Love is a Mix Tape

by Rob Sheffield

There are all kinds of mix tapes. There is always a reason to make one.

A mix tape steals these moments from all over the musical cosmos, and splices them into a whole new groove.

It’s a fundamental human need to pass music around, and however the technology evolves, the music keeps moving.

I have built my entire life around loving music, and I surround myself with it. I’m always racing to catch up on my next favorite song. But I never stop playing my mixes. Every fan makes them. The times you lived through, the people you shared those times with—nothing brings it all to life like an old mix tape. It does a better job of storing up memories than actual brain tissue can do. Every mix tape tells a story. Put them together, and they add up to the story of a life.

When we die, we will turn into songs, and we will hear each other and remember each other.

When you try to play a song in your memory, and you remember how it goes, you’re just making an imperfect mix of it in your mind. Human sound is mutant sound. You listen, and you mutate along with the sound.