I have a number of friends who are really good at making mix tapes, now iPod playlists. Over the years, I have treasured their gifts, and dearly longed to reciprocate. Unfortunately, I am possibly the world's worst playlist/mixtape/CD creator. I think I once managed to successfully create a CD for a boyfriend that I thought was really good. I would bet a lot of money that he not only no longer has the CD, but doesn't even remember getting it.
So I solicit your advice: what are the rules for making a great mix? Feel free also to list the contents of your own favorite mix.
Bonus music note: Silent Movie by Quiet Village is a terrible, terrible album. It is not the worst thing I have ever heard, a title I reserve for the screechings of Mariah Carey. But I have yet to discern a single redeeming feature, even though I rather like the sound of chirping birds. The friend who persuaded me to waste valuable eMusic credits downloading the thing is definitely not getting a mixtape any time soon.
Unless you are making something you plan to play on random/shuffle, one of the keys should definitely be transition. You'll want to avoid dramatic shifts in tone and nature between tracks. One time I made a mix for a friend where I followed Neko Case with Rob Zombie, mostly because I thought it was hilarious, and she said that the mix would've been perfect overall if it wasn't for that one really jarring transition. So yeah, go for tension and release. You want to move smoothly through different genres, if that's what you're going to do. Avoid abrupt changes.
The only playlists I've made that I have found worth keeping I've done with this mindset: they're all soundtracks for "movies" that don't exist. I guess it helps in terms of building things up at the appropriate speed and avoiding 'randomness.'
The Mix Rules:
1. Pick a theme (i.e. slow grooves, party, kick ass 80's).
2. Select your favorite artists according to theme (i.e. slow grooves - Sade, Barry White; party - Justin Timberlake, Kanye, Beyonce; kick ass 80's - Duran Duran, Billy Squire, Madonna, The Police.).
3. Group like-rhythms or feelings together. Some mixes tell a story and have a beginning, middle and an end (like story-telling) or they can start out 'slow' and build up to a climax then back down again.
4. Choose order according to #3.
5. Check flow. Very important!!! Play 10 second intros to make sure the flow flows.
6. Record.
If the mix is for yourself, there are no rules! As long as you like it, that's all that matters. However, if the mix is for a group and you have an eclectic taste for music, I would strongly suggest sticking to mainstreem tunes so listeners won't be saying 'WTF is this sh*t?' Because they will!
There's a few rules of thumb I follow:
-Never put more than one song by the same band on the CD, but if you absolutely have to, make sure the're at least a "side" apart
-Don't use the mix CD as a place to showcase your awesome underground music tastes. At least half of the songs should be familar to the intended listener
-I agree with both comments above about fluidity and theme. Sometimes when I try to figure out what song comes next, I hum the last note of the song before it until the right next song comes to my mind
"Unless you are making something you plan to play on random/shuffle, one of the keys should definitely be transition."
Transition is key. Also, don't put all the best songs at the beginning. Save the best song for near the end. Use the really good songs as your meat and the not so good ones as filler. Last song for me on every CD is normally a song I like that no one knows.
My mixes consist of mostly reggae, reggaeton and hip hop(not rap). Kardinal Offishall is great for these mixes because he blends hip hop and reggae like no other.
Best way to learn how to make a mix is to listen to good mixes. This is easy to do for mixes in the small - tune into a good radio station (not a clear-channel owned top 40 machine, but a good station with a deep playlist - try radioparadise.com if you can't find one on the air in DC). Listen to the "sets" of music - the 4-6 songs played in a row without commercial break or significant DJ interruption. A good DJ will have set these up just like you should set up consecutive songs on your mixtape.
Most importantly, they will flow well into one another, no jarring transitions. Your goal is to sort of sneak the song transitions by the listener, so all of a sudden they are in a different song, and the didn't even notice the change. Also, the sets might be thematically linked.
The (very good) movie "High Fidelity", with John Cusack, has long sections devoted to description of the perfect mix tape.
One good approach is to rely on artists who have musically influenced each other, even if it is across unusual channels, or rely on artists who share common sources. AllMusic.com will help out if you don't know the linkages already. And have five killer songs in mind before you start making your tape. If it is US/UK music, restricting the cuts to pre-1977 or so isn't a bad idea either.
