My father made about 6-8 of these “mixes” in his 30s and they became the soundtrack to our family’s lives.
I have such fond memories of driving around listening to these tapes.
The anticipation of the inevitable good time as I opened a case and put the cassette in the stereo led to the cover art making my heart race. Even just looking at the thumb nail of this video gave me flashbacks to the pure joy of a child.
His obsession was Motown and the rhythm and blues of that era and I still love that music and claim it “raised me”.
This company, and my fathers curation, is absolutely responsible for forming me into the person I am today.
The tapes were a complete education of that moment in time in music, and we listened to them on repeat for years.
I sometimes wonder what is lost by the infinite scroll of contemporary streaming services.
When we’d listen my siblings and I would rotate on picking our favorite tunes. My siblings would change it up and pick different tunes from the options each time their turn came around, but, much to the frustration of everyone else in the car, at the age of 6 I only ever wanted to hear one song: “Rescue Me” by Fontella Bass.
Three other things from the 1980s were why so many stereos sold to teens had two cassette decks:
1. Copying album tapes from friends.
2. Make a mix tape for someone, curated from many albums. Especially for a romantic interest. I don't know whether there's a modern analogue of this, but it could be meaningful.
3. Record the radio, and assemble songs you like onto a low-audio-quality tape for yourself.
(It was a bit different than modern perfect-copy piracy, since your copy was never as good as you could get by buying an album on tape, and then on CD.)
> Make a mix tape for someone, curated from many albums. Especially for a romantic interest. I don't know whether there's a modern analogue of this, but it could be meaningful.
Good question. A Spotify playlist is not the same thing. It should be tangible.
A couple of years ago I burned a mix cd for someone special to me. I hand-wrote a track list and made an envelope to package it. It seemed to be appreciated.
Although: I knew that the recipient had cd player in their car and home. Not sure this would work for younger demographics.
>3. Record the radio, and assemble songs you like onto a low-audio-quality tape for yourself.
That was the most common thing to do. There were so many Top 40 or Top 100 radio shows you could always record off the air if your tape deck could do it. American Top 40 created and hosted by Casey Kasem (then Shadoe Stevens) it aired on Sundays I believe because I remember sitting on the deck at home listening to the show.
> I don't know whether there's a modern analogue of this, but it could be meaningful.
I see something along the lines of "lets make spotify playlists for each other" on dating profiles semi-regularly. Don't know how often people actually act on it.
What a trip. That must have been what I remember ... I think it was on a trip to Los Angeles and I saw this thing in a mall. I remember one of the songs (that I put on my cassette) was a cover of "Cry Baby Cry" by Richard Barone (of the Bongos) which was such an odd and random thing.
Loved personics!!! It was a bit expensive but they made great gifts, and were a good way to get singles. Much easier than waiting for the radio then quickly pressing record+play.
Amazing. Never knew this existed! For the time that was pretty out there. The irony being copying from the new medium CD to the old one cassette, but they probably intended to eventually make CDs and may have been the ultimate “iTunes” had they survived (or probably would have done a deal with Jobs)
Next, look into how Steve Jobs overcame that problem for iTunes.
It helped that Jobs was nominally the CEO of Pixar. He was thus a Studio Head, which meant he outranked everybody in the music industry, or at least the Hollywood part of it.
This was a really good story and reminded me of my younger days in the '80s when my cassette deck and Walkman were in constant use. Thanks for sharing...
> Pay $15 for a 15 track CD than $1 for the on good song on it that you really wanted
No surprise a capitalist company with a history of abusing the authors wants your' $15 instead of $1. They spent way less than $1 producing and shipping a CD and received $14+ from each, why they would bother with receiving only less than $1 (while spending $0)?
I have such fond memories of driving around listening to these tapes.
The anticipation of the inevitable good time as I opened a case and put the cassette in the stereo led to the cover art making my heart race. Even just looking at the thumb nail of this video gave me flashbacks to the pure joy of a child.
His obsession was Motown and the rhythm and blues of that era and I still love that music and claim it “raised me”.
This company, and my fathers curation, is absolutely responsible for forming me into the person I am today.
The tapes were a complete education of that moment in time in music, and we listened to them on repeat for years.
I sometimes wonder what is lost by the infinite scroll of contemporary streaming services.
When we’d listen my siblings and I would rotate on picking our favorite tunes. My siblings would change it up and pick different tunes from the options each time their turn came around, but, much to the frustration of everyone else in the car, at the age of 6 I only ever wanted to hear one song: “Rescue Me” by Fontella Bass.
Still one of my all time favorite songs.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sFI7eQt3ghI