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Since I have begun this website, I have become, not surprisingly, somewhat obsessed with mixed tapes. Now, whenever I see one in a movie, read about one or hear one referenced to in a song, I can't help but to note it. Thus, I've begun this page, which will hopefully grow with your help. Email me with your finds.

Television

From Friends - props to Gapskank. . .
Chandler and Monica were celebrating Valentines Day two weeks late because Monica had to work on the actual night. They agree to make each other's gifts, which Chandler fails at miserably. At the 11th hour he gives up and begins tearing his closet apart untill he stumbles upon a mix tape. He gives the mix tape to Monica, telling her that it is all the songs he thinks are romantic.
Monica has forgotten their agreement, and promises Chandler a romantic weekend for in the place of a gift. During the weekend, Monica puts in Chandlers tape so the two can dance, only to hear Janice's voice singing the songs to Chandler, and wishing him a happy Valentines Day. Hilarity Ensues.
The WB show Felicity -- Last season Noel (Felicity's boyfriend) was shown making a mix tape for her. (thanks goes to Kenneth Kidd)

Film

Boogie Nights has the scene featuring the tape titled "awesome mix," a utterly warped scene with Night Ranger blasting in the the backgound. Side A of the mix ends abruptly mid-song (don't you hate that?) adding tension to an already tense scene.
Check out As Good As It Gets the movie that won both Jack Nicholas and Helen Hunt Academy Awards this year. There is a scene where Melvin (Jack Nicholson) agrees to take his gay neighbor, Simon, to meet his parents somewhere in Baltimore but only goes as long as Carol (Helen Hunt) will accompany him. He's obsessive compulsive and has everything laid out perfect like for the trip. At this point he is very interested in Helen but she just thinks he is nuts. In his glovebox there are several sets of mixes labeled with witty names serving to foreshadow what he hopes is to come over the next several days...
Another movie that features a little something on mix tapes is Box of Moonlight with John Turturro. His character finds a mix tape in a rental car and if you use your imagination, you could almost think that the tape, Eddie's Mix, influences the direction his life goes after he rents the car.
There is also An American Quilt, in which Winona Ryder's character is making a mix for her boyfriend.
The Blair Witch Project has a companion album (not a soundtrack) which is intended to represent the Mix tape found in Josh's car, entitled Josh's Blair Witch Mix (thanks to Christian Lipski!) .
Now that High Fidelity is a movie, I suppose it should be added to the list (see below regarding the book)
Yo, I've got a movie for you. Hackers, Matthew Lillard (aka Cereal Killer) is selling tapes outside of a "hang out" for hackers. The theme, people who died from affixation (is that spelled correctly?). Anyway it the tape features Mama Cass, Hendrix, Joplin, etc. -- Emily Witt emilyw@acousticsounds.com Acoustic Sounds, INC. www.acousticsounds.com

Songs

The Beastie Boys classic from "Professor Bootie" - "Life ain't nothing but a good groove, a good mix tape to put you in the right mood."
Another Beastie Boys tune - "Flute Loop" - "I Feel Like A Winner When I Make A Mix Tape Because I Get Ill When I'm On The Pause Button And I Get My Fill And You Can't Say Nothing"
Semisonic's "Singing in My Sleep" is about the singer falling in love with one of his lover's mix tapes.
"Got your tape and it changed my mind..."
"I've been living in your cassette/It's the modern equivalent/Sing it up to a Capulet/On a balcony in your mind."
"Now I'm falling in love too fast/With you or the songs you chose/I can hear you sing it to me in my sleep."
Bjork's "My Headphones" from Post with the line, "I fell asleep listening to your tape last night."
The Ben Folds Five song "Kate" from Whatever and Ever Amen has the line "When all words fail she speaks/her mix tape's a masterpiece."
Better Than Ezra's song "Rewind" on the album Friction, Baby is about
a mixed tape made for a love interest that will due to overplaying no
longer rewind.
There is a song called Dr. EZ's Cool Fantastic Part I by The Anonymous (featuring Jizzm, Vesuvio, Nikko, Awol One, Medusa, Jyant, E-Rule & Orah). I don't know who does the verse ( I think it's Awol One), but the following are excerpts from the begining and end of one MC's verse:

"I was mad 'cause my best tape
Got ate by my box
Dubbed another one
From this kid down the block
Half dead
Listening to a mixing blend...."

and

"I know my real friends
And I got my pride
This mix tape
Make me feel good inside"

Props to Shayne "Sir Lunchbox" Aeichele
The Promise Ring single "Electric Pink." One of the b-sides is a tune called "Make Me a Mixtape."

The chorus goes like this:
"Make me a mix tape
Something old, something new,
Something I said, or that we did
That reminds me of you"
--jerec7@aol.com (‘Jere Chandler’)
c30, c60, c90, go! by Bow wow wow about making mixes
the ataris: song for a mixtape
today i made you a mixtape
and i decorated it with lots of stars
it had all my favorite songs
there was jawbreaker and mineral,
built to spill and the descendents--
hell, i even put one of ours on it.
do you wanna be my girl?
'cause you really rock my world
and you always make me smile
but what will you do
when i'm washed up like motely crue?
will you still love me when i sell out...?