I echo the sentiments about flow and transition. Pay attention to things like rhythm, the use of peculiar instruments or distinctive sounds, and lyrical themes. For instance, following PJ Harvey's "Down by the Water" with Toadies' "Possum Kingdom" is is a great transition because the rhythm is similar and both have strong lyrical themes of death.
One other point -- try and have the opening and closing songs on the playlist be very memorable, with lots of hooks and big emotional impact. If you start strong and finish strong, what's in the middle will matter less.
If it's for someone else, pick at least a fair amount of songs you have reason to believe they would like. (If you don't know their taste, than pick songs that you consider more accessible.) You can also throw in some songs that they might well dislike if they're a more adventurous sort. Also, avoid too many big/epic songs and avoid too many songs that would make for good singles. A good mix has filler so that the highlights stand out more. For the same reason, you probably shouldn't put your 20 favorite songs ever on one mix.
Themey mixes are okay but not necessary - arbitrarily selected songs can also be enjoyable.
Spread out the best songs over the course of the mix. It's good to sometimes put a couple songs together that sound similar but never three or more. Finally, listen to the end of each track going into the beginning of the next to make sure the transitions aren't jarring.
Also, this might be personal aesthetic preference, but I always select the "no gap between songs" choice (on iTunes, but I'm sure other options have it). Too much space between songs decreases the flow quotient.
What makes a mix stand out for me is good transitions that take the listener by surprise. The reaction you want is, "I never would have thought of those two songs together, but they totally fit!"
I make mixtapes/playlists based on themes, which might be as obvious as each song title mentions a color to more obscure themes like each song was used in a car commercial. I've also dones mixes like DPT above, which are "soundtracks" for nonexistent movies or which otherwise tell a narrative.
If there are any Beatles fans out there: I once made a collection of six mix CDs using the best materials from the individual Beatles' solo albums released between 1970 and 1980. My conceit (obviously fanciful) was that these six CDs were the Beatles albums they might have released if the band hadn't broken up. I even designed "album covers" etc. Great fun and I still listen to the CDs years later.
1. Imagine you're putting together a mix that could be played on two sides of an LP record. This is important for two reasons. First, it keeps the mix short - about 45 minutes. If you're interested in having the beneficiary listen to it in one sitting, making it much longer than this will hurt those chances. Next, this creates 4 "premium" song slots - the first and last song on each "side." This creates a halfway point to the mix even though it will never be flipped over like a record.
2. I like to start a mix off with an upbeat, anthemic type of song and follow it with something quite similar. The third song will be something that allows the listener to cool off a bit (this is ripped off from High Fidelity).
3. I'm a big fan of the fake ending. By this I mean making the listener think the second-to-last song is the last song (because it's hooky, anthemic, rocking, etc) and then going right into something silly or funny that ends the mix.
4. Transitions are key, especially between the last song on the first side and the first song on the second side. The best ever example of this is on abbey road, She's so heavy -> here comes the sun.
5. You have to strike the right balance between "songs I know this person likes" and "songs I know this person doesn't know but I think they will like."
6. Think of the best concerts you've ever been to. Having songs in different keys, allowing concert-goers to rest after huge songs by following them with lighter, slower songs, never having too many slower songs in a row are all things to think about. Also, you can think about how to end the mix by what a band would play to end the set and then for the encore.
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 off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.
1. Pick stuff that shocks you and makes you weep.
2. Listen to it several dozen times, shifting songs around so that they merge smoothly for three or four in a row, then punctuate those with strikingly out-of-place exceptions for comic relief.
3. Forget about the idea that the person you're giving it to will ever listen to it. They don't care. Listen to it several dozen more times yourself.
All other bets are off if you know the other person's collection well and are trying to introduce him or her to something new. This works best if you have already talked about that "something new" and the recipient has expressed interest. Then the trick is to highlight the parts of the new material that most closely match the person's existing interests, while placing the stuff that's further "out there" in between the more accessible songs. The goal is to showcase the new artist or genre, but in a way that the recipient will take it in and not tune it out.
I love the impassioned, detailed replies so far. As a guy who once made these tapes for women I liked, and who was convinced I was doing it to promote music I loved, I eventually was forced to the conclusion that I made mix tapes so that said women would fall in love with me, and fall hard.
So I wonder, Megan, if most of the mix tapes you receive are from men. If so, believe me -- their motivations have little to do with "transitions" or "starting off with a killer," although they've probably convinced themselves that those are the things that matter most in the mix.
