Almost Like a Trailer For Sundays
For those who don't know, I've started little "contests" on Sundays where readers who know their music trivia can win a mix CD, made by yours truly and catered as best I can to that person's taste. There have been 3 winners so far and the mix for winner #4 is nearing completion. In that time I have also made one for my father and another for a friend for her birthday. So I've been on a mix a week pace for about the last 6 weeks.
The entire process has been a new and fun one for several reasons. First, it has been a while since I regularly made mixes and I have been reminded how much I enjoy it. Second, all of the mixes so far have been made for people I have never met face to face, likely never will, and know only through our mutual journals. Putting together 70-80 minutes worth of tunes for people I know but don't really know is a pretty interesting undertaking, far more so then I would have ever guessed. Finally, there is always a great level of joy in being able to make people something that is (hopefully) enjoyable for them to have. Music is such a terrific art form and stringing songs together into one collection is sort of a sub-art form in itself. I like a lot of music -- with a great deal of it never getting on radio, MTV, or VH1 -- and being able to share it with others is very cool. It's like being the candy shop owner in Willy Wonka; I didn't make the chocolate and goodies behind the counter but I get to show off the Wonka and Scrumpdeliumpcious Bars. (No, I won't be singing "The Candy Man" on the next mix.)
There are so many ways to make a mix. So many styles and potential messages to try and send from one song to the other. And a most of the time there is some kind of motivation or an even an ulterior motive. When I was a teenager pretty much every mix I made for other people was meant to send some kind of message, usually "I like you and if you like these songs then maybe you'll like me too" or something along those lines. [All of this is well documented in popular culture and, in my opinion, best put in long form via High Fidelity (book and movie) and in short form in the song "Mix Tape" from Avenue Q.] Having said that, it is an amazing feeling to create a mix from a different place of motivation then the standard "boy wanting girl" motive. With the recent mixes for "Sunday Rounds Winners" my goal has basically been to match what I know of the person receiving the mix to the type of music they say they like and/or what I think or hope they might like. On another level, and depending on the individual, I've crafted the mix around things they've written that, over the course of days, I have read and enjoyed. That too is an interesting place to be coming from when selecting individual songs and artists. There is kind of a cool circular process at play: Their writing about some topic or moment, my interpretation of that writing, the song or artist that makes me think of their writing, and then a series of songs back around to them. And what Track 1, 2, 10, or 14 makes them think of is, of course, theirs and theirs alone.
The oddest thing is that now, as I read the various people on my friend's list, I have begun thinking "What kind of a mix would I make for her/him if they ever won on Sunday?" There are some people on the list who I have been reading for ages, others for just a little while, and vice versa. I don't have a super long friend's list but it's made up of some very interesting and diverse individuals: Men, women, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, students, married people, single people; 40-something, 30-somethings, 20-somethings, and even a teenager (are you still out there Marty?); humorists, satirists, emo-ists (just kidding), artists; people of wonder, faith, contemplation, humor and reflection; people who make me laugh, make me think, make me jealous... and, as it turns out, have made me think of some music. And that is not what I ever expected when I started doing this. But, like with all things, I've come to enjoy the unexpected.
J
The entire process has been a new and fun one for several reasons. First, it has been a while since I regularly made mixes and I have been reminded how much I enjoy it. Second, all of the mixes so far have been made for people I have never met face to face, likely never will, and know only through our mutual journals. Putting together 70-80 minutes worth of tunes for people I know but don't really know is a pretty interesting undertaking, far more so then I would have ever guessed. Finally, there is always a great level of joy in being able to make people something that is (hopefully) enjoyable for them to have. Music is such a terrific art form and stringing songs together into one collection is sort of a sub-art form in itself. I like a lot of music -- with a great deal of it never getting on radio, MTV, or VH1 -- and being able to share it with others is very cool. It's like being the candy shop owner in Willy Wonka; I didn't make the chocolate and goodies behind the counter but I get to show off the Wonka and Scrumpdeliumpcious Bars. (No, I won't be singing "The Candy Man" on the next mix.)
There are so many ways to make a mix. So many styles and potential messages to try and send from one song to the other. And a most of the time there is some kind of motivation or an even an ulterior motive. When I was a teenager pretty much every mix I made for other people was meant to send some kind of message, usually "I like you and if you like these songs then maybe you'll like me too" or something along those lines. [All of this is well documented in popular culture and, in my opinion, best put in long form via High Fidelity (book and movie) and in short form in the song "Mix Tape" from Avenue Q.] Having said that, it is an amazing feeling to create a mix from a different place of motivation then the standard "boy wanting girl" motive. With the recent mixes for "Sunday Rounds Winners" my goal has basically been to match what I know of the person receiving the mix to the type of music they say they like and/or what I think or hope they might like. On another level, and depending on the individual, I've crafted the mix around things they've written that, over the course of days, I have read and enjoyed. That too is an interesting place to be coming from when selecting individual songs and artists. There is kind of a cool circular process at play: Their writing about some topic or moment, my interpretation of that writing, the song or artist that makes me think of their writing, and then a series of songs back around to them. And what Track 1, 2, 10, or 14 makes them think of is, of course, theirs and theirs alone.
The oddest thing is that now, as I read the various people on my friend's list, I have begun thinking "What kind of a mix would I make for her/him if they ever won on Sunday?" There are some people on the list who I have been reading for ages, others for just a little while, and vice versa. I don't have a super long friend's list but it's made up of some very interesting and diverse individuals: Men, women, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, students, married people, single people; 40-something, 30-somethings, 20-somethings, and even a teenager (are you still out there Marty?); humorists, satirists, emo-ists (just kidding), artists; people of wonder, faith, contemplation, humor and reflection; people who make me laugh, make me think, make me jealous... and, as it turns out, have made me think of some music. And that is not what I ever expected when I started doing this. But, like with all things, I've come to enjoy the unexpected.
J