Create Your Own Mixtape And We'll Tell You How Cool You Are!
- by Tim Frederick
- – on
- in Entertainment
If you grew up before the iPod or Spotify were a thing yet, you probably have fond memories of mixtapes. These special cassettes were crafted with passion and doled out to loved ones (or love interests), showcasing one's musical interests and often shamelessly revealing their deepest desires.
There was something special about listening to someone's mixtape made just for you and wondering what special meaning there might be behind the songs. Disseminating lyrics and gaining an intense appreciation for songcraft resulted from those hours and hours of listening to mixtapes over and over again or building your own for someone special.
While mixtapes live on today in some respects in the form of digital playlists, which can be swapped between people with ease, it's not nearly the same as receiving a mixtape from someone that you knew took a lot more effort to create and gave you something physical to lovingly hold and ceaselessly fast-forward and rewind, as you searched for the beginning of a particular song (okay, not everything about them was great).
In the spirit of the lost art of the mixtape, we want you to build one of your own, choosing the songs with lyrics that inspire you, music that melts your heart, or beats that get your blood pumping. Once you've created your personal 35-song mixtape (statistically, it's almost impossible that anyone else would choose the exact same 35 songs as you), we'll reveal just how cool you are based on your choices.
Have fun, and share your result and some of your favorite songs with us in the comments after you're done.
Choose a Michael Jackson Song
No mixtape would be complete without a track from the man, the myth, the legend himself, Michael Jackson. Jackson had an eclectic collection of music that could appeal to the tastes of virtually anyone and his classic tracks have stood the test of time better than much of the music from that era, especially these 4 classics.
Choose A Disney Song
Disney movies are renowned for their outstanding songs, which are often presented within the movies as elaborate and charming musical numbers. The songs often have a deep connection to the movie's plot and the characters' emotions, which makes them all the more poignant and memorable. Several Disney movies have been turned into full-blown Broadway hits thanks to their strong musical pedigree, including The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, and of course, a Frozen musical is on the way.
Choose a Song From an Artist That Left Us Too Soon
When great musicians die young, we all feel the loss. It's as if a musical void is forever left in their wake, that could only have been filled through their own unique talent. If we can take solace from anything, it's from the fact that what music they were able to produce before their untimely passing often becomes greatly cherished by all.
Choose A Song Featured in Grand Theft Auto V
The Grand Theft Auto series was one of the first to feature a huge playlist of popular music tracks that could be accessed in game, creating surreal scenarios where you'd be listening to Bryan Adams' Run to You while going on a mission to whack some gangster. Choose one of these 4 songs from the bestselling videogame in history, Grand Theft Auto V.
Choose a Movie Theme Song
A good movie theme song becomes synonymous with that movie, conjuring up images of it every time we hear those iconic sounds. These 4 songs all played prominent roles in their respective movies, often driving key scenes and being the theme songs of those movies. In fact, Eye of the Tiger became indelibly linked with the entire Rocky series, despite only appearing in two movies.
Choose One of These Divas' Biggest Hits
The divas in this selection have only sold about 1 billion records and basically dominated their eras. Each of them have multiple smash hits, any of which could've proudly graced a mixtape, so it was tough choosing only one, but not as hard as it will be for you to choose only one of them.
Choose A Queen Song
You can't go to a sporting event without hearing a Queen song, several of which have become permanent fixtures at them, adept at spurring on fans and athletes alike. However, Queen was far more than just rousing sports anthems, as they also created some of the most astonishing rock ballads ever produced.
Choose a One-Hit Wonder from the 80's
The 80's brought about a lot of experimental music, which lead to numerous bands hitting it big on a crazy new sound that defied the odds (and maybe even logic at times) and just worked. However, as catchy as many of those songs were, we have to admit that they didn't necessarily have a formula that could be repeated, which may be why there were few enduring artists to come out of the 80's outside of several rock bands.
Choose One of These Karaoke Hits
Karaoke hits tend to bring together an exotic mix of music that people just love to sing for whatever reason. Karaoke singers tend to like slower-paced songs that they can tackle in their own way, with Alannah Myles' Black Velvet being a favorite among female singers for allowing them to be sultry and sexy.
Choose A Hit From One of These Boy Bands
While boy bands may not produce the most original or nuanced music out there, there's something to be said for music that is simply catchy and enjoyable to listen to, and that's what boy bands often deliver. Until the day comes when young girls stop obsessing over cute older boys (not going to happen), boy bands will always have a following.