What they want to do is attract a young, intelligent brunette. If they could do that without resorting to the mix tape, they never would have bothered with the music mixes.
If you don't buy this argument today, just wait a few years. You will. :)
1a. If you are making it for someone else, the most important thing is to tailor it to what you think they will enjoy, not what you think will make you look cool. This may seem obvious but my experience suggests otherwise.
1b. No more than ~1/2 stuff they've never likely heard, but no less than ~1/4 either. Introduce them to stuff you think they'll like (it shows you put some serious thought into it, and that you're willing to go out on a limb a bit) but don't make it look like you're trying to "educate" them.
2. Personally, I like to start strong, and end beautiful. Something powerful and catchy to start, and something haunting by the end. You may want to do something different, but I think picking out these two tracks first and then figuring out how to get from one to the other in a way that makes sense is the fun and art of it.
I agree with the multiple comments about transition being key, but would caution you against understanding that in a simplistic "like with like" way that some seem to be advocating. Too much like-with-like is a sure recipe for that ultimate sin: being boring. If even Papa Haydn can be abrupt and startling at times, so can you. For a more modern example, see Derek's #4 on Abbey Road.
If you're familiar with the setlist structure of a predominantly "live" band (eg the Dead*) then making tapes is easy, I think. The hardest part (not anymore though) was getting the timing to be EXACTLY 45 or 60 minutes to avoid dead space on the tape. Alternatively, make each side the same +/- 30 seconds and pad the silence at the beginning of side II (with instructions to flip tape immediately after the last bar of side I.
*Seriously, a recent book about the band discusses the "grammar" of set lists. The guys had internalized rules for what songs could be played in what order. I'd like to track this down.
I made this tape (2x60 min) many years ago, for a girl, natch. But I liked it so much I kept it for myself. I tried to do the Set I, Set II, Encore format. Which is turned on its head because the set II here must be shorter than set I as it shares a side with the encore. It betrays my MKW roots and the love tunes at the ends of the two sets now make me groan, but the flow is perfect.
American Music (Why Do Birds Sing)
Cumberland Blues (Europe 72)
Layla (L. and Other Assorted Love Songs)
Stolen Moments (Blues and the Abstract Truth)
Norwegian Wood (Rubber Soul)
Harry Hood (Phish 6 Dec 1996, set II)
Ms Lazarus (Downward Is Heavenward)
Hot Rod Lincoln (Lost in the Ozone)
Paranoid Android (OK Computer)
Smile (The Gufs)
Sweet Jane (Rock 'n' Roll Animal)
Sympathy for the Devil (Beggars Banquet)
God (The Sound of Music [McCurdy, Pat])
Little Red Corvette (1999)
If I Were a Bell (Relaxin' with Miles Davis)
Canary in a Coal Mine (Zenyatta Mondatta)
New Pollution (Odelay)
Touchstone (Change of Scenes)
Jammin' (Exodus)
Good Things (Joe Dirt Car)
Wait Until Tomorrow (Axis: Bold as Love)
It is worth reading the novel 'High Fidelity' by Nick Hornby solely to witness his music-tragic characters argue about this in obsessive detail. The movie was good, but the book is better.
It is worth reading the novel 'High Fidelity' by Nick Hornby solely to witness his music-tragic characters argue about this in obsessive detail. The movie was good, but the book is better.
The references to High Fidelity are good - it was a good movie, after all - but I think the quote mentioned by bcg above (and referenced in other comments) isn't the key quote in the movie. Rather, this one is more important: "First of all, you 're using someone else's poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing."
Discman,
You bring a perceptive observation, and I can't see how its applicability doesn't also apply to.... well... .... .... just about everything.
As others mentioned, Nick Hornby's High Fidelity has, aside from being a wonderful book, an extended discussion about mixtapes in it. The discussion, alas, is too long to repeat here, but you should try it.
This might be obvious, but make sure YOU enjoy your own mix. If you lean too heavily towards the tastes of the person you're making the mix for, you're in the end not going to enjoy the process, and the mix probably won't turn out well. At least half the point of making a mix is your own enjoyment.
Secondly, listen to the mix in different settings and on different audio systems. Your friend probably won't have your exact stereo setup. Even if he or she did, listening to the music in different contexts helps you listen to the music outside of yourself. I've make mixes and taken them to play in cafes (where my friends worked). The mix sounded different, mostly in a good way, but I did make a couple of tweaks to the playlist.
