subject: The Lost Art of Music [print this page] The Lost Art of Music The Lost Art of Music
There are many traditions that are lost over time. With technology taking over, old practices are disappearing and different art forms are being lost. The art of courting a girl, art of conversation, and the list can go on and on. One that I miss the most is the art of mix tape. Yeah, I dare say it's an art because it requires you to come up with a concept, use existing elements, and put your own interpretation to create something that best represents your emotion, just like any work of art.
The canvas of your work would be the cassette tape. There are two types of mix tapes you could create. The first would contain songs with mixed messages. The idea is to make the person you gave the mix tape to guess whether certain songs are dedicated to them. The second one is a more direct to the point approach. Every song would be so obviously for the listener. The other challenge is deciding how to start it off. Some prefer to start with an upbeat song and others choose to start slow and slowly steer the sound to something fast.
It doesn't matter what genre you prefer - rock, reggae, hip-hop - everyone does a mix tape. For the teen-agers back then, giving someone a mix tape is an act of love or lust. Often, one is confused with the other one.
I was in fifth grade when I put my first mix tape together. Just the patience it took picking out the songs that I feel would best fit the emotion I want to put across, then having to press play and record at the same time. I was lucky to have a tape-to-tape recorder. For others, they'd have to tune in to the radio and wait until the song they want is played and man, wasn't it irritating when the DJ talks over the song intro or cut the song short. Even more irritating is when you wait for a certain song the whole day only to find it in another station halfway through.
But it's those moments of planning, waiting, frustrations, and all the others in between that makes the mix tape even more special, even more human. When I was done with it and find that there are no gaps between the songs, and that it flowed as smoothly as my emotions, I wanted to give it to my crush at that time. I felt I was the master of music and mix tapes. What can I say? I was in fifth grade, things were better said through songs.
Unfortunately, my first mix tape would turn out to be the best one for me because technology slowly crawled into my life, into our lives. The cassette tape was slowly replaced by a CD and I had to pay some people who owned the technology to burn a CD with all the songs I personally picked out. It also required that you download certain players to listen to it. That was history. Today, any PC or laptop can play any kind of file.
The technology changed, the process changed, the culture changed. Nowadays, you can download songs with the same quality as an authentic album. No one calls it a mix CD, everyone just calls it "burning a CD." Songs are accessible and you can get it from people you don't even know. It's becoming so easy that people don't think about what songs they want to burn in a CD. If they don't like it, it doesn't matter. It's was easy and free to get it anyway.
People even get copy of songs that have not been released or songs that were released 50 years ago. And sad to say, it's no longer an art. You don't have to think about what song you want to include in your selection. Giving someone a copy of the songs would mean burning it in a CD, emailing it, or posting it in one of your sites and asking the person to download it.
It also doesn't mean anything anymore. You end up giving someone a file, not a message. The art form has been bastardized by the CD burners, the internet, mp3 players; it's been bastardized by the technology.
We forgot how music can powerfully tell our loved ones things we can't tell them in person. We forgot that songs were written to say things to people. It's becoming nothing but a collection of sound or just another thing that we keep to ourselves.
It's time to go back to the basics, remember what music is for. It's an emotion to share, a message to be expressed, it was written and created to get in touch with the most passionate, most angry, most difficult feelings you have. Music is for you to scream things you are too scared to whisper.
Forget all the expensive gifts and just let the music speak for itself, the way it was suppose to be. Our favorite singers or bands convey the message we have deep down inside and they become our voice. Their words give you the strength to pull yourself together and let yourself go and be the person you want to be. Rediscover this lost art form and make it your own.
The old school is back so you might as well try it. Know how it feels like to create a masterpiece that you have poured your heart and mind into. But know this, the mix tape doesn't always come with success. There are times you'll crash and burn, laugh and cry, sometimes you'll feel it all at the same time. That's the beauty of the mix tape.
So, if you're given a chance to own an old piece of technology, what would you want? and why?
