The Art of the Mixtape

There is a nice speech that John Cusack's character gives at the end of High Fidelity that goes:

The making of a great compilation tape like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick it off with a killer to grab attention. Then you gotta take it up a notch but you don't want to blow your wad. So then you gotta cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.

You can say that again. In fact, some would say that creating the perfect mixtape is an art form. First up, the readers of kempa.com expound on how it's done. Some nuggets:

** Don't put more than *2* songs by a band on the tape. If you want to put two songs on by the same band, but want to put a song in between them, don't. It's either one after the other, or on totally different sides.

** Pick songs that match the recipient (i.e. don't use Fugazi for sorority girls and no Elton John for indie chicks).

** Just like with records, side b should start with a kicker as much as side a does, particularly if you close side a with something mellow.

Next we have the tale of two people, one mixtape and zero common ground.

Lastly, it's a chance to make that ultimate mixtape without going through all the effort of, you know, making that ultimate mixtape. Mixmatcher is a stroke of genius, and I am amazed no one has thought of this before... You can create your own virtual playlist using a topic of your choosing. Others can view your selections and add their own selections to your list. For example, some of the current playlists are:
Really good covers you think no one else has heard
State Songs (songs that have the name of a state in the title)
and One to Tango: Songs with a masturbation theme.

You can browse through any list, but the fun is in creating your own and adding ideas to other people's lists. For that you need to register, which is free. If you want, you can post your email so others can contact you, but that is optional.