indie.mix.22

As some of you may know, I create a monthly mix of indie music for the purpose of driving awareness of new and underrepresented artists. Each mix consists of about 20 songs that fall into the indie rock / electro / dance / hip-hop categories. Check out the latest release (no. 22) from the link below:

dan’s.indie.mix.22 [186MB; via rapidshare]

DISCLAIMER:
To the listener, if you enjoy the music in this mix, support the artist by attending a show or buying the record. And if you are the artist or represent the artist and want any songs removed, email me or leave a comment on this post and I will promptly delete it. In other words, please don’t sue me for supporting your band =)

    Concerning Mixtapes

There are three things every guy thinks he is the best at: driving, beer pong, and making mixtapes. (For the record, the word mixtape will be used for nostalgia’s sake and because mix cd does not sound good). However, there are many intricacies with the mixtape. We will start with a little history.

Our generation was the first to use digital music. When the CDR first came out, it was a bit confusing. Wait, you can download songs? And you can put them on your own CD? For free??? You mean someone can give me a copy of the Bone Thugs CD and I don’t have to risk going into the store and buying it with the “Parental Advisory” warning on the cover? AWESOME! So Napster became a gift from heaven and we downloaded away (lots of DMX). Going at the blazing speed of 2.3 Kbs. However from this time forth, making mixtapes became an art-form for some of us. No longer was it just throwing all your favorite songs on a CD. It became a way to emote emotion (yeah i said it) into 75 minutes of music. Through time we have learned there are several important factors that go into creating a mixtape.

Firstly, and most importantly: Your target audience. So important. You have to know who you are dealing with. You have to study them. Are they entry-level indie listeners or veterans, or are they girls (gross)? Let’s say you have a friend that listens to nothing but country and you want him to learn of the greatness of indie music. You have to be careful. You can’t throw him a CD with some Hot Chip and Animal Collective on it. He will dismiss it. Ease them into the system. They don’t have to be the most modern, hip songs, just something that they might enjoy that is actually good music. Maybe a couple Wilco songs, some My Morning Jacket, and Band of Horses. Then throw in some of your current favorites. Or some songs that everyone likes (Electric Feel, Lights & Music) Then you got yourself a mixtape. Of course this changes with who your target audience is, but you got my point.

Another important factor is flow.