Thoughts on Mixtapes and Music

I made my friend a mixtape for her birthday recently, and the process was as agonizing as it was endearing. It was a very last-minute decision to make her a mixtape, especially since my dad was the one actually downloading the music and burning the CD, and I basically told him about my idea two hours in advance. But still. I’m the kind of person that really enjoys discovering new music and sharing my music to other people. Going the extra mile and actually making someone a physical CD with good music on it is definitely an added bonus for me.

When you think about it, CDs are slowly becoming a thing of the past in this digital world of ours. The new MacBook Pros don’t even come with disc drives anymore! (which drives me absolutely nuts) Everyone sends people online playlists through YouTube or Spotify. But there is something very personal about being given music in a physical format. This is why I am also a fan of vinyl. Mixtapes were originally actual tapes, and people would record their own voice in the middle of them to annotate what their intentions were behind the songs, or just to add in funny commentary.

It is almost an art form in making collections of music. I always appreciate movies and TV shows that have great soundtracks. The songs not only fit the plotline, but they are also really good songs. But interestingly enough, once I hear a song in a particular scenario, I always associate it to that scenario whenever I listen to it afterward. That’s not just for movies and TV shows, but also in everyday life. Memories lay within everything I listen to. But I guess that happens to everyone.

All this being said, I’m accumulating 24 hours of road trip music for my family’s road trip to Florida this summer. So far, I’m at roughly 21 hours, and there is a quite a mix. There are songs that I haven’t listened to in years, songs that came up when I Googled “road trip music”, and some of my favourite songs ever. My main rule in making this playlist is that they have to be associated with happy memories. There is a lot of new music that I collected for this purpose, and I really hope that through this trip, those songs can carry new meanings and happy memories as well.

If you ever want music suggestions from me, feel free to let me know.