I love the mix-tape. It has been my wingman for years as I endeavored to find love. It is also partly responsible for many of my successes in this department. I'm very adept in the art of mix-tape making. It's all about communication. You want to express how you feel about a person through music in a way that they can understand you. For example, anyone can throw a bunch of love songs together, but by creating a context you can definitely get your point across. Norah Jones' "What am I to You?" followed by Jeff Buckley's "Lover, You Should've Come Over" ended by Robin Thicke's "Would That Make U Love Me?" (in that order) conveys equal parts vulnerability and desire that wouldn't come across if you presented these songs in any other way. Like everything else you have to maintain a narrative structure. Also, I know that people nowadays use CD's more than audio cassettes, but I'm not here to argue semantics. I still call them mix-tapes.
That being said, I came across an extremely innovative, beyond cool site as I was gathering up ammunition for a battle of who can find the coolest shite on the net. Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves may just put me over the top. It mixes the new pop-culture phenomenon of the Post Secret confessional culture project with the concept of love as expressed through music that Rob Sheffield pioneered. People have been dedicating songs to their loved ones for years as a way to express what they feel. When you make a mix-tape, you are basically using someone else's words to express what you feel but for some reason or another cannot say or or are of the opinion that it has been said better by the artist; that makes the content of Cassette From My Ex universal. To top it off, not only do they allow the public to submit their stories of love and loss (public which includes the likes of Ben Greenman, Joe Levy, Claudia Gonson, and Rob Sheffield, to name a few), they also let you upload the actual mix-tape and mix-tape cover art to complete the experience. Let me tell you, some of these play lists are out-of-hand awesome. Just check out the most recent selection, Good Morning! You're 20!
I wish the creator of Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves continued exposure and the greatest success in what is obviously a labor of love. Keep an eye out for the upcoming hardcover book version of their site that's dropping on 10/27/2009.
Check out this amazing website. Hopefully it will help you remember why in this world it's so extremely important to hold your boombox high.
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