Finally, muxtape.com is pretty cool.
I once did a mix for a party I DJ'd. It was a costume party primarily for females (long explanation omitted to protect the guilty - not sure what the statute of limitations is) and the theme was built around jungle animals. (I wore a pink bodysuit with a paddle tail and told folks I was a a shaved beaver. :-)
Anyway, most, not all the songs had an animal theme (Lion in My House - Candye Kane)or an animal name in the group (Pussycat Dolls) The filler was hot 80's, at the request of the host. No downbeat sad stuff - the object was to keep people dancing. It turned out pretty well judging from crowd response and later feedback. It's about 35 minutes long. I used it it for my break to dance. :-)
I can put it online if anyone is interested. Just email me.
Disclaimer: I did it years ago, so it is a lil' dated.
Marcus
I love the impassioned, detailed replies so far. As a guy who once made these tapes for women I liked, and who was convinced I was doing it to promote music I loved, I eventually was forced to the conclusion that I made mix tapes so that said women would fall in love with me, and fall hard.
After Discman at 10:11, almost anything I have to say is redundant. He hit it on the head, and the first thing you have to ask yourself is WHY?
Who is the mix for and what are you trying to accomplish? Why are you giving this selection of music? You said to reciprocate to "friends". Is that so? Or is there a particular friend whose ear you want to catch? Why a mixtape now? Examine thy heart.
My mixes, which I avoid now because they never work to my desired result, usually include male and female voices, slow and fast paces, and always with one or two instrumentals in there. Like a cut from the Amelie soundtrack somewhere in the middle. The end will always be an upbeat song (like 'People Have the Power' by Patti Smith), usually preceded by something moody, indirectly romantic and minor key (and always with a male singer). The first song is always slow, ethereal and vaguely romantic too.
In theory, the moody song is to get the woman thinking longingly, and the final song is to energize her to step in my direction.
Never works.
Mixtapes for comparative strangers are always hard. I only bother for people I've known for years, especially when I find out they are unaware of my current obsession. It's a variation on a letter, except it conveys the soundtrack that's on in my head instead of the events of the past month.
Mixtapes to seduce someone you haven't made progress in seducing by other means? Not too likely to work, at least not past college age.
The best advice I can give you is to listen to the mix several times before you give it to anyone. A lot of times, people skip this step, since they already know all the songs. But that doesn't mean it "works" as a mix. Listening to it ought to let you know whether it makes a coherent whole.
Here's a favorite track list from one I made. This mix was made entirely from live recordings.
Neko Case – Set Out Running
Lucero – Across the River
Built to Spill – Goin’ Against Your Mind
Spoon – Paper Tiger
Joan Jett – Bad Reputation
Giant Drag – Wicked Game (Chris Isaak cover)
Mike Watt, Dave Grohl, Eddie Vedder, Pat Smear, William Goldsmith – Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing (Minutemen cover)
Sonic Youth – Tom Violence
Pixies – Hey/Gigantic
The Magnetic Fields – All My Little Words
Sleater-Kinney – Ironclad
Liz Phair – If I Ever Pay You Back/Fuck and Run
Cat Power – Cross Bones Style/(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Rolling Stones cover)
White Stripes – Ball and Bisciut
Tom Waits – Train Song
Drive-By Truckers – Dead, Drunk & Naked
The New Pornographers – Letter From An Occupant
Sebadoh – Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty cover)
www.muxtape.com
Most of the good advice has been covered above, so just one note:
I like to keep my personal playlist on random play (either of the whole collection or thematic playlists). Where I hear a really good transition, I make a note of it to not forget it! Sometimes I'll build a playlist off of a few great transitions. (I tend not to make mixtapes for specific people, though, so much as make something I like and then think of someone else who would like it too.)
What Nick said. Possibly the best new website this year.
And screw what everyone else has said so far - mixtapes should totally just be the 20 songs you like most at the moment. Or maybe thats just the opinion of someone who comes from the iTunes playlist generation rather than the mixtape generation.
Pretty much, if your CD mix ain't got this on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaeNelsAOGo
then it's sub par.
If it is US/UK music, restricting the cuts to pre-1977 or so isn't a bad idea either.
