45-minute tape consisting of nothing but drum solos drawn from my collection. 45 minutes turned out to be no problem. I ended up with 90 minutes worth and still some left over. Making it was fun. Listening to it was not, every track ending just as something interesting was about to happen made it a truly frustrating experience.

Nobody has ever listened to the whole tape all the way through.
(yesyesyes, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 12:20, 1 reply)

OK, a really badly...
...put together Mix Tape (Well CD Actually)
Can't remember them all, but went something like this...
Timebomb – Chumbawamba
Weathercock – Jethro Tull
Performance – Japan
Young Lust – Pink Floyd
There’s No Such Thing Aliens – Sparks
Sperm – Baby Chaos
Sand & Foam – Donovan
Breath - Prodigy
Bongo Bong – Manu Chao
Black Dog – Led Zeppelin
Writer of Songs – Harvey Andrews
Pussy – Lords of Acid
A Pretender Got My Heart – Alisha’s Attic
Collapsing New People – Fad Gadget
Cirrhosis of the Heart – Foetus
Zoo Music Girl – Birthday Party
Twist In My Sobriety – Tanita Tikaram
Armageddon Days Are Here (Again) – The The
Yes – Manic Street Preachers
Dance me to the End of Love – Madeleine Peyroux
21st Century Schitzoid Man – King Crimson
Black Water – Rain Tree Crow
Vanishing Girl – Dukes of Stratosphear

Very little thought went into that one

2dz
( Adolf Jitler is editor of Practical Shoelace Collector, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 12:16, 2 replies)

Not your usual mixtape
In the mid 90s, my mates and I regularly made mix tapes for each other as we spiralled off into our own unique voyages of musical discovery. Some awesome songs emerged that ended up becoming staples, such as a Sitar tune where it sounded like a whole chorus were singing "cunnnnt... unnnnt" over and over again. One of us was into obsure punk bands, another into deep funk, another into dance and so on, so eventually our tapes evolved into stupendously eclectic collections that represented thousands of hours of research.

However, the best mix tape I ever made was a 30-min compilation of commodore 64 game tunes on an authentic Boots computer tape. There is nothing tragic about that at all. My mate said it was awesome music for doing the washing up to.
(redcamera, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 11:56, Reply)

Nibble nibble, hop hop: for Adolpho
every day was the same. But he was no good with music, so he made a list, coughed gently to gain the attention of a sibling, held out his furry paw, and asked:

Mix a my tape, sis?

This innocent request caused considerable consternation in the rabbit population.
(haberman is singing in the changes, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 11:43, 1 reply)

I wonder ..
..if a QOTW has ever been killed off prematurely.

*slides pearl-handled revolver accross the table*

It'd be a kindness.
(Ott3r, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 11:38, Reply)

metal mix
During my teenage years, I flirted briefly with metal music, particularly the more extreme versions like Death, Black and Doom etc. I still have a tape in an all-black box. (Title and artist).

Virgin Rapist - Black Heart
Doom McDoom - Jock Psycho
I Spit on your Mother - Incest
Huuuurrrrggggh - Dyslexic Death
Cancer Black Anguish - Putrid Corpse
Razor Squirrel Vivisection - Noize
Zombie Vampyre Paedo - Horrific Paper Cut
Spunk-Filled Croissant - Les Diaboliques
Ass-Rape Necrophilia - The St Edward's Sixth Form Choir
Grandad, We Hate You (Remix) - Abomination
Last Christmas, I Cut out your Heart - Wham Murder Conviction
Horrific Car Accident - Cheap MOT
Slay - Kill
Black Night of Day - Nocturnal
Creeping Scabies - Apocalypse Teashop
Baby Pate - Les Diaboliques
Axe in my Skull - The Aspirins
(frankspencer, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 11:30, 2 replies)

I officialy have the weakest reason
I used to play the tapes in my 2cv with a (get the power) 2 watt stereo! wooha feel the base! Aaaaanyhoo, I had a bit of a thing for naming them for what I was using them for, so there was holiday, driving, going to work...

I found one when clearing out at the weekend, and this is the truth. I had a tape called (drum roll)

Going to Guildford

I am so ashamed.
(rockers74 killed a man in Reno just to watch him die., Fri 8 Feb 2008, 11:04, 3 replies)