wax&wires

MixTapes Mean “I Love You”

Remember back in the day before email and ichat, before MySpace and Facebook, even before texting and twitter were all acceptable ways of communicating? Even before “143″ on your pager made your day?

When puppy love was in full force, you had two ways of conveying your emotions: you either stuffed a letter into her locker, or you made her a mix tape. The mix tape was a big step in the relationship. It was where you put your personality and character on the line, where you hoped to find some common ground with the future mother of your children, where you left Bryan Adams to do the dirty work of words, and then swept in to hijack the romance he had created.

Well the mix tape has become an endangered pastime. Digital music took over. I remember having to call into the radio station and request Seal’s Kiss From A Rose, and then wait by the radio with a cassette cued up to capture that one song that would complete my mix. There would always be that ever-frustrating station identification or DJ talking right over the intro, and they would always cut the ending before the song completely faded out, but that was all part of the aesthetic of a solid mix tape. Nowadays, we just go online and hear whatever we want, whenever we want it. The closest thing we have to a mix tape in this new era is uploading a playlist to our MySpace account or shooting somebody a link to our last.fm page. It’s all too clean and polished. All of the heart, work, and grit, all of the personal touch of the mix tape, has disappeared. Why should I feel special for catching your Project Playlist if everybody else on the whole planet has equal access to it? Why should your playlist feel as unique if you could add, delete, and reorder songs with two clicks of your mouse? My love requires at least some level of sacrifice to earn, so you’ve got to show me something more.

Acknowledging that CD-Rs never paid due homage to the cassette tape, MIXA has released a USB flash drive that has the cosmetic appearance of an old school cassette. They hold up to 1 GB of music via a retractable USB jack, and are completely customizable. MIXA lets you decorate the cassette itself with your own images, or you can use many of the hip preloaded ones that they have availalbe. You can also design a jacket and case for it. All of that comes included with a USB cable in a neatly packaged box, ready to gift. You can then upload MP3s, pictures, videos, or files of any type to your MIXA and give it away to bring a little personal touch back to your presents. Show you care by putting some time into your gift.

They do come in a bit pricey at 20 pounds. If you’re looking to roll on the cheap, or just not quite sure if she’s really worth spending $40 on yet, Urban Outfitters has a similar product for $15. Theirs only holds 512 MB, isn’t customizable, and doesn’t come with all the nice branding and schwag of a real MIXA. I got one of these for Christmas from my sister, and it’s pretty sweet. She loaded a bunch of songs on it, and it really makes it feel like one of the best gifts you ever got. A little personal touch like that goes a lot farther than shelling out a bunch of cash for a gift with less thought.

So next time you’re trying to flirt by sending somebody a digital poke on Facebook, remind yourself that digital pokes are Playskool. Step up to the big leagues. Write a letter, with a pen and paper. Give a MixTape. Thank me later.

You can check out the MIXA website at www.MAKEaMIXA.com.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 26th, 2008 at 7:11 am. It is filed under wires and tagged with cassette, gadgets, mp3 player. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.