An 80's Staple: Sr. Christian's Guide to the Perfect Mix Tape

Having a big garage sale cleanout this weekend, and I'm parting with my cassette tapes (I know no one will buy them, but it's the first step to throwing them out.) It makes me sad, because, although I'm making note of the songs I want to download, and even digitizing a few of the tapes, listening to the odd song coming up on my ipod mixed in the the 40's-current stuff just isn't the same as listening to them in a particular order chosen by a friend or boyfriend. If you ever wanted to turn me on to your music, all you had to do was make me a mix tape. I not only saved every tape made for me, I have a bunch I made for my husband in our early dating days.

But this post isn't about choosing the perfect mix--that's up to you. This post is about the art of the mix tape.

1. If possible, choose a cool looking tape.

Or my personal favorite:

2. Be sure to give your tape a toally random, cool sounding name. If necessary, pull from ain anside joke between you and the recipient.

3. Don't forget your list of songs. I can't tell you how many mix tapes I have with unidentifiable songs on them. Thanks to Sound Hound, I can finally identify them, but remember, it's the 80's--way before the internet. If you had no idea what the name of a song was, you had to hope the DJ might announce it. Can anyone guess what was done wrong here? No artists!

Now, I always liked to decorate the tape, but since I was lacking in artistic ability, I'd simply cut a nice pattern out of a magazine to fit the tape case, or, in some cases, trace something.

Et voila--a personal gift your most nostalgic friends will spend an entire weekend mourning giving up twenty years later!