That was when you graduated from high school, eh? I'll grant there's been a lot of crap in the industry since then, but that doesn't mean it was all bad. Go watch the Simpsons episode "Homerpalooza" -- it might be instructive :-P
Back on topic: much of the other advice matches my own experience for mix-making, but when it comes to making unsolicited mixes for specific people whose tastes you may not know in-depth, you walk onto dangerous waters. Music can be an intensely personal experience, and "I thought you might like this" puts an uncomfortable pressure to listen to 'your' music -- even if they don't like it; and in the latter case, it could sour further as "Wha...? You don't know me at all!"
I've had lots of success with the passive approach: I make mixes for me (particularly the ambient techno/trance/electronica collections I like for driving). Then I listen to them at home or in the car. If someone else is present and says "Hey, I really liked these last three tracks, where did this come from?", then I reply with "Oh, it's a mix I put together. If you like some of this stuff, I can get you a copy and a tracklist." If they respond positively to the offer, then voila, sale: they've chosen to make it their own.
As a bonus, they may find some new artists in the process, and sometimes they reciprocate: "Hey, if you like this kind of work, have you heard about...?"
I rather liked that Quiet Village album. It didn't work for you at the beach, with drink in hand?
I make a lot of mix tapes (or, rather, CDs), and I do try to tailor them to the person the CD is for. I do not, however, load them up with 1/4 to 1/2 songs that that the people already know, own, and are probably very sick of. Unless a hugely popular song is the most appropriate song for a particular CD, why bother? And most iconic songs (or even Top 40) already have emotions and memories tied into them by the listener, and you're not likely making a mix geared to those experiences anyway.
If your audience is a timid listener, then by all means use songs from bands or artists they know, but look for little-heard album cuts, B-sides, or live takes. Cover versions can be a gift from heaven or from hell. Samey-sounding covers make the listener ask why you didn't just use the original, but an interesting, original take on a "standard" can evoke the thrill of rediscovery.
Jarring transitions, used carefully, bring attention back to the mix. Mixes that lope along a tight sine wave of rhythym can be boring. If shocking transitions can work for film and theatre, why not mix tapes (and there is a long history of intra-song sharp transitions).
Themed mixes that are too specific can make it difficult to pick enough songs that work. Stay broad, and a music collection of almost any size has lots of opportunities for great mixes. A mix tape theme of "people", where each song is a character study, can be fun, or "places" is an easy start.
Mix Tape Law: When a title suits your theme perfectly, there will be at least one line in the lyrics that your listener will find either innapropriate or offensive. This is especially true for mix tapes designed for crushes. You will invariably call them too skinny, too fat, too loud, too quiet, etc. Avoid R.E.M.'s "The One I Love" if you've never really listened to the lyrics (and hey, why are you using such a popular song in the first place?)
And like some others have posted above, if you don't love your mix and listen to it over and over, you can be guaranteed the recipient won't either.
Above all, have fun! Sharing music is a great way to "talk" with friends and remain in their lives, even against time and distance.
Include one comedy bit ...
Maybe, include one bit from a really different musical style (like classical on a rock mix).
Man, I've mostly felt bad for you when the trolls shit all over you in the comments but after your outright rude trashing of the Quiet Village record I'm wondering if you don't deserve it all (or some of it). You ask for it, anyway. No more sympathy here.
I've been making CDs for myself every month since the dawn of mp3s in 2000. My rules:
1) No repeating artists or songs on the same disc, or even the following month's disc.
2) Once a tune (same version of a song by a particular artist) appears on a disc, it is permanently ineligible to appear again.
3) No songs by the Beatles, Prince or "Weird Al" Yankovic (since I already have their entire works on other discs). Other songs are also ineligible for reasons too complicated to get into here.
4) No more than five novelty songs per disc. (Ha!)
5) Usually a drop-in (a snippet of a movie or TV/radio show) and an upbeat song to lead off; slower songs toward the end.
Other than that, no rules; indeed, I *like* placing wildly divergent songs next to each other on a disc. (Example: Sun-Ra's "Nuclear War" next to "You Made Me Believe In Magic" by the Bay City Rollers.)
I would suggest finding, say, 20 or 30 songs that you want use for a single disc. After that you can focus on transitions and getting the right flow and not have to worry about cutting a song that doesn't fit because you have plenty that do work.