Surprisingly, there was not a lot of music in my life in June, and since I've gotten out of the habit of making these for myself (instead preferring to spend my time making them for friends in recent years) I thought I'd kill a few birds with one stone and musically document my months here, treating myself to some musical therapy and sharing them with YOU.
This week I've been working on a mix that describes my Transition-y, Explore-y July. It's a work in progress, but I'd like to share it with you today. I put it on youtube just for you:
Please enjoy![NOTE: Hover over the video and click on this 'Playlist' button to see all the songs in the mix.]
Burgervore: This is for you! I'll include a screenshot of the mix in future months.
Below I've tried to lay out my (ha) Unified Theory of Mix Tape Creation for the first time, if you're curious. It's... long (which is why the videos are up here). I never really realized how involved this process was for me - how interesting.
I've always been a big believer in mixes - I like making them, I like receiving them, and I LOVE listening to them, for years and years after the fact. They take me back to places and people that I love, moments that I've learned from, and moods that I want to recapture. They play well (pun intended) into my desire to catalogue and remember things.
Some that I've made I've almost completely abandoned because of the bad memories and mental places I was at the time, but I would NEVER delete the playlists - blasphemy! Unlike my journals, which I will gladly never read again and burn for fire kindling. For me, that shit is toxic brain runoff, but mixes are works of art. (I'm aware some of you violently disagree on this point regarding journals.)
To me, a great mix CD does a lot of things:
- It tells a story
- It takes a complete emotional journey appropriate to the intended audience
- It helps me express and understand my feelings
- It helps me reflect on myself and my current situation (whatever it is)
- It presents advice, hopes, and encouragement in an empathetic way
- It is listenable on repeat
- It expresses a full range of rich musical ideas
- And, speaking for my own mixes, I try to ALWAYS end on a positive note! Life is too good to leave a mix feeling bummed out!
Predictably, given my ambitious mix goals, I have a few guidelines when I construct them:
- I try not to repeat songs, even across albums created years apart. Sometimes I fail, but I'm usually pretty good about it. The only exception is when I'm making a mix for myself - I'll use whatever I want.
- Duplicating artists is ok, if the songs rock and have something distinct to say, but almost NEVER on the same mix.
- Nothing too long.
- Nothing terribly inaccessible, unless it conveys an appropriate mood in an entertaining manner.
- Some artists just don't work on mixes. I've tried including Gnarls Barkley songs on a few in past years, but god, they just don't mesh well with ANYTHING. Sometimes a song only works in its intended album, which I totally respect.
- I often like to include an instrumental, techno, non-vocal, or classical piece or two as a "palette-cleanser" between thematic sections of my "story." This is an area where I feel justified presenting jarring transitions between songs.
- I usually go for between 20-24 songs, clocking in at about the length of a burned CD (~80 minutes).
- I prefer to have an even number of songs, or an equal number of songs in each "Act" of the story, but this is just getting anal.
- If I'm writing (and I consider this a form of writing, I guess?) for another person, I try to vet all the lyrics so the mix stays on "message." A happy sounding song about death on a mix CD to cheer someone up is still about death. In one memorable instance, a song that I thought was about a man dancing with a beautiful woman was actually about staring at her corpse in a funeral viewing and describing a mental fugue state. It took me two weeks of listening to the song in the mix to pick up on that - I have no idea if the recipient ever picked that up. She never said anything. To be fair, I'm often lax with this rule if I feel that the music transports you emotionally enough regardless of what the lyrics are.
- Transitions are so, so important. I think of it as emotional dynamics. I'll go through a mix a dozen times, just listening to the transitions between songs and skipping all the stuff in the middle of the song. Moods produced by music don't change after 4 minutes - you need to ebb and flow, wax and wane.
- I TRY to tailor the songs to the type of music styles that the intended audience enjoys (I fail at this a lot, I feel).
- The mix must not wear out its welcome. I listen to the mixes I make for other people between 20 and 30 times AFTER I've done most of the major picking, discarding, and organizing, just to see if it holds up. It takes weeks, ideally. If a song doesn't work, I'll discard it and either replace it or go back to the transition/storytelling phase to reorder what I've got. I've completely scrapped entire projects because they never found their groove - pun intended, again! (For my own mixes I'm slightly less picky, but I already know that I like everything in my library, and I know I can change it any time. Once I give a mix to a person, it's FINISHED.)
The best mixes I've ever made I can count on one hand, and still make me feel proud because, to me, it's like capturing a beautiful plume of smoke in a perfectly-faceted crystal - well-balanced, reflecting a different view depending on how you look at it. I've received a number of stellar mixes, as well, and still listen to them often!
