The Rules Of Mix Tapes

Another High Fidelity inspired entry, one I've been thinking about for awhile. Since we're past the age of the cassette for most people (although my stereo does have a double tape deck in it), I make mix CDs instead. Sometimes these are for particular purposes, like people who are going on holiday, a party or other special occasions. Sometimes I'll make a CD for a friend who wants something new to listen to. Sometimes I've downloaded a new song (legally!) and want to have an excuse to hear it more often, so I'll arrange it onto a compilation CD.

In High Fidelity there are all kinds of rules. You have to have a powerful opening track, for example. You slow things down and then speed them up again. You don't put more than one track by the same artist into a compilation and if you do break this rule, you have to space them out considerably.

My own rules are similar... I have to make sure I only have one song by a particular artist on one of my CDs. I also try to start off the CD with something attention-capturing, then it's a matter of arranging the selected songs into an order that makes sense. I always listen to the starts and ends of songs I'm placing next to each other, to check that they flow nicely. I also try to put songs with a similar mood together. The CD often has a point of lower intensity songs somewhere in the middle before the mood picks up again. If I'm making a CD for someone I'll try to pick music they haven't heard but might like, going by the other styles of music they enjoy.

I'm sure there's far more that can be said about this subject and if I had my copy of High Fidelity handy I'd embellish it a little more. But I'll leave it there. I'm sure if people want to add something they can leave a comment.