Mixtape

A mixtape is a compilation of songs - or another type of audio tracks - recorded in a specific order, originally on audio Cassette mainly. In the Years 1980, it became current to synchronize the Tempo tracks and to use the principle of the Fondu connected sound.

The mixtapes appeared with the the United States in the trade parallel at the any end of the Années 1960. Sold with the Black-market and in the service station, it was most of the time about compilation S taking again greatest business successes of the year. These recordings were especially sold with the approach Christmas.

With the advent of the domestic high fidelity and numerical recording, compilations on support Compact disk and with the format MP3 supplanted the traditional analogical cassettes little by little. However, the term mixtape , in which slap (“band”) precisely referred to the use of a Magnetic band, is remained of everyday usage. Thus, in this article, the term is not to take with the direction litéral and will be used to indicate any type of audio compilation whatever the media employed (Compact disc, MP3, MiniDisc, etc).

A mixtape is generally the reflection of the musical tastes of the compilor. It can be a question of a selection of some of its favorite pieces, of a conceptual mixture of songs bound by a set of themes or an environment communes, or of a very personal development cut to measures by its creator. Thus, certain unconditional of the mixtape consider that selection and rigorous scheduling of the titles on this kind of support can rise a more evocative artistic assertion from the globality of the work of an artist than a sum of pieces taken individually - in the same way than an album of the Beatles can be regarded as more than one simple individual succession of .

History

Origins and success: the years 1960-1970

The mixtapes made house became current in the Années 1980. Although the audio Cassette developed by Philips appears as of 1963 with Berlin, its sound quality was not at the time step yet enough good to regard it as a support of satisfactory recording, at least as long as progress in its technical development was not made. It will be thing made with the advent of the Chrome and the bands lic Métal. Before the appearance of the audio cassette, the creation of musical compilations required the use of a very expensive and complex material, like the readers-enregisteurs known as “ reality-to-reality ”, on which the band passes completely from a reel to another, or the reader-recorders 8 tracks, two systems little adapted to a domestic use. While the audio cassette gained of portability and in popularity, the engineering problems were reduced of as much, up to the point where it has is enough to create a mixtape to have a reader-recorder to audio cassettes connected to a source of preregistered music, like a tuner radio or a turntable vinyl. The audio cassette being in the monophonic beginning only , since intended for vocal recordings, for example in a Dictaphone of office, the cartridge 8 tracks remained popular all the same for the musical recordings lasting the Années 1960. But the constant technical improvements ended up imposing the cassette like a major actor of the sector. Its presence of long time on the market and the best quality of the domestic recorders to the service of the user amateur finally imposed it like the format on band dominating, so much so that the cartridges 8 tracks quickly disappeared at the beginning from the Années 1980. The growth of the phenomenon mixtape also was strongly accelerated by the increasing quality and the popularity of the Autoradio S, and by the introduction of the Walkman of Sony in 1979.

Regular commercial practice in the years 1970

It is necessary to distinguish the “private” mixtape , generally conceived for a specific listener or at the time of a private social event, mixtape “public” known as “ party types ”, which consists of a recording of a performance of Disc jockey intended to be distributed to multiple individuals in the trade. In the Years 1970, DJ such as Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Forces, Kool Herc and the Herculoids, DJ Breakout, the Funky Four, and DJ Hollywood often distributed recordings of their performances on audio cassette, as well as personalized recordings often sold at prohibitive prices, intended for their part for single purchasers. An article of the October 12th 1974 of Billboard magazine reports that “the bands (or mixtapes ) were originally carried out by DJ to be used as palliative when they did not have platinum microgroove under the hand. The bands represent the personal design of each DJ of the programming, the placement and the sequencing of the pieces (...). The music can be listened without interruption. Recordings from one to three hours are sold everywhere for 30 to 75 $, mainly in reality-to-reality , but more and more on cartridge or cassette. ” The owners of clubs, just like DJ , often prepared such bands in order to sell them.

The advent of audio CD

In the years 1980, the mixtapes become a highly recognizable element of the culture of the Adolescent S. Cependant, the increased availability of the engravers of Compact disc S audio and readers MP3 in the car and at the house little by little made fall the audio cassette in disuse as a support for the domestic development of mixtapes . The point of organ of the traditional culture related to the mixtape was certainly the publication, in 1995, of the novel of Nick Hornby entitled High fidelity and adapted to the cinema in 2000 by Stephen Frears. Since then, the mixtapes were mainly replaced by compilations on audio CD and the lists of shared reading files with format MP3, more durable, being able to include/understand more titles, and require only a few minutes of preparation. So certain amateurs of mixtapes regret the disappearance of the audio cassette, others concede that the praticity of the support CD extended the possibilities and the accessibility to this style of creation, as the recent return indicates it on the market of mixtapes diffused by famous clubs. Others still are filled with enthusiasm by the potential of CD to create mix continuous and of long life and by the artistic freedom permitted by the format of the small pocket.

Mixtapes and nowadays comparable productions

Nowadays, the sites Internet concerned of near by the Electronic music distribute mix with the numerical format. They generally consist of performances live of DJ , made synchronized tracks , used by their creators to show their talent with the listeners. Some radio programs are also specialized in the diffusion of sessions of mix , like The Breezeblock and The Solid Steel Show of Radio operator BBC 1.

Additionnellement, some DJ like DJ Spooky, Grandmixer JulianG, DJ Z-Trip, DJ Shadow, The Avalanches, Moby or RJD2 were success by creating new songs combining of the fragments of already existing pieces, which necessarily do not belong to the same musical genre. The result, called Remix , can be seen like an evolution of the mixtape , in what it is adapted of the existing pieces to give them a new significance, from their superposition, but in more integrated way. This practice is derived from the use of musical loops as background music for the rhythmic part of the music Hip hop.

Mixtape or compilation?

Many compilations distributed in the trade seem to share their principal characteristics with the mixtapes . As the many ones mix realized by private individuals, a great number of very first the albums of pop to the format 33t was only one collection of titles having been success at the time. Inspired by work, then very popular, of the DJs in club, the album Disco music By-R-R-ty , left in the United States in 1974, in is an good example. It comprises, inter alia, of the success of James Brown, Mandrill and Barry White. However, it should be noted that like the creators of such compilations remain unknown of the public, the concept tallies badly with the domestic mixtape , reflection of the musical tastes of a person. Whereas the editors of compilations of the trade remain discrete on the choices which push them to include such or such piece with such or such place, compilation way mixtape is directly associated with the influences of its creator. Thus, the coffees Starbucks in the United States propose compilations on CD named Artist' S Choice , worked out by artists like Johnny Cash, Tony Bennett or Sheryl Crow. In the same way, the online store of Apple, the ITunes Blind, proposes lists of reading prepared by celebrities and who are neither more, nor less than mixtapes to be downloaded.

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