Old School Position; MIXTAPES are superior to all other forms of mixes.

Anyone who had the experience of dating anytime from 1981 to 1998 knows the superiority of Mixtapes to all other forms of mixes. The receiving of a tape from a person you were interested in was an occassion for day dreaming of the pleasures to come. They liked you! They really really liked you! You know how you knew that?

You got a mixtape.

A mixtape took planning, you didn't want to leave to much room on the end, or cut a song off in the midst of it trying to make its emotional pitch. The mixtape could be a specifically directed statement to a potential/current/former lover, it could be the soundtrack for an adventure, the declaration of independence from that horrible junior year, the howling of youth at the moon, or the punctuation of yet another fantastic night out with friends. In short the mixtape was the perfect method for conveying a message through music short of sitting down with a guitar and singing it directly to the intended recipient/moment. And most of us simply cannot drum like Mr. Bonham.

The mixtape is also superior in that the inherent clash of form and content is skewed heavily towards that ultimate in achievement, the triumph of aesthetic superiority (content) despite the acknowledged limitations of action (form). At the beginning of the process, we see the content become embedded with meaning, as the making of the tape requires the listening of every song. One might be compelled to use the quality canceling high speed dubbing technique, but this would be an acknowledgment to the recipient of the problems associated with the form, and by extension, the lack of time and effort put into the meaning of the auditory letter they were now listening too. On the other end, when listened to, it is precisely the fact that one cannot easily skip from song to song that fixes the meaning of the tape as a thing to be considered in its entirety and not as incidental statements unconnected to the content working together.

Nowadays it seems that while undoubtedly superior in ease and use, the MP3 or CD-R mix (things in this form should never be referred to as a mixtape, for this is, again, an insult to the importance of the addition of form and content that gives us meaning) allow for people to drag and drop, click and burn, give and receive without the implied time of investment. These new forms necessarily take the meaning out of the content, because the process allowed by the technology denies it the time and thought commitment necessary to the emotional meaning one might mean to convey.

There is a general outcry in the culture at the fractured nature of modern society. The ennui of living in todays commuter world driving us into the flickering lights of our basements and the closed doors of suburban America. Like the loss of the front porch in American architecture, the failure of the mixtape to live in on in form but in a few stubborn and hopeful souls has had an immeasurable blow on the content of the meaning of our daily interactions with each other.