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Mix and match ... the old compilation builders' medium of choice. Photograph: Roger Tooth
A year or so ago, in a piece in The Observer by Sean O'Hagan about the death of the mixtape, Green Gartside of Scritti Polliti said: "I don't think the passing of any medium is going to change the urge people have to inflict their music collection on others."
How true indeed, and especially because, according to new age sages these days, it's not what we own but what we share that counts. This is just one of the many reasons why muxtape.com is so hot it probably went out of fashion 25 minutes ago.
It's also popular because it is so easy. Here you simply sign up and then upload 12 tracks to create your own muxtape in order to bewitch and bedazzle your friends and neighbours. It'll take minutes.
The downside, of course, is that while it provides everyone with a burst of random streaming tunes, the creator misses out on the many joys of C90 mixtape-making of yesteryear. For me making the cover and giving it a title was the best bit, while discovering the friend you were trying to impress didn't actually care for the same music as you was the most potentially upsetting (mixtapes after all were, by and large, one-offs designed for their recipients).
Rubbish at talking to women as a teen (I'm brilliant at it now obviously) I'd compile endless tapes of songs all of which contained the none-too-subtle sub-text "fancy a shag?" It never worked but I'd like to think that it did for somebody out there. Ever won someone's affections with a mixtape?
Also seeing as we're on the subject, share with us if you wish the tracklist to your ultimate DIY compilation or, if it's lurking in a forgotten shoebox at the landfill, stick the tracks up on muxtape and pass on your excellent taste.
