Back when I was a teenager and through to my years in university, making mixed cassette tapes was more than just a pastime. It was a form of art. We would make them for all occasions, to share music with friends, to show loved ones how much we cared, to express a certain mood or to get ourselves into a certain mood. Some of us more dedicated music nerds would get artsy and craftsy in making cassette covers and even doodled all over the cassette tapes themselves.
In the years just before and just after I graduated from university, CD burners became more affordable and the mixed tapes gave way to mixed CDs. However, this phase was much more short-lived as technology sped up and we soon had iPods and other MP3 players that could fit hundreds and thousands of songs and the shuffle function became our new friend.
Nowadays, the many streaming services have put endless amounts of music at our fingertips and it has become almost untenable to keep up. The best of these, services like Spotify*, have brought back the idea of the mixed tape, albeit a virtual one, to help people to discover new music, based on the music they already like. They also allow old school music nerds like myself to make playlists to share with friends and acquaintances.
*Back at the beginning of 2023, I switched my allegiances from Spotify to Apple Music so though the first bunch are still linked to Spotify (if those links still work), my more recent playlists can be found with Apple.
My (life in) music lists 