Choose a Hit Song From 2016
2016 was another big year for EDM, which continues to explode globally, even as some pundits persistently predict (say that five times fast) its imminent demise as a musical fad or bubble (forget them, these are the same people who predicted video game consoles were going to be dead and buried by now). It's estimated that the EDM genre is now worth over $7 billion.
Choose a One-Hit Wonder from the 90's
Pop music and boy bands started to make it big in the 90's as music started to trend towards appealing to younger tastes, save for the rise of grunge and hip-hop. While not as experimental as the 80's, we did get some funky tracks, such as Bloodhound Gang's The Bad Touch, which probably set a record for the most double entendres in a song.
Choose One of These Songs from the 2010's
A lot of people contend that music is at an all-time low point, but the truth is that there is more great music out there than ever before, you simply have to put in more effort to find it. By the same token, there's a lot more crud out there too. With just about anyone able to create music now and distribute it, there is no longer a quality filter over the industry.
Choose a Hip-Hop Song
As with pop, hip-hop has taken a lot of influence from EDM in recent years, and of course, not everyone is thrilled with the direction the genre is going in. A number of old-school rappers contend that modern hip-hop has nothing on the rap of the 80's and 90's, but others aren't so down on current tracks and believe hip-hop has never been stronger.
Choose A Parody Song by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Before Bart Baker and others became big on YouTube, there was "Weird Al" Yankovic, who's also set up shop on YouTube and continues to crank out impressive parodies. Unlike other attempts at parody, Yankovic often recreates the original song's backing music as authentically as possible, sometimes with the help of the original song's artists. Yankovic has won 4 Grammy Awards.
Choose One of These Classic Movie Tracks
We've got another selection of classic movie-related music tracks in this selection, which aren't necessarily considered the theme songs of those movies, but which nonetheless make us instantly think of them. In the case of the classic track from The Breakfast Club, Simple Minds initially refused to produce the song, as several other bands already had, before finally relenting. It ended up being their biggest hit.
Choose a Country Song
Country music doesn't appeal to everyone, but there's something undeniably down-to-earth and appealing about the lyrics of many country tracks. There is an unapologetic appreciation and even yearning for the simple things in life, which should resonate with people more than ever. Country is actually quite big on the radio in the U.S, but is struggling to fully push into streaming like other genres have.
Choose One of These Songs from the 2000's
The 2000's aren't remembered by music fans with any particular fondness at this point, but it seems to be the case that older music is generally put on a pedestal compared to newer music regardless of the era, so we won't really have a good grasp of the 2000's place in music history for at least another decade or so.
Choose a Hit Song From 2015
Jess Glynne was the breakout star of 2015, with 5 singles from her debut album I Cry When I Laugh hitting number 1 in the U.K. Ellie Goulding also had a big hit with Love Me Like You Do, which was produced for the 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack. The track earned Goulding a Grammy nomination.
Choose One of These YouTube Hits
Though music videos were a thing long before YouTube came on the scene, the video platform has allowed for a new kind of music video format: the silly song, which is more about the video than the song. Though some of these songs can be catchy in their own ways, they owe their immense popularity primarily to the fact that they can better capitalize on their humor through visuals.
Choose One of These Songs from the 1990's
The 1990's gave us some incredible music but it also heralded the dawn of a new era of music that became more focused on the bottom-line, as several major record labels left supportive, private hands to take up residence on corporate balance sheets. The result was more of a focus on visually attractive singers and less risky music that sought simple hooks and banal lyrics.
Choose One of These Broadway Hits
It's a shame that the magic of Broadway isn't available to more people, as the experience is truly unlike anything else. Broadway has given us some of the greatest musical tracks in history that do more than just caress our ears. They blow our minds with elaborate visuals, all while telling stories that are poignant, heartwarming, and relevant. Broadway is the way music is meant to be listened to.
Choose a One-Hit Wonder from the 2000's
As hip-hop started to push more into the mainstream, we saw a lot more one-hit wonders from this genre in the 2000's. Of course, pop also spawned its fair share of one-hit wonders, including the catchy Stacy's Mom, which described a young man's crush not on a cute girl his own age, but on her mother.
Choose One of 2017's Top Tracks
2017 is nearly done and it's been an interesting year for music to say the least. While we've gotten more of the same from the likes of The Chainsmokers (who Esquire went so far as to call the Nickelback of EDM), we've also gotten some impressive albums from the likes of Kendrick Lamar and a return to glory for Kesha.
Choose One of These Songs from the 1980's
The 80's was filled with a lot of good and a lot of bad. The rock scene was strong throughout the decade, while pop began its emergence with some growing pains which included some huge hits and some awful music. On the other hand, hip-hop was pretty darn strong right from the start.
