“The Designers Mixtape invited designers all over the world to share their musical taste.” MORE ➲

“The book is punctuated by tracklists of mix tapes that Sheffield made throughout the late ’80s and the ’90s. Sheffield and his late wife, music journalist Renée Crist, had tapes for all occasions: washing the dishes, taking showers, driving around their home in Charlottesville, VA. Each chapter begins with a list of songs, on which Sheffield riffs on for several pages before moving on to a new topic. This strategy suits the book well.” MORE ➲

“From Wagner to Collective Soul, here’s a roundup of what historical murderers enjoyed listening to. One thing’s for certain: psychopathic killers seem to have an aversion to melody. Any murder suspects who happen to also be Belle and Sebastian fans automatically get ruled out at trial. (Thanks Fimoculous!) MORE ➲

“Simple and understated, the Mix Tape is printed on a tan Hanes Beefy-T shirt. There’s space inside the image area to customize it and name your mix with a laundry marker if you like. Parties go a lot smoother with a clearly-labelled DJ.” MORE ➲

“Alright. You’ve met her at a party, and she won’t stop talking about bands you’ve never heard of. She’s so cute, but you don’t know where to start… Now the most important weapon in your arsenal when it comes to conquering the Indie Rock Girl is the mix tape. You should maybe wait until the second date to give it to her, but you’ve GOT to make one. And it’s got to be perfect.” MORE ➲

“…every month a mixtape shows up in my mailbox. Every month it comes from a different stranger. Meanwhile, every month I make a mixtape and send it out to an altogether different stranger. This is the International Mixtape Project, a growing non-community of nearly 100 strangers sharing music in the form of original mixtapes. The Project itself is not especially complicated or revolutionary, but it is an interesting and cherished part of my everyday musical experience.” MORE ➲

“It’s a distinct and painful memory shared by music lovers of a certain age. You spend a couple hours recording a wicked awesome mix tape for a friend, or a lover, or (most often) someone in the uncertain terrain between. You fill it with songs cunningly chosen to simultaneously bare your heart and play it cool. You nervously hand it over—’Yeah, no big deal, but I made you this.’ Two weeks later, you ask how much she loved it, and when she shrugs, you feel a hot flush of shame. Face it: Your mix tape sucks.” MORE ➲

“Before the iPod and the random playlist of the MP3, there was the original: the mix tape. The advent of the cassette tape some 30 years ago made it possible for anyone with a tape deck and some tunes to be a record producer, mixing and matching songs, genres and bands. And become at-home record producers we did.” MORE ➲

“The worst thing about mixtaping is that all the reward you will ever get for your efforts will be a sense of satisfaction and, if you are good enough and lucky enough, the temporary admiration of your peers. I want more. I want medals and prize money. I want corporate sponsorship and international recognition. I want competitive mixtaping.” MORE ➲

“Let’s say that pop culture essayist Chuck Klosterman just bought a 1986 Oldsmobile. Chuck Klosterman decides he wants to keep the original radio and tape deck instead of putting in something updated. Let’s also say that Chuck Klosterman hates iPods and decides he would rather listen to cassette tapes than mp3s through the radio. Now let’s say that you and Chuck Klosterman are friends. One night while you, Chuck Klosterman, and some other friends are hanging out, Chuck Klosterman asks each of you to make him a mix tape.” MORE ➲

“The FoundTrack welcomes you to the April 2007 MixTape. Come join us on a secret musical mission and find out what we’re listening to right now. Every month we compile a mixtape of our favorite new music. In addition to the brand new tracks you’ve come to expect, we’ve included a few classics as an added bonus.” MORE ➲

Another self-link! This is my personal, though incomplete, diary of making mixes: “I like making mixes. Almost as much as I like designing covers for mixes. If I had more to say on the subject, I wouldn’t use Greeked Text from this point on: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tatio.” MORE ➲

“Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore on the power of the mix tape: The first time I ever heard of someone making a mix tape was in 1978. Robert Christgau, the ‘dean of rock critics,’ was writing in The Village Voice about his favorite Clash record, which just happened to be the one he made himself: a tape of all the band’s non-LP B-sides. One aspect really struck me — Christgau said it was a tape he made to give to friends. He had made his own personalized Clash record and was handing it out as a memento of his rock-and-roll devotion.” MORE ➲

“…I want to leave a mix cd/tape on a bench.” MORE ➲

“Putting together a home-brewed compilation of songs used to be an act of love and art. Now it’s just too damn easy to be worth caring about.” MORE ➲

“The cassette is 40 years old. And it’s still going strong. James Paul looks back at the little plastic gadget that first let us make our own compilations, record from the radio and take tunes with us wherever we went.” READ ➲

“As mentioned in the movie High Fidelity, there is a certain art to making a great mix tape or CD. What songs you choose, and how you choose them, will largely affect how much your efforts will be appreciated. A compilation of songs recorded on a tape or burned onto a CD can be a thoughtful gift for someone you appreciate.” MORE ➲

“Three or four times a week, Joshua Bernard opens his mailbox and finds a package sent to him by someone he has never met. Inside are homemade CD compilations of music that he often knows little about. The discs have featured big bands, death metal and even some Hawaiian music. The ukuleles did not scare him off.” MORE ➲

“We know it’s ill-advised to drop Blonde Redhead next to word jazz, but our mixes are still hopeless. Jennifer Conrad talks with Isaac Green of the StarTime International record label about putting together the best mix tape ever.” MORE ➲

“Here’s the deal: Send us a thought, phrase, question, quotation, or whatever else, and if one of our mix tape robots fancies your suggestion, the crazy set of circuits might just make a mix tape out of it — well, at least a tracklisting for a mix tape out of it.” MORE ➲

“Art of the Mix is a project that started in December 1997. It has grown and expanded for the past few years, although it has never lost its initial vision of creating a community and resource for mixed tape and cd lovers.” MORE ➲