And maybe all this sounds pretentious to you. That's cool. It's still something that I enjoy doing, as much for myself as for others - like all good art, I feel. Go ahead and build your own mixes however you want! I don't judge.
And maybe all this sounds pretentious to you. That's cool. It's still something that I enjoy doing, as much for myself as for others - like all good art, I feel. Go ahead and build your own mixes however you want! I don't judge.
Do you make musical mixes for people? Do you have any guidelines that you try to follow? Holler at me in the comments and let me know your secrets!
Point number 9 is so interesting to me because I wrestled with the last song on your Latitudes and Attitdues CD FOREVER about it....the background of the song is that the composer wrote it for the children of a friend who had died of cancer but, not wanting to write a song about "death," he wrote it inspired by E.T.'s words to Elliot at the end of E.T. (which I love!). It was also covered on Smash is a very didactic way around a character's death. (Smash? Didactic? WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT.)
ReplyDeleteKnowing that it both was and wasn't about death, I was torn--I agree FULLY with point number 9 (I agree with almost al of your points, actually--shocker), but I listened to it and pretended I didn't know the background. I just really felt like the idea of moving to a new place could be read in some parts of it, too. I also didn't want to end with a Pitch Perfect song, heh.
BUT, I was listening to that mix last week, and then I decided maybe it failed after all. I think the end of that mix got maudlin because I was sad you were leaving, even if I was FREAKING EXCITED about the adventure on which you were embarking. So, THAT probably read, at least, clearly. :)
Anyway, this was a super fun read. The point about transitions is so true--I'm sure it must look crazy to other people when I listen to only the beginning and ending of songs over and over.
And with that, I'm off to listen to "Professional Responsibility,"which I think is the best mix you've ever made me!
PS that's Keckert (stupid Blogger, I'm me, I swear!)
DeleteProfessional Responsibility is my best mix, ever, HANDS DOWN. Thank you! A didactic Smash is possibly the most hilarious thing I've ever read. I mean... really? haha. God, maybe I should watch Smash? *SLAP*
DeleteI think that 'The Goodbye Song' is a completely perfect ending to that mix, and a great send-off song - "Don't be scared, you're be fine" is one of my favorite build-up moments in all of the mixes I've ever gotten, and Latitudes + Attitudes is the best mix you've ever made me, although a few others come very close! The song itself perfectly pitches the fact that I was leaving the immediate vicinity and going 13,000 miles away, but that we're on the same planet and actually very, very close in the great scheme of things. I look at the night sky here (without the stars!) and think of how we're all so close, without even being beside each other. I just listened to it again and I can't really say anything better about it - it's perfect. I didn't know that background about the song, but it doesn't lose any of its potency (and, honestly, I think it works better for a living person than a dead friend, although that knowledge adds a very interesting dimension).
I'm very curious about your own methods. I hope we continue this tradition of trading mix tapes for many, many years. :) Most of the playlists in my "MIX TAPE" folder are from you - all the way back to "New Faces Is Over!" - I listen to them all the time. Latitudes + Attitudes was the only thing I listened to on the plane here and for weeks after I arrived. It STILL occupies the limited space on my iPod, and probably will for a long time to come.
So glad you enjoyed the read - I know it was a damn long post. I just couldn't stop talking about myself! HA! Like any good artist? hahaha ;)
I didn't read any of this. I looked for a playlist and when I didn't see one I thought "ain't nobody got time for that." But I do have time for that Ben, I do.
ReplyDeleteBurgervore, I've added a screenshot of my playlist, just for you! I originally wanted to embed the whole thing from Spotify or Rdio, but those services are not available here. Youtube was the best I could do. :/
DeleteThanks for bringing that to my attention! I'll be sure to include a shot of the list in all future Mix posts!!
When I was abroad, mom told me that she'd sing "traveling prayer' for me all the time. I've been singing it for you since you left. And now it's #1 on your mix! It's official: it's a family song :)
ReplyDeleteon an unrelated note, it's 10:45 pm and I'm making tasso ham and cheddar biscuits? what is wrong with me? wish you were here.
It's official... Travelin' Prayer is our song. :) I just love the piano. In a previous version of this mix I had Billy Joel's "Half a Mile Away" toward the bottom but thought this was a better fit. I'll save that other one for another month!
DeleteAnd yes, I wish I was there too!! "Normal" food... badass.
Yup, it's officially "ours"... Travelin' Prayer has played many, MANY times both in my head and on actual speakers while you and Lexi have made your own footprints on this earth. So far, God has answered my prayers and hopefully He will continue.
ReplyDeletelove, Mom