How to make a mixtape pt. 3: motivation

Once you obtain all the technological resources, background knowledge, and skills needed to make a mixtape (and I guess also some music to make it with), the relevant question becomes why. After all, iTunes can put together mixtapes from music you already have and services like Pandora can find you new music by making, in a sense, a neverending mixtape. So why bother putting a mixtape together at all? In this post I'll outline a few sources of inspiration that I've found helpful when making mixtapes. Do bear in mind that these aren't necessarily separate - mixing and matching inspiration types is, of course, acceptable.

Perhaps the most common motivation for compiling a mixtape is to then use it as a means of communicating a message. Looking at the list of requests at Tiny Mix Tapes will reveal that such messages can be rather varied, though the stereotypical cases involve relationships - which is not to say that there's anything wrong with making a "let's hook up" mixtape. But you shouldn't worry about picking a subject too esoteric or obscure, except insofar as the subject actually inhibits your ability to find music to match it. It's often difficult to complete a decent mixtape before a message's expiration date, so to speak, so be prepared either to put a lot of effort into a mix of this sort or to complete it once the message no longer needs sending. I myself have not made many of these, but once I get one I like enough to post I'll reference it here.

For those of us who use music to enhance or change our moods, mixtapes can provide a reliable way to do this. Since artists tend to aim for a certain level of variety in their albums - in tempo, subject matter, instrumentation, and so on - it's usually a challenge to find an entire CD that fits a given mood (TV compilation albums notwithstanding). If you can identify a vibe or emotion that you often find difficult to express, it can be emotionally rewarding to construct a mixtape that crystallizes that vibe or emotion. My "A City Through Bleary Eyes" mix attempts something like this, where the vibe or emotion is the subdued one I get walking or driving through an urban area late at night. The difficulties in making a mix like this include translation (your reaction to late night city travel may not be at all like mine) and its inherent contextual limitations (if I'm feeling energetic, I just won't be able to listen to this mix), but it has a reusability that message mixtapes usually lack.

Probably my most common inspiration for a mixtape is to explore a topic or artistic attribute. My instrument- and topic-themed tapes all fall into this category, which is notable for the deceptive ease with which one can construct them. Since there is such a ridiculously large number of songs available, it will be trivially easy to find 10-15 songs that fit a theme in this way. (Hint: if you are having trouble, just use Google.) The trick here is making sure that the songs all come together to make a coherent album - this concept, which I call flow, will be the topic of my next "how-to" post. It is, at least in my experience, always necessary to make some painful sacrifices with respect to the theme so as to maintain the flow, but perhaps you'll have better luck.

Finally, my favorite source of inspiration: individual songs. Mixtapes, so the story goes, originated as a means by which to spread little-known music, so perhaps it's natural to use them specifically as music-sharing tools. Some of the mixtapes I've created around a song include "Any Kind Of Truth," in which I wanted to find a way to use Death Cab's "Bixby Canyon Bridge" as a closer, and this untitled mix, which I based around Joan Osborne's "Spider Web." When making song-based mixtapes, I try to pick out what makes that song interesting and play off of it - in the first case, it was the haunting sound and vaguely nihilistic lyrics; in the second, it was the way that the song combines elements of folk, rock, and alternative music. I find that the most difficult part of song-inspired mixes is framing the song correctly: one of the things you learn making mixtapes is that any song can be used in a myriad of ways, which makes it easy to lose track of where you originally thought the mixtape was going. One of the things that helps me to avoid this is to pick an opening track that heavily emphasizes one aspect of the song you'd like to highlight. In the case of the untitled mix I just referenced, for example, the first track is strictly folk, which forced me to work back towards "Spider Web" with a series of increasingly musically diverse folk or folk-inspired songs.

No matter which kind of motivation moves you to start a mixtape, patience is a must. If you run into a problem, remember that it's always okay to start a mix over from scratch or to put one on indefinite hold until inspiration strikes. Or, to quote Darren Aronofksy, "You remember Archimedes of Syracuse, eh? The king asks Archimedes to determine if a present he's received is actually solid gold. Unsolved problem at the time. It tortures the great Greek mathematician for weeks - insomnia haunts him and he twists and turns in his bed for nights on end. Finally, his equally exhausted wife - she's forced to share a bed with this genius - convinces him to take a bath to relax. While he's entering the tub, Archimedes notices the bath water rise. Displacement, a way to determine volume, and that's a way to determine density - weight over volume. And thus, Archimedes solves the problem. He screams 'Eureka' and he is so overwhelmed he runs dripping naked through the streets to the king's palace to report his discovery."