I spent most of my formative years making mixtapes
but I rarely made them for other people, they were just for my own pleasure. Mostly because I have the BEST WALKMAN EVER

www.priyascape.com/new_images/IMP/my_first_sony.jpg

I still use it sometimes, but the sound has gone very wobbly now.

The tapes were mostly comprised of britpop, but there was a lot of stuff off the radio too. I spent many an evening pretending to do my homework, poised over the record button, waiting for Mr Peel or Mr Lamacq to announce the latest joy. Happy days, when you felt genuinely involved, and the thrill of discovering a new band meant rushing down to Our Price the next Saturday to spend your hard-earned pocket money.

And then there was the art of the actual mixtape, with CDs and records strewn across your bedroom floor, carefully judging what track follows on best, and how to make the transition from britpop to triphop, and wether you've put too much Blur on or not enough.

And what do we have now? The internet, which makes discovering new music so easy it doesn't seem fun any more. And instant downloads, which take all the tactile joys out of owning tunes, cataloguing them into dull, soulless icons. iTunes, which just creates a playlist for you removing the need for ever listening and involving yourself with the delicate intracacies of ordering and compiling. And the new, glossy, teen-mag NME, which is SO SHITE I COULD SCREAM.

I weep, b3ta. I weep.
( SugarSpunSister Yeah, whatever, Tue 12 Feb 2008, 14:52, 10 replies)

too true
The NME is like a retarded Hello Magazine with guitars. It used to be highbrow, witty and essential, and a lot cheaper than it is now.

And bring back vinyl. Much nicer than downloads in so many ways. The sad truth is that artists are now compressing their sound expressly for the 128kb mp3 market.
(lost, Tue 12 Feb 2008, 14:58, closed)

YES!
Extra points for the walkman, but the click is essentially for the rant.

*click*
( Sonic James Doom forgetting the date since... umm..., Tue 12 Feb 2008, 15:01, closed)

I used to have one of those!
It was pink and everything.
(Half of Stephen Fry's right buttock pissed on your dog on, Tue 12 Feb 2008, 15:15, closed)

Every time I buy NME
I always feel the same nagging guilt as when I used to buy Heat magazine, as if I want to hide it in a brown paper bag.
mp3s are convenient enough, but nothing beats the slightly smug happiness of walking out of a record shop with a bag of 7" singles in yr hand.
(and now for someone completely different, Tue 12 Feb 2008, 17:11, closed)

I love having an mp3 player, and being able to play any track in my collection at the touch of a button...
But there is still SOOOOO much to be said for actually owning the music. Whether it's a CD, or vinyl (lovely lovely vinyl), if you can't hold it in your grubby little mitt, what's the point.

Plus you can't stumble upon an original mp3 of Blue Monday in Oxfam for £1.99 and think you've gotten away with daylight robbery afterwards :D
( mutster101 fell over, Tue 12 Feb 2008, 18:46, closed)

I spent
my formative years just trolling through records shops, flipping through each and every LP in each shop looking for cool covers to judge the contents by, on top of listening religiously to Mr. Peel (gawd bless 'im).

My brother now keeps my collection of something like 800 LP's and 45's (not a phrase I have used in some while) and every now and again we pick a few out and give them a spin on my record player (with fluff-gathering needle - no stylus for me thank you very much). I am instanly transported back to my yoof and we both smile at memories long since thought gone.

And *click* just for remembering the room covered in records and notebook and planned "theme" for this tape all being worked out more studiously and with more effort and enthusiasm than I ever had for anythjing at any educational establishment I ever went to.

BTW, have any of you found that you can remember lyrics to songs 20 years gone, but can't remember what 3 fucking things you were supposed to buy from the supermarket that you just made a mental note of not 10 minutes ago?

*sigh*
(Spreddum O Grrrr. That's my vicious circle, that is., Wed 13 Feb 2008, 5:59, closed)

Mutster101
How much is Blue Monday worth then? As I have the 12" original version that looked like a 5" floppy disc lurking in my loft...
( Duke Of Belmsford has got 99 records, but Jay-Z ain't one, Wed 13 Feb 2008, 9:11, closed)

Re: Blue Monday
Will give you a fiver for it.
(jmaxi returned again on, Wed 13 Feb 2008, 12:09, closed)

Yes indeedy
All those years ago you would put a vinyl album on and listen to it, all of it, all the way through. Nowadays the whole enjoyment of music seems tainted because it,s so much easier to flick through it and only listen to the bits you want to.

Kind of answers Spreddum too. You took it in more all those years ago because you had to actually make an effort to listen, and more importantly, appreciate it.
(tinypod will never learn. Ever., Thu 14 Feb 2008, 8:04, closed)