The Lost Art of Mixing

As a teenager in the '90s, if I wanted to do something special for a friend or a boyfriend, I often sat down with a stack of albums and made them a mixed tape. It was a lengthy process – selecting just the right songs, putting them in just the right order, creating a cover with a track list written by hand – but it was the surprisingly fun and rewarding kind of hard work.

These days, cassette players are essentially dinosaurs, but there are still options out there if you want to craft a heartfelt mix for someone you love. My personal favorite 21^st century method of mixing is building playlists at 8tracks, which is a streaming internet radio site with a fantastic custom mix feature. Once you've freely assembled a playlist from your own MP3s, you can create a “cover” image and link the mix to the person (or people) for whom you put it together.

Let a long-distance love know they're missed by compiling a handful of songs that remind you of them. If an old, dear friend is going through a rough patch, offer them a pick-me-up with a collection of fun music from your childhoods. Mixing can even be a remarkably effective form of self-therapy when you're going through hard times of your own.

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