How to Make a Mix Tape

Music is a funny thing. It has the power to shape your day, define a relationship, or serve as the soundtrack for an entire era of your life. It gives dimension to your memories, enhancing almost any experience.

This is why making a mix CD (or mix tape, if you're feeling sexy and vintage) has a certain power to blend eras and melt musical boundaries, especially when you're making it for someone else.

A good mix takes some work. Like any good movie or novel, it has to tell a story. It requires a clever opening that will hook the listener in, a steady rise to some enlightening climax, and then a good conclusion to keep the listener satisfied.

Before sitting down to create a mix, first ask yourself why you are making it. Are you doing it to make the person reflect on life? To empower them? To make them think about certain lyrics? To get them to like you? Remember, music is a very powerful thing, and a good mix tape during the trial period of a relationship can win the person over.

You also have to consider the tempo of the album. You don't want the listener to lose interest and fall asleep, but you don't want to send them into a sugar coma either. What kind of mental imagery do you want to convey? Also, how long do you want the mix to be? I keep it around 15 tracks total to avoid overkill or premature climax.

You should also have an idea of what kind of personality the listener has, and how much they actually know about music. This helps you to blend familiar sounds with new material. People are always more willing to try new things if there's still a cushion of familiarity.

Now that the brainstorming is out of the way, let's get down to the technicalities. I'm just going to use the all-encompassing category of "rock" for this sample mix, though it works with most genres of music.

The opening song should be strong and give a preview of the type of mix it's going to be. Catchy riffs are good. I once put "Do You Realize?" by the Flaming Lips at the start of a more pop-ish mix (back before it was overplayed), because it has that really cool opening voice and an intriguing beat throughout. But almost anything works, as long as it hooks in the listener.

The second track should start the actual flow of the mix going. Like a movie, the first track hooks you in and gives you a taste of what is to come, but the second track is where the background story really starts. Mid-tempo songs by Cake or Blur or Beck or Nirvana could work in this case. If the first song was slower, pick up the pace on the second track.

The next few songs can take many different paths, but the key is to have variety and make smooth transitions between songs. Mold the feeling to your desire. If the listener likes a certain band, see if there are any good acoustic versions of the songs. I usually try to have a healthy balance of classic rock and obscure indie stuff on the first half of a rock mix for rich variation. Varied instruments can also really give an album texture.

Also, keep the first half of the mix balanced. If you have a slow and dreary song, juxtapose it with a song by the Clash. Just keep in mind that you shouldn't take any deep plunges until three-quarters of the way into the mix. I usually save ballads with violins and minor chords for the second half. Also, don't place Jimi Hendrix and Belle & Sebastian right after one another. Make it flavorful but seamless.

Once you've gotten in wrist-deep, it is time to pick a song that will be the turning point of the album. If you're recording on a tape, this should also be the last song on the first half of the mix. Storytelling narratives are good at this point, like "One Foot in Front of the Other" by Bright Eyes or "Along the Watchtower" by Bob Dylan. If you plan to make the second half of the mix more melancholy and deep, put on a minor-keyed or mysterious song to imply that there are darker things to come on the second half. It's kind of like the way "A New Career in a New Town" works on David Bowie's "Low."

My Side Twos usually end up being sad journeys into the night, so I like to break out the Icelandic ambient rock or slow and ridiculously morose ballads. By this point you've probably gotten a feel for where your own mix is going, so it's up to you to break the album to a peak. Keep the song types uniform now, steadily building to a peak.

I usually try to elongate the high point of the mix over a few songs rather than just one. Often, "River Man" by Nick Drake or something by My Bloody Valentine pops up on the second half of anything I make. But for your mix, choose whatever song you feel is important to you - something you feel has a really deep and powerful message. You are, after all, baring a part of your own soul to the person for whom this mix is being made.

But no matter how deep you've ventured in by this point, there should always be a lighter conclusion to the mix. I often follow up a really heart-wrenching ballad with something like "Friday, I'm in Love" by The Cure, just to show that life isn't really all that serious, and music is good.

If you're feeling especially ambitious, you can print out a fancy CD cover to make it look professional and complete. Unfortunately, my printer hasn't had ink in it for the past few semesters. Besides, homemade Sharpie scribbles can be endearing, and show that your mix just "happened" to come together by chance. This is the art of the mix.