Having just completed the first item on my list of “things to do” for the year, it occurred to me that “mixtapes” are something of a dying artform. At least, in physical form.
Whereas the definition of this thing called “mixtape” is a remnant from the days when they were genuine cassette tapes and not CD-R or mere MP3 compilation mixes, it is not the “mix” part I’m referring to here. In fact, DJ mixes and similar compilations are flourishing: online and disguised under the ill-formed “podcast” banner.
It’s the “tape” part I’m talking about — the physical media.
Or rather, the medium. Not only tape; that’s dead, we’ve already said that; it’s the recordable CD that seems to have become passé for music.
No, seriously: when last have you made a compilation of your favourite songs and burnt those to a CD-R as a proper Red Book Audio CD?
Nevermind your answer — I’m quite sure it’s substantially less than when CD-writers first became affordable some ten years ago, and certainly before iPods, cellphones and computers became the standard audio player, not to mention hard drive-based multi-media players or other networked media tanks.
Perhaps it’s just the novelty that’s worn off — or is it because, somehow and despite computers, ripping a bunch of songs off a selection of CDs and burning those is actually more labourious and less fun than taking those same CDs and recording them to tape used to be?
Does anyone still listen to CDs or watch DVDs in their original form? Have we truly forsaken quality (CD, vinyl, DVD) over convenience, instant accessibility (MP3, XVid, IPTV/VoD, YouTube), and portability (iPod, Zune, Netbooks)?
One should also realise that current removable media is mostly flash memory based, easily (trans)portable between devices thanks to a USB interface, is quite forgiving of rough environments, and of much larger capacity than any concentric magnetic or optical media carrier (external hard drives aside). Cost is another factor.