Books - Click through to Amazon.com to buy

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby is a must-read for obsessed mix tape enthusiasts. It cuts close to home -- sometimes frighteningly too close. This novel is obsessed with music; Hornby's narrator is an early thirty-something English guy who runs a London record store . He and his blokes at the record store obsessively makes lists about music, but the book is just as much about his love life.
Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero has several references to mix tapes (by the pool, one Blair made)(heck,in a way the book itSELF has the structure of a mix tape--dig that!) and so does The Rules of Attraction, it's follow-up. (Thanks to Celia White for the find!)
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER a young adult novel by Stephen F Chbosky, has numerous mix tape references. Charlie, the main character, is started on a tape called Autumn Leaves, which has "a very specific theme and handcolored cover" and later goes on to make a TON for things like driving. The list for a tape called "One Winter" is offered in the book. (Thanks to Ayelet Dahan and Jacqui Shine)
Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing by Jamie Schweser and Abram Shalom Himelstein: "The thing about mix tapes, and the way that they're like relationships, is that I get to put all the genuinely pretty/interesting parts at the beginning, on the surface, to draw you in, to get you to want to be closer. And once I have you interested, attracted, wanting to know all of me, I show you the more human sides, the less pretty and the more petty. And then I feel cooler and better and more loved because you see all (whatever that means) of me and still love and like and are attracted to me. I try to explain the interesting things that I'm thinking and then hope that you'll still want me even when you know all the depressing shit that comprises large portions of my brain. Some good poetry about some bitter shit. A cut off the new Marchenko album, then here comes a crusty Dylan song." (Thanks to Jessica Disobedience)
I recently read a book that had a mixtape reference. It was called Wild meat and the bully burger, by lois ann yamanka. It is about a girl from a poor japanese family growing up in hawaii. there is one whole chapter about a mixtape. a girl in her class, who she is jealous of, makes a mixtape and everyone loves it. so the lead character and her sister raise money by selling toffee to buy a tape deck. they eventually get enough money for their father to buy a second hand tape deck and some blank tapes. She ends up having to make the mix by sticking the tape deck in between the speakers. She and her best friend stay up all night making the mix tape. however the next day when she plays the mix for her typing teacher it ends up being a very embarrassing experience because there is background noise: roosters, her dad farting, dogs barking etc. she is so angry that she ends up burning the tape deck and lighting her sisters hair on fire in the process....good book!
mindy
Hey there...Just thought I'd hip ya to yet another mix tape reference. In her book Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World, Sarah Vowell divides the book into four sections the last one is entitled Mix Tapes. In that section there are five essays the first (if memory serves correctly) deals extensively with the rules, regulations andromantic possibilities/ implications of a mix tape, it's called Thanks for the Memorex. Anyway, it's a really great book and she's a truly great writer (might know her from her work on NPRs This American Life). -- "kyle rafferty" kyle_rafferty@hotmail.com

Morvern Callar by Alan Warner. (Thanks to Graham Coleman for the tip. . .) Published in 1995, it's the story of a girl wandering around Scotland in the wake of her novelist boyfriend's suicide. Highly acclaimed, soon to be a film etc... Three mix tapes are listed in the book:

1. Morvern Callar, the eponymous heroine of Alan Warner's novel, makes this compilation in preparation for the dismemberment and disposal of her boyfriend's body (he committed suicide). She is naked in the bathroom but for swimming cap, goggles and noseclips. She is armed with a new meat knife and a gardening saw. Around her middle is the all-important Walkman.

Last Exit - Straw Dog
Last Exit - You got me rockin'
Last Exit - Take cover
Last Exit - Ma Rainey
Last Exit - Crack butter
Last Exit - Panzer be bop
Miles Davis - Great expectations
Sonny Sharrock - Dick dogs

Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society - Undressing
Luciano Berio - Visage
Miles Davis - Pharaoh's dance
Ronald Shannon Jackson - Taboo
Challenge to manhood
Bill Laswell - Assassin

2. Soon after chopping up her boyfriend's body, Morvern Callar goes camping ( in the Scottish highlands where she's from) and makes up a compilation tape. It's a habit of hers to always say The Can, with the definite article in there, just in case you think it's me being funny.

Salif Keita - Nyanafin
Les Tetes Brulees et Zanzibar - Essignan
This Mortal Coil - Anorther Day
The Ink Spots - Up a lazy river
Cocteau Twins - Blue bell knoll
Material - Disappearing

The Can - Future days
Holger Czukay - Persian love
The Can - Pinch
The Can - Sing swan song
The Can - Vitamin C
The Can - Soup
The Can - I'm so green
The Can - Spoon

3. The third mix tape is made by Morvern for when she goes on holiday. She calls it her Sunshine tape.

Czukay Wobble Liebezeit - Full circle
Zawinul - The harvest
PM Dawn - So on & so on
Can - Pauper's daughter & I
Scritti Politti - A little knowledge
Neville Brothers - With god on our side
Robert Calvert - Ejection
Hardware - 500 years

Keziah Jones - Free your soul
Daniel Lanois - Still water
Spirit - Topango windows
John McCormack - Come my beloved
James Chance - Roving eye
Hunters & Collectors - Dog
Leisure Process - A way you'll never be